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Famous Name: Martin

11 Wednesday Nov 2015

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Famous Location
Today is Remembrance Day, when we remember all those in the armed forces who have laid down their lives in the line of duty. It marks the end of hostilities of World War I, when by the terms of an armistice, fighting formally ceased at the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month. Remembrance Day takes place on same day as the feast of Saint Martin, a patron of soldiers, so it seemed like a good opportunity to look at the name connected with this day.

If you would like to see the Anzac Cenotaph in Sydney honouring those who fell in World War I, you must go to Martin Place in the heart of the city, named for three-times New South Wales Premier and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Sir James Martin. It is here that Anzac Day parades and commemorations are traditionally held in Sydney.

The reason this spot was chosen for the Cenotaph was because conscription rallies were held here during World War I, and it was at the old General Post Office across from the Cenotaph that so many soldiers enlisted. As the GPO’s telegraph office was where important news first arrived, people gathered here to learn of significant events, and where the Cenotaph now stands, crowds formed waiting for the end of World War I to be announced.

The General Post Office was really the beginning of Martin Place, its Victorian-era neo-classical grandeur making it the largest building in Sydney when it was first built, and its granite and sandstone arcade providing a link between George and Pitt Streets. It demanded a public space around it, and by the 1970s Martin Place had become a major pedestrian mall.

Martin Place is the centre of the city’s business and finance sector, with the head offices of major banks and insurance corporations, and the Reserve Bank. Still a centre for news distribution, it is where Channel Seven’s Sydney news station is located.

Crowds continue to gather in Martin Place, for the annual Christmas tree concert, for festivals and performances, for major sporting events shown on huge screens, for political protests such as the Occupy Sydney movement, and as a backdrop in television programs and films, including The Matrix series.

Its very centrality and importance made it a target for violence during the hostage siege crisis last year, and a focus for remembrance and healing afterwards when Martin Place was transformed into a “field of flowers”. Martin Place is a place to remember, to celebrate, to mourn, and to heal.

Name Information
Martin is from the Roman name Martinus, derived from Martis, which means “belonging to Mars”. In Roman mythology Mars was the god of war, and etymologists dispute the origin of his name. It must come from some older god, but quite who it was, whether they were Oscan or Etruscan, and what their name signified, is something lost in the mists of time.

The name Martin has become well known to us because of Saint Martin of Tours, a Christian soldier conscripted into the Roman army who felt that a military life was incompatible with his faith and turned conscientious objector. He became a disciple of St Hilary in France, and then a hermit before he was elected bishop of Tours by popular acclaim.

There are many stories about Saint Martin. One is that he was so reluctant to become bishop that he hid in a barn full of geese, but their cackling gave him away (this legend shows that the mythology of the god Mars may have got involved here, because geese were sacred to Mars in pagan Gaul). Another famous story is while still a soldier he used his military sword to cut his cloak in half to give to a ragged beggar shivering in the depths of winter. That night he dreamed of Jesus wearing the half cloak, which convinced him he was on the right path by following the Christian faith.

Saint Martin was enormously popular in France during the Middle Ages, and was adopted by the royal houses of France. Saint Martin is not only a patron of soldiers, but of France itself, and Martin is the most common French surname. Saint Martin has been called upon during many modern conflicts in France, including World War I, and when his feast day of November 11 was chosen as the day to sign the Armistice, the French saw it as a sign of his intercession.

Saint Martin’s Day was widely celebrated in Europe, and in Britain was known as Martinmas. Occuring at the beginning of the coldest months, it was the traditional day to slaughter animals for the winter, with a feast naturally following – goose was often served, and wine drunk liberally, as Saint Martin is also the patron of the grape harvest and winemaking. Martinmas was a Christian successor to the pagan feast of Samhain, which took place on October 31/November 1. It was formerly seen as the beginning of the lead-up to Christmas.

There are several other saints named Martin in his honour, and popes as well. The famous theologian Martin Luther was named after the saint, and he was baptised on November 11, Saint Martin’s Day. The great Civil Rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King Jr gained his name from Martin Luther – his father had been a pastor named Michael King, but changed his name to Martin Luther King after becoming inspired by the life of Martin Luther on a trip to Germany. One way or another, the name wields a powerful spiritual clout.

Martin is a classic name which has never left the charts. It was #93 in the 1900s, and left the Top 100 the following decade. It began climbing during the 1940s (perhaps the war brought this military name to the fore). By the 1950s Martin was in the Top 100 again, peaking in 1967 at #41 (around the time of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr’s greatest publicity). It left the Top 100 in the 1900s, and is now around the 200s.

In the US, Martin was a Top 100 name from the late 19th century until 1970, and reached its peak in 1880 at #44. Its highest point in the twentieth century was #63 in 1964, the year after Martin Luther King’s famous I Have a Dream speech. It is now #261 and very stable, even rising slightly last year – in 2014 the film Selma was released, with David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King Jr.

In the UK, Martin was in the Top 100 from the mid 19th century until the 1990s, peaking in the 1960s at #18. It is now #247 and stable, and as in the US, numbers went up last year. Martin is still a popular name in Europe, including Ireland, and is a particular favourite in Spain and Latin America. It is rising in Spain, where it is #8, and in France, where it is #46, so the French are still backing their patron saint.

With Martin you get a classic name seems both strong and gentle – a warrior under Mars, and a man of firm principles and the power of his convictions, like Saint Martin, Martin Luther and Martin Luther King Jr. It’s a traditional name that isn’t common, and yet isn’t disappearing into obscurity either: it’s stable and even had a small boost. A surprisingly safe choice that’s possibly just a little cooler than you might think.

POLL RESULTS
Martin received an approval rating of 57%. 21% of people believed it was old-fashioned and dated, while 16% saw it as geeky or dorky. However, 13% thought it was a strong yet gentle name for a boy. The tease names of Martian or Fartin’ Martin each bothered 2% of people, while only one person thought it was too closely connected to alcohol because of Remy Martin cognac or the martini cocktail.

(Photo shows the GPO at 1 Martin Place)

Famous Name: Michelle

05 Thursday Nov 2015

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Famous Namesake
It was the Melbourne Cup on Tuesday, and the surprise winner was New Zealand-bred bay Prince of Penzance, whose odds were 100 to 1. Only four horses have ever won the Melbourne Cup at such long odds; the other three were The Pearl in 1871, Wotan in 1936, and Old Rowley in 1940. A great race for those punters who always put a bet on the outsider.

Prince of Penzance was ridden by Michelle Payne, the first female jockey to ever win the Melbourne Cup. As the Melbourne Cup has been going for 155 years this looks a bit slack on the part of women, but Michelle is only the fourth female jockey to ever compete in the Cup, giving women riders a 25% success rate so far. Of course it would be even more encouraging to see women chosen to ride the favourites, rather than outsiders with long odds ….

Michelle’s background story is one which has gained a lot of interest, because she is from country Victoria and has nine older siblings. Michelle lost her mother when she was only six months old, and was raised as the “baby” of the family by her father and older sisters.

Seven of the Paynes have gone on to work in the racing industry, and for those interested in large sibsets, Michelle’s siblings are Andrew, Cathy, Stephen, Brigid, Margaret, Bernadette, Maree, Patrick, and Therese (Brigid passed away suddenly a few years ago). Michelle’s brother Stevie, who has Downs Syndrome and works as a strapper, has also proved a crowd favourite for his support of his sister.

A girl from the country made good, a single dad with ten children, a big close family touched by tragedy, an inspirational brother who kept believing, the race that stops a nation, a win against the odds, and a photogenic heroine who cheerfully tells everyone that didn’t think she was good enough to “get stuffed” … it’s surely only a matter of time before this becomes an Aussie battler movie evoking laughter and tears, in the style of The Castle or Red Dog.

Name Information
Michelle is a variant of Michèle, the feminine form of Michel, the French form of Michael, a Hebrew name meaning “who is like God?”. In use in medieval France, by at least the 17th century the name had been brought to England by French Protestant refugees. Michelle didn’t become common for English-speakers until the 20th century, so that although this is an old name, we tend to think of it as very modern.

Michelle first joined the charts in the 1940s, debuting at #248 – part of the post-war trend for French girls names. It rose swiftly, and was a Top 100 name by the 1950s, making #52 for that decade. By 1960 it was #18, and was in the Top 10 by 1961. Michelle reached #1 in 1967, which was the same year that the Beatles song Michelle won the Grammy Award for Song of the Year. It also coincides with the period that (Holly) Michelle Phillips was in The Mamas and the Papas.

Overall, Michelle was the #2 name of the 1960s, and it made #1 again in 1974 and 1975, coinciding with Michelle Phillips’ success as a solo artist, and her foray into acting. Michelle was the overall #1 girls name of the 1970s, while Michael was the #1 boys names of the 1970s – the only time that male and female versions of the same name have been #1 at the same time. Michelle left the Top 100 in 2003, after half a century as a popular name. Currently it’s around the 200s, so it is still in reasonable use and comfortably positioned as a modern classic.

In the US, Michelle has been a Top 1000 name since the late 1930s, and was in the Top 100 from the 1950s until the late 2000s. It peaked at #2 during the late 1960s and early 1970s, so that although its popularity is very similar to that in Australia, it never quite managed to make it to #1 in the US. Currently it is #187 and falling. In the UK, Michelle was a Top 100 name from the 1960s until the 1980s, and Top 10 during the 1970s; it is currently #289 and steadily falling. Michelle is still popular in Switzerland and Latin America, but considered very dated in France.

The name has been kept in the public eye by all the now grown-up Michelles who have gone on to succeed in various fields. These include singers Michelle Branch and Michelle Featherstone, Michelle Williams from Destiny’s Child, actresses Michelle Pfeiffer and Michelle Williams, Michelle Dockery from Downton Abbey, and figure skater Michelle Kwan. One of the most famous is American First Lady Michelle Obama, who was serenaded by Paul McCartney with the song Michelle after he received the 2010 Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.

Peaking in the 1960s and ’70s, pretty French Michelle may seem like a dated name – a mum name, or even a grandma name. However this modern classic is still getting reasonable use, and could appeal to parents wanting a name that seems “normal”, with many successful namesakes. It also works very well as a middle name.

POLL RESULTS
Michelle received an approval rating of 41%. 34% of people thought the name was too dated for a baby, but 10% saw it as a nice normal name that’s easy to wear. Only one person thought Michelle seemed evil because it contained the word hell, and just one thought it was only suitable as a middle name.

(Photo of Michelle Payne on Prince of Penzance from The Australian)

Famous Name: Fiona

30 Wednesday Jul 2014

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The Archibald Prize this year was won by Fiona Lowry, for her portrait of architect Penelope Seidler. The Art Gallery of NSW trustees, who are the judges of the Archibald, seemed to avoid controversy this year by awarding the $75 000 prize to an overwhelming favourite.

Fiona first saw Penelope Seidler six years ago at a gallery opening, and was struck by her beauty and presence; she decided then that she would like to paint her. The portrait was begun at Penelope’s home, Killara House, a heritage-listed Sydney icon which she designed with her husband, the famous modernist architect Harry Seidler.

Fiona’s paintings are made with an airbrush and a limited range of soft pastel colours, creating an often unsettling atmosphere seen through a fine mist. I can’t help thinking that Clarice Beckett would give a wry smile … and that once again, Penelope proves a winner!

The name Fiona was created by the 18th century Scottish poet James McPherson, and first used in his famous Ossian poems, which were a great influence on the Romantic movement, and instigator of the Gaelic revival. MacPherson pretended his poems were “translations” of ancient Gaelic poems, but could never produce the originals, and it is now agreed that while he based them on old ballads, many of the stories and characters are from his imagination.

In the Fingal section of the Ossian poems, MacPherson wrote: Let the sons of Fiona rise, on the lone plains of her lovely Ardan. Fiona is a not a person, but a feminine personification, like Erin or Brittania, or Lady Liberty. But a personification of what?

You may recall that the Irish hero Finn McCool’s warriors were called the Fianna. Although that looks as it means “Finn’s men”, fiann means “soldier, warrior, hero” in Old Irish, and fianna is its plural. Fianna can thus be translated as “war band”. Although the Fianna come from mythology, it is believed that such bands did exist in medieval Ireland; young men and women of the nobility who had not yet come into their inheritance and had no lands of their own.

Fiona is James MacPherson’s transcription of Fianna, which he may have written to make it look as if it was derived from Fionn, or Finn, meaning “fair, white”, in order to give his Fingal the status of the great Irish hero Finn McCool. You might see MacPherson’s “Fiona” as a personification of Celtic pride, independence, and fighting spirit.

Baby name books often try to claim Fiona as a feminine form of Finn or Fionn, but in medieval Gaelic, adding an -a to a name did not make it feminine. Instead -nat or –sech were used, so the feminine forms of Finn are Finnat and Finnsech (genuine medieval names). Just to confuse things, Fíona is a modern Irish name meaning “wine”. Although some people take Fiona as an Anglicisation of Fíona, it’s more that an Irish meaning was found for an existing name.

Fiona was used as a pseudonym by the Scottish writer William Sharp. Although already a distinguished poet, biographer, and literary editor, he chose to sometimes write romantic novels and poetry as Fiona McLeod – which he feared would not be accepted if it was known he was the author. William Sharp edited the Ossian poems, which is most likely where he found the name Fiona.

William Sharp had a love affair with a woman named Edith Wingate Rinder, and it was those works inspired by his passion for Edith that he attributed to “Fiona McLeod”. The poetry he wrote under the influence of this inspiration is considered his greatest work, and the Fiona McLeod novels proved so popular that they brought him financial success. You could say that “Fiona” was the name William gave his feminine side, and tapping into it unleashed a wave of creativity.

The secret of William Sharp’s dual identity only became publicly known after his death, when his wife revealed that her husband was the author of all works by Fiona McLeod. It was after Fiona McLeod became a popular novelist that the name Fiona became well known, so while James MacPherson may have created it, it was another Scottish writer who spread its use.

Fiona first charted in Australia in the 1950s, making an impressive début at just outside the Top 100 at #105. The reason for its sudden appearance on the charts is the 1954 film Brigadoon, based on the Broadway musical of the same name. It’s about two American men who are hunting in Scotland when they happen upon a miraculous village which rises out of the mists every hundred years for just one day. One of the men falls in love with a girl from the village named Fiona Campbell (Fiona McLaren in the original musical), played in the film by Cyd Charisse. The magic and romance of the story were clearly a hit with Australian audiences.

By 1960, Fiona was #57, by 1961 it was in the Top 50 at #47, and by 1967 it had just scraped into the Top 20. Fiona reached its peak in 1970 at #14, and was last in the Top 100 in 1986. A famous fictional Fiona during the 1970s was matriarch Fiona Cleary, from Colleen McCullough’s The Thorn Birds, although by this time the name was falling in popularity.

If you judge the name Fiona purely as a name nerd, you must admit it has some black marks against it. It’s a “made up” name, and furthermore, not even a name made up for a character – it’s basically the Khaleesi of the 18th century. It was popularised by a man pretending to be a woman, in part to obscure an extra-marital affair. It’s not the most promising name history of all time.

Fiona leapt into the charts out of nowhere due to popular culture – a musical film which was a box office success, but received lukewarm reviews. It was a “trendy” name that climbed in popularity very suddenly, then sank again at almost the same rate. It’s a “dated” name, in that it is dated to a particular era – you can be almost sure that someone named Fiona was born somewhere between Brigadoon and The Thorn Birds 1983 mini-series, and most likely between the late 1960s and mid-1970s (Fiona Lowry was born in 1974).

But isn’t it tiresome to always judge names through the lens of nerdism? Because in spite of all this, I think Fiona remains a pretty, delicate name with a fascinating literary history. It has a romance to it – a name created by a poet who changed the face of literature, made well known by a writer who had a talent he never knew existed until he fell in love, brought to popularity through a miraculous love affair.

I like the fact that such a gentle-sounding name has a war-like meaning; it’s a warrior princess of a name. Despite being dated, Fiona doesn’t sound particularly dated – it even has a fashionable OH sound in the middle. There are tons of Fionas in current popular culture, including Princess Fiona, the feisty green ogress from Shrek.

If you love the name Fiona, take heart – it is no longer plummeting in popularity, but relatively stable around the 300-400s, and can claim modern classic status. Furthermore, in the United States, which is much slower to appreciate British (especially Scottish) names, Fiona only began charting in the 1990s and has been gradually climbing ever since.

I have a family member who is a massive fan of the Shrek movies, and especially of Princess Fiona. Sometimes I think I will be a grandmother to a little Fiona, and the idea doesn’t displease me at all.

POLL RESULTS
Fiona received a very good approval rating of 72%. People saw the name Fiona as strong and feisty (23%), and beautiful or pretty (19%). However, 16% of people considered it too dated to be a baby name. The association with Shrek didn’t seem to be an issue, with twice as many people (10%), thinking it was a cool association than a problematic one (5%). Only one person thought the name Fiona was “too made up”.

(Painting is Penelope Seidler by Fiona Lowry)

Famous Name: Orpheus

12 Wednesday Feb 2014

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(c) Lady Lever Art Gallery; Supplied by The Public Catalogue Foundation

The big news this week was the release of Australian convicted drug smuggler Schapelle Corby, who has spent the last nine years in a Balinese prison, but is now out on parole, with the proviso that she continue living in Bali where she can be supervised.

To coincide with this event, Channel Nine put on the television movie Schapelle. There’s a lot of interesting names connected with the movie – Schapelle for starters – but the one I was drawn to was Orpheus, because Orpheus Pledger plays Schapelle’s half-brother James. If the name Orpheus Pledger sounds familiar, you may have seen him on Neighbours.

Orpheus was a musician and poet in ancient Greek mythology. He was venerated as the greatest of all poets and musicians and called “the father of song” – according to one tale, it was the god Apollo himself who gave Orpheus his golden lyre and taught him to play it. Poets told how Orpheus’ music could charm the birds, wild beasts and fish, make trees and rocks dance, and change the course of rivers.

The most famous story about Orpheus involves his wife Eurydice, a tree nymph. At their wedding, Eurydice was attacked by a lustful satyr, and in her efforts to escape, she fell into a nest of vipers and suffered a fatal bite on the foot. Orpheus was the one who discovered her body, and in his grief, he played such sad songs that all the nymphs and gods wept for him. They were moved to such pity that the gods advised him to try to get his wife back by travelling to the Underworld.

Once he was in the Underworld, Orpheus sang before the god Hades and his wife Persephone. For the first and only time, their hearts went out to him in his plight, and they agreed that Eurydice would be allowed to return with him. There was just one condition: Orpheus must walk ahead of her, and never look back until they reached the upper world.

Orpheus did what they asked, but once he was in our world, in his desperate anxiety he looked behind to see if Eurydice was still following. Eurydice disappeared, this time forever, and Orpheus’ heart broke all over again.

This descent to the Underworld connects Orpheus to a myriad of mythological figures from different cultures, including Egyptian, Japanese, Sumerian, Hindu, Christian, Norse, Mayan and Celtic, who travel to the land of the dead. The figure who makes this journey returns with some “gift” from the Underworld, marking them as more than mortal, and suggesting the possibility of overcoming death.

The story of Orpheus has inspired many works of art. Creators as diverse as Neil Gaiman, Stravinsky, Jean Cocteau, Franz Liszt, Tennessee William, Poul Anderson, and Andy Partridge have drawn on his myth. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds have a satirical retelling of the legend called The Lyre of Orpheus, and Baz Lurhmann’s film Moulin Rouge is partly inspired by the story, using music from Jacques Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld.

Towards the end of his life Orpheus turned away from worshipping any but Apollo. Previously, he had been a devotee of the god Dionysus, deity of wine, madness and ecstasy, but now he gave his allegiance to the god of poetry. While venerating the sun god at dawn, Orpheus was killed by Maenads, the frenzied female worshippers of Dionysus, to punish him for his apostasy. It is said that the women began by throwing sticks and stones at him, but the trees and rocks refused to hurt Orpheus, so that the enraged women tore him to pieces with their bare hands.

Orpheus’ head continued to sing mournfully, and his lyre still played; they floated down a river until they reached the sea, and the winds and waves carried them to the Island of Lesbos. Here the head was buried and a shrine built to Orpheus, where people could consult an oracle. The Muses, the nine goddesses of the arts, pieced Orpheus together, and gave him a burial near Mount Olympus, where nightingales sang over his grave. The Muses placed his golden lyre in the sky, where we can still see it as the constellation Lyra. At last his soul was free to join his bride Eurydice in the Underworld.

The name Orpheus is believed to be derived from an ancient root meaning “to put asunder, to separate”. It could be translated as “darkness”, “fatherless, orphaned”, and “to lament, to sing wildly, to cast a spell” – all these come from the same root word. Putting them together, they sum up Orpheus’ story rather well, because his wildly tragic songs enchanted all who heard them, and he continued to sing as he descended into darkness.

Orpheus is an unusual name with a great deal of power. The story of Orpheus is that of a great artist whose powers were magical – one who defied death itself in his quest for love, and who suffered a cruel fate when he turned towards the light. It is a name which has weight, and even a certain amount of heaviness, but it has everything: Art, Magic, Love, Death, Suffering, Light. It doesn’t seem too strange, as it fits in with currently fashionable names such as Orlando and Orson.

POLL RESULT
Orpheus received a fairly good approval rating of 65%. People saw the name Orpheus as haunting and poetic (20%), beautiful and unusual (17%), and usable, as it fits in with current trends (15%). However, 14% thought the story of Orpheus was too heavy, violent, or depressing.

(Picture shows Orpheus by John Macallan Swan)

Famous Name: Hugo

06 Wednesday Nov 2013

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It will be Remembrance Day next Monday, so we are going to look at the name of another First World War hero.

Hugo Vivian Hope Throssell was from the country town of Northam in Western Australian, the son of former Western Australian premier George Throssell, who had also been Mayor of Northam, and the town’s first official citizen. George was prominent in local business and conservative politics, and was known as “the Lion of Northam”.

Hugo was sent to an elite boy’s boarding school in Adelaide, where he was captain of the football team, and a champion athlete and boxer. After leaving school, Hugo became a jackaroo on cattle stations in the north, then he and his older brother Frank Erick Cottrell (“Ric”) bought a farm together in the wheat belt. The brothers had a close bond, and were later described as “David and Jonathan” in their devotion to each other.

When war broke out in 1914, Hugo and Ric joined the 10th Light Horse Regiment, and Hugo was commissioned as a second lieutenant. Hugo arrived at Gallipoli in August 1915, just before the assault on the Nek, which he called “that FOOL charge”. Within minutes, 9 officers and 73 men from his regiment were killed.

Hugo was eager to avenge the 10th Light Horse, and on August 29, the regiment were brought into action to take a trench full of Turkish troops near the summit of Hill 60. The surrounds became a slaughterhouse, with the bodies of the dead piling up so quickly there was no time to bury them.

A fierce bomb fight began, described by Hugo as a sort of gruesome tennis match – it was one of the most intensive bomb fights of the Australians at Gallipoli. During the night, more than 3000 bombs were thrown, with the Western Australians picking up bombs thrown at them and hurling them back.

At one point, Hugo was in sole command of the regiment, and was wounded twice, continuing to yell encouragement to the men with his face covered in blood. For his bravery and inspirational leadership, Hugo received the Victoria Cross; it was the first VC a Western Australian had won during the war.

Promoted to captain, Hugo joined his regiment in Egypt, where he was wounded in April 1917 at the second battle of Gaza. It was here that his brother was killed; the night Ric disappeared, Hugo crawled across the battlefield under enemy fire, searching in vain for his brother amongst the dead and dying, whistling for him with the signal they had used since they were boys. Hugo took part in the final offensives in Palestine, and led the 10th Light Horse guard of honour at the fall of Jerusalem.

Soon after the war’s end, Hugo married an idealistic young Australian writer named Katherine Susannah Prichard, who he had met while in London for medical treatment, and settled on a farm near Perth. Already an award-winning novelist when she married Hugo, Katherine’s career continued to flourish. In 1920, Katherine became a founding member of the Communist Party of Australia, with Hugo joining her as a speaker to support the unemployed and striking workers.

Hugo’s experience of war had made him a pacifist and a socialist, but his views on the futility of war outraged many, especially coming from a war hero, and the son of a conservative political figure. His political opinions damaged his chances of employment during the Depression, and he fell into serious debt. At one point he pawned his VC just so he could take his son to the movies.

Believing that he could provide better for his family if he left them a war service pension, he shot himself in 1933, and was buried with full military honours. His wife, who had been on tour in the former Soviet Union at the time, suffered another unbearable anguish on top of losing her husband. She would never know if Hugo had read the manuscript of her unfinished novel, Intimate Strangers, in which an unwanted husband kills himself (Katherine changed the ending to the novel before publication).

Friends blamed Hugo’s depression on an attack of meningitis he had suffered in the trenches of Gallipoli which almost killed him. Depression and disordered thinking can be an after-effect of meningitis, and Hugo had undoubtedly been under severe post-traumatic stress since his arrival at Gallipoli. The tragedy of his war was that it damaged him psychologically to the point where he felt he could not continue.

In 1954 a memorial was built to Hugo outside his home, and a ward at Hollywood Private Hospital in Perth is named after him. In 1983 his son Ric Throssell gave his Victoria Cross to the People for Nuclear Disarmament. The Returned Servicemen’s League bought the medal and presented it to the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, where it is on display in the Hall of Valour.

Hugo is the Latinised form of the Germanic name Hugh, meaning “mind, heart, spirit”, which was introduced to Britain by the Normans. In medieval times, the name Hugo would have been commonly used in Latin documents, but the person would have been called Hugh in everyday life.

Another famous Australian with this name is actor Hugo Weaving, who has been in several Hollywood blockbusters, as well as many Australian films. The name Hugo has been in the charts since the 1970s, and began ranking in the 1980s at #421 – the same decade that Hugo Weaving’s screen career began, in the 1984 cricketing miniseries Bodyline.

During the 1990s, when Hugo Weaving gained international attention for Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Hugo was #248, and by the early 2000s, when Hugo Weaving was starring in The Matrix series as Agent Smith, and The Lord of the Rings as Elrond, it was #143. In the mid to late 2000s, when Hugo Weaving was providing the voice of the villainous Megatron in The Transformers, it had risen to #117.

The name Hugo made the NSW Top 100 in 2009, debuting at #93, and last year was one of the biggest risers for boys nationally, going up eleven places. Currently it is #76 nationally, #67 in New South Wales, #79 in Victoria, #83 in Queensland, #79 in Tasmania, and #76 in the Australian Capital Territory. Hugo went up 10 places in Victoria and 23 places in New South Wales, so it is making significant gains. Based on its current trajectory of popularity, I have picked it to be a Top Ten name by 2028.

Hugo is more popular here than in either the US or the UK, where it is not yet in the Top 100. However, it is extremely popular in Europe, and is a Top Ten name in France, Spain and Sweden, so we are following the lead of European countries rather than English-speaking ones.

This is a handsome name with a touch of European sophistication, and a fashionable OOH sound as well as a trendy O ending. It doesn’t really surprise me that Hugo is rising through the rankings while steady classic Hugh continues to plod along in the mid-100s, where it’s been since the 1980s. Hugo is more stylish and fits in better with current trends. If you love the name Hugo, you certainly won’t be alone!

POLL RESULT: Hugo received an approval rating of 80%, making it one of the most well-liked names of the year. People saw the name Hugo as handsome or attractive (27%), stylish and sophisticated (19%), hip and cool (15%), and cute and quirky (15%). However, 8% preferred classic Hugh, and 5% gloomily prognosticated that Hugo would soon be too popular. Only one person thought it was already too popular.

(Photo of Hugo Throssell from the State Library of Western Australia)