This is our Janie, who has replaced most other aspects of our lives in the "interest to others" category (or so it seems). Is it any wonder that all the additions to our web site are Jane-centric?
Although most of our friends (particularly Bethany's) are too polite to be so blunt, we get the sense none-the-less that people want to know, so here it is:
Curtis
The Curtis surname is fairly obvious as it follows the Western Cultural convention of naming the offspring after the father's lineage, even though it probably makes more sense to have a maternal lineage convention. Either way, Randy is glad to get the credit.
As for the first and middle names, much of the naming negotiations revolved around our feelings about names from personal experience. The "perfect" name that one person coveted generally turned out to be the name of former classmate bully, an old flame or already usurped by a sibling's dog or child. Our list of choices quickly narrowed down to a few even with outside inspiration of a 20,000-baby names book and web sites.
Jane
We decided on Jane because we both liked the classic, unpretentious simplicity of the name that had once been common but had fallen out of favor.
We both had only positive feelings of the name based on older family and friends who had the name, that we loved and respected.
Jane is also an anagram of Bethany's marriage-dropped middle name: Jean
The popular cultural icons were OK too (...mostly):
As for it potentially recalling "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?", we choose to remember Bette Davis in other roles, like Margaux in "All About Eve".
Amélie
The less familiar, Amélie was selected because:
 It offered an exotic, polysyllabic contrast to Jane
It was French (Bethany's 2nd B.S. degree)
| Had a positive meaning: hardworking (form of Amelia)
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As for how to pronounce it: "AH-MAY-LEE" (accent the AH)
The inspiration came from France's 2001 Best Foreign Film Oscar nomination Amélie, an offbeat, charming and funny present-day tale of romance in the Montmartre section of Paris. A beautiful and whimsical image for our beautiful and (hopefully) whimsical daughter. Besides, given that we actually met at a movie discussion group, you knew there had to movie angle to it (and Tivoli didn't quite roll off the tongue).
Popularity of Jane
The Social Security Administration has a web page where they rank the popularity of names of persons requesting Social Security cards. The following table reflects how the name Jane has fared over the decades (with a 1 being the most popular name given):
| 2001: 422
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| 2000: 437
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| 1999: 437
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| 1998: 417
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| 1997: 397
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| 1996: 409
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| 1995: 410
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| 1994: 372
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| 1993: 372
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| 1992: 398
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| 1991: 371
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| 1990: 356
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| Overall by decade
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| 1990s: 365
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| 1980s: 334
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| 1970s: 264
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| 1960s: 96
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| 1950s: 54
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| 1940s: 40
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| 1930s: 47
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| 1920s: 57
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| 1910s: 70
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| 1900s: 134
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It's interesting to note that the popularity of Jane dropped significantly in the 1960s after the "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" connotation but nothing compared to the drop in it's popularity after the "Jane you ignorant slut" quip in the mid 1970s. There's probably a lightweight thesis in there about popular culture's effect on names.
Although that would hardly be news to a contemporary of Randy's whose life took a turn for the worse when "Happy Days" hit the airwaves. Richard Cunningham was no longer an innocuous, average moniker and much playground hazing followed. Even as an adult you get the look.
Do we need to mention that Amélie hasn't ever cracked the top 1,000 names for girls in the US?
Randy took Paternity Leave from work the first two weeks, which allowed us to finish decorating the nursery with some Sandra Boynton hangings Randy made.
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View of Janie's Nursery
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View of Janie's Nursery
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View of Janie's Nursery
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RBJC Curtis Family Front Page
Jane Amélie Curtis