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Tag Archives: British Baby Names

Famous Name: Diamond

06 Wednesday Jun 2012

Posted by A.O. in Famous Names

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

British Baby Names, english names, famous namesakes, fictional namesakes, gemstone names, Greek names, honouring, Mer de Noms, name history, name meaning, nature names, surname names, US name popularity, vocabulary names

Queen Elizabeth II is only the second monarch since Queen Victoria to reign for sixty years. Last weekend, it was the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebration, where the British enjoyed four days of triumphant pageantry, horse-drawn carriages, royal barges, processions, church services, street parties, luncheons, concerts, festivities and general revelry. Naturally the Brits didn’t allow a bit of very British rain to stop the fun.

We also celebrated here, in a more humble and low-key sort of way, and even managed to have wet weather, in a meteorological show of sympathy. We sent a detachment of the New South Wales Mounted Police to represent us at the pageant, and Indigenous performer Gurrumul came on stage for Sing, a song written especially for the Jubilee featuring 200 artists from the Commonwealth; Kylie Minogue and Rolf Harris also performed at the concert (not together).

Australia has another connection to the Queen’s Jubilee: earlier this year, the largest pink diamond ever mined in Australia was found at Rio Tinto’s Argyle mine in the north-west of Western Australia (which is the source of most of the world’s supply of pink diamonds). The diamond is 12.76 carat, and, in honour of the Diamond Jubilee, has been dubbed the Argyle Pink Jubilee diamond. It was cut and polished in Perth, and will be sold later this year; pink diamonds cost about 20 times more than equivalent white diamonds.

The name Diamond is ultimately from the Greek adamas, meaning “unbreakable, invincible” (although the Greeks probably used the word to refer to other gemstones). It is from this that we get the words adamant, meaning “determined, unyielding”, and adamantine, meaning “as hard as diamond”. Diamonds are famous for their hardness, as well as their clarity and fiery white lustre.

It is thought that diamonds were first recognised and mined in India, where they have been used in Hindu religious icons for thousands of years. India remained the only source of diamonds until the 18th century, when they were discovered in Brazil, and today most of the world’s diamonds are cut and polished in India.

Diamonds have been used for jewellery since ancient times, and one of the most famous of their uses is for engagement rings. Medieval Italians called the diamond the “stone of reconciliation”, saying that it would maintain harmony between husband and wife. Diamonds were therefore recommended for betrothal rings, although they could only be afforded by royalty and aristocracy. It was the marketing campaign of De Beers begun in 1938 that sold us the idea that everyone needed to have a diamond engagement ring; such a campaign was necessary because of the large quantities of diamonds being brought in, especially from South Africa.

Mention of Africa brings up a grim factor of the diamond industry: the blood diamonds. In politically unstable countries of central and west Africa, revolutionary groups have taken over control of diamond mines, using the proceeds to fund their operations. Processes are in place to prevent blood diamonds from entering the mainstream market, and although they aren’t perfect, your chance of actually buying a “blood diamond” from a reputable jeweller is probably fairly remote.

However, the ethics of diamond mining are still pretty murky in many areas. Mines in India and South Africa not infrequently use child labour, working conditions can be cruel, and miners and gemstone cutters earn a pittance in relation to the value of the stones they help produce. De Beers have built mines in areas where they have forcefully displaced the indigenous people of the region, so even an “ethical diamond” may not be as ethical as you hoped.

For some reason, the name Diamond seems to get more negative reactions than other gemstone names, like Ruby or Pearl. The very hardness and sparkle which makes real diamonds so valuable, somehow makes the name Diamond appear “cheap” or “rough”. When diamonds symbolise so many positive things – strength, beauty, eternal love – that seems a foolish distinction to make.

Diamond is a gemstone name that works equally well for boys. For a start, the English surname Diamond is specifically masculine, and comes from an Anglo-Saxon personal name Dayman, meaning “man who takes care of livestock”. In Ireland, the surname is based on the personal male name Dermot, while the surname taken directly from the gemstone was adopted by some Jewish families from Eastern and Central Europe.

George McDonald’s enchanting fairy tale At the Back of the North Wind has a little boy named Diamond as its hero, and the movie I Am Sam has Dakota Fanning playing a girl named Lucy Diamond Dawson, her name a direct reference to the Beatle’s song, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.

Another connection with diamonds and royalty is a little girl named Diamond Ann Marshall, who was chosen to meet Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge on the royal tour of Canada. Diamond wrote the duchess a nice letter, and when she met her, gave her a big hug. Diamond was a cancer patient at the time, but is now in remission. Diamond’s name was given to her in honour of Princess Diana – I’m guessing Diamond Ann sounded like the name Diana to her parents.

Diamond as a girl’s name has been on the US Top 1000 since 1986, and peaked at #150 in 1999. It’s currently #760 and falling. It may be on the wane in America, but I hope that the Jubilee year inspires a spike of baby Diamonds in Commonwealth countries.

Looking for some more baby names for the Diamond Jubilee? Go check out these blogs from Elea at British baby Names, and Lou at Mer de Noms.

Brittania Rules at British Baby Names

05 Sunday Feb 2012

Posted by A.O. in Blog Reviews

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

British Baby Names, Mer de Noms, UK name data, UK name trends

As the summer holidays wane and the new school year opens, it seems appropriate that I should be reviewing a blog written by a schoolteacher.

I “met” British Baby Names through Mer de Noms, which has it listed on its Blog Roll. I was impressed by the official-sounding title and the quiet confidence it denoted (I did consider calling my blog Australian Baby Names, but wasn’t sure I could live up to it). For some time I thought BBN was the net presence of a book, magazine, or a company of some kind. I kept waiting to be sold something, and although that hasn’t happened yet, it does make me secretly wonder if a book, magazine, company, or product are in the pipeline.

The subtitle to British Baby Names is Trends, Styles and Quirks, and the trend-analysing, stylish, and quirky blogger behind British Baby Names is Elea (a homophone of Ella). Elea is from Coventry, an English city you may connect with Lady Godiva; like her compatriot Lou at Mer de Noms, she comes from Britain’s heartland. This part of the world clearly breeds fabulous name bloggers.

What do you expect from a blog on British baby names? Perhaps you think of the elegant and slightly over-the-top names from the birth announcements in The Telegraph. Or maybe you think of medieval names, or glorious Victoriana. You might want to know which names are currently popular in England, Wales and Scotland, or seek name data from previous centuries. You could be interested in Celtic and Gaelic names, or drawn to names from English literature.

So often are our expectations disappointed, and yet at British Baby Names, you get all this, and more. Let’s run through some of the goodies on offer.

Name Lists

I urge you to check out Styles, which divides names into useful “style codes” that Elea has devised. Thus we have such intriguingly-named lists as Upright Elegance, Resonant Roman, and Funky Clunky. If you like a name on one of the lists, chances are you will find yourself approving several others in that style.

The Themes list allows Elea a chance to do some research, and use her imagination. Here you may find lists of Gods and Goddesses, Non-Floral Nature vocabulary names, and scientific Butterfly Names. I feel that some of the Meaning lists, which includes flowers, colours and birds, could sit comfortably under Themes as well.

British society embraces many cultures, and at Cultural Origins we have lists such as Cornish, Manx and Scottish Clan names, but also French and Arabic ones. Surely a list on Indian names is coming …

There are also lists of literary characters, and names of British and European royalty. Just started this year are names connected with each month – I’m looking forward to seeing this series unfold.

Names of the week

Elea adds a fresh name each Saturday, alternating between genders, and there are currently 36 names. Each listing gives the origin, usage, namesakes, variants and pronunciation. There are also middle name suggestions, sibset suggestions and nickname suggestions. Each name is placed in the context of different name style lists, and suggests names in similar styles. These appear accurate, judging by own reactions; however, I seem to like all the names and all the different name styles, so I may not be the best test candidate.

Name Data

A name nerd’s dream – lots and lots of lovely name data! You can see the Top 100 for each decade beginning in 1904 (I’m not sure it’s ever explained why it starts in 1904), comparing each name’s rank with that of 2009. So we can see that some of the “great grandparent” names are popular now, such as Ruby, Isabella, William and Matthew, but inexplicably, equally nice names like Sylvia, Audrey, Edmund and Harold don’t seem to be cutting it (especially odd as Audrey is Top 100 here and in North America).

There’s also the current Top 100 for both England/Wales and Scotland. Along the left hand side, you can go straight to the combined spellings for girls and boys, hyphenated names, and also name combinations from the century-ago 1911 census for more spiffing middle name ideas.

There are Categories to choose from down the right-hand side – one of the most interesting and useful is Sibling Names, which looks through the historical name data to see which sibling names were chosen to “go with” names as varied as Cinderella, Erastus and Ivanhoe.

Another of my favourites is the T’was Ever Thus series, in which we see that there is nothing new under the sun. I’m sure these cross old newspaper writers are the direct ancestors of people who peevishly air their pet name grievances on the Internet. Here we see one from 1900, bringing out that ancient chestnut, that children will be horribly bullied if called something outlandish, such as Angelina.

Elea has been blogging industriously for almost a year, passing her 200th blog post around last Christmas. British Baby Names is powered by Typepad, a platform which produces very sleek and professional-looking blogs. Leaving comments is easy, as there are so many different ways to sign in, and you don’t need to respond to a captcha each time you comment on a post. Elea is very good at answering her comments in timely fashion too.

If you would like to follow BBN on Twitter or Facebook, there are two easy-find buttons to press, and you’re there. These do seem to be used differently – Twitter is for receiving notice of blog updates, while Facebook is for chatting and getting interesting snippets of name information which don’t get blogged about. You can subscribe to the live feed by clicking on the tiny orange RSS symbol displayed when you open each Category.

Elea has recently had a change of image, giving BBN a classic monochrome background with discreet polka dots, and featuring an old-fashioned perambulator, such as a trim little nanny may have nimbled around a London park at the turn of the last century.

Everything is perfectly organised, beautifully presented, and meticulously researched. I have to restrain myself from picturing her classroom as pin-neat with clearly written charts on the walls, and children with very clean faces sitting at desks arranged in an orderly fashion. Her report card gets an A+ with lots of gold stars and elephant stamps.

There is a definite English “style” on British Baby Names that I think Anglophiles will find extremely charming. It’s everything we expect from “proper British names” – whether they be elegant as a white glove, wild as a moor in a Bronte novel, or eccentric as a Hyde park speaker.

A little known fact about Elea is that she has a romantic connection to Australia, and it’s not beyond the bounds of possibility that this English lass with the love of field and coppice running in her veins will one day make her home in our wide brown land. Should this occur, I have no doubt that she will in short order produce a blog called Australian Baby Names as perfect, beautiful, and meticulous as BBN. I couldn’t hope to be put out of business by a better blogger.

Q & A with Elea

Name?: Eleanor Lauren Margaret. The first two were already on my parent’s short-list, when my great-grandmother, Margaret, died a few months before I was born. I was given Margaret to honour her.

Name you would like to have: I’ve always been happy with my first name as it is classic, hard to date, and has lots of nicknames. I considered having Lauren removed and just being Eleanor Margaret. My reasoning was that Margaret has family significance, while Lauren just felt like a run-of-the-mill 1980s name. Having three middle names never bothered me, but it used to annoy me when the last one would get chopped off on forms – leaving me with just Lauren, my least favourite middle. Being simply Eleanor Margaret, or Eleanor Margaret Lauren, would, I felt, have solved that problem. I once mentioned to my parents that I wished Lauren wasn’t one of my names and they looked rather shocked, replying, “But I love Lauren.” Seeing that they both genuinely loved the name restored my feeling of ownership for it.

What began your interest in names?: I remember choosing Barbie dolls and Polly Pockets based on their names alone, and looking avidly at the names on the Edwardian-style figurines in the Argos catalogues. Around the age of 8, I named an imaginary [future] daughter Aurora Ariel Belinda Liesl Fenella Esme Roberta – all names from favourite books and films. By the time I realised names had meanings, I was hooked.

How did you start blogging?: For many years I have enjoyed researching names in historical sources or picking through the official statistics. (I seem to have a thing for name related spreadsheets ). I used to post various findings on different forums, but then would spend ages trying to find them again when I needed to refer to them. Eventually, I started to catalogue some of the posts, and the idea of a blog really grew from there – mostly as a place to store my general musings (which probably explains why the content bounces all over the place with no real set theme). It staggers me that people actually read the posts, let alone make time to comment. For so long my name obsession has been my closeted secret.

Your favourite blog entry on British Baby Names: My posts tend to range from familiar subjects that I want to indulge in, to topics I have only just discovered and am desperate to explore. The post on Victorian floriography is a good example of the latter. It was something that I had only been vaguely aware of, but once I started researching I became fascinated. As far as serials go, I very much enjoy writing the Names of the Week, and researching the Finds from… entries.

Your pet naming peeve: I’m always saddened when people tell me that they were given their name/middle name because their parents “couldn’t think of anything else/couldn’t agree so they compromised on something they didn’t hate/didn’t bother to give a middle name because they ran out of ideas after naming the older ones.” I’ve heard all these before, and, sadly, it is usually these people who dislike their name. Mostly, because they feel the name was chosen with very little thought, sentiment, or care.

I also find it unsettling that Dylan for a girl is acceptable, but Evelyn for a boy is considered cruel. I have no problem with gender-bending, but I find it sad that our society only swings it one way.

Your favourite names: I have a particular passion for Celtic, Greek and medieval names. The favourites I’ve been nursing for the past few years are Endelyn and Merewen for girls, and Jago, Macsen and Aidric for boys.

Names you dislike:  The -son names (Madison, Addison, Emerson) for girls. I’m very visual with names so the “son” part always leaps out at me and looks incongruous.

Names you love but can’t use: Persephone was once my favourite guilty pleasure. These days I see it less as guilty, more as actually quite usable. There are certain names that I love but have been used by, or are too close to, family/friends names to use: Livia, Amelia, Charlotte, Sabina, Juliet.

Your future children’s names: There is only one name that I have had semi-set in my mind since I was a teenager – William Rhys. It honours several family members, and I still love how it looks and sounds.

The one piece of advice you would give to someone choosing a name for their baby: My overall advice would be that people choose a name that has some resonance or significance for them. Whether it honours a loved one, has a particularly apt meaning, is a much loved name, or just makes you happy every time you say it, if you love it and find it significant, chances are your child will too.

Girls Names From Stars and Constellations

11 Sunday Dec 2011

Posted by A.O. in Name Themes and Lists

≈ 32 Comments

Tags

Arabic names, Aramaic names, astronomical names, Biblical names, British Baby Names, celebrity baby names, famous namesakes, flower names, Greek names, Latin names, literary namesakes, locational names, mythological names, name history, name meaning, nature names, popular culture, popular names, Sanskrit names, Slavic names, Spanish names, surname names

Christmas is a time for stars – we put stars on our Christmas trees, sing about stars in carols, send cards with glittering stars on them, and cut gingerbread in the shape of stars. Elea at British Baby Names has a post on starry names up on her lovely Advent calendar; she also had a post on astronomical names back in October, which contains many star names. If you name your child after a star, you will want to show them “their” star when they get older, so I’ve given a few hints as to the best time to view the star from Australia; to learn more, two great resources are the Skynotes newsletter from the Melbourne Planetarium (includes video), and the Beginner’s Guide to the Night Sky at ABC Science. I normally do ten names per list, but because it’s the last set for the year I’ve done twelve – besides, stars naturally seem to go in groups of twelve, don’t they?

Alya

Alya is a common name for the yellow binary star Theta Serpentis in the constellation Serpens (“The Serpent”). Its name comes from the Arabic word alyah, meaning “fat tail of the sheep”. Arab astronomers saw this part of the sky as a pasture, with Alya representing a sheep’s tail. The Arabs have cooked with the rich fat from a sheep’s tail for centuries, and it is still considered a delicious comfort food. It might seem like calling your daughter Lard, but it fits in with the popular Aaliyah variants, while being simpler to pronounce and spell. You can always tell people the baby is named after a star that represents a sheep gambolling in a field; however vegetarians may not be able to get past the fact that the Arabs were looking up at the star and thinking, “Yum yum yum”. Serpens is visible in Australia in the middle of winter, and its stars are not easy to see.

Andromeda

Andromeda is a constellation named after a character from Greek mythology. This princess was chained naked to a rock for a sea monster to gobble, thanks to her rather stupid mother’s boasting of her beauty. The hero Perseus, on his way home from other heroic deeds, saw her in distress, and did the traditional hero’s rescue-and-marry-damsel manoeuvre. An awkward detail was that Andromeda was already engaged to her uncle, but Perseus turned him into stone, which got rid of him nicely. The name is pronounced an-DROHM-eh-da, and is said to mean “to think as a man” in Greek, interpreted as meaning to be as intelligent or brave as a man – which sounds a bit sexist, but the story isn’t exactly a feminist fairytale, and it’s clearly meant to be complimentary. Andromeda is a stunning name which can easily be shortened to Andie, Annie, Meda, Mia or Romy; it will remind people of the Andromeda Galaxy, which you can see best in November from Australia, along with the constellation.

Capella

Capella is a common name for the yellow star Alpha Aurigae, the brightest in the constellation Auriga (“The Charioteer”). It means “little she-goat” in Latin, and represents the divine goat Amalthea from Roman mythology. Amalthea was the foster-mother of the god Jupiter, and provided him with milk. When Jupiter broke off one of her horns, it became the ‘”horn of plenty”, which provided its owner with whatever food they desired. For the Boorong people of Victoria, this star was Purra, a kangaroo who is chased and killed by the twins in the constellation of Gemini; the tracks of Purra form the bed of the Wimmera River. Capella is a small town in central Queensland named after the star, so it’s a surprisingly Australian choice as a star name. It’s a fresh twist on Capri or Caprice, with the popular -ella ending. You can see Capella on the northern horizon during summer in Australia, and it’s bright enough to be clearly visible.

Carina

Carina is a constellation of the southern hemisphere; its name is Latin for “keel”, and it represents part of the ship, the Argo, sailed by Jason and the Argonauts in Greek legend. The most prominent star in the constellation is Canopus, the brightest star of southern skies, clearly visible and high in the sky. If you live in the far south of Australia, Canopus will never set. The Bibbulum people of south-western Australia saw Canopus as their ancestor Waa Wahn, the trickster crow. The Maoris called it Atutahi, or “Stand Alone”, because of its brightness. Carina also has meteor showers which peak around Australia Day, and contains the Diamond Cross, sister to the Southern Cross. Considering that the winged keel on Australia II is said to have won us the America’s Cup in 1983, Carina adds up to being a patriotic star name (and suitable for boaties). As Carina is also a name related to either Cara or Katherine, it has the added advantage of sounding like a “regular name”.

Gemma

Gemma is a common name for the binary star Alpha Coronae Borealis, the brightest in the constellation Corona Borealis (“The Northern Crown”). In Greek mythology, Corona Borealis represents a crown worn by Ariadne when she married the wine god Dionysus; Gemma is Latin for “jewel”, so it’s “the jewel in the crown”. Australian Aborigines called this constellation The Boomerang, because of its shape (being in the southern hemisphere, we see the constellation upside-down). Gemma is a popular name in Australia, and the star association helps give it another layer of meaning, while also showing that you don’t need to have a strange or rare name to be named after a star. The constellation is best viewed in winter from Australia, and its difficult to see without practice.

Lucy

In the constellation Centaurus (“The Centaur”) is a tiny white dwarf star, smaller than the Earth, with the boring name of BPM 37093. Its carbon atoms are believed to have formed a crystalline structure, and because diamonds are also carbon arranged in crystalline formation, astronomers have nicknamed this star Lucy – as in Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. It’s a fun star and song reference for a very popular name, and as you probably know, Lucy means “light”, which seems apt for a star. Because of its size, you can only see Lucy with a telescope; however the constellation Centaurus is the most magnificent in the southern hemisphere, with two of the brightest stars, Alpha and Beta Centauri. You can see a great portion of the Milky Way in Centaurus, and on a moonless autumn night, it will be easy enough to point at Lucy’s general location. Does it matter if it cannot be seen? The Little Prince told us that what is essential is invisible to the eye …

Lyra

Lyra is a small constellation whose name is Greek for “lyre”. It is associated with the myth of Orpheus, a legendary musician, poet and prophet who is best known for his descent into the Underworld in search of his wife, Eurydice. According to some accounts, he died being ripped apart by savage Bacchantes, the female worshippers of the god Dionysus; the Muses gave him a proper burial, and he was finally reunited with his beloved. The Muses took his lyre to heaven and placed it amongst the stars in his honour. In Australia, you can see Lyra low in the northern sky during winter. The name has become well known since Lyra Belacqua is the young heroine of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials Trilogy. English model Sophie Dahl named her daughter Lyra in May this year.

Maia

Maia is the common name for 20 Tauri, a blue giant in the constellation Taurus, and the fourth-brightest star in the Pleiades cluster. In Greek mythology, the Pleiades were seven beautiful nymphs who were sisters. They were pursued by the hunter Orion, and Zeus changed them first into doves, and then into stars – where they are still chased by the constellation Orion. The Pleiades are often called the Seven Sisters, and you can see them clearly in summer from Australia. The Aborigines have several legends about the Pleiades, and one involves seven sisters being pursued by a man, just like the Greek myth. Maia was the eldest of the Pleiades, and the mother of the god Hermes. The meaning of the name is uncertain; it may be a respectful title for a mature lady. Maia the star appears as a character in Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers – an Australian writer who clearly loved stars, because the Mary Poppins books are filled with them. Maia is said like the popular Maya (MY-ah), but seems more elegant and literary.

Mimosa

Mimosa is a common name for the yellow binary star Beta Crucis, the second-brightest in the constellation Crux (“Cross”). Crux is the smallest of the constellations, but very significant in Australia, as it is our dear Southern Cross, represented on the national flag as well as the Eureka flag (Mimosa is the left-hand arm of the Cross). Various Aboriginal peoples saw the Cross as an eagle’s footprint, a stingray, a possum in a tree, or two brothers cooking a fish on their campfire. The Aborigines of Eastern Australia called it Mirrabooka; Mirrabooka was a kind and clever man who was placed in the sky by the creator Biami so he could watch over the earth. Because the Southern Cross is always visible here, Mirrabooka never leaves us. The Maoris call it The Anchor; it anchors the Milky Way. The star Mimosa received its name because of its colour; the mimosa is another name for the silver wattle. The name is from the Greek for “mimic”. It’s an extravagant name that’s very patriotic; you could use Mim, Mimi, Mia or Mo as nicknames.

Mira

Mira is the common name for Omicron Ceti, the most notable star in the constellation Cetus. It’s a binary star consisting of a red giant and a white dwarf; the closest symbiotic pair of stars to the Sun. Mira is a variable star; like other red giants, its surface oscillates so that its brightness increases and decreases. Mira was the first variable star ever observed in modern times, and so it gained its name, for Mira means “wonderful, astonishing” in Latin, and is said MEE-rah. The constellation Cetus depicts the sea monster that was going to eat Andromeda: for some reason it has also been immortalised in the stars, and placed worrying close to its intended victim. It’s a large constellation, but not very bright or easy to see; it’s best viewed in Australia in November. At its brightest, you can see Mira with the naked eye; at its dimmest, you will need powerful binoculars to view it. Mira is also a Sanskrit name meaning “ocean”, and a Slavic name possibly meaning “peace”.

Talitha

Talitha is one of the common names for Iota Ursae Majoris, a yellow and purple star system in the constellation Ursa Major consisting of two binary stars orbiting around each other. The name is Arabic, and means “the third leap”, referring to a gazelle jumping about, which is how Arab astronomers saw this portion of the sky. Talitha is also the Aramaic for “little girl”, and is taken from the New Testament when Jesus raises a child from the dead by saying Talitha cumi (“Little girl, get up”). Talitha is pretty, and fits in with popular names like Talia and Taia; it’s pronounced TAH-lith-ah. Ursa Major, or the Great Bear, is one of the best known and loved constellations of the northern hemisphere, but in Australia it can only be viewed in April/May, and is so low on the northern horizon we see only part of it; we cannot see Talitha at all.

Vega

Vega is the common name for Alpha Lyrae, the brightest star in the constellation Lyra, and fifth-brightest star in the sky. The name is from Arabic, and means “falling” or “landing”, referring to the constellation Arab astronomers called The Alighting Vulture. Lyra was seen as a descending vulture; an idea dating back to ancient Egypt and ancient India. Even when the Greeks said it was a lyre, it was still often pictured as a vulture or eagle holding the instrument in its talons. The Boorong people saw Vega as a Mallee Fowl, and knew that once the star disappeared in October, it was time to collect that bird’s eggs. Vega is also a Spanish surname meaning “meadow-dweller”; it’s familiar from the Spanish playwright Lope de Vega, and folk singer Suzanne Vega. Vega is a glamorous-sounding name that’s strongly associated with its star. Once you learn to find Lyra, it will be easy to spot Vega because of its luminosity.

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