News of the death of Corey Haim at age 38 this morning stunned contemporary moms who grew up watching Haim in 1980s-era films like The Lost Boys and License to Drive, in which he starred with another Corey, Corey Feldman. No name is more closely associated with the 1980s than the name Corey. In addition to "The Coreys" (Haim and Feldman), there was also the pop star Corey Hart, with his ubiquitous hit song "Sunglasses at Night."  In fact, so much does Corey represent the

Alright, Oscar suspense is over, as the Academy announced their winners on Sunday night. With that done, we decided to look at a few of the categories again, this time with an eye for names, and bestow Name Awards. Our first step: decide what to name such an award. In previous posts (for the Tonys and Golden Globes) we've called it the Name Candy Name Award (NCN). But that sounds rather dull. So for today we'll stick with the NCN, but we request suggestions. We need our version of Oscar. (Side note: the nickname Oscar for the Academy Awards apparently has a disputed origin. Anyone know the details? Namipedia's entry for Oscartells us it derives from a place-name meaning "golden city.")

Here are our 2010 Oscar Name Candy Name Award Winners:

Best Picture (or in this case, Best Movie Name):

The Annual Baby Name Pool is underway over at our sister site BabyNameWizard.com.  While name enthusiasts and numbers crunchers make their predictions for the the fastest rising and falling names of the past year before the Social Security Administration announces actual numbers in May, we thought we could try our own interactive "game" here at NameCandy.com. Tell us, what do you think were the biggest trends in the celebrity baby naming in the past year?

The big night is here.  Many of the Oscar-nominated films have interesting name stories. In case you've missed our posts on the names in Oscar nominated films, here is a round-up:
Precious
The Names of the Film Precious

A few months ago, a Name Candy reader asked us to profile the name Fox, and now with The Fantastic Mr. Fox nominated for an Oscar in the Best Animated Film category, why not?
What can we say? Fox is hot.  It doesn't show up on any popularity charts yet and we currently have no celebrity babies with the first name Fox listed in our Celebrity Names Database.  However, judging by the sibling entries in Namipedia, there

Whoa, baby! Liberty Grace Lawrence has arrived.  The new baby, born March 4 is the second daughter for Joey Lawrence of Blossom and Dancing With the Stars fame and his wife Chandi Yawn-Nelson. The baby's name is no surprise.  Back in November we wrote about the name Liberty Grace when the parents-to-be announced the name for their

Avatar is beyond a hit.  On Oscar Eve -- Avatar is up for 9 awards -- we thought it a perfect time to look at Avatar's naming choices.  James Cameron is famous for detail, so there's no chance these choices were made lightly.  In keeping with an ages-old, and comic book, tradition, Cameron endows characters with names that reveal who they are at heart.  

The Humans

Corporal Jake Sully

A solid, manly name.  Jake is a shortened form of Jacob.  And Jacob's root meaning -- to seize by the heel, supplant -- ties into the Avatar plot line.  Jake Sully aims to

Yesterday we asked you to guess what the characters Jim and Pam from television's The Office would name their baby (see the full post here).  Today we have an answer:  Cecelia Marie.  Cecelia is a huge hit among name enthusiasts and a favorite among graduates of Ivy League colleges, according the our own Name Lady. NameCandy's

As they announced on Twitter today, Accidentally On Purpose's Jenna Elfman and her husband Bodhi Elfman have welcomed their second son: Easton Quinn Monroe. (Read her tweet here and his tweet here.)

Easton first made the charts in the 1990s and has been rising steeply ever since. The name is especially popular in Utah and North Dakota, where it is a top-100 name. (See NameMapper.)

At first blush, Easton Quinn Monroe seems rather different in style from his brother's name,

The television series The Office has some great names. Consider Dwight Schrute, the science fiction-loving authoritarian-sycophant. But tonight, the focus will be on Jim and Pam, the Office couple who married (finally!) at the beginning of this season and in a much-anticipated episode tonight, are expected to give birth to their first baby. 

Pam (played by Jenna Fischer, pictured) and Jim are everyone's favorite romantic pair on the show, the "normal" people among all those personalities. Their names reflect