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Category Archives: Names in the News

Baby Name Trends – This Year and Next Year

20 Saturday Dec 2014

Posted by A.O. in Names in the News

≈ Comments Off on Baby Name Trends – This Year and Next Year

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Baby Center Australia, Mark McCrindle, name trends

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Baby Name Trends for 2015

Social researcher Mark McCrindle, whose company puts together the national Top 100, has been asked for his thoughts on next year’s baby name trends. He assures us that creative spellings and fad-driven names prompted by popular movies and television shows are on their way out (hm, really?). Instead, parents will start to look to the past, and choose names of substance that will last for a lifetime.

Here are his predictions for next year’s top five baby name trends:

1. Military Names
As it is the centenary of Gallipoli, our minds will be on all things military, and the names of famous diggers, and other people connected with the Gallipoli campaign, will be covered in the press.

2. Patriotic Names
As the cententary will have us reflecting on all things Australian, we should all be feeling more patriotic and sentimental towards our nation. Australian place names could become more prevalent.

3. Royal Names
The new royal baby in April will cause an upsurge in the names given to them, as well as in royal names in general.

4. The Hundred Year Rule
Many of the names which charted in 1915 should come back into style (and a stack of them have already). Expect to see more names like Ruth, Muriel and Dulcie for girls, and boys’ names like Stanley, Donald, and Basil.

5. More Surnames
Surnames have gone from an annoying fad to the new classic. Expect to see more of them, everywhere, on both sexes.

Baby Name Trends of 2014

Meanwhile, Baby Center Australia released its trends of 2014. They noted:

H Names for Boys
Big gains for names such as Henry, Hunter, Hudson, and Harrison.

Biblical Names a Mixed Bag
Many Biblical names for boys fell sharply, and Benjamin was the name which fell the most. Yet there were gains for James, Thomas, and Noah.

Unusual Names
Baby Center Australia noted boys named Purple and Genesis, and girls named Onyx and Pony.

Changes to the New South Wales Birth Registry System

11 Thursday Dec 2014

Posted by A.O. in Names in the News

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

birth registration, birth registries, Family and Community Services, LifeLink

babydoorstep

A few months ago I wrote an article on the consequences of not registering your baby’s name, with advice being that there were no immediate penalties for not making the sixty-day registration deadline, but it should be completed as soon as possible.

The state of New South Wales has now made changes to their birth registry system. This follows two tragic cases of abandonment of newborn babies in Sydney, which occurred within a week of one another.

In one case a baby boy had been left in a drain for almost a week, with the mother now facing charges of attempted murder, and in the other, a baby girl’s decomposed body was found buried in sand dunes, with the parents still unknown. This seems to underline Unicef’s findings that unregistered babies were more likely to be neglected and abused.

Attorney-General Brad Hazzard says a new software program named LifeLink will be introduced early next year to automatically match birth notifications from hospitals with registrations from parents. At present, hospitals have seven days to notify the registry of a baby’s birth, and it is the parents’ responsibility to officially register the baby within sixty days.

The Attorney-General says he is concerned that there may be other unregistered babies out there, and that they could be at risk. The LifeLink program is designed to provide more consistency in the birth registration process. It would also work as a cross-reference to identify parents who have forgotten to register their child, or deliberately failed to do so.

A taskforce has been set up to improve communication between authorities on births in New South Wales, involving the Department of Justice, police, NSW Health, Family and Community Services, and the Ombudsmans Office.

The Attorney-General explains that this is a way to ensure that agencies can work together to assist parents – he assures us that it’s about improving the system, and will not be about penalising parents. He believes that the overwhelming majority of parents register their baby within sixty days, but wants to ensure that no children in New South Wales are left unregistered.

For now, the registry uses emails, letters and phone calls to track down parents who have not officially registered their child’s birth, but does not visit them in person. If they cannot make contact with the parents, they are supposed to refer the case to Family and Community Services.

Obstetrician Andrew Pesce, the Sydney West Health Service head of Women’s Health and former Australian Medical Association president, questions the proficiency of the current system. Although abandoned babies are said to be very rare, Dr Pesce wonders how they know it is a rare event without a proper system in place.

You will have probably noticed a loophole in the system set up to close the loopholes in the system – LifeLink will only be of assistance if the baby was born in a hospital. One of the issues with the baby girl found in the sand dunes is that she doesn’t appear to have been born in a hospital, thus there is no way to find her parents’ identity through hospital records.

It suggests that desperate mothers may be frightened to go to hospital to give birth, or to seek out a registered midwife for a homebirth, leaving them and their babies extremely vulnerable, and completely outside the system. LifeLink will not fix this problem, and could possibly even act as a further discouragement. I don’t know what can be done in such cases, and nobody else seems to know either.

Although details seem fairly vague at this stage, it does suggest that parents in New South Wales would probably be wise to register their baby’s name within the sixty-day period from next year to avoid unwanted contact from government agencies. And as we’ve learned from Scarlett’s story, changing a baby’s name in New South Wales is somewhat problematic as the original name is not just “wiped out”, so you need to be really sure of the baby’s name before you register it.

It will be interesting to see if other states follow New South Wales’ lead.

Name News: Changing Names and Sharing Names

04 Thursday Dec 2014

Posted by A.O. in Names in the News

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

adult name changes, African names, birth notices, changing a child's name, Congolese names, controversial names, gender reassignment name changes, name meanings, name social groups, social media, unisex names

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Elizabeth No More  

It’s not often that an entry in the birth notices of the newspaper is reported in the media, but one in Brisbane’s Courier Mail this week has gone viral and made the news section of KIIS FM’s website. It retracts the name given to the child nineteen years ago, and informs the world of their new one. Here’s the full text, which is accompanied by a photo:

A retraction – Bogert –

In 1995 we announced the arrival of our sprogget, Elizabeth Anne, as a daughter. He informs us that we were mistaken. Oops! Our bad. We would now like to present, our wonderful son – Kai Bogert.

Loving you is the easiest thing in the world. Tidy your room.

The message of unconditional love is warming hearts, while name nerds must be excited about a new way of relaying name information.

He’s No Longer Harry

Another name change story from the AFL’s website. Brazilian-born Collingwood star Harry O’Brien has reclaimed his birth name at the age of 27, and from now on will be known as Heritier Lumumba. When he was nine, he had his surname changed to his stepfather’s surname of O’Brien, but has decided to revert to his biological father’s Congolese surname. He explains:

The name Heritier means the inheritor or the heir … the inheritor is the inheritor of the Lumumba name and the name Lumumba is a very famous one in Africa, in particular the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Heritier has found connecting with his original name quite empowering, and feels that it is more truthful to go back to where he started. His team mates have been supportive, and are gleefully anticipating hearing the commentators pronounce his name.

Same Name, Different People

Do you know someone who has the exact same name as someone famous? One of my uncles has the same name as a prominent businessman in his city, and he has had to get used to hearing his name on radio and TV advertisements. And once at the airport he obediently trotted over to the front desk as requested by the loudspeaker, only to find the message wasn’t for him after all, but for the other man. By the time they got it sorted out, he had missed his flight.

A few months ago, news.com.au had a feature on ordinary Australians who have the same name as celebrities. Apart from everyone thinking it must be new information for you (“Did you know you have the same name as Jessica Simpson?”), the main drawback seems to be how difficult it is to get noticed online, as your social media profiles and websites get sent to the back of the queue by the sixteen billion jagillion hits for your more famous namesake.

The main perks were the ability to get through to absolutely anyone on the phone due to the star power of their name, and to get good tables at restaurants. In two cases, the ordinary person met or had contact with their celebrity namesake, and got an extremely frosty reception, or were forced to change their name professionally – apparently celebs don’t like us common folk “stealing” their names!

A common theory is that people’s names will influence their destiny – the old Your daughter won’t be a doctor if you call her Candy Starr routine. That does of course call into question why everyone named Catherine Middleton isn’t married to a prince – shouldn’t everyone with the same name have the same destiny? On the other hand, there are occasionally a few intriguing parallels between the famous and not-so-famous.

People with Embarrassing Names

Kerry Parnell from the Sunday Telegraph muses over all the people in the world whose name, which seemed so normal to their parents when they wrote it on the birth certificate, attracts unwanted attention or ridicule. She’s talking about people like Isis Leskien, who was mentioned in a previous bout of Name News, and found her name is now frowned upon. Kerry notes she knows a parent of another Isis who has changed her daughter’s name.

Then there’s the Harry Potters, the Justin Biebers, and the Edward Snowdens of the world – talking of sharing your name with someone much more famous than you, sometimes for reasons you don’t want to be associated with, especially when proffering your passport. And the people whose name is perfectly reasonable in their own country, but once they travel abroad, find that Kim Dong-Suk, Mario Turdo, or Argelico Fucks is greeted with sniggers.

Kerry herself had problems with her name when she emigrated from Britain to Australia twenty years ago, and discovered to her surprise that she now had “a man’s name”, thanks to the very powerful and famous businessman Kerry Packer. Kerry wonders if a Sydney doctor named Kerri Parnell is ever embarrassed by sharing her name.

Ms Parnell has brisk advice for those saddled with such names – change it or own it. She obviously decided on the latter course.

They All Have the Same Name

And then there’s people who share the same name, and love it. The first Shirley Club was formed in Western Australia in 1996, with others following their lead nationally and worldwide. The ABC reported that the Port Augusta Shirleys held their twice-annual luncheon in October, with a dozen ladies named Shirley meeting at a local hotel.

They know only one child named Shirley in Port Augusta, so understand that the club has a definite shelf life. However, perhaps in the future there will be an Emily Club, or an Ava Club to replace them. By the way, only women ever seem to start these clubs – I have yet to hear of a group of men forming the Happening Harolds or the Brian Brigade. Why is this?

(Photo shows two Kate Middletons – can you spot the difference?)

Name News – War Time Edition

13 Thursday Nov 2014

Posted by A.O. in Names in the News

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

baby name campaigns, birth notices, controversial names, Facebook, famous name trends, middle names, mythological names, name petitions, name trends, names of terrorist organisations, popular names, vintage names

Article Lead - narrow6119138610g24r1410499067381.jpg-300x0

Honour a War Veteran … With a Baby
ABC Radio publicised an interesting new campaign for the centenary of World War I. Martin Hamilton-Smith, the South Australian Minister for Veterans Affairs, has a plan to encourage new parents to give their children the names of World War I Anzac soldiers as a way to honour the country’s war veterans.

Martin’s own parents gave him the idea, because they bestowed on him the middle name of his paternal and maternal grandfathers, one of whom served on the Western Front in World War I, and the other who was a Rat of Tobruk in World War II. Martin followed their pattern, giving his son Thomas the middle name Theodore, which was the name of Martin’s great-uncle who was killed in France, and has been able to pass on to his son stories and letters about Theo.

He is calling on parents to consider giving their baby either the first or middle name of an ancestor who served in World War I, and to post their story to his Facebook page. He encourages those who don’t have a direct ancestor to go to a war memorial and pick the name of a soldier. Girls could be named after a nurse who served in World War I, or after a wife or mother bereaved by the war, or who cared for their returned loved ones, many of whom were left with injuries or post-traumatic stress.

The national secretary of the RSL thinks it’s a good idea, but wonders whether children will find it an honour, or a burden. In his wife’s family, a boy has been named after a great-uncle killed in World War I, and it doesn’t seem to have affected him in a negative way.

ABC Radio pictures the playgrounds of the near future filled with children named Bert, Clarry, Reg, Olive, and Edith, but Olive is already in the Top 100, and vintage names are on trend, so it may be difficult to gauge how much influence this campaign will wield on baby names.

POLL RESULTS
57% of people would consider naming their baby after a World War I veteran. 43% saw it as a way to connect their child to our history, while 14% saw it as a way to honour our heroes.
12% were in favour of the idea, but didn’t think it was suitable for their family.
19% of people were against the idea, with 17% saying that children deserved their own identity and a name all their own, while 2% thought it was too much of a burden.
12% weren’t sure how they felt about the idea.
Nobody thought that names from World War I were too old-fashioned for modern children.

Hot Baby Name Trend, 1914 Style
The Canberra Times had a column looking at the events of a century ago. Back in 1914, British army officer Earl Kitchener was the face of the war effort, and a popular subject for Toby jugs, statuettes, and souvenirs. The newspaper looked at the patriotic column of “Clio” in Melbourne’s humorous Punch magazine:

Do you know the baptismal names of Lord Kitchener?”

Not one person in a dozen does. Horatio Herbert. Perfectly appalling names, aren’t they? Shakespeare was perfectly right, you know, when he pertinently inquired, “What’s in a name?” for after all it is not the name but the man who bears it that matters most; and if Lord Kitchener bore any other names … he would still be the most splendid figure in English history to day.

Horatio Herbert is to be the fashionable name for boy babies this year. It is a curious medical fact that during war there are more boys born than girls, and mothers delight in choosing the name of some great soldier for their sons. And so this year the fad is in full swing. It began last week in the birth columns of a daily paper, when the announcement of the birth of a son was followed by his name in brackets (Earl Kitchener). But most mothers are quite content to drop the title, and bestow on their babies the plain names ‘Horatio Herbert.’

I did not find an Earl Kitchener born in 1914 (he might still be alive, or the story might refer to a British newspaper), but there were several born during World War I, and one born during the Boer War, where Earl Kitchener also played a leading role. I only found one Horatio Herbert, and he was born in the 1870s; however, Earl Kitchener went by his middle name, and there are quite a number of Herbert Horatios, and many Herbert Kitcheners. More than a hundred babies were given Kitchener as their middle name, and quite a few had Kitchener as their first name.

Note: “Clio” does not seem to have realised that there are always more boys born than girls, with an estimated 107 boys born for every 100 girls. There is some backing for their statement that more boys than usual are born during war-time, although the reason why is not known. However an Australian newspaper reported in 1941 that Australia bucked this trend, as numbers of boy babies decreased here during World War I, and the first years of World War II.

POLL RESULTS
People’s top choice to honour Earl Kitchener was to make Kitchener the middle name, with a third of respondents voting for it. The least favourite choice was the name combination Herbert Horatio, which got only one vote.

The First Casualties of War Are … Names
And on a very sombre note, a baby name which has been a casualty of war: Isis. The Daily Mail reports that an eight-year-old girl from Sydney named Isis Leskien has suffered the effects of her name.

I know it seems absolutely stupid (because it is), but since the terrorist group often referred to as ISIS has been in the news, people have been distancing themselves from her family, scared to be associated with her. Her brother Maximus has noticed that when they go to soccer together people stare when they hear the name Isis, and mum and dad Sheridan and Frank remember the days when people used to say, “What a beautiful name”, when they heard the name Isis; alas, not any more.

In the US, a petition has been started by a woman named Isis Martinez to ask media outlets to stop referring to the terrorist organisation as ISIS – it currently has more than 35 000 signatures, and the Leskiens are urging people to sign it. Whether it’s the petition or not, I have noticed that on the news here the organisation is now usually called ISIL or the Islamic State, but that may be slender comfort to people called Isis, as the name ISIS continues to be commonly used elsewhere.

POLL RESULTS
66% of people said they didn’t feel any differently about the name Isis
17% said the name Isis now made them feel very uncomfortable
15% said the name Isis now made them feel a little uncomfortable
2% said the name now made them feel so extremely uncomfortable that they would prefer to avoid someone named Isis

(Photo is of a statuette of Earl Kitchener, from the Australian War Memorial)

Royal Baby Meltdown, Name Discrimination, and Other Name Stories in the News

11 Thursday Sep 2014

Posted by A.O. in Names in the News

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

bogan names, classic baby names, creative names, Essential Baby, famous namesakes, Kidspot, locational names, name studies, royal baby names

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Royal Baby 2.0
Yes, it’s another baby expected by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, due in April next year. The Internet goes wild, bookies make billions, name bloggers all collapse from guessing until our brains explode. So far, punters are gunning for a brown-haired girl, and the most popular names for the prince or princess, younger sibling to George, are James for a boy, and Elizabeth for a girl.

I am very sceptical of an Elizabeth, as the queen has apparently made it clear she is not interested in having a namesake (royal babies with Elizabeth as their middle name are supposedly named after the queen’s mother, not Elizabeth II). To me, George and James are too similar-sounding as brothers, and surely the heir to the throne needs a distinctive name, if only for publicity purposes? However, the Duke and Duchess may not agree with my name advice.

You can read plenty of baby name predictions online (most of them are just recycling their guesses for Prince George, with the name George removed). I won’t be doing anything in regard to the name until much closer to the royal birth, as I think it is far too early. They aren’t even at the twelve-week mark yet, and the duchess is ill with severe morning sickness. Give them some space, people!

Last time, my bizarre method of tracking royal baby names turned out to be unexpectedly successful (for a boy, anyway; it might have been totally wrong if George had been a girl), but next time we might try something completely different, and see how that goes.

Utter Drivel Bogan
Kidspot have brought out a rather cringe-making article on “bogan baby names”, which they pretend is all in good fun.

Clare asked on her Scoop page whether this was as controversial or potentially offensive as calling names “chavvy”? I would say, yes Clare, it is: it’s like an article about chavvy names, redneck names, ghetto names, and the like. Despite protestations to the contrary, articles like these are intended to be offensive, and they certainly seem mean-spirited.

Apart from being copied from other sources, the article has some real clangers, such as saying Zaiden is “made up”, when it’s an elaboration of the Arabic name Zaid. Or listing the name Princ’ess, which isn’t even allowed in Australia.

Jorja Fights Back!
One person who took exception to Kidspot’s article was Jorja Orreal, whose name happened to feature on the list of “bogan names”. She loves her name, and her mother says it is not bogan at all, but very pretty. Jorja was named thus because her mum noticed that best-selling author Sidney Sheldon dedicated several of his novels to his wife at the time, actress Jorja Curtright. As she points out, how could the man behind I Dream of Jeannie possibly be associated with something in poor taste?

Jorja believes her name actually looks like a name, rather than Georgia, which is also a country and an American state, and seems more feminine. Unfortunately, she then loses every bit of my sympathy she might have mustered by going on to trash the names that she thinks are really bogan. Thanks to her intervention, my comments on the Kidspot article were much less severe.

Reach the Top of Your Game with a Creative Name
Almost everyone agrees: “creative” names are a terrible idea. Received wisdom is that it’s better to be a Chloe than a Kloey, James looks more professional than Jaymezz, and a traditional name like Elizabeth or William will gain greater esteem than a modern concoction like Neveah or Latrell. Essential Baby examines this idea by seeing if it stands up in the modern workplace.

In fact, there’s a lot to be said for “creative” names, perhaps most of all that they tend to be memorable, and can also be a great ice-breaker. Interviews with a couple of creatively-named people in business demonstrate that their names have been an asset to their careers. It seemed to me that their attitude to their names was really important, because they expected people to have trouble spelling their names, and were relaxed about the idea that people might find them amusing. Could those people skills have been gained through constant negotiations with others over their names?

Paul Barbaro, a spokesman from a recruitment agency, believes the idea that a “classic” baby name has prestige is an old and outdated one, and that people today are much less judgemental, being used to a wide variety of names (someone alert Kidspot to this valuable information!). He suggests that unusual names are now the norm, and that it can be helpful to have a name that is a little different, or globally recognised.

However, language expert Roly Sussex, from the University of Queensland, appears to be unconvinced. He can’t think of many people in public life with an unusual name, and thinks it would be far better to have a name that everyone knows how to spell and pronounce. But perhaps his attitudes really are outdated.

Should You Change Your “Ethnic” Name?
Roly Sussex thought that people with ethnic names were more likely to be successful if they anglicised their names, or used a nickname.

While I’m not sure if it will help you become successful in the long-term, the sad news is that it will probably help you to get a foot in the door. Researchers from the Australian National University submitted 4000 fictitious CVs for entry level jobs, and found that people with a Middle Eastern name need to submit 64% more applications that one with an Anglo-Saxon name to gain a job interview, while those with Chinese names need to submit 68% more applications, Indigenous names 35% more, and Italian names 12% more.

The study also showed that name discrimination was not evenly applied, and there could be differences when other factors were changed. For example, men of all minority ethnic groupings found it harder to get interviews than women; waitstaff and data entry jobs were the most likely to discriminate against ethnic minority males.

The city the person is in makes a difference too, with Sydney the most biased city against people with ethnic names – a Chinese person in Brisbane must submit 57% more applications, while in Sydney, it is a whopping 92% more. There was no evidence of discrimination against Italians in Melbourne, which has a relatively high Italian population.

Middle Eastern job seekers fared better when they applied for jobs with a non-Anglo employer or in ethnically diverse neighbourhoods. Interestingly, while a Chinese employer was much more likely to give someone with a Chinese name a callback, Italian employers were significantly less likely to offer someone with an Italian name an interview!

The entry level job that appeared to have the least amount of discrimination was customer service: your name doesn’t seem to make much difference when it comes to getting an interview in this field.

And there is some good news to go along with this rather depressing research. A study conducted by the University of Melbourne this year found that ethnic minority jobseekers were much more discriminated against during the application process than they were once they had actually secured a position.

Some people who did use an English name or an English nickname to find work felt comfortable enough to revert back to their real name in the workplace, and some were even encouraged to do so by their fellow colleagues. So if you write Rick on your resume, it doesn’t mean you can’t become Rashid again once you have been successful in your interview.

How to Dot Com Your Baby Name, and Other Name Stories in the News

02 Tuesday Sep 2014

Posted by A.O. in Names in the News

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Awesome Baby Name, domain names, Facebook, Game of Thrones names, name data, name meaning, name studies, name trends, nicknames, popular names, royal baby names, Twitter

Modern Baby Names

Mastering Your Baby’s Domain
Baby names in the digital age have become so complicated that some parents now make sure their child has their own e-mail account, Twitter handle, Facebook page, and website before they are born.

And since it gets frustrating finding the baby name you want to register has already been taken, you can do a sort of “reverse look up”, where you use a website that will tell you which names are still available. Such a website is the misleadingly-titled Awesome Baby Name, which suggests names based on domain availability.

Naturally I had to give this a try, and it’s easy enough. You type in your surname, and say you want a boy, girl, or “whatever” name, and receive a list of ten names that haven’t been taken yet. If you don’t like the ten they offer (and you probably won’t), they offer to sell you another 100 names for $3. You would be crazy to actually make this purchase, since every time you use it you get another ten names, and by simply clicking it again and again would soon find 100 names all on your own for free.

The site promises to find you the “very best matches” possible, but in fact it’s just a random list of names that may or may not sound even half decent when matched with your surname. The names have a very American bias – I was offered quite a lot of Hispanic names, and names currently trending in the US, like Jayceon. I’m not sure how the algorithm works, but I tried it with fifteen very different surnames, and each one offered the name Colton.

I was quite pleased by most of the boys names I was offered (except Colton, a name I now utterly loathe from having it thrust on me so many times): Alistair, Axel, Declan, Jude, Matthias, Maximilian, and Thaddeus seemed nice. Girls names were uniformly terrible. They were either dated, like Megan and Julie, very modern like Kyra and Brylee, or variant spellings, like Kaitlynne and Brooklynn. Maybe all the good girls’ names are already taken?

The “whatever” button is a complete waste of time: it doesn’t give you unisex options, as I thought, but just five girls names and five boys names.

Our surname is relatively uncommon, so that almost every name could be matched with it and still not be registered, and yet I wasn’t offered even one Top 100 name. Furthermore, different surnames didn’t get you a different range of names: I was offered relatively uncommon names, no matter if I said I was named Smith or Hetherington-Smitherswaithe. I wonder if the surname has been factored in at all?

The About on the page says it started as a joke, but doesn’t say whether it still is one or not, or how funny the joke turned out to be. I rate it as Mildly Amusing.

Names at Work
Could your name be holding back at work, muses Kochie’s Business Builders in Yahoo Finance? Short answer, from researchers at the University of Melbourne, is yes. They found that people with simple, easy to pronounce names had an advantage in the workplace, and would be more likely to be elected to political office.

Dr Simon Laham, from the University of Melbourne’s School of Psychology, said research findings revealed that it wasn’t the length of a name, or how “foreign” it seemed, or how unusual (or even made up) it was, but its pronounceability that made the difference.

It’s quite interesting, because we’re often told that names have to be familiar, recognisable, “non-ethnic”, or short for people to feel comfortable with them, but it seems that isn’t really that important, as long as they can intuitively guess the pronunciation. This might be something to bear in mind when choosing names.

Worried about your hard to pronounce name and how it’s ruining your career? KBB suggests using a nickname or short form of your name for easy communication, but sensibly comments that your skills and experience are far more important. An article on names which says your name is less important than who you are and what you do! Let’s hope this trend continues.

Capital, By George
There was royal baby name spotting during the royal visit in Canberra in April. The Canberra Times had a light-hearted look at a few baby Georges around town, including a George Louis, a George Middleton, and a Giorgio. The name George appears to be on the rise in the ACT, with 14 registrations in 2012 climbing to 22 in 2013. Between Prince George’s birth and his visit to Australia, 15 Georges were registered in our capital. What that means for the 2014 data is anyone’s guess.

Mothers of Dragons in the West
And those other royal names … Perth Now tells us that baby names from Game of Thrones are rising in Western Australia. Unfortunately, no actual data to support this plausible theory, but a couple of anecdotes instead. Fascinated by the mother who chose Khaleesi for her daughter in 2012, because “it had some sort of history”. I guess almost every name has some sort of history … in this case, a purely imaginary one! The meaning of “queen” was also a drawcard.

Names All Over the World
The Essential Baby website has got a little map of popular names from around the world. It doesn’t cover every country, but it does look at several regions. Africa and the Middle East are completely missing (I guess they have bigger issues than putting out birth name data). Worth a look to see how different the Top Tens are around the world.

Name News: What Names Would You Choose For These Celebrity Twins?

21 Monday Jul 2014

Posted by A.O. in Names in the News

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

baby name apps, celebrity baby names, choosing baby names, famous namesakes, honouring, names of businesses, Practical Parenting, sibsets, twin sets, unisex names

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X Marks the Spot for Future Celebrity Twins
A reader named Alison has kindly sent in an interview with Shannon Bennett, head chef at Melbourne’s Vue de Mond and judge of the ABC Delicious Produce Awards. You may remember Shannon, and his wife, actress Madeleine West, as the celebrity parents of four children named Phoenix, Hendrix, Xascha, and Xanthe.

Shannon explains in the interview that Phoenix was named after the restaurant where he and Madeleine met (Fenix, in Melbourne). Hendrix was in honour of Jimi Hendrix, who Madeleine is a big fan of. By this time, they noticed that they were getting a theme of the letter X in their children’s names, and decided to run with it for their daughters Xascha and Xanthe. However, the big news is that Shannon and Madeleine are expecting twins in November!

Alison wants to know: what do you think the Bennett twins might be called, given that we know they will have the letter X prominently in their names?

We don’t know whether they will be two boys, two girls, or one of each; nor do we know whether they will continue the theme-so-far of names ending in X for boys, and starting with X for girls, or will they mix it up a little?

My guess is Felix and Xavier for two boys, and Ximena and Lux for two girls – I seem to be betting that they will mix up up the first letter-last letter theme for twins.

Post your suggestions for the names of the Bennett twins, and we’ll see if any of us came anywhere close in four months time!

Dad Won the World Cup Baby Name Bet
Sydney couple Kathleen Vrinat, and her fiancé William Porkert, put their future baby name up as a bet for the World Cup. Kathleen is a supporter of Argentina, while William supports the German team, and as both their teams made the Grand Final in Rio, they decided that whoever’s team was victorious would get naming rights to their first-born child.

William already has some ideas, and is considering using names from the German football team, such as Andre, Manuel, or Mario – he points out that Andre is unisex, so could be used for either a boy or a girl, while Manuela is a feminine form of Manuel. Sadly, nobody seems very keen on the name Manuela, including Kathleen.

Kathleen was so distraught when she found out Germany won that she was sent home from work as her constant crying was distracting her colleagues. She says she will follow through with the bet, although she is now considering delaying having children. William hopes she’ll put the second child’s name up on a bet too.

The Rugby League Baby
Mother of seven Kirstie Nowland was watching her son Ivi at a junior rugby league game when her contractions started. She had had several dreams about giving birth at a football game, but her mother Kim dismissed them, putting them down to constant football attendance and the baby being overdue. Kirstie didn’t want to leave before the game finished, but it seemed that if she didn’t call for an ambulance soon, the baby would be born in the stands.

She was taken to Blacktown Hospital and gave birth 30 minutes later, but was upset she hadn’t got to see her son score before she left. The first thing she asked Ivi when she saw him was whether his team won, and he reassured her, “Yes mum; I scored, and we flogged St Mary’s 54-4”. Being a good rugby league mum, she knew that was the only thing that mattered.

Ivi plays for the Western City Tigers, and in honour of the triumphant team, Kirstie called the new baby Tiga Lilly. Tiga has a very memorable name story.

Sued Because of Her Baby’s Name
Baby name theft is a topic that gets bandied about a lot, but it’s very serious when a business believes that their “baby name” has been stolen. Canberra mum Neda Lutekic has a toddler named Zara, and when she started her own line of baby clothing, she named it Zarabumba after her little girl. Multinational fashion retailer Zara has now launched legal action against her, even though her inspiration wasn’t the store, but her daughter. Be careful that your baby’s name doesn’t sound like a big company before using it as inspiration for your own business.

There’s An App For That
Practical Parenting magazine has a gallery of baby naming apps you can download from iTunes. The most intriguing is one you can only test if you are actually pregnant, because it allows your unborn baby to pick its own name by registering its level of “enthusiasm” for each name from its movements. It doesn’t sound very scientific, but does sound fun, and you’ve got the perfect comeback if your child complains about their name in the future.

POLL RESULTS
People’s favourite choices for a baby name taken from players in the German football team were Roman, Matthias, and Bastian. The least favourite was Shkodran, which didn’t receive a single vote.

Thank you to Alison for the information on the forthcoming Bennett twins – all Australian baby name news gratefully accepted!

Name News Round-Up

16 Wednesday Apr 2014

Posted by A.O. in Names in the News

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

aristocratic titles, Australian Aboriginal names, banned names, birth notices, Births Deaths and Marriages, celebrity baby names, celebrity sibsets, choosing baby names, colour names, locational names, name popularity, name trends, names of mountains, nicknames, royal titles, trademarks, triplet sets, Twitter

news

Banned Baby Names

It was reported in The Age last month that the state of Victoria is banning baby names under the Births, Deaths and Marriages Act. This isn’t actually news in the sense of new information – that’s been the situation everywhere in Australia since the mid-1990s, with all states following more or less the same guidelines. It is a reminder that Births Deaths and Marriages has the discretion to reject names that are deemed unsuitable – however, the newspaper report failed to mention that parents can appeal the decision, and appeals have been successful in the past. Names rejected in Victoria included Lord, Princess, Princess Di and Prince (titles), Fireman Sam (trademark), Tit (offensive), and also Glory Hallelujah, New Covernant, Wonderful Beautiful, Anarchy, and Honest Mary, which seem to be Victoria’s idea of unsuitable. Pepper, Jazz, Reef, and Texan Gamble all made the cut however.

The Sunshine Coast Daily reported that “quirky” names were being banned in Victoria. The article said rather smugly that parents were free to choose any name they want in Queensland, whether it be pop culture Khaleesi or traditional Francis Xavier. That seems idiotic, as Khaleesi is allowed in Victoria too – it’s a title, but a fictional one, and not in English – although it’s not as popular as in Queensland. Queensland has the same naming regulations as the rest of Australia, but while the article was smug and silly, there was a grain of truth behind it, because names seem to be very rarely disallowed in Queensland, and it does have a more relaxed naming culture. Moral of the story: if you yearn for a kookier baby name, you are better off moving to Queensland than Victoria.

Radio Audience Help Choose Baby Name

Melbourne’s first baby of 2014 was born at 12.34 am on January 1 at the Royal Women’s Hospital to professional dancers Bessie and George Awad. The Awads couldn’t decide between their three favourite names of Indiana, Marley, and Summer, so they threw it open to listeners of radio station 3AW and its Twitter followers. Indiana was by far the most popular choice of the public, and this was the name they went with. Indiana was also the choice of dad George, who chose it because he thought his baby daughter “looked like a little Pocahontas” (not the most politically correct name story!). Bessie says the name suits Indiana. By the way, don’t you love mum and dad’s names – Bessie and George, adorable.

Baby Name Trends of 2014

Practical Parenting magazine had a slideshow of baby name trends to watch for in 2014, including old fashioned names, boys names for girls, surnames-as-first-names, and literary names. They also gave their predictions of which names would rise this year, and with so many guesses that at least a few of them will be correct.

When Rafael Became Rafferty

Comedian Dave Hughes has been on the blog a couple of times because of his delightfully named children Rafferty, Sadie and Tess – Tess Clementine was even voted the public’s favourite celebrity baby name last year. In an interview this year [story expired] Dave revealed that the first choice for his son’s name was Rafael. Even though this isn’t uncommon in Australia, Dave felt that they weren’t Spanish enough to pull off having a Rafael, so went with Rafferty instead. It’s interesting to wonder what would have happened if they’d gone with Rafael – would they have had two girls named Sadie and Tess? My guess is no: it’s interesting to see how the choice of the first child’s name can influence your other children’s’ names.

An Australian Name in America

A rare set of identical triplets were born in California, named Abby, Laurel and Brindabella – who made their way into the Birth Announcements here. The triplets’ dad is originally from Canberra in the ACT, where the Brindabellas form a mountain range to the west. He spent a lot of time exploring the mountains, and discovering a love of nature – he and his wife were married in the mountains in 2007, when they wed on top of Mount Franklin. Brindabella was named after the mountains of her dad’s home town, and although it sounds unusual next to her sisters, Brin or Bella will excite little excitement. Brindabella either means “two kangaroo rats” in the local language or “water running over rocks” with a European -bella added to mean “beautiful”.

True Blue 

Business Insider reported on websites which allow people to connect for the purposes of co-parenting. They aren’t dating websites, but provide an opportunity for single people who want children to match up so they can start a family together. The story featured Australian man Fabian Blue, who has moved to Nebraska in the United States to be with his co-parent, Dawn Pieke, and they have a one-year-old daughter together named Indigo. While Indigo is a common name in Australia, Indigo Blue has a nice ring to it.

Name Inspired By Royal Visit

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have just arrived in Australia, and 60 years ago Queen Elizabeth made her own royal tour. Dorothy Williams remembers the day that the queen came to Bendigo in regional Victoria, because she was in hospital after having given birth to a baby girl. The hospital beds were placed close to the window so that patients could see the queen being driven through the hospital gates. Dorothy named her daughter Pamela after Pamela Mountbatten, the queen’s lady-in-waiting. Lady Pamela is a first cousin of Prince Philip, and was a bridesmaid at his wedding to Queen Elizabeth. In 1954, Pamela was the #12 girls name in Victoria, just one place behind Elizabeth. I wonder how many of the 426 Pamelas were named after Lady Pamela, and how many of the 429 Elizabeths were named for the queen?

They First Met in the Local Birth Notices

I read a lot of birth notices, including from the Port Lincoln Times, so was interested to see this story about Olivia Fairclough. She and her twin sister Belinda were born on October 8 1975, and while researching softball history in the local paper, Olivia happened to come across their original birth notice, published October 16 1975. To her amazement, she saw that her husband’s birth notice was published below it – Martin Sheridan was born on October 9 1975 in Western Australia, but his grandparents in Port Lincoln announced the birth in their home town. He later moved to Port Lincoln, and he and Olivia have been married for five years. Keep a copy of the birth notices for the day your baby’s birth is announced: their future spouse may be in it.

The Names With the Best and Worst Credit Rating

11 Tuesday Feb 2014

Posted by A.O. in Names in the News

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

name studies

Know_Your_Credit_Score

Australian credit reporting company Veda has analysed the credit scores of 4.6 million people, and tells us which names are associated with the highest and lowest ratings of credit worthiness in each age group.

Gen Y

Best: Brendan, Wei, Georgia, Ying

Worst: Harley, Kayla, Skye

Gen X

Best: Lachlan, Murray, Ying, Clare

Worst: Mohamed, Tammy, Ali

Baby Boomers

Best: Brendan, Penelope, Gillian, Ross

Worst: Jose, Henry, Gloria, Marlene

Silent Generation

Best: Trevor, Pauline

Worst: Arthur, Valeria

I thought this report was more interesting than usual, because it divided people by age, so we could see names judged within their peer group.

People called Brendan and Ying certainly seem to be very financially responsible, as these are both top-rated names of two generations!

Name News Round Up

17 Tuesday Dec 2013

Posted by A.O. in Names in the News

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Baby Center Australia, birth data, birth registries, celebrity names, choosing baby names, fictional namesakes, French names, Kidspot, middle names, name meaning, name trends, names from television, naming laws, popular names, rare names, Starts at Sixty

News

Baby Center Australia has released its most popular names for 2013, with Oliver and Charlotte taking the #1 positions. Names with a strong V featured prominently, including Ava, Evie and Ivy, and X, with Jaxon and Jaxson included along with Jackson. Less common names from the site: Blue, Chevy, Blip and Daxx.

Meanwhile, News Limited looked at data from birth registries all over Australia to see how popular culture is affecting name choices. Some names from Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, Dexter, Downton Abbey, Mad Men, NCIS, How I Met Your Mother, and The Big Bang Theory are up, or appearing for the first time. There’s some rubbery figures, with whole groups of names being counted together, and even quite common names like Abby and Catelyn being counted as “pop culture”. Numbers are statistically significant, but overall very low, so no need to panic in regard to popularity. Most interesting factoid: Dexter peaked in 2010 at 67 births, so the chances of this name hitting the Top 100 are slipping away. Also the fairly ridiculous assertion that “popular culture” names will put your child in hospital … Health Department, please release a health warning on names!

Sabrina Rogers-Anderson from Kidspot is French Canadian by origin, and wanted a French middle name for her daughter, so she and her husband chose Fée – French for “fairy”, and pronounced FAY. Unfortunately, when they went to register the baby’s name in New South Wales, they were told that all accents and diacritical marks were forbidden. Rather than name their baby Arabella Fee, they changed the spelling and went with Fae. However, Sabrina believes that the rule is culturally insensitive, as it disallows valid names and spellings from other countries.

Rebel Wylie from Kidspot is expecting baby number three, a boy, and finds that all is not going well in choosing the name. In her tongue-in-cheek article, she claims her husband Andy is not playing fair in the baby name discussions, because he rejects every name she comes up with, but never suggests anything himself. After moaning about it to her girlfriends, it turns out The Sisterhood believes that the mother gets automatic naming rights as the one bonus of an otherwise miserable pregnancy. Rebel enthusiastically becomes a supporter of this theory, and chooses the name herself. She says Andy only gets a say-so if he can come up with something (she likes) better. A lot of angry comments from people who didn’t find it funny, but some interesting ones too.

Starts at Sixty website looked at the top baby names of 1950, with Jennifer and Peter leading the pack. The author of the article opines that in the past, parents were much more interested in tradition and the meanings of names, and chose accordingly, while today parents choose names from favourite places, TV stars, and brand names. I’m not convinced that parents don’t care about name meaning today – I get so many search terms from people looking for a name with a particular meaning. Lots of interesting comments from the 60+ crowd on how their names were chosen – including a Julie who had her name picked out of a hat (meaning and tradition?!) There were also plenty named after film stars, showing that celebrity name inspiration is no new phenomenon.

The Logan Reporter mourns the days when Sally, Jane, David and Brian were popular names. Newsflash from Logan – the 1960s are over. They’re still coping with the time-lag, including some problems with multicultural Australia. Oh dear.

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