Tag Archives: Australian idioms

Famous Name: Charles

26 Thursday Feb 2015

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Famous Namesake
Fifty years ago, on February 12 1965, a bus left Sydney University on a two-week tour of rural New South Wales. Aboard was a group of 29 white and black activists, mostly students, who had been inspired by the American civil rights movement of the 1960s to protest in support of Indigenous civil rights.

The bus trip had been organised by Student Action for Aborigines, and their elected president was Charles “Charlie” Perkins, one of only two Indigenous students at Sydney University, and a huge fan of Dr Martin Luther King. The trip was later dubbed the Freedom Ride, after the famous Freedom Riders of the American civil rights movement, who took buses through the southern states in 1961 to protest racial segregation.

Some members of SAFA saw themselves as on a fact-finding mission to collect evidence of discrimination against Aborigines in rural Australia. At the time, many Australians believed racism was a problem which existed only in South Africa, or in the deep south of the United States. But the Australian Freedom Riders found that apartheid and segregation did not just happen overseas.

The SAFA were shocked to find the poor living conditions of most rural Aborigines, and that hospitals, schools, and churches separated black people from white in some country towns, as did milk bars, pubs, and cinemas. In others, Indigenous Australians were barred from entering swimming pools, clubs, or restaurants, while it was routine for them to be refused service in shops and businesses.

The students made several non-violent protests on their bus trip, and also tried to encourage Indigenous Australians to join their protests and demand better treatment. In Moree they helped Aboriginal children to go swimming at the pool in defiance of the race-based ban against them, and were greeted with hostility by white locals, who threw eggs, rotten fruit, and stones at the protesters while spitting at them. However, they were eventually able to persuade the town council to overturn the ban.

One of the students on the Freedom Ride was also an ABC journalist, and the SAFA had ensured plenty of media coverage on their bus trip – they even made the news internationally. With the events of the Freedom Ride appearing on television, radio, and in newspaper articles, and with the harsh injustice against Australian Aborigines exposed, it was no longer possible for white Australians to claim ignorance of racism in their own country.

Charles Perkins graduated from Sydney University with a Bachelor of Arts in 1966, becoming the first Indigenous Australian man to graduate from university. The following year, as manager of the Foundation for Aboriginal Affairs, he headed the campaign to advocate for a Yes vote in the Referendum which allowed Aboriginal people to be counted in censuses, and for parliament to be allowed to introduce legislation specifically for Aboriginal people. The Referendum passed, with more than 90% of Australians voting Yes.

He became a public servant with the Office of Aboriginal Affairs, and in 1981 was appointed Permanent Secretary of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs – the first Indigenous Australian to become permanent head of a federal government department. He took leadership roles in the Aboriginal community, and, being a former soccer player, was also appointed to key positions in football administration. He received many awards and honours during his lifetime.

On February 18 this year, his daughter Rachel Perkins was among those who took a bus from Sydney University in a re-enactment for the fiftieth anniversary of the Freedom Ride. Along the way, they were greeted warmly by the communities they entered, rather than having stones thrown at them or being run off the road, as a sign of how things have changed.

Although this year’s five-day bus trip could celebrate improvements in the lives of Indigenous Australians, such as being counted in the census and having access to the same education as white people, it also highlighted the disadvantages that many Aborigines continue to suffer, such as poverty, unemployment, health issues, higher rates of incarceration, and covert racism. The work of the Freedom Riders is by no means complete.

Name Information
Charles is the French form of the Germanic name Karal, which in modern German is Karl; it comes from the Germanic karlaz, meaning “a free man”. In Anglo-Saxon English karlaz became ceorl, denoting the lowest rank of freemen – a peasant who was neither a slave nor a serf. Ceorl does seem to have been used as a name in Anglo-Saxon England, even by royalty. By modern times, the word had become churl, understood as “a country person, someone of low social status”, and eventually seen as someone rude, loutish and vulgar – exhibiting what we call churlish behaviour.

The name has become widely known chiefly because of Charles Martel, a powerful Frankish military leader who never held the title of king, but nevertheless ruled Francia (modern France) as Duke and Prince, and divided the kingdom of the Franks between his sons, just as kings did. His grandson was Charles I, otherwise known as Charlemagne (Charles the Great), called “The Father of Europe”. He united western Europe and laid the foundations for modern France and Germany; his kingdom is known as the Carolingian Empire.

Little wonder the name Charles was a favourite in the French monarchy; the last one was Charles X, who ruled in the 19th century until being forced to abdicate and go into exile. This means that Charles remained a French royal name for over a thousand years.

The name Charles became used by British royalty due to the Stuart kings, who were Scottish; Scotland has long had ties with France. Charles I wasn’t a terrifically popular king, and fought against his enemies in the English Civil War. Losing that, he refused to accept the parliament’s demand for a constitutional monarchy, and was beheaded for treason. He is regarded as a martyr in Anglicanism.

England became a republic for a few years, until the monarchy was restored with the accession of Charles’ son. Charles II was known as the Merry Monarch for his decadent lifestyle, and although he couldn’t stick the parliament either, he managed to dissolve it without getting his head cut off.

We may get a King Charles III in the near future, although some are of the opinion that Charles is not a suitable name for a modern king. The first two Charleses were anti-parliament and resisted a constitutional monarchy, while Charles II is considered to have lived an “immoral” life that we now expect kings not to emulate. (Maybe the spaniels are also an issue). Prince Charles could rule under any of his names, and a popular belief is that he will choose to take the throne as George VII.

There are quite a number of saints named Charles, and several religious leaders, such as Charles Wesley, who co-founded the Methodist Church, and Charles Spurgeon, a famous Baptist preacher.

Famous people from Australian history include explorer Captain Charles Sturt; naval officer Sir Charles Fremantle, after whom the city of Fremantle is named; Charles La Trobe, first Lieutenant-Governor of Victoria; Sir Charles Menzies, founder of the city of Newcastle; astronomer and pioneering meteorologist Charles Todd; Charles Harpur, our first real poet; Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, World War I flying ace and pioneer aviator; Antarctic explorer Charles Laseron; distinguished film-maker Charles Chauvel; artist Charles Blackman; and brilliant neurosurgeon Charles “Charlie” Teo.

Charles is a classic name which has never left the charts, and barely been out of the Top 100. It was #7 in the 1900s, and reached its lowest point in the 1980s at #116. It was back on the Top 100 by the following decade, and since then its position has been fairly stable. In 2013, it was #81 nationally, #81 in New South Wales, #88 in Victoria, #85 in Queensland, #53 in Tasmania, and #86 in the Australian Capital Territory.

With Charles, you get a handsome, elegant classic and a solid, traditional name. Its history takes you back to European royalty, and Charles still feels regal and noble. However, lest the name feel too stiff and formal, it has a number of relaxed, casual nicknames.

Charlie is a popular name in its own right, while the older-style Chas is familiar from comedian Chas Licciardello. The vintage nickname Chilla, which appears to be uniquely Australian, is perhaps best known from 1950s Olympic athlete “Chilla” Porter. The American nicknames Chip and Chuck are rarely used here, probably because they mean “French fry” and “vomit” respectively in Australian English.

POLL RESULTS
Charles received an excellent approval rating of 82%, making it one of the top-rated names of 2015. People saw the name Charles as strong and handsome (18%), a name with history and substance (17%), and formal and elegant (15%). 16% of people thought the nickname Charlie was cute. However, 9% thought the name was too stuffy and old-fashioned. Only one person was bothered by the linguistic connection to the word churlish, and only one person thought the nickname Charlie was silly and childish.

(Picture shows Charles Perkins on the “Freedom Ride bus trip; photo from National Geographic)

True Blue Names for Boys

26 Sunday Jan 2014

Posted by in Name Themes and Lists

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Happy Australia Day! Here are ten names for boys which are associated with the colour blue, in honour of the saying, a true blue Aussie.

Bay

A bay is a scoop in the shoreline, much prized for providing safe anchorage and opportunities for fishing. Having a long coastline, Australia has many bays, including the Great Australian Bight which forms the southern edge of the continent, and Botany Bay in Sydney – there is even a Blue Bay on the Central Coast of New South Wales. Although bay also describes the colour of a horse’s coat (coppery brown with black markings), and bay tree is another word for a laurel bush, I tend to think of the name Bay as being influenced more by the geographic term, at least in Australia. Bay can also be from the surname – the first English people with the surname Bay took their name from baille, an enclosed courtyard as part of a Norman castle’s fortifications. Although Bay can be used for both sexes, I have only ever seen it on boys, perhaps because it sounds as if could be short for Bailey.

Blue

Blue is a colour of the spectrum, and a primary colour. Because it is the colour of the sky, it has often been seen as representing heaven and divinity. It has been connected to the “blue collar” working class, but also with the wealthy, and “blue blooded” nobility. Blue is a popular colour for uniforms, and the navy, air force, and police traditionally wear blue. Blue can also mean “sad, melancholy”; hence blues music, which arose out of suffering. The Australian flag and Eureka flag are both blue, blue heelers are tough, loyal Australian cattle dogs, and it is an Australian irony that a red-headed man is called Blue or Bluey – some say because of the redhead’s reputation for temper, as a blue is Australian slang for a fight. Since World War II, blue has been seen as the colour for boys (with pink for girls), giving the name Blue a boyish feel – although celebrity baby Blue Carter shows it works well for girls too.

Dean

The Blue Mountains are to the west of Sydney, part of the Great Dividing Range down the eastern side of Australia. Their name comes from the blue-grey haze which can be seen when the mountains are viewed from a distance, believed to be caused by the diffusion of eucalyptus oils from the trees. One of the most prominent is the Mountain Blue Gum (Eucalptus deanei), a tall forest tree. Its scientific name comes from Henry Deane, an Australian engineer who first collected specimens in the late 19th century. The English surname Dean or Deane comes from dene, meaning “valley” – the Mountain Blue Gum grows in sheltered valleys. Dean has been used as a boys name since the 17th century, and seems to have been initially most popular amongst non-Anglican Protestants. Dean first ranked in Australia in the 1950s, probably because of Hollywood star James Dean; it debuted at #134. By the following decade it had reached the Top 50, and peaked in the 1970s at #34. It didn’t leave the Top 100 until the early 2000s, and since then has gently declined into the mid-100s. It has recently got some exposure via Dean Winchester from the television show Supernatural, played by Jensen Ackles; the character is named after Dean Moriarty, from Jack Kerouac’s On the Road. A simple, clean modern classic, this still has a touch of Hollywood.

Drake

Drake has been used as a boys name since the late 16th history in honour of the heroic sea captain, Sir Francis Drake – the first babies with this name were born around the time of Sir Francis’ death. His surname is from the Old English nickname Draca, meaning “dragon, serpent, sea serpent”, coming from the Latin draco. The word goes back to an ancient root meaning “to see” – perhaps suggesting that dragons had a mesmerising gaze. In European mythology, dragons are serpentine rather than lizard-like, so the word drake covers a range of creatures. The name would have been given to someone who was very bold and fierce, for dragons were generally viewed as evil. They were often shown guarding a hoard of treasure with avaricious ferocity. In the post-Christian era, they became associated with Satan, but in modern fantasy stories, dragons nearly always seem to be noble and friendly. Although dragons are cool, this name reminds me of the watery Rainbow Serpent of Indigenous cultures, depicted as a blue serpent on Sydney’s coat of arms.

Levi

Levi Strauss was the German-American businessman who founded the first company to manufacture blue denim jeans, which gain their colour from indigo dye. Originally sturdy workwear for labourers, jeans became iconic fashion items, and are now essential clothing for almost everyone. In the Old Testament, Levi was the son of Jacob and Leah, and the founder of the Tribe of Levi. The Levites became the priestly caste of the Hebrews – perhaps the most famous members of the Tribe of Levi are Moses, and his siblings Aaron and Miriam. The name Levi is traditionally understood as “he will join”, because Jacob joined with Leah to produce Levi, but Biblical scholars believe it simply means “priest”, and comes from Arabic. Levi has charted in Australia since the 1970s – this was the decade that Levi jeans were first manufactured in Australia, and the brand name probably had more impact than the Biblical figure. Levi was #243 for the 1980s, and climbed steeply to make the Top 100 by the early 2000s, where it remains stable. It is #26 nationally, #31 in New South Wales, #30 in Victoria, #24 in Queensland, #40 in South Australia, #22 in Western Australia, #23 in Tasmania, #13 in the Northern Territory, and #53 in the Australian Capital Territory.

Marlin

Blue marlin are one of the world’s largest fish, blue-black with a silvery white underside, and an elongated upper jaw. They can reach more than 500 kg in weight, and have few predators, apart from humans. Because of their size, power, and elusiveness, they are considered to be one of the most highly prized targets for sports fishing. Found in many oceans of the world, blue marlin have been captured as far south as Tasmania. However, the greatest numbers have been caught off the Gold Coast in Queensland, and the largest ones in Bateman’s Bay, on the south coast of New South Wales. Blue marlin are considered be a threatened species, due to overfishing, and most anglers in Australia use the tag and release method. If you would like to use Marlin as a boy’s name, it doesn’t seem too different from Marlon in sound. The word marlin is short for marlinspike fish, as a marlinspike is a pointed tool used by sailors to separate strands of rope; it comes from the Dutch for “fasten, secure”. Like to use this as a girl’s name? What about Makaira, the Latin name for marlin?

Ocean

Australia is entirely surrounded by ocean, and more than 80% of our population live near the sea. 71% of the planet is covered by ocean, which holds most of Earth’s water. Integral to life on the planet, it is believed that life first arose in its waters. It is not known where all the water on our planet came from, but it must have played a major role in cooling it and making it possible for anything to live here. It still continues to moderate our climate and weather patterns, so we can keep living here. From space, Earth appears to be a marbled blue colour, earning it the moniker The Blue Planet. The word ocean comes from Oceanus, which the ancient Greeks and Romans believed was an enormous river encircling the world. In Greek mythology, this world-ocean was personified as a Titan, depicted as a large, muscular man with a long beard and horns, having a serpent for his lower body. He is the father of the ocean nymphs, and all the rivers, fountains and lakes of the world. Despite these masculine origins, the name Ocean is given to both boys and girls.

River

Although it has around a hundred of them, Australia cannot be said to be a land of great rivers – river beds are often dry, and even our largest rivers tend to be on the thin side. Of course, this means that every single one of them is especially precious. It seems slightly cheating to include them on a list of Blue Names, as every river I have seen here was brown or green in colour. However, rivers are marked in blue on maps, and if you saw one from a distance with a quantity of blue sky reflected in it, from the right angle it would probably look blue-ish. The word river is Anglo-Norman, from the Latin for “riverbank, shore”; it is ultimately from an ancient root meaning “scratch, tear, cut”. River has been used as a first name since the 17th century, and from the beginning seems to have been used with the geographic term in mind, since people named River Banks and River Jordan turn up quite early in the records. The name is unisex, but historically much more common for boys – in Australia, it seems to be more than twice as common for boys as for girls.

Steel

Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon. Steel production began on an experimental basis in Australia in the 19th century, but didn’t really get going until World War I, when BHP opened the first steelworks in Newcastle. Its boom years were after World War II, but since the 1980s our steel production has decreased significantly due to global competition. During its heyday, steelworks provided mass employment and were a source of great pride for workers; it was from the steelworkers that the modern working class emerged. Blue steel is steel that has been given a dark finish, in order to increase toughness. Although we often connect blue steel with guns and other weapons, it is used in many useful capacities, such as on the steel-capped toes of work boots. It gives its name to a colour – steel blue, a shade of blue-grey. Last year I saw several boys named Steel or Steele in birth notices, after the release of the Superman movie, Man of Steel.

Suede

Suede is a soft napped leather, popular for making accessories such as shoes and handbags. It was originally used for women’s gloves, and the word comes from the French gants de Suède, meaning “gloves from Sweden”, since this is where the gloves were imported from. Suede features in the Carl Perkins song, Blue Suede Shoes, considered one of the first rockabilly records, and the first million-selling country song to hit the R&B charts. Perkins wrote the song based on a suggestion from Johnny Cash, and a real life encounter with a man who didn’t want anyone stepping on his blue suede shoes. It was soon afterwards recorded by Elvis Presley, who made it a hit all over again, and the song has gone on to become a rock and roll classic. I have met a little boy named Suede, and once I got used to it, found it rather cool and rockabilly. Suede was named in honour of the song, as his parents are Elvis fans. They probably attended the recent Elvis Presley Festival in Parkes.

POLL RESULTS
The public’s favourite names were Levi, River and Bay, and their least favourite were Ocean, Steel and Suede.

True Blue Names for Girls

19 Sunday Jan 2014

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bluewren-male

It will be Australia Day in a week’s time, and rather than cover just one name, I am suggesting names with a “blue” theme, in honour of Australia, where the phrase “true blue” has taken on its own patriotic meaning.

Azura

The name Azura is an elaboration of the colour name Azure. Azure is an intense light blue, the colour of a clear sky on a hot summer’s day. In the patriotic Song of Australia, the lyrics describe how all about is azure bright, and the bird called the azure kingfisher is native to Australia. The English word azure comes from French azur, and is taken from the blue mineral lapis lazuli – lapis means “stone” in Latin, while lazuli is from lāžaward: the Persian name for the mineral, derived from Lazhward, a place where it was mined. According to Jewish tradition, Azura was one of the daughters of Adam and Eve, and the wife of her brother Seth. Azura is a popular name in science fiction and fantasy, most notably in Skyrim, where Azura is the Lady of Twilight who rules over the realm of Moonshadow. Last year, NRL star Anthony Minichiello, and designer Terry Biviano, welcomed their daughter Azura. This is pretty and exotic while still similar to names like Arya and Zara.

Bluebell

The bluebell is a type of hyacinth; a spring bulb which grows wild in the woodlands of Europe and is also a popular garden plant. Its name comes from its violet-blue colour, and mass of bell-like petals. Several other unrelated flowers around the world are named bluebell, and in Australia we have the Royal Bluebell (Wahlenbergia gloriosa). This deep violet wildflower grows abundantly in the Australian Alps, and is the floral emblem of the Australian Capital Territory. Summer flowering, it is hardy and easily grown in the garden; however, it is protected in the wild, and cannot be picked or collected. Bluebell came into use as a girls name during the 19th century, along with other flower names, but doesn’t have a Victorian vintage vibe – it seems hip and funky. I have seen this a few times as a middle name, but would love to see it boldly upfront.

Delphine

Delphine is the French form of Delphina, which can be understood as meaning “from Delphi”. However, the name reminds me of dolphins, whose scientific family name is Delphinidae, from the Greek delphus, meaning “womb”, to indicate that although they look fish-like, as mammals, they bear live young. The Greek town of Delphi, the home of the famous Delphic Oracle in ancient times, is also said to mean “womb”, as it was meant to be the navel of the earth goddess Gaia. The grey-blue colouring of the dolphin suggested this name to me, and there are several species of dolphin which live in, or migrate to, the waters surrounding Australia. Since ancient times, people have been fascinated by dolphins, and there are many stories of wild dolphins rescuing people, helping surfers and swimmers in trouble, or even protecting humans from shark attacks. Their high intelligence and playful behaviour make them appealing companions, and there are several places in Australia where you can swim with and interact with wild dolphins. Delphine is a pretty dolphin-related name for anyone who loves these free-spirited sea creatures, and has Dell and Fifi as potential nicknames.

Indigo

Indigo is one of the seven colours of the rainbow, a dark shade of blue. It was Sir Isaac Newton who introduced indigo as one of the colours of the spectrum, because in the mid-17th century, when he began his work with prisms, the East India Company had begun importing indigo dye to Britain, where it was used to colour clothing a deep blue. Indigo dye comes from the plant Indigofera tinctoria, native to tropical Asia, and the word indigo comes from the Greek, meaning “Indian dye”. Indigo is a rather controversial colour, because Sir Isaac Newton decided there had to be seven colours to match the seven notes of a scale and seven days of the week, and scientists question whether indigo is really a colour of the spectrum, or just the point where blue deepens. Even more confusingly, Sir Isaac Newton seems to have used the word indigo to mean the colour we call blue. Indigo has strong New Age associations, because it is seen as a particularly spiritual colour connected to psychic power. Indigo is a rather trendy girls name in Australia, a favourite choice of celebrities; rising with other Ind- names, it is #137 in Victoria.

Jasmine

I would not have considered this for a list of Blue Names, except that while writing it, Australian actress Cate Blanchett won a Golden Globe for her role in the film Blue Jasmine. There are about twelve species of jasmine native to Australia; these climbing vines come from tropical and subtropical areas of Queensland and northern New South Wales. The flowers are delicate and white, and have a sweet, intoxicating scent; they are both fragile and strong. The word jasmine comes from the Latinised Persian yasamen, meaning “gift from God” – there really is something quite heavenly about jasmine. The name Jasmine is a modern classic which has charted here since the 1960s, and soared during the 1970s to make the Top 100 for the 1980s. It peaked in the early 2000s at #14, and is still stable in the Top 100. It is #36 nationally, #33 in New South Wales, #28 in Victoria, #41 in Queensland, #31 in South Australia, #24 in Western Australia, #59 in Tasmania, #15 in the Northern Territory and #20 in the Australian Capital Territory.

Sailor

This name occurred to me because the Royal Australian Navy winter uniform is dark blue (and the summer uniform has dark blue trim); Sailor could be used as a name to honour a family naval tradition. Sailor has been used as a first name since at least the 19th century, and was used for both sexes, although more common for boys. It received greater recognition in the 1990s, when American model Christie Brinkley gave the name to her daughter, and since then has been overwhelmingly seen as a girls name – perhaps partly because it fits in so well with the trend for names such as Kayla, Layla and Tayla. Weatherman Grant Denyer named his daughter Sailor in 2011, his wife Cheryl a fan of the name ever since Christie Brinkley’s choice. The name Sailor probably came originally from the occupational surname, in which case it can be from the German seiler, and mean “ropemaker”, or English, where it means “dancer, acrobat”, from the Norman French sailleor, meaning “dancer, leaper”. The German origin seems to be more common, and as sailors once worked with ropes, still seems to fit as a sailing name.

Sapphira

A Greek name meaning “sapphire”, which simply means “blue stone”. However, it is likely that the ancient Greeks were referring to lapis lazuli when they used the word – it comes from the Hebrew sappir, meaning “lapis lazuli”. In the New Testament, Sapphira was an early Christian who, along with her husband, was struck dead for concealing money from the church and lying about it. It’s hard not to think that they were executed, although the Biblical account is vague on the details. It’s one of the creepier and more troubling parts of the Bible, and doesn’t really show the early church in a good light. A more pleasant connection is the intelligent and loyal blue dragon named Saphira in Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance series of fantasy novels. Crime novelist Tara Moss chose the name Sapphira for her baby daughter in 2011, apparently because she had blue eyes. Sapphira is an exceptionally beautiful and elegant name which can also reference the sapphire mining trade in Australia.

Sky

The atmosphere as it appears from Earth; the word comes from the Norse word for “cloud” (you can see our ancestors came from a place where skies tended to be cloudy!). On a clear day the sky appears blue because air scatters blue sunlight more than it scatters red. Because of this, we give as a truism that the sky is blue, even though it appears in a range of colours depending on the conditions, and there is a colour named sky blue because of that. Blue skies are symbolic of happiness and good times ahead, and blue skying is to think creatively – to think that the sky is the limit, to reach for the sky. Although there are blue skies all over the world, in Australia the strong sunlight and lack of cloudiness mean we see a lot of blue sky, and intensely blue skies – the patriotic song Awake! Awake, Australia! mentions our “bright blue skies”. Sky is a unisex name which has never charted in Australia, but its similarity to Skye and Skyla will make it seem feminine here.

True

An English word which can be understood as meaning “genuine, trusty, faithful”, ultimately from an ancient root meaning “steady, firm”. A common saying in Australia is to describe someone as a true blue Aussie, as featured in the John Williamson song, True Blue. The phrase true blue goes back to medieval times, when the colour blue symbolised faith and constancy. Although theories abound as why this was so, the most likely explanation is that it’s from the blue-dyed cloth produced in the town of Coventry, famous for not fading with washing, and thus remaining “true”. Later on, the phrase became associated with the Presybterian Church, and later still, the Tory Party, and their “true blue supporters”. In Australia, far from “true blue” having these conservative associations, in the 19th century it was used to describe those working class men who remained true to their labour principles, and was thus a left-wing term. Gradually, true blue came to mean anyone loyal to Australia and its values. True can be used as a name for either sex; on a girl, it seems as if it could be short for Trudy and similar names.

Wren

Australian wrens are similar in appearance, but unrelated to the wrens of Europe and the Americas. In some species, such as the Superb Fairywren and Splendid Fairywren, the breeding male has a very distinctive and beautiful blue plumage in contrast to the grey-brown tones of the females and juniors. In other species and subspecies, both males and females are bright blue, or have blue patches. Because they are tiny, pretty, and have an attractive range of birdsongs, we love it when fairywrens visit our gardens. Seeing a group of colourful wrens flutter through the bushes is the closest thing to having fairies in the garden that most people will experience. Another charming fairywren fact is that the male will present brightly coloured flower petals when courting a female, which to human eyes looks like bringing a bouquet of flowers. Wren has been used as a first name since the 17th century, and from the beginning was unisex, given roughly equally to both sexes, and possibly influenced by the surname, which comes directly from the bird. Today it is usually thought of a girls name, and although I can see it on a boy, the fairywren seems to render it more feminine than masculine. Elsewhere Wren might seem a humble choice as a name, while here I think it’s much brighter and more cheerful.

POLL RESULTS
The public’s favourite names were Wren, Indigo and Delphine, and their least favourite were Sailor, True and Sky.

Waltzing With … Archer

04 Sunday Nov 2012

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This article was first posted on November 4 2012, and revised and re-published on June 16 2016.

Famous Namesake
On Tuesday it is Melbourne Cup Day, which, more than any other day on the calendar, holds Australia in thrall. On the second Tuesday in November, at 3 pm, the nation collectively holds its breath while its most famous horse race, the Melbourne Cup, is run at Flemington in Melbourne.

It’s known as “the race that stops a nation”, because at 3 pm you are expected to drop whatever you’re doing to tune in and watch the Melbourne Cup. Workplaces and schools may take the afternoon off to hold Melbourne Cup lunches, or at the very least switch a TV on just before 3 pm. It’s a day when almost everyone will place a bet on the race – even if it’s just putting a dollar on the favourite, or taking part in the office sweep. In Melbourne, the day of the race is a public holiday.

American author Mark Twain went to the 1895 Melbourne Cup and commented, Nowhere in the world have I encountered a festival of people that has such a magnificent appeal to the whole nation. The Cup astonishes me. More than 110 000 people attend the race, and it’s a huge fashion-fest, with ladies frocking up, and gentlemen wearing formal suits. Others relish the opportunity to dress in outrageous costumes. It’s a day to eat, drink, gamble and be merry – a big, bright, boozy, and rather garish carnival.

The Melbourne Cup itself is the jewel in the crown of the Spring Racing Carnival, and is said to be the richest and most prestigious “two mile” handicap in the world. The prize money is over $6 million, and the trophy itself is a hand-crafted golden cup worth $125 000. It’s the biggest prize in any Australian sporting event.

The first Melbourne Cup was run in 1861, and the winner that year was a horse named Archer. Race horses are often named quite logically, and Archer’s sire was William Tell. Born near Braidwood, in country New South Wales, he was trained near Nowra. Archer was a large horse, standing over 16 hands high with a powerful body. He ran badly in his first two races, and was rated poorly, until he won seven races in 1861, and was entered in the Melbourne Cup.

The first Melbourne Cup was action-packed. Three horses fell during the race (two of them died), two jockeys suffered broken bones, and one horse bolted off the course entirely, but the race gamely continued, and Archer won by six lengths in a time of 3 minutes and 52 seconds – the slowest in which a horse has ever won the Melbourne Cup.

He set another record the following year by winning the Melbourne Cup again; until the 1930s, he was the only horse to have won back-to-back Melbourne Cups. He was meant to enter in 1863 as well, but unfortunately there was a mix-up with telegrams and he didn’t manage to make the deadline in time.

Many legends have sprung up around Archer, such as that he had to walk all the way from Sydney to Melbourne in order to take part in the race, and that his jockey, Johnny Cutts, was an Aborigine from the Nowra area. Neither of these stories is true – Archer travelled to the race by steamship and rail, and Johnny Cutts wasn’t Aboriginal, and was from Sydney. The phrase since Archer won the Cup has entered our language, to refer to a long time distant.

Name Information
Archer is an English occupational surname referring to someone who uses a bow and arrows. The surname was introduced to Britain by the Normans, and by the end of the Middle Ages the Norman-French word archer had replaced the English bowman.

People have been hunting and fighting with bow and arrows since the Stone Age, and there are many famous archers in world mythology. During the Middle Ages, professional archers were rare, and most archers during war were recruited from the peasantry so archery was often seen as a lower-class pursuit. However, by the 14th century archers were used effectively in battle, making it a more attractive option. The use of firearms made archers obsolete, and the last recorded use of them in battle in England was in 1642.

The last known person to die from a British archer in battle was in 1940, when a German was killed during the retreat from Dunkirk by a delightfully eccentric officer named Jack Churchill, who insisted on fighting throughout World War II with bow, arrows and a sword; he also played the bagpipes while setting off grenades, to add to the effect. Incredibly brave and highly decorated, Churchill, known as Mad Jack, was later a military instructor in Australia, where he became an enthusiastic surfer. A shame we didn’t manage to keep him, as this man is now my personal hero!

Archer has been used as a personal name since the 17th century, and an early namesake was the British MP Sir Archer Croft, 2nd Baronet – Archer was his mother’s maiden name. Another who had Archer as a family name was the 18th century American politician Archer Mathews, a founder of Lewisburg in Virginia. In the 19th century, escaped slave Archer Alexander served as the model for the Emancipation Memorial in Lincoln Park, built by T.S. Eliot’s grandfather.

Archer joined the Australian Top 100 in 2012, and since then has continued rising. Currently it is #39 nationally, #49 in New South Wales, #27 in Victoria, #33 in Queensland, #29 in South Australia, #51 in Tasmania, and #38 in the Australian Capital Territory. It was one of the fastest rising names in Victoria last year.

Archer was a Top 1000 name in the US in the late 19th century, but spent many years off the charts until it returned in 2009. It has risen steeply since then, and is now #289. In the UK Archer has been in the Top 500 since 2012 and is currently #359. Archer is Top 100 in New Zealand – the only other country besides Australia where Archer is popular, although its popularity is highest in Australia.

No wonder this handsome name is so popular – it feels both vintage and contemporary, and fits in with the trend for names with an AR sound, and names connected with hunting and weaponry. One of its attractions is that it provides a way to get the popular nickname Archie without using Archibald, although Arch is another possibility.

Archer is a name from Australian history which celebrates the biggest sporting event of the year – one that almost everyone will participate in. It’s a name from the hunt and battlefield, but also referencing daring archers, from Robin Hood to the Hunger Games, and perhaps even comedy super-spy Sterling Archer from the animated show.

Could Archer follow its equine namesake and gallop to the #1 position on the charts? The odds are against it, but chances are it will continue cantering along the home stretch.

POLL RESULT
Archer received an outstanding approval rating of 93%, making it one of the most popular names of 2012. 36% of people loved the name Archer, and nobody hated it.

Famous Names: Ned Kelly

29 Wednesday Aug 2012

Posted by in Famous Names

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On August 2 this year, it was reported that the descendants of notorious bushranger Edward “Ned” Kelly were about to receive his remains, 132 years after he was hanged for murder. At that time, the bodies of executed prisoners were buried in unmarked graves in Melbourne Gaol, and Kelly was one of them. In 1929, he and several others were re-buried in Pentridge Prison during renovations to Melbourne Gaol, and last year scientists were able to identify Ned Kelly’s skeleton from a group of twenty-four at Pentridge, by comparing his DNA to that of living members of the Kelly family. The Kellys can now give Ned a private burial.

Ned Kelly was the son of an Irish convict, and gained notoriety as a horse thief and cattle rustler before being convicted of bank robbing and murder. He was hanged on November 11 1880. He looms large in the Australian imagination, and is widely seen as a folk hero, and a symbol of Irish-Australian resistance against the ruling classes and police corruption. There is in the Ned Kelly legend a particular type of Australian masculinity which is admired: physically powerful, ballsy, defiant, daring, anti-authority, and an under-dog. The phrase, As game as Ned Kelly, is the ultimate praise for bravery, and his legend has spawned countless folk stories and ballads – not to mention a few films.

The name Ned is a pet form of names starting with Ed-, such as Edward and Edmund. It has been used as a nickname since at least the 14th century, and as an independent name since the 17th century. One theory is that it began life as a contraction of the affectionate “mine Ed“, which became understood as “my Ned”. Although this can’t be verified (and Elea at British Baby Names remains slightly sceptical), the story does add a layer of sweetness to the name.

It is among the first names that crossed the pond, because a baby named Ned was born in the English colony of Virginia, so it became a British and American name almost simultaneously. It has often appeared in American popular culture, such as Ned Flanders on The Simpsons and Ned Dorsey from 1990s sit-com Ned and Stacey. All-American girl detective Nancy Drew even had a boyfriend named Ned Nickerson. (Ned and Nancy! Adorable!). Ned was on the US Top 1000 until the mid-1970s.

Like Kevin in England and Bevan in Australia, it’s a name with a bad rep elsewhere, because in Scotland ned is slang for a hooligan or petty criminal. Given our own history with the name, this seems unlikely to put Australian parents off. Here solid unpretentious Ned will always be associated with folk hero Ned Kelly, but as it’s currently fashionable as an upper-class name in England, this makes it seem quite chic as well.

Kelly is an Anglicisation of the Irish surname Ó Ceallaigh, meaning “son of Ceallach”. Ceallach is often interpreted as meaning “bright headed”, but it may mean “church-going”, as the Irish word for church is ceall. It can also be seen as an Anglicisation of Ó Cadhla, meaning “son of Cadhla”, with the male name Cadhla meaning “attractive, graceful”.

Outside Ireland, the surname Kelly can be from place names in Scotland (in this case, probably from the Anglo-Saxon meaning “calf hill”) and in Devon, the latter derived from the Cornish word for “grove”. However, it is much more common as an Irish surname.

Kelly has been used as a first name since at least the late 17th century, and is another name which seems to have been used in Britain and America almost at the same time. It appears to have quickly become far more common in America as an Irish heritage name.

Although the name was first given to boys, in a relatively brief space of time the name seems to have been accepted as unisex, with roughly even numbers of males and females named Kelly in colonial America. Quite a few of the early American Kellys arrived directly from Ireland itself, and these were just as likely to be female, if not more so.

I don’t know why, but the name seems to have been commonly given to the sons and daughters of Christianised black African indentured servants in early colonial America. I would be fascinated to know the reason for this, and wonder if there is an African name Keli that seemed familiar to both cultures. Or perhaps working alongside Irish indentured servants gave them a fondness for the name.

Kelly first shows up on the US Top 1000 in 1880 as a male name, and first appears there for females in 1944. It grew in popularity for both sexes, but really took off as a girl’s name in the 1950s with the fame of glamorous Hollywood actress Grace Kelly (of Irish background). After she became Princess Grace of Monaco, the name simply bounded up the popularity charts.

Kelly peaked for both boys and girls in the late 1960s, but then lost ground as a boy’s name, while maintaining a female presence; it even managed to peak again for girls in the 1970s. Kelly hasn’t ranked as a boy’s name in the US for ten years, while it is now #335 for girls, and falling.

In Australia, the history of the name is much shorter, and it only ever charted for girls. It first appears in the charts in the 1950s at #560 (about one Kelly per year). By the following decade, it was already in the Top 100, and peaked in the 1970s at #13. It left the Top 100 in the early 2000s, and last year just ten baby girls named Kelly were born in New South Wales, giving it a ranking of #641.

Amongst the most common Google searches used to reach my blog are those enquiring about using Kelly as a boy’s name, and many of these are from Australia. With Kelly becoming rare as a name for girls, and the fame of American world surfing champion Kelly Slater (of Irish background) lifting its profile internationally as a male name, this seems the perfect time for Kelly to step up and gain more use for boys in Australia.

I hope that these assiduous Googlers are giving serious thought to choosing Kelly as their son’s name. I scan the birth notices for Kelly, and this year I have only seen it used as a middle name for boys. However, Kelly Slater himself uses his middle name (his first name is Robert), so these babies do have the choice to go by the name Kelly when they get older.

NOTE: Although you are free to call your child Ned, or Kelly, it is, bizarrely, forbidden in New South Wales to name a baby Ned Kelly. This makes Ned Kelly one of Australia’s rare illegal names.

(The picture is from Sidney Nolan’s series of paintings of Ned Kelly in his armour 1946-47. These images are some of the most iconic and recognisable of Australian artworks. Taken from ABC News).