Trudy and Clint Hill live in a five-bedroom house in South Penrith, a suburb on the outskirts of western Sydney. Clint works from home inventing fitness equipment, and Trudy is kept pretty busy, because she became pregnant with their first child in 2000, and then had nine children in nine years.
Trudy says, “I just fell in love with having kids. I love that whole experience of giving birth and having a newborn baby. For me, that’s really addictive and that’s what keeps me going back and having more.”
Family life is well-organised, and the Hills claim to average seven hours sleep a night. Trudy copes with stress by hitting the gym twice a week. In fact, Clint and Trudy first met at the local gym, and soon after they began dating, planned to have a large family.
At the end of the story, Trudy says she is open to the idea of having another baby, and says she might get clucky a bit further down the track – she’s never had the opportunity to get clucky before!
The Hill Children
Jett (boy), born February 2001
Cruize (boy), born November 2001
Bronte (girl), born March 2003
Reef (boy), born June 2004
Zye (boy), born October 2005
Finn (boy), born December 2006
Bay (boy), born February 2008
Skyla (girl), born May 2009
Nox (boy), born May 2010
This is a great collection of almost typically Australian on-trend names. The Hills seem to be very attracted to short names, as seven of the nine names are one syllable, and although the girls’ names are two syllables, neither has more than six letters. There is a noticeable absence of classic names, Biblical names, elaborate names, names with a long history of usage, or frilly names for the two girls. These are names that are fresh and punchy.
Although the Hill family are practising Christians, the names aren’t Christian-oriented, except maybe Zye, which might be short for Zion. However, it could also be seen as an attempt to Anglicise the Chinese word zai, meaning “young man”, or the Greek xy, relating to “wood, forest”. Nox even has the name of a Roman god.
If there is any particular “theme” to the sibset, I would say that it is one relating to nature, and in particular the beach. I think these are Australian surfer names, and show an affinity with the encircling sea and the great outdoors.
Waltzing More Than Matilda 
I love that they’ve kept the creativity throughout, and all short names without applying to any one style or theme. I’d imagine that’s tough to do after nine!
Apart from Jett and Finn, who I’m fairly certain would be a boys, and Skyla who I THINK would be a girl, I cannot tell their gender by seeing just the first names.
Bronte and Skyla are girls, all the rest boys. Don’t they all look alike?
Most of them are recognisably masculine in Australia, I think.
Ah, I’m not Australian myself. But looking at it now- Cruize and Nox I should have figured, and possible Reef too, but Zye and Bay have a unisex feel to me. Could be due to Zion and especially Bailey being used on girls a lot in the US. But Bronte I would have thought is a boy. There is nothing feminine about that name to me.
Apart from Reef, Bronte and the ones that look misspelled to me (Nox and Cruize. They just look wrong to me. It should be Knox and Cruz) I actually like all of the names. Well, that’s just about half, but still.
Bailey is primarily a male name here – it’s in the Top 100 for boys and not for girls (although still unisex). I think when people see Bay, they think Bailey and Baylen, which are mostly boy’s names. But Bay could be used for either.
Zye I’m really not sure about, but I suspect it reminds people of the male names Jai and Jye. Zion is very rarely used here, but would nearly always be a boy, I imagine. Zye could also be short for Isaiah or even Zachariah, I guess. I can’t imagine Zye on a girl personally or imagine what it would be a variant or short form of if so.
Bronte is Top 100 for girls and has never been used on boys except in rare cases. You’re right – by sound and meaning, it’s not feminine! It’s only the usage that makes it feminine (like so many names). Bronwyn was a great favourite in Australia for many decades, and I think people saw Bronte as a new take on Bronwyn – Bronte began rising just as Bronwyn began to wane.
Nox is the name of the Roman god of night, it’s not a variant spelling of Knox. Cruize might be a variant spelling of Cruise instead of Cruz … it’s hard to say.
I’m going to edit this entry and add the genders anyway! 🙂
I really like the name Bay. It could also be a nice nickname for Bailey.
Yes it’s very versatile. It could be short for Bayard or Baylen, and can be read as a colour name, a plant name, or a geographical term.
They’re interesting and I prefer them to many of the other large family sibsets I’ve seen (I’m looking at you, Kalifornya).
😆
The most “Normal” name and my fave is Bronte
Jett, Bronte and Finn are all Top 100, so I would pick those three as the most popular and therefore I guess the most “normal”.
I think you said before you also liked Skyla as a girl’s name?
Oh I do like Finn and skyla spelt skyler