The baby name Dakota is a Sioux name that means "friendly one," a sweet choice for a little girl. It's been in the top 500 baby names in the U.S. since the early 1990s, and is currently hovering around the 300 mark for both girls and boys. While in the past it's been considered a unisex name, I'm feeling like this one is being taken over a bit by the girls. In addition to being the name of two U.S. states and tribes of Sioux Native Americans, it's the name of actress Dakota Fanning (lately of the Twilight series), and infamously, the name of the building where John Lennon and Yoko Ono lived—and where he was shot to death in 1980.
Dakota fits in nicely with her siblings' names, especially Parker and Blake, with that nice, hard "k" sound in the middle. In fact, I'm liking the whole set of baby names Rosie chose—beautiful names that are just offbeat enough to be interesting.
There's no word from the O'Donnell-Rounds camp regarding a middle name, but I'd pair a name like Dakota with a nature-themed middle name. I'd try something like Lark, Winter, or Sky with it. (I'm kind of liking the repetition of the hard "k" sound, too.)
What do you think about Rosie's baby name choices? Would you pick Dakota for either your girl—or your boy? And do you think Dakota's now officially a girls' name, or can it work for the guys, too?
Image: Rosie O'Donnell, Michelle Rounds and baby Dakota, from @rosie/instagram.com
