Tag Archives: Babynameobsessed

You Asked About … The Weekly Birth Announcements

19 Sunday Oct 2014

Posted by in Your Questions Answered

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

woman-reading-newspaper

I’ve been publishing the Birth Announcements category every Friday for almost three years now, and by now I’ve received quite a few questions about them. Here’s the answers to them, plus the answers to questions you haven’t asked, but you might have wondered.

Why do you publish the Birth Announcements?
I read birth notices for my own interest every week, and have done so for several years. Like any collector, I felt like sharing my finds.

What benefits do you imagine other people would receive from reading the Birth Announcements?
Australia doesn’t have much name data past the Top 100, so it’s a way to show the variety of baby names being used by real people, right now. And there’s no data on middle names at all. People might also see names, or name combinations, they admire and consider using themselves. Or they might just be interested generally.

Where do you get the names from?
The bulk of them are from birth notices in newspapers – I read 22 different newspapers for the birth notices, many of them from regional areas. Brooke from Baby Name Pondering contributes names from the Herald Sun, so that’s 23 papers. I also scan hospital announcements – many newspapers publish photographs of babies born in their local hospital that week or month. There’s also baby competitions, such as Bonds Baby Search, stories about new babies in newspapers and magazines, parenting and photography blogs, and even a few babies that readers have seen in real life.

How do you choose the names – do you just pick your favourite names each week?
No, I definitely don’t just pick names that I really like; that would be very boring and repetitive (not to mention a fairly short list). I try to get a good variety of names, and although there’s no set way of choosing names, I generally look out for:

* unusual, rare, and unique names (especially ones that are new to me)
* daring and darling middle names
* popular names matched with eye-catching middles
* names I have featured on the blog (especially the more unusual ones, to show people do use them)
* interesting and appealing twin sets and multiples
* sibsets that seem well-matched, or strangely-matched
* intriguing sibling names (if a name seems ho-hum, check its brother or sister …)
* names from a diversity of cultures (even if that isn’t always obvious from the name)
* unisex names for both genders
* names that aren’t popular, but are on trend
* hip and fashionable names
* names that show up again and again, as a heads-up how well-used they are
* names that are particularly Australian, especially patriotic ones
* names that somehow seem very typical of their time and place
* name combinations that I think will be crowd-pleasers and appeal to other people
* potentially controversial names that I think will get a strong reaction from other people
* and yes – my own personal favourites!

How do you choose the headline names?
I generally look for two names which seem to go together in some way, usually that are in a similar style (like Odette and Raphaelle), or have a connecting theme (like Elvis and Memphis). Names which can easily be matched with a picture are favourites of mine, hence the amount of vocabulary names like Rose, River, Robin, and Rain.

How do you choose the profile pictures?
It’s varied over time. At the moment, I try to find a picture suggested by the headline names in some way, and if that isn’t possible, I might choose one related to the season (like a snowman for winter), or look for ones of children and young people that somehow remind me of the names. For example, last Friday the names were Brinley and Saige, who I could imagine as surfers.

Is it hard to find enough interesting names each week?
No, I usually have too many names, and have to hold some over for the following week. It can be hard to find an equal number of boy and girl names – some weeks it feels as if all the boys have really cool names, and all the girls are named Charlotte Anne and Emily Louise, and then the next week it will be the girls with exciting names, and the boys all called William Thomas and Lachlan James. But I figure that helps give a chance for the more “normal” names to shine.

Any other difficulties?
It can be hard to make sure the names that week aren’t too much alike. Girls names especially seem to be very similar to each other, so that I will have a Mae, a Maeve, a Maya, a Mia, and a Mila all in one week, not to mention six names with Grace as the middle name. In these cases, I will also hold names over for another week.

Are you getting bored with doing this?
Nope.

Shouldn’t you publish all the names you see in a week, instead of filtering them for us?
Hm, interesting suggestion. To me it seems as if 100+ names will just blend in with one another, but my final Birth Announcement for the year will have all the names from  that week, so you can see what it would look like.

Do you publish any of the names so that people can make fun of them?
Definitely not, and I’d be disappointed if people used them as an opportunity to be mean: these aren’t Hollywood celebrities; they’re basically our friends and neighbours. I deliberately don’t tend to choose names that are often targets of name bullying, such as common names with outrageous spellings (apart from anything else, I don’t find them interesting). Having said that, I can never resist a name or name combination which strikes me as comical; I love them.

I don’t remember publishing my child’s name on the Internet – where did you see it?
I don’t make a note of where I see every name, but I will do my best to track it down for you.

You spelled my child’s name incorrectly!
I am but human. Let me know, and I will edit the post.

I don’t want my child’s name published on your blog
Oh dear. Are you sure? It will make me very sad, but I can remove it.

Are you stalking me, or my children?
No, really I’m not. Look at all the newspapers and blogs I have to read – I don’t have time to stalk individual families for their names. I know it looks suspicious that half the kids from your mother’s group were in one set of announcements, or your daughter’s name was in a set of announcements with your kids’s school as the profile picture for it, or your first child’s name was published 18 months ago, and now I just published your second child’s name as well. It’s just that it’s a small world, and you go to a hip mother’s group, and you live in a small town with not many photo opportunities, and you have great taste so both your kids ended up on the blog. I promise these are all by chance, and not by design.

I saw a fantastic name in the Birth Announcements and used it for my baby!
Yay!

What happens if I see a name or a sibset that I think is the bee’s knees?
Leave a comment to that effect (either on the blog itself, Twitter or Facebook), and eventually they will get voted on so we can see which names everyone likes the most.

Aren’t the name polls just a popularity contest?
Like most things in life, yes. I wouldn’t take it too seriously – we’re not voting on the Nobel Prizes here.

Don’t you think there’s too many names to vote on for most of the polls?
Yes. Next year there will be a monthly poll, which hopefully will make them more manageable. In the beginning, I worried not enough people would nominate names, but due to Sarah’s example at For Real Baby Names, I’m now confident enough to nominate names myself if nobody else bothers.

I have developed an addiction to birth notices, and your weekly round up is no longer enough for me – I need more birth announcements!
Completely understandable. Ebony at Babynameobsessed publishes birth notices from Western Australia, then there’s Elea at British Baby Names, who has weekly birth notices from the UK, plus historical birth notices from The Times. Kara at The Art of Naming has birth notices, I think from her local area, and Clare’s Name News provides links to several European blogs that have birth notices from non-English speaking countries. Then of course there’s the motherlode – For Real Baby Names, where Sarah posts names from birth notices several times a week. Plenty of places to get your fix!

Famous Name: Roxanne

20 Wednesday Aug 2014

Posted by in Famous Names

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

tumblr_mdn8en8PGI1qa13pro1_1280Ebony at Babynameobsessed has a series called Names From My Childhood, and Abby recently had a post on girls names from 1980s television at Appellation Mountain. So I thought I would cover a 1980s name from my TV-watching childhood.

I was slightly hampered as a young television viewer, because I grew up in a rural area which only had one channel, and my family’s home was in some kind of TV black spot which meant we couldn’t get any television reception at all. However, I had friends and relatives within walking and cycling distance, so rather than get home from school and slump in front of the box, I got home from school, jumped on my bike, pedalled furiously, then slumped in front of the box.

Of course, I had to pretty much watch whatever other people had on, and my young cousins used to tune in to the long-running puppet show Mr Squiggle, where a cheery pencil-nosed man from the moon turned children’s squiggles into recognisable pictures. Mr Squiggle had a human assistant, and as it was on air for fifty years, you can tell someone’s age from the assistant they watched. Baby Boomers loved Miss Pat, Gen Xers were Miss Jane fans, while for my cousins it was Roxanne all the way.

Slightly embarrassing to admit, but while Abby was (apparently) watching Dallas and Dynasty, I was enjoying kiddie puppet shows!

Roxanne is a variant of Roxane, a French form of Roxana. Roxana is the Latinised form of the name Roshanak; a Bactrian name derived from the Avestan language of East Iran, meaning “bright, shining, radiant”. It can be understood as “luminous beauty”, “lovely flame”, or “shining star”, and this is one of the many names which have the meaning of “light” behind them. Roshanak is still a common girl’s name in Iran.

The name has become well known to us due to one woman – a Bactrian princess who became the wife of Alexander the Great. Roxana was from the ancient city of Balkh, now a small town in northern Afghanistan, and she met Alexander when he conquered the fort she was hiding in.

It is said that Alexander fell for Roxana on sight, and according to the Macedonians she was the one of the loveliest women they had seen in Asia. Despite strong opposition from his generals, Alexander married Roxana.

Instead of marrying purely for political ends, Alexander married for love, because he is said to have been infatuated with the beautiful Roxana. For her part, Roxana was pleased that her new husband didn’t force himself upon her at once, but actually made an effort to get to know her as a person (which tells you what marriage in the ancient world was generally like).

After Alexander died, Roxana bore him a posthumous son, also Alexander. To protect her position and that of her son, she murdered Alexander’s second wife Stateira, married for reasons of diplomacy, and probably his third wife as well, who was Stateira’s cousin. Roxana and her son were assassinated themselves in the power struggles following Alexander’s death.

Roxana’s romantic story was told in Nathaniel Lee’s 17th century tragedy, The Rival Queens, or the Death of Alexander the Great. The play was a huge hit right into the 19th century, and actresses who were jealous of each other were often cast in the lead roles, to add extra spice to the performance.

The name received a further boost from Daniel Defoe’s 18th century novel, Roxana, about a woman who falls into prostitution but gains freedom by marrying for money. Although a murderer and a prostitute/gold digger may not seem like appealing namesakes, they were strong, independent female characters, and Roxana became established as an English name in the 18th century.

The French form became well known through Edmond Rostand’s 19th century play Cyrano de Bergerac, where Roxane is the beautiful woman Cyrano longs for and woos for another, falsely believing she could never love an “ugly” man like himself.

Roxanne first ranked in the charts in the 1950s, after the 1950 film version of Cyrano de Bergerac, with Mala Powers in the role of Roxane; Roxanne debuted at #364 that decade. Roxanne was #282 in the 1960s, sank to #424 in the 1970s, and peaked in the 1980s at #272.

The 1980s put the focus on the name Roxanne for a few reasons. The hit song Roxanne was recorded by The Police in 1978 and re-released in 1979; Sting was inspired to write the song by the prostitutes around the band’s hotel in Paris. An old poster for Cyrano de Bergerac was hanging in the hotel’s foyer, which is where the name Roxanne came from. Not only popular in the charts of 1979-80, the pop classic Roxanne has been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, and was remixed into El Tango de Roxanne in Moulin Rouge.

In the mid-1980s, the world of hip-hop went through The Roxanne Wars, where a series of “answer records” were released, inspired by UTFO’s Roxanne, Roxanne. Because of UTFO’s non-appearance at a show, teenager (Lolita) Roxanne Shante brought out Roxanne’s Revenge in answer. There were perhaps as many 100 answer records during the Roxanne Wars, and even a dance, as referenced in Do the Roxanne. So chances are you know at least one 1980s song with Roxanne in the title!

You might not think that a prostitute and a (rather silly and contrived) musical rivalry would be of much help to a name’s popularity, but as we’ve seen, a prostitute and a rather silly and contrived stage rivalry is exactly how Roxana became established in the 18th century. History repeats.

And keeps repeating. Towards the end of the 1980s, the movie Roxanne came out with Daryl Hannah in the title role: a clever rom-com remake of Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac, which gave the tragedy an upbeat ending. In the movie, Roxanne is a brainy astronomer.

After the 1980s, the name Roxanne plummeted, and left the charts completely in the early 2000s. You might say this name is dated, and could claim it as a trendy name, but as Roxanne never became popular, it still seems usable – in fact celebrity parents Toby Allen and Darren Weller chose it as their daughter’s name.

Roxanne has a fashionable X in it, while the -anne at the end makes it seem like one of the many Anne names. I have seen a couple of babies named Roxy, maybe influenced by celebrity mum Roxy Jacenko, and Rocky would make a cool tough-girl nickname.

POLL RESULTS
Roxanne received an approval rating of 51%. 16% of people saw Roxanne as too dated and 1980s, but 15% thought it was strong and sexy.

 

The Fastest Rising Top 100 Names of 2013

20 Sunday Apr 2014

Posted by in Naming Issues

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Aria and Louis

GIRLS

Aria
In 2012 Aria was a newcomer to the national Top 100, and one of its highest-risers. In 2013 its success continued as the #1 rising name in Australia and Queensland, and a top rising name in New South Wales and Victoria. Aria is one of the main characters in the Pretty Little Liars book and television series, and also sounds similar to Arya from Game of Thrones. Its Italian origins make this a good cross-cultural choice too.

Evelyn
Classic Evelyn was the #1 rising name in the Northern Territory, and one of the top rising names nationally, as well as in New South Wales, Victoria, and Tasmania. In 2012 it was a top rising name nationally, and last year increased the speed at it which it rose. Ivy was the fastest-rising girls’ name of 2012, and here’s another name with a V, following hard on the heels of Evie, Eva and Ava.

Penelope
I suspect Penelope’s entrance into the Top 100 has caused some dismay. It’s certainly made me eat humble pie, as I was foolish enough last year to reassure parents that Penelope was not too popular when you had a careful look at the available data. I began to get an inkling I had made a boo-boo when day after day, I saw that the search term popularity of penelope in australia had come up yet again. I couldn’t help worrying that if all these people trustingly chose the name Penelope, its popularity was sure to increase dramatically. My fears were not unfounded, as Penelope rose more than 100 places to be the #1 rising name in Victoria, and was a top rising name nationally and in New South Wales. A slew of celebrity babies named Penelope has helped this name become hot property, and it’s back on the Top 100 for the first time since the 1970s.

Samantha
Perenially popular Samantha had been gradually sliding down the Top 100 for over a decade, but last year got a boost, going up 15 places nationally and 58 places in Victoria, as well as being a top rising name in the Australian Capital Territory, and joining the Western Australian Top 50. Perth-born model and singer, Samantha Jade, who won The X-Factor in 2012, and recently had a starring role in the hit INXS mini-series, Never Tear Us Apart, probably has something to do with it. Popular breakfast television presenter Samantha Armytage may be another factor.

Lola
Lola was the #1 name rising in New South Wales and a top rising name in Queensland. Short forms such as Maggie and Elsie did well in the charts in 2013, and although Lola is part of this movement, it seems much cheekier and flirtier than its retro sisters. Could it be the next Ruby?

BOYS

Louis
Even though classic Louis has charted since the 1900s, it was a newcomer to the Top 100 last year. It rose at least 27 places to become the #1 rising name in the country for 2013, as well as a top rising name in New South Wales and Victoria. Louis has been rising steeply for several years now, and it was only a matter of time before it made the Top 100 – but being chosen as a royal middle name can’t have done any harm.

Hudson
Hudson was one of the fastest-rising names of 2012, and continues to power up the charts. It was the #1 rising name in New South Wales, and a top rising name nationally, as well as in Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania. This name has been doing very well since being chosen as a baby name by two celebrities – TV chef Curtis Stone in 2011, and pop star Guy Sebastian in 2012.

Nathaniel
Nathaniel is another newcomer to the Top 100 charts, having charted in the 1900s then dropped off the charts until the 1960s. It was the #1 rising name in Victoria, and a top rising name nationally, and in New South Wales, Queensland, and Tasmania. This retro name has been making smooth and steady progress up the charts for decades, and its entry into the Top 100 coincides with the release of the first successful singles of pop singer Nathaniel (thanks to Ebony at Babynameobsessed for this tip). Another famous Australian namesake is Nathaniel Buzolic from The Vampire Diaries. This provides another way to get the popular short form Nate.

George
Remember those reports from Baby Center that Prince George hadn’t had any effect on the popularity of the name George? And how they said that before any official data had been released? Well now some has, and the name George was a top rising name nationally, and in Queensland and Western Australia (our most monarchist states?). George rose 11 places to #60; its highest ranking since the 1970s. As well as the little Prince currently gracing our shores, there is a baby George in Downton Abbey, the heir to an earldom. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are fans of the show, making their choice of George a possible subconscious small-screen homage. It’s interesting to note that George, Alexander and Louis all became more popular last year.

Lincoln
Lincoln was a fast-rising name of 2012, and before all the data had come in, I predicted that it would make the national Top 50 for 2013. It rose 17 places and just scraped in at #50, so a close call! Lincoln was also a top rising name in Victoria and Western Australia. Lincoln Younes plays “River Boy” Casey Braxton on Home and Away, and the name Lincoln has been increasing in popularity ever since he joined the show in 2011.

Other Names That Rose

  • Lillian – top riser nationally and in New South Wales
  • Eloise – top riser nationally and in Victoria
  • Olive – top riser nationally and in Victoria
  • Violet – #1 rising name in Western Australia and Tasmania
  • Indigo – top riser in Victoria and Queensland
  • Felix – top riser nationally and in New South Wales
  • Ryder – top riser nationally and in Tasmania
  • Lewis – top riser in Victoria and Tasmania
  • Hugo – top riser in Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory
  • Finn – top riser in Western Australia and the Australian Capital Territory

NOTE: I have chosen those names which increased in popularity in the most number of states and territories, making their popularity widest across the board in Australia. For the positions of each name in individual states and territories, please refer to the Name Data category for more information.

POLL RESULTS: People’s favourite fastest-rising names were Penelope and Louis.

Interview with Ebony from Babynameobsessed

29 Sunday Sep 2013

Posted by in Blog Reviews

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

downloadToday we are looking at another Australian blogger; Ebony is still in high school, and has been working on Babynameobsessed for over a year. She covers names from popular culture, names from literature, has birth notices from Western Australia (her home state), puts a spotlight on featured names, recalls names from her childhood, and considers coming name trends.

She also makes baby name predictions that sometimes turn out to be spookily accurate: she wondered back in June if Buttercup would make a great middle name, and Friday’s Birth Announcements did indeed feature a baby girl named Eve Buttercup. So for a glimpse into the future of baby names, visit Babynameobsessed (and be honest, you’re feeling a bit jealous now that you didn’t have a name blog when you were thirteen, aren’t you?)

What is your name?

Ebony Anne Smith.

Have you ever wished you had a different name?

When I found out the meaning [black], aged five, I wanted to become the exotic Yasmine or Zoe-Yasmine. For years I imagined myself with another name, though now I can’t see myself as a Yasmine or a Zoe. I do love my name, just not the racist and stripper tones my name has in America. I actually prefer my nickname that I have been called since I was little –  Ebs – to my actual name, but otherwise I am very happy as an Ebony.

How old were you when you first got interested in names?

I was around six or seven. I found a name book that had one page of boys names and one page of girls names, and I made lists of names in a notebook, which sadly I have lost. I remember liking the name Murdoch (!!!) and of course Yasmine. I think it could have been inspired by my hatred of my name as a little girl, and I’ve just stayed in love with names.

What inspired you to begin a name blog?

I was bored one day and decided I might as well make a name blog. I never expected to keep it up for a year, and for it to get as many views as it has.  Not a very interesting story but I would be lying if I said something else.

Do your family and friends know that you are interested in names, and that you have a blog?

My mum and dad and my siblings know, as do my friends. I annoy them so much with my name obsessions.

Do you have a web presence in the baby name world? 

I’m on Nameberry as ebenezer.scrouge and am thinking of starting a Facebook page, but I’m not too sure yet.

Do you have a favourite blog post on babynameobsessed?

I love the “names from my childhood” posts, and the “baby name rant” posts.

Where do you get ideas for your blog posts from?

Life and daydreams pretty much. I tend to get distracted easily and sometimes names get into my daydreams. As for life, I mean pop culture and name sightings.

What differences, if any, do you see between your naming style and older name nerds? Do you think “teenberries” have their own style/s of naming?

Teenagers seem to be more in touch with name trends, and realise that it is a lot rarer than adults seem to think to share your name with someone in a class – and most the time, if they do, name trends have nothing to do with it. With style, I don’t think so; the names that are popular today seem to be accessible to everyone.

What do you think will be the name trends of the future?

Nicknames as full names, especially in Australia, and I can see hyphenated names crossing over [from the UK] as well.

Do you have any pet naming peeves?

Old lady names (Agnes and Agatha and Beatrice), over the top names (Rosamund and Persephone), and creative spellings, especially those of Georgia.

What are some of your favourite names? 

Girls: Isobel, Matilda, Eloise, Alice, Eleanor, and Amelia

Boys: Eamon, Tiago, Cooper, Jack, Jago, Flynn, Archer, Lincoln, and Asher

What names do you dislike?

Lachlan: Overused and it just annoys me.

Jayden: It’s not a very nice name.

Jessica and Sarah: Overused for my generation.

Renesmee: It isn’t a name – its a half-human, half-vampire baby MADE UP for the book [Stephenie Meyer’s Breaking Dawn].

Are there any names you love, but could never use? 

Alice: My mum finds it an old lady name.

Ottilie: My family will think of it as a trying-too-hard Matilda.

Wilhelmina and Eulalia: Too old lady, and my family hates them.

Guilty pleasures are Artemis for either gender, Jamesina, Illyria nn Lily, and Eilidh.

What are your favourite names in the Australian Top 100?

Girls: Matilda (#21) and Eloise (#86) Boys: Jack (#1) and Cooper (#7)

What are your favourite names that have never charted in Australia?

Eulalia and Tiago.

Do you have names picked out for your future children?

Isobel Jamesie Rose and Eamon James Harold. I also have decided that Anne and Grace need to be in a future child’s name.

What is something we don’t know about you?

I am highly clumsy and manage to fall up stairs, and in Coles [supermarket]. And a random fact is my family is of Scottish and English ancestry, and the Smith side is actually Scottish. I often wish I had a more Scottish last name.

What advice would you give to someone who was choosing a name for their baby?

Imagine the name on a baby and an adult. Sure, Honey or Pixie might be cute now, but I’m fourteen and would hate to be named Pixie.

(Photo of Ebony from her blog; used with permission)

Happy Second Birthday, Waltzing More Than Matilda!

13 Wednesday Feb 2013

Posted by in Blog News

≈ 14 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

2nd-birthdayMy blog turns two years old today. I have to admit, I didn’t think very deeply about what I was doing when I started the blog, and didn’t know any more about blogging than what I’d read in a few articles with titles like Any Idiot Can Blog, or Get Blogging, Stupid! I had finished one part of my life and hadn’t started on the next bit, so a blog seemed like a good idea at the time.

When my account came up for renewal at the end of the first twelve months, I didn’t think twice about it. Of course I had to continue the blog; I’d only been doing it for a year, and felt I had barely started. When I received my second renewal notice at the end of last year, for the first time I actually sat down and asked myself if I wanted to keep going. I pondered deeply for over a month, and some days I seriously considered cancelling my account.

At last I decided that the blog was still growing, and I still had a lot to learn, so for the first time I made a conscious choice to continue Waltzing More Than Matilda. It’s taken me two years, but I have finally begun to think about what I’m doing. It will be interesting to see if this makes any difference!

Thank You, Thank You, to You and You and You

No blogger is an island, and many thanks go to these people for their help and support.

  • To Abby at Appellation Mountain, who for another year has sent me more views than any other blog. Abby’s generosity to others is inspiring, and it’s wonderful to see her go from strength to strength.
  • To Linda at Nameberry for giving me the opportunity to contribute my article, Aussie Names – Big there, not here. Thanks also to Angie at Upswing Baby Names, who was kind enough to provide an American perspective on the names I selected.
  • To Kate at Matilda magazine for inviting me to write an article on The Best Baby Name Blogs. Matilda magazine has been a very exciting innovation in the world of baby names.
  • To Michelle Horton from parenting website Babble for including Waltzing More Than Matilda in her article 20 Favorite Blogs for Baby Names. It came as a genuine, but very welcome, surprise to be mentioned alongside such great name blogs.
  • To Cristina at Once Upon a Time Baby Names for interviewing me about my name. Cristina has recently given her blog a complete reboot, and it looks amazing.
  • To Ebony at Babynameobsessed for being my most loyal commenter, and also reblogging several of my blog entries. Ebony is another Aussie name blogger.
  • To Lou at Mer de Noms for reblogging Boys Names of Australian Aboriginal Origin. Even after a big lifestyle change, Lou’s blog is still going strong.
  • To Brooke at Baby Name Ponderings for turning the 2012 Victorian name data into a fantastic spreadsheet. Brooke is another Australian name blogger, with very creative name ideas.
  • To my 140-odd subscribers, and my 50-odd Twitter followers, and to everyone who reads and comments and sends nice e-mails, and just all round makes blogging worth it!

Nerdy Number-Crunching

  • I have almost half a million views. The country which sent me the most views was Australia, which is good – it would be embarrassing to have a blog on Australian baby names that Australians didn’t read!
  • The most views I ever got were on June 21, when thousands of people suddenly all wanted to read about Jude Bolton’s daughter Siarra at the same time for some reason. As a result, this article was my most popular for the year.
  • The article which has gained the most comments is Girls Names of Australian Aboriginal Origin.
  • The most common search term was waltzing more than matilda, so I guess by now people do know about the blog.
  • The name most often searched for was Ruby, which reflects this name’s high popularity.
  • By posting this, I will have brought my number of posts up to 764. I have 23 categories and 618 tags. The most popular category was Name Themes and Lists.
  • There are 196 featured boys names, 192 featured girls names, and 119 featured unisex names, making over 500 names in total. About a hundred additions to the name database were made based on web searches people made to the blog, looking for baby names as familiar as Rose or Archer, and as unexpected as Australia or Zephyr.
  • The photo which was clicked on the most was the christening of Lauren Newton’s baby daughter Lola, which showed the entire Newton family together.
  • The most popular newspaper article linked to was the one announcing the birth of Addison, the son of ABC presenter Virginia Trioli.
  • The most popular website link was to ABC presenter Leigh Sales’ blog, Well Redhead, at The Punch.
  • The most popular document accessed was Australian Celebrity Baby Names 2011.
  • The most popular YouTube video was this one – basically my version of Rickrolling!
  • The blog on my Blog Roll most often clicked is Upswing Baby Names. Angie has a very professional-looking and practical name blog, and I’m glad to see it gaining such well-deserved interest.

Birthday Present

My present to Waltzing More Than Matilda is her own Facebook page. There are two main reasons I got one: (1) I promised myself I would once I got over 100 subscribers and (2) despite having a Twitter account, I get more views via Facebook than Twitter, so it makes sense. It seems much more complicated and scary than Twitter, but I’m sure I’ll get used to it in time.

Many happy returns, Waltzing More Than Matilda, and here’s to another year blogging together!

My Top Five Name Blog-Related Peeves

14 Sunday Oct 2012

Posted by in Naming Issues

≈ 18 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , ,

This week was Pet Peeves Week (which I think only exists on the Internet), and several bloggers took the opportunity to get a few of life’s little annoyances off their chest, including Ebony at Babynameobsessed.

Many name bloggers say that they started out with some naming peeves, but that continual blogging about names tended to dilute or even reverse their irritation, leaving them with a great sense of well-being and peace. Maybe a couple of years ago they couldn’t stand matchy twin names, boyish names on girls, or attention-seeking celebrity baby names, but now they think Doris and Boris as twins is cool, Frederick is actually kind of spunky on a girl, and some minor celeb calling their kid Gusty Glock requires only an amused and tolerant chuckle in response.

To an extent I can relate, but to an even bigger extent I can’t, because while blogging about names may have finished off some of my pet peeves, it has given me a whole new bunch to get annoyed by. After some twenty months of blogging, I have got quite a few things that now grate on my nerves beyond all endurance. I’ve cut it down to only the top five though, in order not to grate on yours too much.

1. Reborners who call their reborn dolls “babies”

In case you don’t know, reborn dolls are baby dolls which are incredibly lifelike in appearance – so much so that they can be mistaken for an actual baby (and have been). Reborners are hobbyists who make and/or collect reborn dolls. I don’t any problems with reborn dolls, or those who make or own them. However, I do have a problem with calling them babies. Reborn dolls are not babies. They are dolls.

Each day I ask Google to trawl through the Internet for me and bring me information tagged with the word baby, and each day I get a stack of threads from reborn dolls forums or entries from reborning blogs.

People call other things their “baby”, and it doesn’t seem to bother me. If someone writes, I’ve been riding my baby all day, I somehow immediately understand they are referring to a motorcycle, and if someone says, My poor baby had to be locked outside, I get an automatic picture in my mind that it’s a dog they’re talking about. I skim past and go on to the next item.

But when I read, I sold my first baby on eBay!, My baby’s leg fell off and I can’t reattach it, or I just rooted my baby’s head (if not Australian, check slang guide as to why that’s so disturbing), I practically have a heart attack. Even knowing they mean a doll, I can’t stop the racing heartbeat, sweaty palms, nausea, and instinctive need to phone the police I’d feel if it was a real baby I was reading about.

I’ve asked Google to eliminate the words doll and reborn from the search, but of course, they don’t call their dolls “dolls”, they call them “babies”. Unless a baby poos, wees, needs to be fed, and wakes you up in the night, it’s not a baby, it’s a doll. Call it by its correct name.

2. Celebrity pregnancy stories in the media that go nowhere

When a story appears in the press announcing that a celebrity (or celebrity’s partner) is pregnant, I add them to my watchlist and ask Google to e-mail me when the baby is announced. Then months and months go by, and no baby story appears. Half the time I have to stalk them on Twitter to find out what the baby was called, and often I end up in a dead end.

I can’t see the point of teasing us with a celebrity pregnancy if we don’t get to find out if the baby is born and what its name is. I don’t know why they do this, but it’s very annoying. Follow through on celebrity pregnancies, newspapers!

3. The notion that baby names need to be short and simple, otherwise they will be too hard for children to spell when they reach school-age

This advice is constantly handed out, by parents on forums and even on professional baby name sites. It has to be the most depressing advice ever. Your poor baby isn’t even born yet, and already you are being told it will probably be too stupid to reach normal literacy levels by the age of five, and you’d better dumb its name right down.

I notice with further despondency that names for boys seem to be especially prone to this line of thought. Apparently girls can handle having a long name like Anastasia or Penelope, but a boy named Demetrius or Sebastian won’t be able to cope, and it’s better to call him something like Max or Liam.

We’re always being told that boys tend to lag behind girls in communications skills, and urged to make more effort to get our sons interested in reading and writing. Children tend to perform to expectation, and I can’t help but wonder if setting low goals for them while they’re still in the womb is the way to improve things.

Short names are great. Short names can be spunky and cool. If you choose a short, simple name for your baby, fantastic – as long as you do so because you love the name, and not because you think that’s all your idiot child can manage.

4. The father-son rule in Australian Rules Football

The AFL has a rule that the son of a senior player can be immediately recruited to the same club his father played for. The good news is that when a star player has a baby boy, it’s cause for enormous celebration and congratulations. The bad news is that when he has a baby girl, it is, at best, a big “meh”.

So often the names of footballer’s babies are not announced in the press, and when that happens, I know in my bones he had a daughter. Sadly, this always turns out to be true. If the media isn’t too interested, fans can be positively vicious to a newborn daughter of a man without sons.

Often the kindest comment you will read in fan forums is Better luck next time. I have read, not once or twice, but again and again, What a waste of good sperm, Throw it away and try again, If it has a [profane word for female genitalia] we don’t give a [profane], and the chilling, Maybe we can still breed from it.

I have found myself in tears of rage at these revolting comments; I can’t imagine what the parents’ reactions would be, and I hope they never read them. There may be many benefits to the father-son rule; frankly I don’t really care as the results of it are so sickening. Celebrating boys shouldn’t have to mean ignoring and denigrating girls.

5. Writers who pick bad names for their characters

Not everyone on a name website is looking for a name for their child – many are just interested in names and language in general, and there are lots of budding authors who want advice on picking character names.

Unfortunately, most of the time the way they pick character names is terrible. One of the most common clangers they make is to ask for a name “that means something”. I’m writing a story about a ballerina, and I need a name that means “dancer”. So her parents deliberately gave her a name meaning dancer, to make her become a dancer, and then it happened? If it worked that way, we’d all be calling our kids High Court Judge or Lottery Winner.

Another no-no is a character name which gives away what’s going to happen. I’m writing a fantasy story about a boy who ends up being able to control fire, what’s a name that means “fire” or “flame”? It’s not going to come as a huge shock to the reader if the character is basically called Mister Fireball, and then, amazingly, he turns out to be able to spit fireballs at will. It would seem pretty unlikely that a parent would give their kid a name with a particular meaning, and then by some astounding turn of fate, their name is what they become. Seriously, how many boys named Aidan do you know who possess a mystical power over fire?

My biggest peeve is probably when the character’s name is an obvious description of their personality, usually with protagonists given names meaning “kind”, “innocent”, “brave” and so on, while the bad guys end up with names meaning “cruel”, “evil”, or “slimy”. What parent would give their child a name which means “evil”? They would have to be so sick that if the person did end by going a bit wrong, you could only sympathise with them and put it down to the burden of being named Devious. If the heroine is called Pure Sweetangel, and her childhood pal is called Creepy Nastypants, any normal reader is going to be expecting that Creepy will turn out a bit of a rotter.

That’s the problem with naming characters – they shouldn’t look like an author named them, they should look as if their parents named them. Because that’s how people get named – by their parents. In other words, if your heroine is a sweet, simple girl, but her parents are pretentious jerks, then she won’t have a sweet simple name, but a pretentious jerky one. If she doesn’t, then you’ve got to explain why not (sweet simple godmother picked the name, family name handed down to every third daughter that’s left-handed, whatever).

Name your character the way a person is named, and then your character will seem like a person, not a character. Because no good reader wants to read a book peopled by characters. And you should only be writing for good readers. Bad readers have enough authors writing for them already.