Twins Gryffin and Nedrick: Birth Announcements from Melbourne’s “Herald Sun” (January)

17 Friday Feb 2012

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Twins

Bailey James and Jack Steven

Eilidh Bella and Ella Melissa

Gryffin Maxwell and Nedrick Stanley

Jasmine Ivy and Luke Austin

Luke Harrison and Alexandra Grace

 

Girls

Abbie Scarlett (Adam)

Charlize Jane Annabel

Darcie Livia

Edie Joy

Elodie Grace

Imogen Willow

Indigo Raine (Beau)

Ingrid Elizabeth (Angus)

Ivy Maeve (Angus)

Lily Hope (Shelby, Mia)

Katherine Dorothea

Madeleine Vera (Charlotte)

Melinda Jo

Paige Amanda (Charli-May, Georgia)

Sharelle Aileen Sarah (Hayden)

Shylah Heidi (Giselle)

Sienna Andie (Lucas)

Talia Angel

Tayla Reid

Vienna Harper (Capri)

 

Boys

Atticus Quince Domenico

Axton Karver

Billy Joseph (Sonny)

Brodie John Thomas

Cadell Graham (Lorelai)

Deegan Shaun (Jett)

Finn Horatio (Darcy)

George Anthony Rodney

Jackson Mick

Jameson Daniel Patrick (Hamish)

Jensen Kaihautu

Joshua Peter Andrew (Jessica, Samantha, Thomas)

Maverick James Daniel (Flynn)

Oscar Martin Peter (Stella, Archie)

Owen Russell Michael

Quillan Jeffrey (Joshua)

Quinn Jensen

Reve Robert John

Spencer William Kevin (Tahlia, Addison)

Zac Alfred Paul

Famous Name: Magda

15 Wednesday Feb 2012

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Yesterday was Saint Valentine’s Day, a day for thinking about love and marriage, and for declaring your true feelings. It was the day that film and TV star Magda Szubanski chose to come out on national television and identify herself as “absolutely gay” to Channel 10’s The Project.

Although her family, friends and colleagues have known this for a long time, it has never before been made public knowledge. It was obviously something important that would make her decide to share this aspect of her life with the public after so many years, and in a statement to newspapers yesterday in support of Australians for Marriage Equality, Magda made an impassioned plea for gay marriage to be legalised.

“The law means that you could be a serial killer and have killed all of your spouses and yet you would still be considered fit to marry,” she said. “But if you are gay, then you are not worthy of these same rights.”

Her “coming out” comes a day after two separate bills to legalise same-sex marriage were introduced in federal parliament. Magda made it clear that she is currently single, and not expecting to get married any time soon.

Now aged fifty, Magda has been delighting audiences since her university days. A gifted comedienne, she created a number of memorable characters for television sketch shows such as ditzy sports reporter Pixie-Anne Wheatley, heavily made-up infomercial saleswoman Chenille, penny-pinching whiskey-swilling Scot, Mary Macgregor, and vile mother Lynne Postlethwaite.

On the popular sit-com Kath and Kim, Magda played netball nerd, Sharon Strzelecki, who was often the butt of her friend Kim’s jibes. As well as hosting several of her own shows, Magda has had roles in Hollywood films such as Babe, Happy Feet and The Golden Compass, and sci-fi TV show Farscape. The public have voted her Most Popular Comedy Personality three times at the Logie Awards, and she has won an AFI Award for her role on Kath and Kim.

In 2003 and 2004 she was voted the most recognisable Australian personality, which helped her become spokesperson for a number of companies, most recently, weight-loss company Jenny Craig, through which she lost 36 kg. Despite being overweight, she has always been a strong and energetic person who enjoys being active.

The Australian public love her for her quick wit, sense of fun, and lively personality, her enormous smile that lights up her face and her big loud infectious laugh. We love her most when she is unselfconsciously being herself, and Magda has been overwhelmed by the public support she has received since coming out yesterday.

Magda’s name is short for her full name Magdalene, which is the title of Saint Mary Magdalene. Mary Magdalene was a very important disciple of Jesus in the New Testament, and the only person privileged to first see the arisen Christ. The Catholic church places her on a short list of saints declared to be “equal to the Apostles”.

Traditionally, her name is said to mean that Mary came from the village of Magdala, which means “tower, fortress” in Hebrew. However, in Aramaic magdala means “high, great, magnificent”, so it’s possible her name was supposed to be “Mary the Great”. I have also seen the suggestion that the name was meant to denote that physically Mary Magdalene was taller than average.

Magda is a pet name commonly used in central and eastern Europe, and although she was born in England and her mum is Scottish, Magda’s father is from Poland, and was in the Polish Resistance during World War II.

Magda is a strong and beautiful name which has cultural ties to Europe, and honours one of the most prominent early Christian women. It also has the familiar nicknames Maddie and Maggie. However, like Edna and Ita, Magda Szubanski is very famous and has such a distinctive name that we would know her from her first name alone. Does her fame overpower the name, I wonder?

Short news report on Magda’s announcement:

Celebrity Baby News: Matt and Shannan Ballin

14 Tuesday Feb 2012

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NRL player Matt Ballin, and his wife Shannan, welcomed their daughter Mackenzie Dawn on February 12. Mackenzie Ballin was born at 9.31 pm at private hospital, The Mater. Mackenzie joins big brothers Fletcher, aged 2, and Murphy, aged 16 months.

Matt Ballin is the hooker for the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles, and in 2010 was a member of the Queensland side for State of Origin. He also works as a personal trainer. Shannan is a member of the Eagle’s Angels, a high-profile female support group for the Manly Sea Eagles, and Mackenzie will become a member as well. Shannan thinks that Mackenzie will be a tomboy, and she will definitely go to the footy.

Matt and Shannan chose the name Mackenzie because they loved it, and Dawn is after Shannan’s grandmother – who is “stoked” to have a great-grand daughter named after her.

Two days after Mackenzie’s birth, Matt flew to England to take part in the World Cup Challanege, and will be back on February 21. Shannan’s parents are coming down from Queensland for a few weeks to help out.

(Story and bottom photo from Manly Daily, February 14 2012; top photo from Manly Daily September 4 2009, showing Matt and Shannan with son Fletcher; bottom photo shows Shannan and the three children)

Celebrity Baby News: Jesse Palavi and Jeremy Vyner

14 Tuesday Feb 2012

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Jesse is the daughter of beauty salon owner Charmyne Palavi, who became notorious as the “NRL Cougar” for dating a number of high-profile NRL players. Now 17, Jesse and her boyfriend, security guard Jeremy Vyner, have welcomed their first child, a son named Xavier.

Charmyne says she has not quite realised she is a grandmother yet, as people usually assume Xavier is her own baby, and she takes care of him a lot of the time. Last year, Charmyne lost a baby that an Indian surrogate mother was carrying for her and her young husband, which led to the breakdown of her brief marriage. Charmyne is now dating again.

(Story and photo from Woman’s Day, February 13 2012)

Happy First Birthday, Waltzing More Than Matilda!

13 Monday Feb 2012

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My blog is one year old today. If it was a baby, it would be starting to walk and talk by now … and that’s kind of how I see it, that it’s beginning to take a few hesitant steps on its own.

I discovered in the past 12 months that blogs and babies have quite a few things in common. They both go through teething problems, they both keep you up late at night, and when they go quiet, you find yourself leaning over both trying to tell if they are still breathing!

Unfortunately, there’s no $5000 bonus for having a blog, and you can’t get time off work by telling your boss that your blog is unwell and needs your attention. Well, I can’t anyway – maybe you’ll have more luck with that one.

Just like a proud mama with her baby book, I have all the statistics on my growing Matilda, kindly provided for me by WordPress.

All the Dirt

I have just over 70 000 views. I thought that seemed reasonable, and then I saw a blog started around the same time as mine that already has 2.8 million views. It has funny pictures taken from the Internet, mostly cats. Why have I not tried to appeal to these vast numbers of hilarious cat lovers? A great opportunity lost.

I received the most number of views on January 9, when Practical Parenting Magazine linked to my article, You Can’t Call It That. Thank you to Practical Parenting and its readers for their interest.

Most of my views were gained from search engines, especially Google.

The most common search term people used was flynn christopher bloom.

The most common girl’s name that people searched for was Hazel, and the most common boy’s name was Link.

The blog that sent me the most views was Appellation Mountain. Huge thanks to Abby, who is so generous when it comes to supporting other bloggers!

After posting this, I will have made 362 blog entries, so I never quite succeeded at the “Blog Entry a Day” challenge that WordPress suggested I take up when I joined.

My most popular entry is Flynn Christopher Bloom, which Wikipedia provided a link to at the bottom of their article on Miranda Kerr. More thanks are due to Wikipedia, as this was very encouraging for a novice blogger.

I have posted a ridiculous number of photos, somewhere between 400 and 500. The most popular photo that people clicked on was the one I made of Miranda Kerr and Orlando Bloom, each with baby Flynn. At this point I’m thinking that if I’d done a blog entirely devoted to the Kerr-Bloom family and their offspring, I would basically own the Internet by now.

I have 19 Categories and 244 Tags. The most popular Category is Celebrity Baby News, and the most popular Tag is celebrity baby names.

The most popular link on my Blog Roll is For Real Baby Names. Congratulations Sarah, you’ve obviously come up with a winning blog title that people can’t resist checking out!

The most popular website link is to the Baby Name Explorer from the NSW government.

The most popular news article is on rugby league star Mark Gasnier, and his 2010 marriage to Claudine Bonnechere.

I have 49 people following my blog, and as far as I can work out, have maybe another 50 or so following it in a more casual, commitment-free way.

People have left me almost a thousand comments, not including comments from myself (this is what WordPress says, but I don’t think it can be right; maybe it’s counting pingbacks).

Askismet has protected me from from more than 5 500 spam comments, which unfortunately means thousands of my views came from spammers.

My most loyal commenter is Lou at Mer de Noms, who has left well over 100 comments, meaning that more than 10% of my comments are from Lou. Thanks heaps Lou; I feel like I should give you some kind of award!

I got a surprising amount of fan mail, and hardly any hate mail at all.

My Birthday Presents to Waltzing More Than Matilda

I got her a new theme, as Pilcrow was beginnng to get on my nerves. One of the reasons I chose Chateau is because it is mobile compatible, so if you are out and about, and feeling as if you simply must read my blog for some reason, you can if you have a mobile device handy. (You could before, it just wouldn’t have looked the same).

I have got her a Twitter account. I don’t really know what to do yet, but I’m sure I’ll pick it up in time.

Many happy returns, Waltzing More Than Matilda, and may we enjoy another year of blogging together.

Celebrity Baby News: Steve Johnson and Erin Biggs

13 Monday Feb 2012

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AFL player Steve Johnson, and his partner Erin Biggs, welcomed their first child on January 20 – a son named Archie.

Steve plays for the Geelong Cats, and at the time his son was born, was named as part of the club’s leadership group.

Archie Johnson is the second celebrity baby named Archie just in the month of January; this must be a significant sign of the name’s growing popularity.

MYTH: Certain Baby Names Must Be Avoided Because They Are “Dog Names”

12 Sunday Feb 2012

Posted by in Baby Name Mythbusters

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toddler__dogBaby Name Mythbusters is a new Category I dreamed up to replace Celebrity Baby Names, which seems redundant now that we have Celebrity Baby News. I thought it would be a fun way to examine some of the myths prevalent amongst the baby naming community, and see whether they stack up.

I was in an Australian parenting forum where someone was looking for opinions on a baby name they were considering – Sailor, for a girl. One of the responses was ewww not sailor i had a dog called that. This struck me as one of the least useful or helpful things you could say in this situation – I mean I had a horse named Caroline; I don’t expect that name to be forever off limits for babies because I claimed it as a “horse name”. (I also had a dog named Judith, same deal).

It got me thinking about how often “That’s a dog’s name” comes up in discussions on baby names, and how it is designed to end all debate. That’s a dog’s name: a good parent would never give their baby a name suitable for a dog : discussion over, seems to be pretty much how it is supposed to work.

I decided to search through baby name forums to see what names were perceived as “dog names”, and then see how popular they really were for dogs, based on the popularity charts put out by a major dog tag corporation, which is the only national database for pet names that I know. Then I could compare them to the latest available data for baby name popularity.

I hit upon this method because it’s common for people to use popularity charts to decide how a name’s popularity reflects its usage for each gender. So if Matthew has continually charted for males, and never for females, it’s usually decided that makes it a “boy name”, and if there are more girl babies named Harper than boy babies, some would argue that Harper is more of a female name than a male one.

I didn’t see any reason why that method couldn’t be applied to see whether a name was more dog than human. Here is what I discovered:

NAMES THAT PEOPLE THINK ARE DOG NAMES THAT ARE MORE POPULAR FOR DOGS THAN HUMANS

  • Bailey (#36 dog, #47 human)
  • Barney (#28 dog, unranked human)
  • Bear (#21 dog, unranked human)
  • Beau (#17 dog, #71 human)
  • Billy (#30 dog, #112 human)
  • Buddy (#12 dog, unranked human)
  • Buster (#14 dog, unranked human)
  • Charlie (#7 dog name, #22 human)
  • Duke (#48 dog, unranked human)
  • Harley (#25 dog, #126 human)
  • Harry (#15 dog, #27 human)
  • Jake (#4 dog, #25 human)
  • Lucky (#23 dog, unranked human)
  • Max (#1 dog, #17 human)
  • Milo (#22 dog, unranked human)
  • Monty (#10 dog, unranked human)
  • Rex (#24 dog, #472 human)
  • Rusty (#18 dog, unranked human)
  • Sam (#2 dog, #97 human)
  • Shadow (#19 dog, unranked human)
  • Toby (#5 dog, #56 human)
  • Zeus (#50 dog, unranked human)
  • Bella (#15 dog, #41 human)
  • Belle (#41 dog, unranked human)
  • Buffy (#47 dog, unranked human)
  • Cassie (#23 dog, unranked human)
  • Cleo (#55 dog, unranked human)
  • Coco (#11, unranked human)
  • Daisy (#9 dog, #149 human)
  • Gypsy (#42 dog, unranked human)
  • Holly (#13 dog, #42 human)
  • Honey (#25 dog, unranked human)
  • Lucy (#5 dog, #21 human)
  • Maggie (#18 dog, #204 human)
  • Millie (#34 dog, #202 human)
  • Misty (#27 dog, unranked human)
  • Molly (#2 dog, #55 human)
  • Poppy (#57 dog, #68 human)
  • Sally (#7 dog, #306 human)
  • Sasha (# 6 dog, #167 human)
  • Sheba (#32, unranked human)
  • Tara (#31 dog, #153 human)
  • Tess (#8 dog, #260 human)
  • Zoe (#10 dog, #15 human)

NAMES THAT PEOPLE THINK ARE DOG NAMES THAT ARE MORE POPULAR FOR HUMANS THAN DOGS

  • Cooper (unranked dog, #7 human)
  • Jack (#3 dog, #2 human)
  • Riley (unranked dog, #20 human)
  • Annabelle (unranked dog, #38)
  • Emily (unranked dog, #8 human)
  • Maya (unranked dog, #46 human)
  • Sophie (#16 dog, #11 human)

A NAME THAT PEOPLE THINK IS A DOG NAME THAT’S EQUALLY POPULAR FOR DOGS AND HUMANS

  • Chloe (#3 dog, #3 human)

NAMES THAT PEOPLE THINK ARE DOG NAMES, BUT ARE NOT ACTUALLY COMMONLY GIVEN TO DOGS

  • Alfie
  • Andy
  • Akira
  • Bandit
  • Barclay
  • Baxter
  • Bernie
  • Bran
  • Brindley
  • Brock
  • Brody
  • Bruno
  • Buck
  • Champ
  • Chance
  • Colby
  • Cosmo
  • Dash
  • Dexter
  • Digby
  • Earl
  • Eddie
  • Elliot
  • Elvis
  • Gage
  • Gunner
  • Hunter
  • Nico
  • Otis
  • Pete
  • Prince
  • Remy
  • Rocco
  • Roscoe
  • Rufus
  • Samson
  • Shiloh
  • Sonny
  • Spike
  • Winston
  • Wyatt
  • Zane
  • Zeke
  • Ziggy
  • Abby
  • Apple
  • Bess
  • Betsy
  • Bindi
  • Bluebell
  • Dakota
  • Dixie
  • Fifi
  • Fran
  • Gigi
  • Ginger
  • Jenna
  • Josie
  • Kiki
  • Libby
  • Lola
  • Lulu
  • Luna
  • Macy
  • Maddie
  • Madison
  • Madeline
  • Maisie
  • Mia
  • Olga
  • Piper
  • Raven
  • Reba
  • Sadie
  • Sailor
  • Skipper
  • Sophia
  • Star
  • Zuzu

NAMES THAT ARE POPULAR FOR DOGS, BUT PEOPLE DON’T SEEM TO THINK OF THEM AS DOG NAMES

  • Oscar #6
  • Zac #9
  • Tyson #11
  • Ben #13
  • Jasper #26
  • Jackson #29
  • George #34
  • Casper #38
  • Angus #39
  • Jesse #40
  • Cody #42
  • Basil #45
  • Gus #47
  • Jock #49
  • Bronson #51
  • Henry #53
  • Casey #54
  • Clyde #60
  • Ralph #58
  • Bonnie #4
  • Rosie #14
  • Ruby #17
  • Penny #24
  • Gemma #28
  • Jasmine #32
  • Roxy #33
  • Kelly #38
  • Tessa #35
  • Emma #48
  • Chelsea #51
  • Ellie #52
  • Amber #53
  • Jedda #58
  • Heidi #60

From this we can see that although people were able to correctly identify some names as “dog names” that had greater popularity for dogs than humans, there were many more names that they were wrong about. Much as people might imagine that dog owners call their pets Spike and Fifi, these names did not even make the Top 60.

Even more revealingly, there were a number of names that were very popular for dogs that didn’t seem to earn them the title of “dog name”. Henry and Emma are both names commonly given to dogs, and yet I couldn’t find any examples of parents being warned off these names as “too doggy”.

You might argue that’s because these names are so popular for humans, and yet you can see from the first list that very popular baby names like Charlie and Zoe were correctly identified as names commonly given to dogs. You can also see from the second list that popular baby names like Cooper and Emily were incorrectly identified as “dog names”. Moreover, names such as Bonnie and Basil are many times more often given to dogs than humans, yet they were not perceived as dog names.

Because people seemed to do so poorly at correlating baby names perceived as “dog names” with names that were actually given to dogs, I am calling this

MYTH BUSTED

Disclaimer: Information for entertainment purposes only; results may not be scientifically accurate and further studies need to be done with better data. There is no connection between Baby Name Mythbusters and the television show “Mythbusters”, so nobody needs to sue me or anything.

Saturday Sibset: Nine Children in Nine Years

11 Saturday Feb 2012

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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.

Celebrity Baby News: Matt and Bianca Giteau

10 Friday Feb 2012

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Rugby union star Matt Giteau, and his wife Bianca, welcomed their first child on January 1, making their son Levi the very first celebrity baby of 2012!

Matt played rugby union for the ACT Brumbies, and the national men’s team, the Wallabies. Last year he signed with French club Toulon, and moved to France. Bianca (nee Franklin) is a netball player from country Western Australia who plays for the Adelaide Thunderbirds. An Indigenous Australian, she received the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission Award for West Australian Young Achiever of the Year in 2003.

Bianca and Matt met at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra, where Matt was attracted by Bianca’s athleticism and height (she’s slightly taller than him). Matt and Bianca were married on the Gold Coast in December 2010.

Both Matt and Bianca come from sporting families. Matt’s dad Ron Giteau is a former rugby league player who was captain of the Canberra Raiders, and his older sister Kristy plays both rugby codes for Australia. Bianca’s brother is Australian rules star, Lance “Buddy” Franklin. Levi Giteau has some fantastic sporting genes there.

I do apologise for the lateness of this news, as Levi’s birth in France never seems to have filtered down to the mainstream press.