Peggy

According to Behindthename.com, Peggy is a pet form of Meg, which itself is a pet form of Margaret. That's a whole lot of petting. This information really only covers the origin of the name, however. In fact, Peggy has often been given as a first name in its own right, with no Megs or Margarets involved. For most of the 20th century Peggy was a top 500 name for baby girls in the United States, only dropping out of the top 1000 in the 1990's. Meg, on the other hand, has never enjoyed such popularity in the U.S. (which surprises me a little, but oh well.) Of course, Margaret is an old classic, and though not as popular as it once was, is still in frequent use--but that's another post. The meaning of Margaret is "pearl," so I suppose Peggy can be considered to mean "pearl" also, although personally I think the new official meaning of Peggy should be "teenager of the 1950's." Again, Peggy did drop out of the top 1000 in the early 1990's, mainly because Peggy was now a name borne by one's mother, or perhaps even grandmother. In other words, it was old-fashioned. Will it at some point come back into fashion? That is anyone's guess. Whatever it was that made parents fall in love with the name in the early 20th century may cause parents of the future to feel the same way.

Beatrice

Beatrice is the French or Italian form of Beatrix. According to Ask Oxford, Beatrix probably came from a combination of the Latin Viator and Beatus. Since the former meant "voyager" and the latter meant "blessed," Beatrice can be taken to mean "blessed voyager." Beatrice was a character in Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing," but is probably more well known as the name of the lady with whom Dante was obsessed. Beatrice was a popular name in England during the Middle Ages, and like many other names that appeared in classic literature, was strongly popular again in the 19th century, when it was very occasionally even given to boys. This popularity continued into the 20th century; in the United States Beatrice appeared consistently in the top 100 names for girls until the 1930's. After that, the name began to be considered old fashioned and declined steadily in popularity. Beatrice has not appeared in the top 1000 in the U.S. since 2001. More recently, well-known bearers of the name Beatrice include Princess Beatrice of York, and Beatrice McCartney, the daughter of Paul McCartney and Heather Mills. Nicknames for Beatrice include Bea and Trixie.

Rock

Rock means exactly what you think it means. The main reason for thinking of the word rock as a possible name for a person is the fame of actor Rock Hudson. In the actor's case the name was a stage name, given to the actor to evoke an image of strength (as in Rock of Gibraltar.) His real name was Roy. Rock never caught on as a popular name for boys, but it does make a wonderful name for a dog, either as a name in its own right, or as a shortened form of Rocket.

Amber

Amber is simply the name of the gemstone amber used as a given name. Amber began to be used some in the late 19th century, when using gem names as given names was in fashion, but it wasn't as popular as some other gem names, such as Pearl and Ruby. The book Forever Amber, by Kathleen Winsor, and subsequent movie brought the name into the public consciousness, and in the 1970's and 1980's, when new parents were looking for feminine, yet less "girly" names for their daughters, Amber became hugely popular. Although currently not quite as popular as it once was in the U.S., Amber is still a top 100 name for girls, and has also become popular in other English-speaking countries. This late-starting gem name is likely to become a naming standard that will come into fashion again and again.

Jaiden

Jaiden is an interesting name that seems to have simply been invented sometime in the 1980's or 1990's. It may ultimately derive from the Hebrew name Jadon ("thankful,") but it's more likely that it is inspired by the popularity of the name Jade, with spelling possibly inspired by the Japanese word gaiden. Jaiden is being used in the U.S. to name both boys and girls, but seems to most often be used as a masculine name. In both cases it appeared on the U.S. top 1000 lists in 1999, and has risen steadily in popularity for both boys and girls since then.