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Tag Archives: Australian Aboriginal names

Names from the TV Show “Cleverman”

09 Sunday Oct 2016

Posted by in Your Questions Answered

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Carmen writes in to say that she is a fan of the Australian fantasy TV series Cleverman on the ABC, which stars Hunter Page-Lochard in the title role. The TV series takes several themes from Australian Indigenous culture and blends them with current ideas in Australian society and politics. The “clever man” is a shaman in Australian Aboriginal culture, and in the show he becomes an Indigenous superhero with mystical powers.

Carmen would be interested in seeing a blog post on the names of the characters in the show, and she also wonders whether there will be any increase in the use of baby names from an Indigenous Australian background because of the show’s influence.

I wonder too, and whether we will even find out, as there is so little data gathering in Australia. Cleverman screens in the US as well, so we’ll see if there’s any impact there.

HUMAN CHARACTERS

Koen West: The titular Cleverman. Koen is a Dutch name, a form of Conrad, as well as an Irish surname sometimes used as a first name. It also brings to mind the Jewish surname Cohen, used for the priestly line, and perhaps also the Zen riddle called the koan. It feels both cross-cultural and religious (Koen West has both white and Aboriginal family members).

Waruu West (Koen’s half-brother): Waruu means “crow” in the Gamilaraay language from New South Wales and southern Queensland. In Aboriginal myth, Crow is one of the ancestor spirits.

Nerida West (Waruu’s wife): Nerida means “water lily” in an Aboriginal language; a reasonably familiar name in Australia.

Alinta West (Waruu and Nerida’s daughter): Alinta means “flame” in the Kaurna language from South Australia and has been used in a previous TV show.

Linda West (Waruu’s mother, Koen’s adoptive mother)

James “Jimmy” West (Koen and Waruu’s uncle): The previous Cleverman before he chose Koen as his successor.

Jarrod Slade

Dr Charlotte Cleary (Jarrod’s wife)

Blair Finch (male, Koen’s friend)

Ash Kerry (Blair’s girlfriend)

Belinda Frosche

Geoff Matthews

Jane O’Grady

Virgil (female)

Frankie (female)

Rowena

Ludo

Taki

Eve

Max

HAIRYPEOPLE

The hairypeople are inspired by Aboriginal legends from the north-east of New South Wales: in some stories they are dwarfish and in others giants; they have been used as bogeyman figures.

In the Cleverman universe, hairypeople are humanoid, but with DNA sufficiently different to make them a separate species. However they share cultural similarities with Australian Aborigines, including language, relationship to the land, and the Dreamtime. They are long-lived, strong, fast, and tough, and notable for the thick hair which grows all over their bodies. They have unusually bright blue eyes and long hard fingernails that can cut through flesh.

In the TV series, hairypeople remained hidden from humans for 80 000 years, only emerging a few months before the story begins. After discovering they exist, the Australian government regards them as subhuman and enacts laws to keep them contained. Some hairypeople choose to pass as human by shaving off their hair and wearing coloured contact lenses.

Names of Hairypeople Characters

Araluen (female): Araluen is a small town in the Southern Tablelands region of New South Wales. Its name means “water lily” in the local language, as there were once many billabongs covered in lilies in the area.

Boondee (male, Araluen’s husband): A boondee is a heavy-headed club in the Euahlayi language from the Lightning Ridge area of far northern New South Wales and south-west Queensland.

Djukara (male, Araluen and Boondee’s son)

Latani (female, Djukara’s sister): A Polynesian name used on the Australian island Norfolk Island. It may be deliberately multicultural, as Latani wishes for hairypeople and humans to live in harmony. It sounds similar to tarni, meaning “waves, surf” in the Kaurna language of South Australia.

Jyra (female, Latani’s sister)

Harry (male): Because Harry sounds a little like hairy?

Maliyan (male): Maliyan means “wedge-tailed eagle” in the Gamilaraay language. In the show Maliyan is violent, suitable for someone named after a bird of prey.

Mungo (male): Lake Mungo is a dry lake in south-west New South Wales, famous as a site where the oldest examples of Australian human remains have been found. The lake is named after a Scottish saint, whose name probably means “dog lord” in British.

Kulya (male): Kulya is a native vegetable similar to sweet potato grown in Western Australia.

Lena (female): Lena is a word for “water” in the Palwa language from Tasmania.

SPIRITS

Kora (a woman from the spirit world): Kora means “companion” in the Awabakal language from the mid-north coast of New South Wales.

POLL RESULTS
62% of people thought that the TV show Cleverman might influence people to choose an indigenous Australian name for their baby. 53% thought the influence would probably be small, while 9% thought it could have a significant impact. Meanwhile, 29% of people thought it probably wouldn’t make any real difference to the names people choose, and 9% didn’t believe a single TV show could influence people’s choices.

79% of people reported that the names they had chosen for their own children, or were considering using, had been influenced by a TV show in some way. 26% had a name on their name list that they had seen on a TV show, 23% had noticed a change in the style of names they liked after watching a particular TV show, 16% had discovered that a name they chose or considered had become well known after being featured in a TV show, and 14% had named at least one of their children after a TV character. The remaining 21% said that no TV show had influenced their name choices or preferences in any way.

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A Character Name With an Australian Focus

31 Saturday Oct 2015

Posted by in Naming Assistance

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Raye is planning to write a book, and is looking for a name for the protagonist. The book will be set in Australia, and the main character will be an Indigenous Australian, so ideally the character’s name would be from an Australian Aboriginal language.

Raye would like the name to have a meaning connected to the story. The character will be symbolically linked with the colour red, with earth, and with stability. She will be the leader of a team.

Raye thinks she will be from New South Wales, perhaps from around the Cronulla area of Sydney, but that isn’t really decided yet. However, the name does not have necessarily have to be from a dialect from that area.

The name also needs to stand out as a girl’s name – the main character is transgender, so her name should hopefully be something that distances her from her birth gender.

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Raye if you had paid me for a name consultation, I would have sent your money back and explained that I am completely unqualified for this task. However as it’s free, I will do my best to come up with some words from Aboriginal languages that might be suitable to use as names (or sound name-like) and hope that it might be of some interest.

Connected to the meaning “red”

Mudjil (from Sydney)
Girri
Karro
Marda
Miku
Taltarni

Connected to the meaning “earth”

Bamal (from Sydney)
Sep
Yarta

Connected to the meaning “stability”

Wilta – means “firm” in the Kaurna language

I don’t think any of these words sound specifically feminine, and I think for a transgender character, the biggest advantage is that they sound as if they could be used for either sex.

My first thought for a name from the Cronulla area is Wanda, as the name of Wanda Beach at Cronulla comes from the local Aboriginal word for “sand hills” (vaguely earthy). However, you might think that this sounds a bit dated, and is not obviously Indigenous, as Wanda is also a European name.

I do think that having a transgender Indigenous person as your main character is fairly brave, as this is a complex issue. However, if you know a lot about this subject, it would be a wonderful opportunity to highlight the cultural nuances that might arise. From looking at the names of real life Aboriginal transgender people, a name like Ruby, Rosie, or Scarlet would probably be more believable.

I can only hope that someone who knows far more than I might see this and advise you!

(Photo shows the sand dunes of Cronulla on the Kurnell Peninsula)

Suburbs of Adelaide and Hobart Which Could Be Used as Girls Names

19 Sunday Jul 2015

Posted by in Name Themes and Lists

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Beulah
Beulah Park is an affluent suburb of Adelaide, named after a village in Wales. The name Beulah is from a Hebrew word translated as “married (woman)”. In the Old Testament, the prophet Isaiah prophesies that the land of Israel shall be known as Beulah, because it shall be as if “married” to God, to indicate an especially close and loving relationship. Because of this, Beulah was used by John Bunyan and William Blake to mean a mystical place from which Heaven can be seen; it’s also used this way in the hymn Beulah Land. Beulah has been used as an English name since at least the 17th century, and was taken up by the Puritans. It has been much more popular in the United States, and was Top 100 in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; however it hasn’t charted there since the 1950s. Poor Beulah has come to exemplify the “ugly old lady” name, even though it doesn’t sound much different to Bella or Ruby (put the OO sound from Ruby into Bella, and you’ve got Beulah!). Can vintage Beulah ever be pretty again?

Brooklyn
Brooklyn Park is in Adelaide’s western suburbs, and was probably named after the borough of New York City. Brooklyn was settled by the Dutch, and originally called Breukelen, after a town in the Netherlands, whose name means “broken land”. Apparently this is because both the Breukelens were built on marshes, where the land is broken up with little streams, and I have also seen Brooklyn translated as “marshland”. Brooklyn has been used as a personal name since the 19th century, and originated in the United States. It was at first more common as a male name, but today Brooklyn only charts as a girls name in the US. In the UK it is more common for boys, thanks to David Beckham’s son Brooklyn – the name has charted for boys in the UK since 1999, when Brooklyn Beckham was born. In Australia, the name Brooklyn is fairly evenly used for both genders, although not very common for either. An attractive underused modern name suitable for either sex, although international trends suggest it is turning pink again.

Cherry
Cherry Gardens is a semi-rural suburb of Adelaide named for the native cherry trees which once grew there in profusion. The name Cherry can be from the cherry tree, or its delicious red fruit, although I think many people would be reminded of cherry blossom, which is enchantingly pink and lovely. In Australia, cherries are especially connected with the town of Young in New South Wales, which promotes itself as the Cherry Capital of of Australia, and holds a Cherry Festival every year. It also recalls the popular Cherry Ripe, which is Australia’s oldest chocolate bar. Cherry can be given as a nickname for names such as Charity, and can also be from the surname Cherry, which might refer to someone who grew or sold cherries: this probably explains boys given the name Cherry. Cherry has been used as a name since the 17th century (perhaps influenced by the popular poem and song Cherry Ripe), but it only became common in the 19th. It has a 1950s vibe, and seems “ripe” for teasing, but also bright and irrepressibly cheery. It’s a name that makes you smile when you say it aloud.

Eden
Eden Hills is a suburb of Adelaide, and well suits its name, as it in the city’s foot hills, and contains bushland, parks, and a botanic garden. The first landowner in the area was William Cook, who settled here in 1839. He was the master of a vessel called the Eden, and it is believed that’s where the suburb got its name. The name Eden is usually given in reference to the Garden of Eden in the Bible. The name has been translated as if derived from the Akkadian edinnu, meaning “steppe, plain”. It’s now thought to be related to an Aramaic root meaning “fruitful, well-watered” – this fits in better with the biblical description, as the Garden of Eden was said to be irrigated by rivers and filled with fruit trees (of course fruit was to prove a real problem). In Hebrew, the word is understood as meaning “pleasure”, and Eden is recorded in the Old Testament as a personal name. It has been used as an English name since the Middle Ages as a variant or pet form of the Anglo-Saxon Ed- names, such as Eadhun, meaning “rich bear cub” (the source of the aristocratic Eden surname). The biblical meaning came into use around the 16th century, and the name has always been given to both sexes, but is more common as a feminine one. Eden has charted since the 1980s at #757 (the decade of popular TV drama series, Return to Eden – in this case, Eden was the name of an estate in the Northern Territory). It joined the Top 100 in 2011 and is now #68. Although it has only ever charted as a girl’s name, it is quietly but steadily given to boys too, and seems rather distinguished as a male name. A clean attractive name suitable for both sexes.

Fern
Fern Tree is an outer suburb of Hobart, named so because of the Tasmanian Tree Ferns which grow abundantly in the area. It’s a popular place for bushwalking. Ferns are ancient plants which have remained unchanged for more than a hundred million years, and are extremely hardy and easy to grow. Because ferns don’t have flowers or seeds, people didn’t know how they reproduced for a long time (now we know – it’s from spores). This enigma gave it a magical air, and it has long been associated with fairies and spells. Ferns have a special connection with New Zealand, used as an emblem by sporting teams, especially the netball team, the Silver Ferns. Fern has been used as a person’s name since at least the 17th century, but it became quite popular in the 19th century. Not only were plant names very fashionable then, but the Victorians went fern-crazy, and there was a real fad for collecting the plants. This is a vintage nature name which doesn’t seem old-fashioned in the least, but rather off-beat and artistic.

Lenah
Lenah Valley is in the foothills of Mount Wellington in Hobart, and was settled in the 19th century. There are several bushland reserves here, and it is the home of the Lady Franklin Museum, a classical temple built by pioneer Jane Franklin, wife of the explorer John Franklin; it now houses the Art Society of Tasmania. Lenah is the local Aboriginal word for “kangaroo”. It looks like the name Lena, but is said LEN-uh, not LEEN-uh. This would work well cross-culturally, while having a very Australian meaning.

Lutana
Lutana in Hobart’s north was originally built by the Electrolytic Zinc company as housing for its workers. A competition was held to name it in the 1920s, and the name Lutana was selected; it’s the local Aboriginal word for “moon”. A famous namesake is Lutana Spotswood, an Indigenous language worker who gave a eulogy in the Palawa language at the funeral of Tasmanian premier Jim Bacon. Lutana is pronounced loo-TAN-uh. This is quite similar to the familiar Luna in sound and meaning, but is purely Australian and avoids any concern over loony or lunatic. Not only can you use Lulu as a nickname, but I have seen quite a few baby girls lately named Tanna, so the sound must appeal to Australian parents.

Marion
Marion is in Adelaide’s south-west, and was named after a young daughter of James Fisher, the Resident Commissioner in the 1830s, who was responsible for disposing of public land. Miss Fisher’s name was actually Marianne, not Marion, and she lived to be one hundred years old. Marion is a medieval French pet form of the name Marie. During the Middle Ages, one of the most popular type of French folk song revolved around a shepherdess named Marion, and her lover, a knight named Robin. This all sounds very familiar, but strangely enough there doesn’t seem to be any proven link between these songs and the English tales of Robin Hood and Maid Marian. There is also a surname Marion, taken directly from the woman’s name, and this has been quite often been given as a boy’s name – most famously to the actor John Wayne, born Marion Morrison. Perhaps people thought it was the masculine form of Mary. In the US, Marion has charted as a unisex name fairly evenly given to both sexes, but it has only charted as a female name in Australia. Marion was #89 in the 1900s, and peaked in the 1930s at #47. It left the Top 100 in the 1960s, and hasn’t charted since the 1980s. Although this name is dated, there is something rather glamorous about it, thanks to French actress and singer Marion Cotillard. If you’re worried about Margot becoming too popular, why not consider this other French charmer?

Penna
Penna is in the outer suburbs of Hobart, and is sometimes listed as a village or a commuter town. It’s name is most likely from the Cornish surname Penna, meaning “headland”, as it is faces onto a peninsula. Penna as a personal name can be from the Latin word penna, meaning “feather, wing”. This is where our word pen comes from, as we once wrote with feathered quills, but even in English, the word penna means a contour feather on a bird. There’s also the Italian surname Penna, which comes from the Latin pinnus, meaning “pointed”, and refers to someone who lived on a hill. In Finland, Penna can be given to boys as a variant of the name Ben. Penna has been used as a personal name since the 18th century, and when you look through the records, it’s clear that it is a multicultural choice, used all over the world, including Hungary, Italy, Greece, Norway, Persia and Brazil, as well as English-speaking countries. Recently it was chosen by actor Ian Ziering for his daughter, giving this rare name some much needed publicity. The rise of Penelope makes Penna seem more usable.

Rosetta
Rosetta is a small suburb of Hobart thought to be named after Rosetta Cottage. This was built in the early 19th century by John Beresford, who came to Australia as a convict on the First Fleet, and took up land in Tasmania to become a prosperous farmer. Rosetta Cottage later became a private girls’ school, and then the Undine Hotel – it is now a B&B. It seems likely the cottage was named after the Rosetta Stone, a 2nd century BC stone slab discovered in Egypt in 1799 which had the text in Egyptian hieroglyphics, Egyptian script, and ancient Greek. This allowed Egyptian hieroglyphics to be translated for the first time, and even now, Rosetta Stone is used to mean a crucial key in decoding information. The Rosetta Stone is so named because it was found in the Egyptian town of Rosetta. Rosetta, meaning “little rose”, is the western version of the town’s Arabic name Rashid, meaning “guide” – both are corruptions of the Coptic name Trashit, which I think just describes it as a mouth of the Nile. This is a pretty vintage name, very much on trend, which has a wealth of meaning and history behind it. Rosie or Etta could be used as the nickname.

POLL RESULTS
People’s favourite names were Fern, Eden and Lenah, and their least favourite were Lutana, Brooklyn and Beulah.

(Photo shows Wittunga Botanic Garden in Eden Hills, Adelaide)

Famous Names: Jedda and Rosalie

24 Wednesday Jun 2015

Posted by in Famous Names

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JEDDA

Last month the Australian film Jedda returned to the Cannes film festival, sixty years after it was first shown there in 1955. Jedda was the work of distinguished film-makers Charles and Elsa Chauvel; the first Australian feature film to be shot in colour, and the first to have Aboriginal actors in lead roles.

In the film, Jedda is an Aboriginal girl who is brought up by a white couple on a cattle station after her mother dies. She is raised in European ways, and forbidden to learn about her own culture, kept separated from the other Aborigines on the station.

When she gets older, Jedda finds herself strangely drawn to an Aboriginal man living in the bush, and following the traditional ways of his people. He abducts her, but when they come to his tribal lands, Jedda discovers that their relationship is forbidden by Aboriginal law. It’s a Romeo and Juliet scenario, and as with Shakespeare’s tale, it ends in tragedy for the star-crossed lovers.

The role of Jedda was given to Rosalie Kunoth, an Aboriginal teenager from the Northern Territory, who was studying in Alice Springs. The Chauvels gave her the screen name Ngarla for the film, which they thought looked more “authentic”. Ngarla was the name of Rosalie’s mother’s people – the Ngarla are from the Pilbara region of Western Australia. This was distressing to Rosalie, as it was culturally inappropriate.

The filming was challenging for Rosalie in many ways, and when she attended the premiere (sitting in the white section of a segregated cinema), was horrified by the film’s eroticism. Rosalie was an Anglican nun for ten years; she then left the order, married, and eventually returned to the Northern Territory. Now a respected Aboriginal elder, Rosalie Kunoth-Monks has spent her life working as an Indigenous activist, taking on leadership roles in her community. She has a daughter named Ngarla.

Jedda was a groundbreaking film in Australian cinema history, especially significant as it gained international attention and respect at a time when Australian cinema was practically nonexistent. As well as its other “firsts”, it was the first Australian film to be shown at Cannes, and nominated for the Palme d’Or.

Although it has dated in some ways, it remains a powerful and heartbreaking story. Jedda was created in opposition to the assimilationist policies of the 1950s, and the film is still relevant in light of the Stolen Generations. It helped inspire Indigenous film-maker Tracey Moffatt, whose Night Cries is a re-imagined “what might have been” sequel to Jedda.

JEDDA
In the movie Jedda, Aboriginal servants name the baby Jedda when she arrives, because she “flies in” like a “jedda bird”. Jedda appears to be from the Noongar word djida or jida, meaning “bird” (more specifically a wren), even though Noongar people are from south-west Western Australia, and the film is set in the Northern Territory. In the film, the identification with Jedda as a bird connects her to flight, to freedom and capture, and also to the spirit world.

Australian records show the name Jedda in sporadic use as far back as the 19th century, including by Indigenous Australians. I can only speculate as to where their names might have come from; in the case of Europeans, maybe as a variant of the name Jetta. It is possible that Indigenous women born before the film was made took (or were given) the name Jedda after its release. In addition, I have seen Indigenous women named Djida and Jida.

Jedda is also a plant name, as the jedda bush is native to the Cape York Peninsula region of far north Queensland. It is named after Jedda Creek, which is where it was first found, but I have not been able to discover the origin of the creek’s name – it may even have been named after the film.

Jedda is in use as a personal name for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, and is a popular name for homes, businesses, and streets. It is often used as a name for animals too, and in particular I have encountered quite a few horses named Jedda. This may be why in the children’s novel, Hating Alison Ashley by Robin Klein, the heroine’s sister Jedda pretends she is a horse. I’ve seen the name given to a boy, and it does have a bit of a unisex vibe, as it shortens to Jed.

Jedda is an Australian name made famous by a classic film, and appealing to both Indigenous and non-Indigenous parents. Although traditionally female, it could even be used for both sexes. It tends to be seen as slightly dated, yet it has never been common and is similar to Gemma, Jenna, Jed, and Jett.

ROSALIE
French form of the Latin name Rosalia, derived from rosa, meaning “rose”. Saint Rosalia was a medieval hermit who tradition says was a Norman noblewoman led by angels to live in a cave in Sicily. The saint became known in 1624, when she is supposed to have miraculously cured a plague. The saint’s name Rosalie was given to a young nun named Jeanne-Marie Rendu, and she became Blessed Sister Rosalie, who performed a lifetime of charity in the slums of 19th century Paris, and was mourned by the city when she died.

The name Rosalie came into common use in the 18th century, and was especially used in France, Germany, and Central Europe. It only became common in the English-speaking world in the 19th century, possibly because of the French courtesan Rosalie Duthé, who became the mistress of French kings and aristocrats. As a young woman she moved to London to escape the French Revolution, and gained the immensely rich George Wyndham, 3rd Earl of Egremont, as a lover. Beautiful and golden-tressed, Rosalie was apparently not overburdened with brains, and it is theorised that she is the originator of the “dumb blonde” stereotype.

The name Rosalie first joined the charts in the 1910s, debuting at #268. The name peaked in the 1940s at #141, probably because of the 1937 movie Rosalie, starring Eleanor Powell as a princess in disguise: Cole Porter’s song Rosalie is from the movie. Rosalie dropped off the charts in the early 2000s, but returned in 2009 at #519, the year after the first Twilight film was released, with Nikki Reed in the role of Rosalie Hale. Rosalie is described as being “the most beautiful person in the world”, which must have been a drawcard. The name Rosalie is apparently now in rare use again.

In the US, Rosalie returned to the Top 1000 in 2009, under the influence of Twilight. It is now #310 and rising. In the UK, the name Rosalie suddenly began rising steeply in 2009, and is now #394. Rosalie is also in the 300s in France, and is a popular name in The Netherlands, at #79.

Rosalie is a pretty, charming, European-style name with that touch of fairy-tale magic which has seen it chosen in films for a student princess and a vampire beauty. As Rose- names are becoming increasingly fashionable, it is a bit surprising that Australia seems to to be lagging behind the international trends – although it might just be that our data-collection is lagging.

I have seen quite a few birth notices for baby girls named Rosalee, Rosaleigh, Rosa-Lee and so on, and wonder if the spelling is an issue for some parents. Perhaps they worry that Rosalie will be said with the end rhyming with Lorelei, or just don’t like the idea of a name that ends in -lie. This makes me wonder if there are more Rosalies out there than meets the eye. A fantastic underused traditional choice, in any case.

POLL RESULTS
Jedda received an approval rating of 53%. 39% of people weren’t keen on the name Jedda, while 16% loved it.

Rosalie received a very good approval rating of 76%, making it one of the highest-rated names of 2015. 39% of people loved the name Rosalie, and only 4% thought it was a terrible name.

 

Uncommon Girls Names from the Birth Announcements of 2011-12

14 Sunday Jun 2015

Posted by in Name Themes and Lists

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Althea
Variant of the ancient Greek name Althaea, perhaps derived from the Greek word althos, meaning “healing”. In mythology, Althaea was a queen with a son named Melager. When Melager was a baby, the Three Fates turned up, rather like the fairy godmothers in a certain tale. One said he would be noble, the second that he would be brave, but the third did the usual grumpy godmother routine, and said his life would last only as long as a certain piece of wood burning on the fire. Althaea immediately took the wood and blew it out, burying it secretly so that none should ever find it again. When Melager was grown into the brave and noble prince predicted by The Fates, he got into a quarrel while hunting, and killed his uncles. When Althaea discovered Melager had murdered her brothers, she took revenge by setting fire to the piece of wood, so that her son died. Afterwards she committed suicide. This isn’t the happiest name story ever, but the poet Richard Lovelace wrote To Althea, From Prison while imprisoned for a political protest. The famous poem is very romantic, and the name Althea has been used since the 17th century because of it, while never being very common. One attraction of this literary name is the potential to use fashionable Thea as a nickname.

Carys
Modern Welsh name derived from caru, meaning “to love”, and given the common -ys ending found in Welsh names, such as Gladys and Glenys. It has been in use since the early 20th century, and is currently #328 in England/Wales, although falling in popularity. The name gained interest as a celebrity baby name, when Welsh-born actress Catherine Zeta Jones chose it for her daughter. It is meant to be pronounced KAH-ris, but the few people called Carys I know in Australia all say their name to rhyme with Paris, and this pronunciation is even used in Wales sometimes (kuh-REES is really pushing it though). Leaving aside possible pronunciation pitfalls, this is a modern name that is feminine without being frilly.

Isolde
In medieval romance, Isolde the Fair is a stunningly beautiful golden-haired Irish princess with a gift for healing, who is married off to King Mark of Cornwall. Due to a mix-up with a love potion, Isolde falls passionately in love with Tristan, her husband’s nephew and adopted son, with tragic consequences. Tristan actually ends up married to a different Isolde, a Breton princess called Isolde of the White Hands, who he weds for the curious reason that she has the same name as his true love. Their marriage is never consummated, and fed up and jealous, Isolde of the White Hands eventually takes her revenge. The stories originally had nothing to do with Arthurian legends, but became part of them. Adapted by Gottfried von Strassberg in the 12th century, Isolde is a German translation of Iseult, used in French versions of the tale. The Welsh form of the name is Esyllt, and although there are many arguments over the name’s meaning, the most convincing theory is that it is from the Celtic for “she who is gazed upon”, to suggest an overwhelming beauty. The name Isolde has been used since the Middle Ages due to the Tristan and Isolde legend, without ever becoming common: the composer Richard Wagner, who wrote the opera Tristan and Isolde, had an illegitimate daughter named Isolde. A romantic literary name fit for a fairytale princess, you can say Isolde almost any way you like, but common pronunciations would be i-SOL-duh or i-ZOL-duh.

Jamilla
Variant of the Arabic name Jamila, the feminine form of Jamil, meaning “beautiful”. The name became better known in the English-speaking world in 1944 through the romantic fantasy film Kismet, starring Marlene Dietrich as Lady Jamilla, a captive queen who falls in love with a rascally beggar. Set in an Arabian Nightsy type world, at one point, Dietrich does an erotic dance with her legs painted gold, so the name got a rather sexy image. Jamilla works well cross-culturally, and is easy to explain to people, as it is said like Camilla with a J. The popular short form Milla is an added attraction.

Lowenna
Modern Cornish name meaning “joy”, used since the early 20th century, and in rare but fairly steady use in England/Wales. The name is something of a favourite in fiction, even being chosen for historical novels set in Cornwall hundreds of years ago, when it is unlikely the name was in use. Lowenna can be found in the US in the 19th century, where it may be a variant of Louanna, or other names based on Louisa. It was used in the stage version of Rip Van Winkle, written in 1859 (Lowenna is Rip’s daughter; in the original story, his daughter was called Judith). A drawcard is that the name is very similar to the Indigenous name Lowanna, meaning “girl, woman”, giving this name a rather Australian feel.

Lux
Latin for “light”. Lux was used as a male name in medieval Germany, as a short form of Lukas, or a corruption of the German nickname Luchs, meaning “lynx” – this is the origin of the Lux surname. Lux began to be used as an English name by the 17th century, when it was used for girls: in general, English-speakers have preferred it as a female name, although it has been used as a male name too, particularly in North America, which has a history of high immigration from central Europe. The name may be used in a Christian sense, as Fiat lux means “Let there be light”, a famous quote from Genesis to show the beginnings of creation, or even a specifically Catholic context as Lux Aeterna (“eternal light”) is used in Latin prayers to refer to heaven. However, the meaning of light is positive to almost everyone, and the name also has a science-fiction feel to it, because lux is a scientific measurement of luminosity (there is a video game character named Lux, Lady of Luminosity). The name has had publicity from the film The Virgin Suicides, with Kristen Dunst as Lux Lisbon, and from the daughter of One Direction’s stylist – once known in the press as Baby Lux, and almost a celebrity in her own right. A short, cool, luxurious-sounding name that also works well in the middle.

Posy
Can be used as a short form of other names, or with the meaning “a small bouquet of flowers” in mind. The word posy comes from poesy, meaning “poetry”, and has been used to mean a bunch of flowers since the late 16th century – a slightly earlier definition of the word was a motto inscribed inside a ring. Posy has been used as a personal name since the 18th century, and although it sounds very dainty and feminine, it has quite often been given to boys. The reason is because Posy is also a surname, after the town of Pusey in Oxfordshire, meaning “pea island”. Although the name Posy has never been very common, there are a few Posys in fiction to give it some publicity. Posy Fossil is one of the main characters in Noel Streatfeild’s Ballet Shoes, a brilliant young dancer filled with ambition. More recently, Posy Hawthorne is a sweet little sister in The Hunger Games, and in the romantic comedy About Time, Posy Lake is the protagonist’s eldest daughter. Although Posy began as a short form of Josephine, you could use it for a wide variety of names, including Sophia and Penelope – British cartoonist Posy Simmonds, from The Guardian, is named Rosemary.

Satine
In the 2001 movie Moulin Rouge!, Nicole Kidman plays the role of Satine, a Parisian cabaret star and courtesan who has never known love until she falls for a poor English writer. Satine, which is presumably a professional or stage name, is French for satin, the familiar glossy fabric – its name comes from the Chinese city of Quanzhou (once a major shipping port for silk), which was called by the Arabic name of Zayton during the Middle Ages. Zayton is the Arabic word for “olive”, to symbolise peace, perhaps due to the mix of cultures living and working in the city. This makes Satin or Satine a possible honour name for Olive, weirdly enough. Satine has been used as a name since the 19th century, and although it is not a traditional French name, it has sometimes been used as a baby name in France since the film came out. A soft, exotic-sounding name with an Australian connection.

Shiseido
The name of a highly successful Japanese cosmetics company, and one of the oldest in the world, being founded in 1872. The company’s name is taken from the classic Chinese text, the I Ching (Book of Changes), and can be translated as “How wonderful is the virtue of the earth, from which all things are born!”. The company believes that this embodies its resolve to create new products that will enhance clients’ well being, and also helps to promote an image which is healthy and environmentally sound. Although there are many brand names used as personal names (such as Chanel and Armani), and some existing personal names used for brands (such as Mercedes and Nike), I have only ever seen one baby given the name Shiseido. That makes it very unusual, but it’s rather attractive, and has a lovely, carefully-crafted meaning. Pronounced shi-SAY-doh, you could use Sadie as a short form, although the baby I saw had Sass as her nickname.

Sorcha
Gaelic name meaning “brightness, radiance”. It can be found in medieval Irish documents, so it has a long history. In Ireland it is sometimes Anglicised as Sarah, because of the similar sound, while in Scotland it is more often Anglicised as Clara, which has the same meaning. The Irish actress Sorcha Cusack, who came to prominence in the 1970s as Jane Eyre, and is still on TV now as the housekeeper in Father Brown, has given it publicity in recent decades, and the name isn’t uncommon in Ireland. The correct pronunciation is SAWR-kuh or SAWR-i-kuh, but in practice a wide variety of pronunciations is tolerated in Ireland and Scotland, including SAWR-sha, which is probably easier for English-speakers, and sounds like familiar Sasha (although liable to be confused with another Irish name, Saoirse). An unusual yet very usable name.

POLL RESULTS
People’s favourite names were Carys, Isolde and Posy, and their least favourite were Lowenna, Jamilla and Shiseido.

(Picture shows Nicole Kidman as Satine in Moulin Rouge!)

Requested Name: Waratah

28 Wednesday Jan 2015

Posted by in Requested Names

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Telopea-Speciosissima-Close2

Last year I featured our national flower, Acacia, as a name for Wattle Day. It was Australia Day last Monday, so I will be looking at another flower which is important to us – and was once a strong contender to become our national floral emblem.

Teleopea speciosissima is the Latin name for the New South Wales waratah, usually just called waratah. Native to the state suggested by its name, the waratah is a large shrub with striking, large crimson flowerheads, each containing hundreds of individual flowers. It blooms in the spring, and provides nectar for insects, birds, and pygmy possums. There are other species of waratah, most of which are native to New South Wales with a couple in Victoria and Tasmania, but Teleopea speciosissima is the best known.

The flower’s Latin name Telopea means “seen from afar”, to indicate its eye-catching appearance, while speciosissima means “most beautiful”. The common name comes from the Eora or Dharawal language indigenous to the Sydney area.

There are stories about the waratah in Indigenous Australian folklore. A Dreamtime legend from the Eora tells of a pigeon searching for her husband, when she has to take shelter in a waratah bush after being attacked and wounded by a hawk. Her husband calls to her, and as she struggles in the bush, her blood turned the white waratah flowers red.

A story from the Burragorang Valley, now lying beneath Waragamba Dam, relates that there was once a beautiful maiden who always dressed in a red cloak. When her lover did not return from battle, she died of grief, and the first waratah grew from the ground where she died. The waratah flower was a totem for the Dharawal people, who used it in ceremonies and arranged celebrations for the period of its flowering.

Europeans discovered the waratah when they arrived in 1788, and it was introduced to Britain the next year, where it managed to become a popular garden plant, despite being a little temperamental to grow; the Royal Horticultural Society gave it an Award of Merit in 1914. Today the waratah is grown commercially in several countries.

The waratah was often used in art design, being incorporated in many advertisements and commercial packaging. You may see stained glass windows in the Sydney Town Hall featuring waratahs, designed by French artist Lucien Henry in the late 19th century, while artist Margaret Preston produced her iconic waratah woodcuts in the 1920s, which are often reproduced.

After federation in 1901, the search was on for a flower to represent the country. Nationalistic fervour was high, and there were two main candidates – the waratah and the wattle. We already know that naturalist Archibald Campbell championed the wattle, while botanist Richard Baker was a waratah booster. He argued that the waratah was a better choice because it is only found in Australia, a truly national flower, while the blooms would make a distinctive motif.

The debate raged furiously, and so strongly did Baker make his points that he was nicknamed Commander in Chief of the Waratah Armed Forces. Lucien Henry would have been pleased, because he had been passionate about Australian native flowers, and taught courses in drawing them. When he returned to Paris, he wrote a book called Waratah: Australian Legend, to promote the flower he used so extensively in his designs. Lucien Henry died in 1896, and shortly afterwards, the popularity of Australian native flowers, including the waratah, exploded.

As with so many of these vigorous debates, it was unclear who had won, and the foundation stones for the national capital in 1913 diplomatically depicted both plants. Gradually the wattle became accepted as the national flower, while the waratah symbolised the state of New South Wales, having been chosen for the state rugby union team, the Waratahs, since the 1880s.

In 1962, the waratah was officially proclaimed the state floral emblem, and is incorporated into the logo for New South Wales, and the former department store, Grace Brothers. When an Australian team won Best in Show at the Chelsea Flower Show, it featured a building in the shape of a waratah, to indicate their Australian theme.

The Waratah Festival was once held every spring at the time of the plant’s flowering, but this has been replaced with the Sydney Festival, now held in January at the height of summer. Rather a shame, considering the long traditions for waratah celebrations in the Sydney region.

Many things have been named in honour of the waratah. There is the suburb of Telopea in Parramatta, while one of the oldest parks in Canberra is called Teleopea Park (Telopea Park School is the oldest school in Canberra). Waratah is a suburb in Newcastle, and also a town in Tasmania, while Waratah Bay is in Victoria – it is not named directly after the plant, but after a ship called the Waratah which anchored there when it needed repairs after being damaged.

(Incidentally, Waratah seems to be an unlucky name for boats. The SS Waratah disappeared without trace off the coast of South Africa in 1909, with hundreds of passengers on board, while another ship of that name was lost in the English Channel, one on a voyage to Sydney, one south of Sydney, and another in the Gulf of Carpentaria. The Waratah Bay one clearly got off lightly only being damaged. Sailors being superstitious, I cannot recommend this ill-starred name for your vessel. However, the steam tug Waratah is part of the Sydney Heritage Fleet, so maybe it’s okay if you just trundle around Sydney Harbour).

Waratah is found as a patriotic personal name in Australian historical records around the late 19th and early 20th centuries, mostly in the middle. Although slightly more common as a girl’s middle name, it seems to be have been given to both sexes as a first name in roughly equal numbers, which is unusual for a flower name.

However, apart from the flowers being large, bright and striking, rather than delicate, pale and pretty, the word waratah – pronounced WOR-uh-tah – doesn’t have a strongly feminine sound, sharing the WOR sound found in names such as Warren and Warwick. And although it ends in -ah, like many female names, there are also boy’s names ending in the same sound, like Noah, Joshua and Luca, so it has a very unisex feel to it.

I did manage to find a couple of Waratahs born in England in the 19th century, but cannot tell whether they had any connection to Australia, or if their parents were just fans of the flower. We can still chalk this up as an overwhelmingly Aussie name.

Like the brilliant flower, Waratah is a spectacular and distinctively Australian name choice. It is very patriotic, and if you are from New South Wales, has special meaning for your state. You may feel inclined to tuck it away in the middle, but if would be an unforgettable first name for either boys or girls.

Thank you to Michelle for suggesting the name Waratah to be featured on Waltzing More Than Matilda.

POLL RESULTS
Waratah received an approval rating of 44%. 31% of people thought the name Waratah was too strange and unusual, and 16% believed it was only suitable as a middle name. However, 27% saw it as a patriotic and distinctively Australian choice. Nobody saw the name Waratah as too old-fashioned.

Famous Name: Dorrigo

29 Wednesday Oct 2014

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132.Richard Flanagan-The Narrow Road To The Deep North cover

Earlier this month, Tasmanian author Richard Flanagan was named the winner of the Man Booker Prize 2014 for his novel, The Narrow Road to the Deep North. The Man Booker Prize is a prestigious literary award open to all books published in English in the UK that year; until this year, it was only open to authors from Britain or the Commonwealth, but the rules have now been changed so that authors may be from any country. Other Australian authors who have won the Man Booker are Thomas Keneally, for Schindler’s Ark, Peter Carey, for Oscar and Lucinda, and The True Story of the Kelly Gang, and DCB Pierre, for Vernon God Little.

The Long Road to the Deep North is Richard Flanagan’s sixth novel, and an epic work of historical fiction. At its heart is the story of the Burma Railway during World War II, and the prisoners of war who suffered as forced labour to build it. The novel’s protagonist is a Tasmanian medical officer, very loosely modelled on military surgeon Colonel “Weary” Dunlop, who becomes a celebrated war hero, but feels doubtful and ambivalent about his fame; he is also haunted by a wartime love affair which he believes ended in tragedy. The novel’s title is taken from a famous 17th century haibun (journal in prose and haiku) by Japanese poet Matsuo Bashō.

Richard Flanagan’s father Arch was a Japanese prisoner of war, one of the legendary group led by Weary Dunlop who lived and died on the Burma Railway (he has written his own book on the subject called The Line, with another of his sons, sports journalist Martin Flanagan). For more than a decade, Richard felt that The Narrow Road to the Deep North was the novel he needed to write if he was going to continue writing. He wrote five different versions, until he realised that Arch, now in his nineties, was growing frail, and determined to complete the novel before his father died.

Richard drew on many of his father’s memories and experiences, and just before Anzac Day was able to tell his father that he had finished writing the book; that night Arch passed away. The Narrow Road to the Deep North is dedicated to “prisoner san byaku san ju go” – Arch Flanagan’s Japanese prison number, 335.

Winning the Man Booker has made a big difference for Richard Flanagan. Despite reviews describing it as “haunting and evocative“, and imbued with “extraordinary power“, the week before the Man Booker Prize the novel sold just over 300 copies in the UK. The week after winning it, The Narrow Road to the Deep North sold more than 10 000 copies. The £50,000 prize money will allow Richard to keep writing, because before the book was published, he was considering going to work in the mines up north to earn money to live on.

The central character of The Narrow Road to the Deep North is named Dorrigo Evans (christened Alvyn). Many of the novel’s characters have unusual names: Sheephead Morton, Chum Fagan, Yabby Burrows, Gallipoli von Kessler “Kes”. Richard Flanagan says simply that he “made them up“, and that the characters just didn’t work until he got the names right. He also uses a line from Tennyson’s Ulysses: “I am become a name”.

The name Dorrigo barely stands out in such company, and these are colourful Australian war era nicknames, with the reasoning behind them not always immediately obvious. Weary Dunlop himself had such a moniker, gained while at medical school. His first name was Ernest, and he went by his middle name of Edward – so why was he “Weary”? Because of his surname Dunlop, and Dunlop tyres: he was a Dunlop, so he must always be “tired”.

Dorrigo (pronounced DOR-ih-go) is in northern New South Wales. It’s an attractive small country town in an exceptionally beautiful natural setting; the heritage-listed Dorrigo National Park is right near the town with rainforest, waterfalls, stunning views,and a host of bird-life. Dorrigo has a thriving community, and a few years ago the townspeople showed they had a generous spirit in welcoming refugees, helping them to adjust to life in Australia.

Dorrigo was first settled by timber cutters; one of its early farming pioneers was Major Edward Parke. The town’s name was originally Don Dorrigo, and for many years it was fondly imagined that it was named after a Spanish general whom Major Parke fought alongside during the Peninsula War, which had Spain, Portugal and the United Kingdom fighting against the French Empire and Napoleonic Spain. However, subsequent research at the Spanish War Museum has revealed there is no record of any Don Dorrigo.

I have seen two closely related explanations for the name Don Dorrigo. One is that it is a corruption of the Gumbaynggirr word Dunn Dorriga, meaning “tallowwood tree”. Tallowwood (Eucalyptus microcorys) is a common tree in New South Wales and Queensland which grows in forests near coastal areas, so named because its bark has a slightly greasy feel. It is one of the trees on which koalas feed, and its nectar is prized for making honey. More commonly it is said that the word dundorrigo meant “stringybark tree”; stringybark is the generic name for any eucalyptus tree which has thick fibrous bark.

There are more woodsy associations for Dorrigo. The Dorrigo Plum (Endiandra introrsa) is a rare rainforest tree whose dark fruit resembles a plum, hence its name – it is in fact a member of the laurel family. The Dorrigo Pepper (Tasmannia stipitata) is a rainforest shrub which has fragrant leaves and dark blue berries; both leaves and fruit have a hot peppery flavour, and they are harvested as a seasoning.

I have not been able to find any examples of Dorrigo in use as a person’s name, making this a genuinely unique choice. It is a “real name” because of the New South Wales town, and it is from the local Aboriginal language with connections to our native trees, and timber industry.

Richard Flanagan’s award-winning novel gives it a distinguished literary history, and as other Australian Man Booker Prize winners have had their books turned into films, may become more accessible as a movie character’s name in the future. A possible issue with the character of Dorrigo Evans is that although he is a hero, he also has very human failings, and is a philanderer. I don’t know whether that would put people off using the name or not.

Although Dorrigo would be very unusual, I have seen Australian boys called Django and Diego, which don’t sound too much different. Dorrigo is a way to get a fashionable -o ending, and even a slightly exotic feel, while still being familiar and distinctively Australian.

POLL RESULTS
Dorrigo received a respectable approval rating of 60%. 25% of people thought it was cool and different, but 15% saw it as ugly or unattractive. Nobody thought it was too much like Dorothy for a boy’s name.

Perth Suburbs That Could Be Used As Girls Names

13 Sunday Jul 2014

Posted by in Name Themes and Lists

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quinns rocks beach

Aveley
Aveley is a neighbourhood of the town of Ellenbrook – an outer suburb in the north-east which is projected to be a future satellite city. Avely is named after a small town in Essex, where the Belhus estate was located: this stately home was once visited by Queen Elizabeth I, and had grounds landscaped in the 18th century by the famous Capability Brown. One of the early settlers to the Swan River Colony in 1829 was Edward Pomeroy Barrett-Lennard, the grandson of Lord Dacre, who owned Belhus. Edward Barrett-Lennard was assigned more than 13 000 acres in the Swan Valley, and his eldest son George purchased a large tract of land which he named Belhus after the family estate: it is this which eventually became Aveley. The name Aveley is Old English and means “Aelfgyth’s meadow”; Aelfgyth is an Anglo-Saxon woman’s name meaning “elf battle”. Avely is also a surname, and has been in rare use as a personal name since at least the 16th century. Historically more common for males, Aveley fits so well with current trends in female names that it seems more suitable for girls. Pronounced AV-uh-lee, this is a pretty, modern-sounding name with a feminine meaning and interesting history.

Carine
Carine is an affluent suburb 14 km north of the city. The area was once owned by the wealthy Hamsersley family, who came to the Swan River Colony in 1837, and before being developed in the 1960s, it was primarily used for farms and market gardens. The suburb’s name comes from the local wetlands, which are now known as Big Carine Swamp and Small Carine Swamp. Their names are a corruption of Careniup, the Noongar name for the wetlands, which means “the place where bush kangaroos graze”; it has the same origin as nearby Lake Karrinyup. The tranquil wetlands provide a home for rare water-birds and other native wildlife. Carine is already used as a girl’s name, the French form of Carina; it can be said in several different ways, but the Australian Carine is kuh-REEN. You would be hard pressed to find anything more Australian than “kangaroo” as part of a name’s meaning, and this is attractive, although perhaps slightly dated-sounding, due to its similarity to Karen, Caroline, and Corinne.

Floreat
Floreat is an exclusive suburb 8 km north-west of the city, close to beaches and filled with parkland. As well as swanky boutiques, it is also well known for its sporting facilities, including Perry Lakes Stadium, which was used for the 1962 Empire and Commonwealth Games, and has now been replaced with the Western Australian Athletics Stadium. The suburb’s name is Latin for “let it flourish, let it prosper”, which is the official motto for the City of Perth (and has been fulfilled, for the city has grown rich on the back of the mining boom). Floreat has been occasionally used as a unisex name since the 18th century. In Australian records, it has mostly been used as a middle name, and examples from Perth may have been named for the city’s motto. In Australia, Floreat has been more commonly used as a girl’s name, due to its similarity to Florence, which has the same Latin origins and meaning. With Florence now fashionable, and girl’s names ending with a T sound, like Charlotte and Violet, popular, Floreat seems a surprising choice as a name, but not an outrageous one.

Jindalee
Jindalee is a new outer suburb in Perth’s far north. Because development has only just begun, the beaches are almost untouched, and it is surrounded by bush, scrub, and heathland. The name Jindalee is believed to mean “a bare hill” in an unknown Aboriginal language of New South Wales; there is a town of Jindalee in New South Wales, and a suburb of the same name in Brisbane. The name may refer to Eglinton Hill in Jindalee, which provides views of the sea. I only found one person in Australian records with the name Jindalee, and it was in the middle; although he was a man, to me Jindalee seems feminine, and could be shortened to Jinny or Jindy. This is a lively name which seems quintessentially Australian in its flavour.

Kiara
Kiara is a quiet leafy suburb in Perth’s northern suburbs. Its name is from an Aboriginal word for “white cockatoo”, and it is not a Western Australian word, but one recorded in the Coffs Harbour region of New South Wales. The “white cockatoo” in question is probably the sulphur-crested cockatoo, a large, handsome, intelligent, curious, and very loud bird, native to the eastern states and far north of Australia. Australian parents seem to have a great fondness for girls’ names beginning with K, and this name sounds much like Italian Chiara, but with a distinctive Australian meaning. The name Kiara has charted since the 1980s, and first joined the Top 100 in 1999 at #67, peaking in 2005 at #49. It left the Top 100 in 2011, and is currently in the low 100s. It’s no longer popular, but still getting plenty of use.

Leda
Leda is one of the suburbs of the City of Kwinana, a coastal centre in Perth’s far south known as a working-class industrial area. Several of Kwinana’s suburbs are named for ships, and the brig Leda brought settlers to the Swan River Colony in 1830. The name was appropriate, because in Greek mythology, Leda was a queen of Sparta whose beauty attracted the attention of the god Zeus, who seduced her in the guise of a swan. Queen Leda didn’t have any unnatural interest in swans – the god-swan fell into her arms for protection while escaping from an eagle. Swans are one of the few birds which have a penis outside their body, like mammals do, and after this the specifics are left to our imaginations. Some artists and poets have depicted the act as a rape, while others show Leda as not just consenting, but positively enthusiastic. The same night, Leda lay with her husband, and from these biologically confused couplings, she gave birth to two eggs – one of which contained the ravishing Helen of Troy. Helen’s birth was commemorated by her father Zeus, who placed the constellation Cygnus, the Swan, in the sky. The meaning of the name Leda is not known for sure; it may be from the Lycian for “woman, wife”, and is pronounced LEE-duh. Simple and elegant, this is a name from Western Australian history which also references Perth’s Swan River.

Myaree
Myaree is a light industrial suburb 11 km south of the city. Its name is said to come from an Australian Aboriginal word meaning “plant leaves, foliage, greenery” (rather inaptly, given the suburb’s purpose). Myaree has been used as a baby name, although not apparently in Australia: it may have been an Anglicisation of an Arabic girl’s name, or a name created from other name elements. Apart from the pleasant meaning of Myaree, and its multicultural possibilities, in many ways it seems quite on trend, because of popular Maya, trendy Marley, and fashionable Myra. In other ways, it seems slightly dated, because of its similarity to names such as Maree and Nyree. To me it’s rather appealing and contemporary, while not unfamiliar in sound.

Quinn
Quinns Rocks is in the outer northern suburbs of Perth. It was first settled in the 19th century by a family of sheep farmers called the Clarksons, who used it as pasturage. In the 1930s it was a place for seaside holidays, with many people building beach shacks along the coast. It began to be developed as a residential area in the late 1950s, and was declared a town in the 1960s. The beautiful white beach is the suburb’s major feature, and still attracts holidaymakers. The suburb gets its name from an offshore reef, and is believed to have been called after Robert Quin, a 19th century government surveyor who made the first records of the area. Another theory is that it is named after Mick Quinn, one of the Clarksons’ shepherds who had a shack in the area. Why it should be named after this shepherd in particular is not related, and the congruence of names seems most likely. Quinn is a common Irish surname, an Anglicised form of the Gaelic mac Cuinn, meaning “son of Cuinn”. Cuinn (which is Anglicised to Conn) means “head, chief”. The surname’s originator is Art mac Cuinn, a High King of Ireland; according to legend, he and his father Conn of the Hundred Battles, also a High King, had dealings with a fairy woman. The Quins were one of the noble families of Ireland, but the line came to an end a few years ago. Quinn is rising rapidly as a unisex name, and currently seems to be almost equal between the genders, while also performing well as a middle name. Expect to see more Quinns in the future.

Serpentine
Serpentine is a small town on the very fringes of the metropolitan area, 55 km south-east of the city, on the railway line between Perth and Bunbury. The town is named after the nearby Serpentine River, so called because of its meandering course. Serpentine has been used sparingly as a name since the 19th century, and in Australian records is found mostly as a middle name, divided fairly evenly between males and females. Most of the Serpentines were from the Perth area, making me think they were named after the river. Serpentine is a problematic name, because while serpentine means “winding, curving” (like a serpent), it can also mean “crafty, deceitful”. The second meaning is an obvious allusion to the serpent in Genesis, who leads Eve into temptation. While this may give some people the jitters, serpents are also ancient symbols of wisdom and healing, and are often depicted guarding sacred places; a serpent holding its tail in its mouth is a symbol of eternity. In Australian Aboriginal myths, the Rainbow Serpent is a significant deity, symbolising life and fertility. Strong and mysterious, sinuous Serpentine may be easier to bear as a middle name.

Viveash
Viveash is a secluded riverside suburb in the city’s north-west. It is named after Dr Samuel Waterman Viveash, a prominent pioneer who arrived in the Swan River Colony in 1838, and took up farming. Viveash is an English surname whose origins are disputed; it may be Anglo-Norman, and come from the French vivace, meaning “lively, vigorous”. However, because it is pronounced like “five ash” with a V instead of an F at the start, it is often linked to places in southern England called Five Ash Trees. Viveash has been used as a personal name for both sexes, almost exclusively found in the middle position. Examples from Australian records are all from Western Australia, and nearly all from the Perth area, making it likely they were named in honour of Dr Viveash. Viveash is a very unusual name, but is vaguely similar to Vivian and Ashley, while having a distinct sound and feel of its own.

POLL RESULTS
The public’s favourite names were Quinn, Aveley and Leda, and their least favourite were Jindalee, Serpentine and Viveash.

(Photo is of the beach at Quinns Rocks)

Famous Names: Franklin and Brindabella

02 Wednesday Jul 2014

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FIUAERGS_zpsb558a123

In March, Canberra was named Australia’s most liveable city, scoring highly in design, cleanliness, outdoor recreation, education, and safety. This was in a survey of residents conducted by the Property Council of Australia.

Now data collected by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) shows that the Australian Capital Territory has the highest levels of well-being in the country, with perfect scores for income, safety, and civic engagement, and near-perfect scores for health, jobs, education, and access to services.

The OECD report highlighted the differences between regions in member countries, and unfortunately the report showed that Australia had the greatest regional inequality of any OECD country, with Tasmania doing the worst in terms of income (6.1 while the ACT is 10). And while the ACT scored 9.9 for health, and 10 for safety, the Northern Territory received 4.1 for health, and a truly dismal 1.4 for safety.

Because the OECD was examining the regions of each country separately, it also shows that the Australian Capital Territory is performing extremely well on a global scale – in fact, it is officially the best place to live in the world, with Canberra coming first, then Western Australia second, followed by three regions in Norway. (The study also showed places similar to the ACT were western Norway, Stockholm, New Hampshire, and South-East England).

However, even though the ACT is, we now learn, the greatest place on the planet, it probably won’t lead to millions of people flocking there in search of cleanliness and safety. Not only because there isn’t the infrastructure for millions of people, but because Australians love to despise their capital as cold, boring, sterile, and full of politicians.

As a result, when people move to Canberra, especially those who have come from other countries, they are often pleasantly surprised to find themselves in a setting of great natural beauty, within easy driving distance of both the beach and the ski slopes, and, well, somewhere generally safe and clean and all those things which sound boring, but are actually nice to have.

Most of the Australian Capital Territory is taken up with national parks, which is why it is called “the bush capital”, and so I am covering two names from the mountains of the ACT region.

Mount Franklin is one of the higher mountains in the Brindabella Ranges, on the border of the Australian Capital Territory and New South Wales. The mountain’s summit is on the ACT side, and it is 1646 metres (5400 feet) high. It was once the hub of Canberra’s ski community, and it is still open for cross-country ski-ing, snow play, and bush walking.

Mount Franklin is close to Brindabella Station, which was built by the pioneering Franklin family in the 19th century. It was the childhood home of the famous author and feminist Miles Franklin, whose autobiographical novel My Brilliant Career tells of a spirited young woman growing up in rural New South Wales. Under the pen name Brent of Bin Bin, she wrote a series of novels about a station called Bool Bool in the mountains of south-eastern New South Wales, based on Brindabella, and in later life, she wrote a memoir called Childhood at Brindabella. Brindabella Station is still a working farm, and it is possible for visitors to stay on the property.

The station is named after the Brindabella Range itself, part of the Australian Alps which can be seen to the south-west of the capital. The Brindabellas are often taken for granted by Canberrans, but they are beautiful in their diversity, from imposing high crags in the mist, to rolling farmland nestled snugly in sun-dappled valleys between dark forests. The play of light and cloud never stops moving across the ranges, and each day in the mountains seems to end with a spectacular sunset.

The name Brindabella is said to mean “two hopping mice” in a local Aboriginal language. Hopping mice are native Australian mice with long tails, large ears and strong back legs; they can hop about just like a rabbit or a kangaroo. Another theory is that brindy brindy meant “water running over rocks”, and that Europeans added a -bella at the end, to suggest “beautiful”.

Franklin is an English surname, which doesn’t denote an occupation so much as the person’s social status. In medieval England, a franklin was a free man – one not in servitude to anyone. It came to mean someone who owned land, but was not a member of the landed gentry or aristocracy. The franklin was the beginning of an English middle-class: those who owned property, and could even be quite well off, yet were not of noble lineage.

The word franklin comes from the Latin francus, meaning “free”, which is the origin of our English word frank, meaning “free, liberal, honest”. You might remember that frank comes from the Germanic tribe of the Franks, who conquered Gaul, which was named France in their honour. The country’s name was the inspiration for the name Francesco, so Franklin is a linguistic relative of the names Frank and Francis.

Franklin has been used as a boy’s name since the 17th century, and it has been used more often in the US, where it has never left the Top 1000. One of the name’s most famous namesakes is inventor Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, and another American namesake is the president Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Franklin and Brindabella seem like names which might appeal to those who love the outdoors, especially the mountains. At the same time, they might equally find favour with those who love Australian literature, and may be especially meaningful for those who have a connection with the area around the Brindabellas.

Although neither of them have ever charted in Australia, their short forms are on trend, because Franklin can be shortened to the fashionable Frank or Frankie, while Brindabella naturally shortens to popular Bella – although Brin would not sound strange as a nickname. You may recall the American-born triplet with a Canberran father named Brindabella, and I have also seen a baby named Bryndee-Bella, in apparent allusion to the mountain range.

POLL RESULTS
Franklin received a very good approval rating of 74%, but people were far less enthusiastic about Brindabella, with an approval rating of 20%, making it the lowest-rated girls’ name of 2014.

(Picture shows a view of the Brindabella Ranges, including Mount Franklin; photo from Weatherzone)

 

Celebrity Baby News: Artistic Babies

05 Thursday Jun 2014

Posted by in Celebrity Baby News

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Alternative country-rock singer Henry Wagons, and his wife Melvis Crawford, welcomed their daughter Casper Henrietta eight months ago. Henry refers to his daughter as “Casper the friendly girl”. Henry is the front man for Melbourne band Wagons, who are about to release their sixth studio album, and are on an Australian tour. Melvis was once a DJ on the Team Disgusting radio show on Life FM in the UK, which included alternative comedian Noel Fielding.

Artist Bindi Cole, and her husband Daniel Chocka, welcomed a baby boy named Eli earlier this year. Bindi is an award-winning Melbourne artist who works principally with photography, and her works have been exhibited at the National Gallery of Australia, Gallery of Modern Art, Art Gallery of Western Australia, and Horsham Regional Art Gallery. Many of her works explore Indigenous culture and heritage, and also her Christian faith. Bindi’s name has been covered on the blog, and it is worth mentioning that her father ascribes the meaning “morning star” to it.

(Photo of Henry, Melvis, and Casper from Melvis Crawford’s Facebook page)