K is for...

kringing (yes, I know that it's actually spelled with a "c") when you wake up in the middle of the night and realize that, even though you wrote the Baby Name Tuesday blog, you forgot to upload it on Tuesday! Grr... Sorry for the delay, folks; here's your K names!

K is for kegel exercises and vitamin K (baby will get an injection of it at birth to enhance the clotting ability of baby's blood) and, today, it's also for Koren and Kenneth.

Koren is a name that can actually be used as a girl's or boy's name but I chose it today because it feels like a nice mix of the traditional and modern. As a girl's name, the first connection I make with Koren is traditional as it reminds me of the name Karen, which means "pure" in Hebrew. However, it also reminds me of the name Corrie, which is Irish and means "hollow". While it may seem likely that Koren is just a name that was made up by combining the two more traditional names, it's actually a Hebrew name meaning "shining" or "gleaming". What a great name for a child that will no doubt cause your eyes to shine when you look upon her! You can also play around with the spelling of the name, too, if you like, changing the "e" to an "i" or "y".

Our boy's name today stuck with tradition. Kenneth has long been a favorite boy's name of mine and not just because he was my Barbie's main squeeze. I like the simplicity of it and that it's a name that can be transformed to sound formal (Kenneth), playful (Kenny), or like the guy that everyone is friends with (Ken). The name is Scottish and means "handsome" or "good-looking". Your little man will surely be the best looking boy on the block, so why not give him a name that means it, too? With all the variations, too, he'll have a name that suits him no matter the occasion!