Time Names

Spring doesn't sound half as contemporary as Winter, which has become the cool season name.

The temperature is definitely rising for this popular seasonal name, which began being used in the seventies, and has been heard consistently ever since.

Sunday is among the most usable of the day names, with its sunny opening syllable, initially made famous when Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban chose it for their daughter. Although it had been widely written that Kidman and Urban named their baby after art patron Sunday Reed, Kidman was quoted saying that was a myth, they just liked the name.

When actress Susan Ker Weld changed her name to Tuesday, she opened up a whole calendar of possibilities. This was decades before the arrival of Sunday Rose Urban.

Verna may mean "springtime," but May or Spring is fresher.

Name made famous by the macabre character Wednesday – middle name: Friday – Addams is taken from the name of the day dedicated to the Anglo-Saxon god Woden, who relates to Mercury. Cartoonist author Charles Addams was said to choose the name because "Wednesday's child is full of woe."

Fresher, brisker and, yes, cooler than Summer or Autumn or Spring, Winter is now a full-fledged female choice, especially since Nicole Richie and Joel Madden used it for daughter Harlow's middle name, and Gretchen Mol picked it as her daughter's first, as did media mogul Sean Parker. Winter continues to be the preferred spelling and has risen in popularity significantly over the past few years.