Melbourne Suburbs That Could Be Used as Girl’s Names

08 Sunday Jul 2012

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Cardinia

Cardinia is an outer suburb of Melbourne, in the shire of the same name. The name Cardinia is taken from the local Bunurong phrase Kar Din Yarr, meaning “to look towards the rising sun”. I’ve always thought this would make a great girl’s name, with an interesting sound and an inspiring meaning. To me it sounds like a cross between Caroline and Gardenia, and is a native alternative to Dawn and Aurora.

Clematis

Clematis is another outer suburb in the Shire of Cardinia, leading into the Dandenong Ranges. It’s a tiny village dating to the turn of the century, with a few basic amenities. Its fire brigade formed in 1936, takes about 100 emergency calls per year, and has fought many major blazes in Victoria and New South Wales. The suburb is named after the climbing plant, which looks wonderful in the garden and has large, beautiful flowers. The plant’s name is Ancient Greek, and probably referred originally to the periwinkle (the plant we call clematis is from Asia, and related to the buttercup). Clematis is an elegant name filled with Edwardian charm; it’s more unexpected and alluring than Clementine.

Doreen

The name Doreen looks like an elaboration of the name Dora, perhaps influenced by Kathleen, and is said to have been invented by English author Edna Lyall, who published a novel called Doreen in 1894. The Doreen in her story was an Irish singer, and possibly Lyall had heard of the Irish name Dáiríne, which is pronounced daw-REEN-uh, and means “fertile”. Although this outer suburb of Melbourne had been settled since 1844, it was renamed Doreen in 1895, just a year after Lyall’s novel. Perhaps someone was a big fan of the book? Doreen plays a role in Australian literature too, for poet C.J. Dennis wrote a famous verse-novel called Songs of a Sentimental Bloke (1915), in which larrikin Bill meets, courts and marries his sweetheart. This is a girl who works in a pickle factory called Doreen, and she turns Bill from a Melbourne gang-member into a contented husband and father. It’s been made into two movies, a musical, a TV show and a ballet. Doreen was #83 in the 1900s, and peaked in the 1920s at #21, no doubt influenced by the rhymes of C.J. Dennis. It hasn’t charted since the 1970s.

Emerald

Emerald is a town and semi-rural area in the Shire of Cardinia, and its post office first opened in 1899. It’s a popular tourist destination, because it has the Puffing Billy steam train railway which opened in 1900, and enjoyed its heyday in the 1920s. The town also holds a number of festivals through the year. Emeralds have been mined on a small scale in New South Wales and Western Australia; there is a town in Queensland named Emerald; and David Williamson’s play Emerald City is a classic of modern theatre – the title a reference to The Wizard of Oz. Emerald is a name that I’ve seen in occasional use, and the popularity of Ruby is almost certainly making other gemstone names for girls seem more usable. It also has a connection to Ireland, because this country is known as The Emerald Isle. The name is ultimately from the Greek, meaning “green gem”. Perhaps the town got its name because it is set in the forest like a green jewel – although Gembrook is just up the road.

Iona

Iona is a rural area in the Shire of Cardinia; its post office opened in 1898, and it received its current name in 1905. It is named after an island in the Hebrides, off the coast of Scotland. According to tradition, Saint Columba founded a monastery there in the 6^th century, and it played a vital role in converting the Picts of Scotland and the Anglo-Saxons of northern England to Celtic Christianity. A renowned centre of learning for four hundred years, Viking raiders plundered it, and the monastery was abandoned. Today it has an ecumenical Christian community, active since the 1930s; they worship in the restored medieval Iona Abbey. The island’s name is thought to come from the Gaelic for “place of yew trees”, but may also be from the Old Norse for “island of the bear cave, island of the animal den”. It is still a popular name in Scotland, and seems like a good alternative to the popular Isla with the fashionable OH sound in it (it’s said ie-OH-na).

Jacana

The suburb of Jacana was originally farmland owned by Duncan Kennedy in the 1840s, and its streets were laid out in 1923 after the land was sold. During the 1950s to 1970s, the land was developed by the government Housing Commission, who built most of the houses. They also re-named some of the early streets, which had been given jocular names such as Emu Parade and Sunset Boulevard. Being developed as a Housing Commission suburb, it is a lower-middle and working-class area with good amenities. The suburb is apparently named after Jacana Avenue, which is in the next suburb of Broadmeadows; other streets nearby also have bird names, such as Ortolan and Dacelo. Jacanas are tropical birds that live on lily lakes in wetlands and found world-wide; in Australia we have the Comb-Crested Jacana. Its name is Brazilian-Portuguese, and pronunciation is very diverse around the globe. The Australian way to pronounce it is juh-KAH-nuh, although the original is more like ZHAH-suh-NUH. I think this is a pretty and unusual bird name that sounds similar to Jacqueline, Jana and Jacinta, but with its own “feel”.

Kallista

Kallista is in the outer suburbs, and the first European inhabitants were loggers in the 1850s; gradually farmers began settling in the area as the forest was cleared. From early on, the government preserved a section of it as state forest, and once the roads were completed, Melburnians began using it for weekenders and holiday homes. During the Depression, many people could not afford the luxury of a second home for holidays, and they were bought up cheaply by those hoping to support themselves by living off the land. The suburb gained its name in 1925, from the Ancient Greek Kalliste, meaning “most beautiful”. In Greek mythology, Callisto or Kallisto was one of the nymphs of Artemis, although Kalliste was one of the epithets of the goddess herself, and the stories of the nymph were probably originally about Artemis. Callisto was seduced by Zeus, and gave birth to a son named Arcas, who became the king of Arcadia. Jealous Hera turned Callisto into a bear, and when a teenaged Arcas was hunting in the woods, he almost shot his own bear-mother. Zeus placed them in the sky as the constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor to protect them. A very pretty “star” name.

Olinda

The outer suburb of Olinda began as a logging settlement, but began growing in the early 1900s as land became available for market gardening. It is famous as the home of artist Sir Arthur Streeton, and today is an artsy-craftsy sort of suburb, studded with antique shops and galleries. Olinda is named after Olinda Creek, which has its source in the suburb, and the creek was named after Alice Olinda Hodgkinson, the daughter of Victoria’s acting surveyor-general in 1859. Her unusual middle name is something of a mystery to me – I have seen it defined as a German name meaning “defender of the land”, which became used in Spain thanks to the Visigoths. However in English, this name is said to be derived from the place Olynthus in Greece, meaning “fruit of the wild fig tree”. Olinda’s Adventures was the first novel of a precocious teenage writer in the 17^th century called Catherine Trotter. It fits in with other literary names of that period, such as Orinda and Belinda. It sounds like retro Linda, dressed up with the fashionable OH sound, and still seems exotic and poetic.

Sassafras

Sassafras is in the outer suburbs, and lies between Olinda and Kallista. It was opened to farming in the 1890s, and a small township developed. Around the turn of the 20^th century, it began to attract tourists, and still caters for them, with boutique stores, cafes serving Devonshire teas, and garden nurseries. Sassafras has very fertile volcanic soil, which makes it ideal for growing plants. Aptly enough, it is named after the sassafras tree, found growing there in profusion. These are not true sassafras, which are native to North America and Asia, but Southern Sassafras, an ancient tree from the southern hemisphere, with several species native to Australia. The one in Victoria is Atherosperma moschatum, and it grows in cool temperate rainforest. An evergreen, it flowers in winter with white petals, and its springy timber is in demand for speciality woodwork. The word sassafras is thought to be a corruption of saxifrage, an unrelated genus of tough alpine plants; their name is from the Latin for “stone breaker”. I have seen this once in a birth notice for a baby girl; it’s an unusual plant name which gives the nicknames Sass and Sassy.

Sunshine

This inner-city suburb has been a township since the late 19^th century, and is an important part of our industrial history, because the Sunshine Harvester Works were moved here in 1906 by H.V. McKay, and became the largest manufacturing plant in Australia. It was after this that the suburb was given its present name; it is believed that McKay chose Sunshine for the name of his business after hearing a sermon by visiting American evangelist Rev. Thomas de Witt Talmage. The word sunshine seems to have been frequently used in Talmage’s writings, as a symbol of happiness and God’s blessings. McKay planned Sunshine on Garden City principles, and workers flocked there to live. The manufacturing plant was demolished in the early 1990s, but there is still plenty of industry, and it has attracted many migrants, especially from Malta and Vietnam. Skier Lydia Lassila grew up here, as did singer Bon Scott; Prince Philip lived here briefly. This cheerful, friendly name isn’t just from nature – it’s one connected to our manufacturing history, and also has idealistic Christian roots. Although unisex, the film Little Miss Sunshine helps give it a feminine edge. Sunny makes a cute nickname.

Truganina

This suburb is named after Truganini, considered to be the last “full blood” Palawa (Tasmanian Aborigine). Truganini was a chieftain’s daughter born in 1812 on Bruny Island, described as a vivacious and intelligent woman by contemporary sources. Her mother was killed by whalers, her two sisters were abducted and taken as slaves, her fiance died saving her from being abducted herself. Efforts at conciliation meant that Truganini and the last surviving Palawa people were moved around, including a short time in Melbourne, which is how the suburb received its name. By 1873, Truganini was the last Palawa left, and she died three years later. Her final request, that her ashes be scattered in the D’Entrecasteaux Channel near her island home, was ignored; she was buried in a convict workhouse in Hobart. Two years later, her skeleton was exhumed, and put on display by the Royal Society of Tasmania. In 1976, a century after her death, her last wish was finally fulfilled. Her name is the Palawa word for the tough plant we call grey saltbush (Atriplex cinerea), and can be spelled a number of ways. This could make an interesting heritage choice, although its namesake is a tragic symbol of Indigenous genocide. The correct pronunciation is not known, but Truganina could be said to give the nicknames True and Nina.

(Picture shows the Puffing Billy steam railway in Emerald)

Famous Name: King

04 Wednesday Jul 2012

Posted by A.O. in Famous Names

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english names, famous namesakes, Gaelic names, illegal names, Irish names, name history, name meaning, surname names, title names, US name popularity, vocabulary names

It’s a big week in North America, because Canada Day was on July 1, and today is Independence Day in the United States. I thought we’d look at the name of someone from our history who hailed from the North American continent, and is one of the most colourful and mysterious characters in Australian politics – King O’Malley.

According to his own account, King O’Malley was brought up by an uncle and aunt in New York, and began working in their bank. He then became an insurance salesman, and according to him, was an extremely successful one who worked his way across the United States. In Texas, he founded his own church, with the extravagant title of the Waterlily Rockbound Church – the Redskin Church of the Cayuse Nation. The story he told was that he performed many miracles, and married a beautiful young devotee, who unfortunately soon died of tuberculosis.

O’Malley was told he had contracted the disease himself, and had six months to live. Apparently, going to Australia was #1 on his bucket list, and he arrived here around 1888, being perhaps thirty years old (there is no birth certificate to verify his age). Far from dying, he established himself (once again?) as a successful and well-known insurance agent. His interest in politics grew, and in 1896 he announced he would be running for the South Australian state parliament.

This was a bit awkward, because he had told everyone he was an American, which made him ineligible as a candidate. He changed his story, and said that, now he thought of it, he had actually been born in Quebec, Canada, making him a British citizen. He had merely been raised in the United States. It seems nobody asked to see any paperwork, and he was duly elected as an Independent.

Soon after the election, a man who had known him in the US claimed that O’Malley was an American citizen who had fled the country on embezzlement charges. O’Malley sued, but refused to allow himself to be cross-examined. He won his case, but people surely had to be a little suspicious that financial scandal was the cause of his migration to Australia. This might be why he had trouble getting re-elected.

Nothing daunted, he moved to Tasmania and joined the Australian Labor Party, where he began to make his mark, being elected to Australia’s first national parliament in 1901. In fact, one of his lasting legacies is that the ALP spells Labour the American way. He convinced them it looked more modern, and differentiated the party from the labour movement. He was also a leading proponent of the need for a national bank, and the government founded the Commonwealth Bank in 1911.

Made responsible for the planning of the national capital, he at first said that Canberra was so dry a crow on vacation would need to bring its own water bottle, but then became an enthusiastic supporter. He approved the designs for the city by fellow American, Walter Burley Griffin.

Today a suburb of Canberra, O’Malley, is named after him, and there is also an Irish pub in the capital named King O’Malley’s which sports a picture of him on its signboard. This is something of an inside joke, as O’Malley was a member of the temperance movement, and introduced prohibition to the city of Canberra – something which made him extremely unpopular.

His political career ended after World War I, at least partly because of his pacifist views. Although only 59, he retired, and spent the rest of his life building up and embellishing his own legend, telling tall stories of his feats that were eagerly believed by his trusting supporters. He died in 1953, which would make him ninety-five by his own reckoning – it’s hard not to wonder if he put his age up a bit in order to fit in more years in which his exploits could have occurred. He was honoured with a state funeral.

O’Malley was an arresting character with a mischievous, mocking personality that many people found almost instantly annoying. His politics were considered radical to the point of charlatanism, and his oratorical style was a cross between P.T. Barnum and a revivalist preacher, with a rich range of original expressions, such as calling alcohol stagger-juice, and pubs drunkeries.

The secret to his success was that he was a massive hit with the ladies, and had no trouble at all getting the female vote. Tall, fashionably-dressed, flamboyant and loquacious, women went slightly ga-ga around him. He also had a number of policies which appealed to women, such as trying to pass a law that barmaids couldn’t be too attractive.

His commitment to women’s interests was probably genuine. When he married, he bought his wife several cottages so that she could be financially independent and have her own career, and after his death, he left in his will a trust fund for scholarships for female students of Home Economics.

O’Malley told so many stories about himself that I’m not sure the truth about him can be found now; I don’t think we even know who he really was. He had the hubris to give himself American Independence Day, July 4, as his birthday, although at other times it seemed to be July 2. It is now believed that he was from Kansas, that place about which another American story-teller would create a dream of a magical land with a fraudulent ruler in its Emerald City. King O’Malley was our Wizard of Oz – a mountebank, but a harmless one. He was a bounder, a fraud, a rapscallion, and a politician. But I repeat myself.

The name King is usually taken from the surname, which comes directly from the English word king, originally meaning a tribal chieftain. It’s very unlikely the ancestors of people named King were actually royal – the name may have denoted people who worked in the king’s household as his servants, or given as a nickname to someone who acted in a regal and perhaps arrogant manner.

In America, the surname King was often given to Irish immigrants to Anglicise an Irish name, such as Conroy (although the –roy in Conroy sounds like the French roi, meaning “king”, the name means “son of the keeper of hounds” or “servant of the keeper of hounds” in Gaelic). This seems significant in light of King O’Malley’s Irish surname.

King O’Malley claimed to be the son of Irish immigrant William O’Malley and Ellen King, with the implication that he had received his mother’s maiden name as his first name. This cannot be verified, as no such people can be found in the US census of the time. King may have been his middle name, or he may have made it up. Soon after his arrival in Australia, he styled himself as the Arizona Kicker King – the Arizona Kicker was a newspaper that O’Malley purported to have worked for.

It may sound fantastically over-the-top to us, but the name King was on the US Top 1000 from 1880 until the mid-1960s, and recently made a comeback in 2006. Since then use has steadily increased, and it is currently #389 (just one position behind Phoenix).

Although King Vidor was a famous Hollywood director, I wonder whether use of the name might be inspired by iconic civil rights leader, Martin Luther King. Jesus Christ is also known as The King of Kings in Christianity, which might give it a religious connotation.

King is one of those names that are not permitted to be registered in Australia, as King is an official title as well as a word. It might be possible to use it as a middle name though, and if King is a name in your family, that could give you a personal connection to it.

(Picture of King O’Malley from the ACT Museum and Art Gallery)

MYTH: Australian Baby Names are Becoming Increasingly Influenced by American Trends

01 Sunday Jul 2012

Posted by A.O. in Baby Name Mythbusters

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Australian names, Biblical names, classic names, created names, famous namesakes, fictional namesakes, flower names, French names, germanic names, Greek names, Irish names, Italian names, Mer de Noms, name data, name popularity, name trends, nicknames, Old English names, popular names, saints names, Scottish names, Spanish names, surname names, unisex names, US name trends, US popularity, Welsh names

Since I last went mythbusting, the 2011 name data from the United States has been released, and this week it’s American Independence Day. To celebrate both events, I decided to compare Australian and US name data. (Lou at Mer de Noms brought out her own comparison of the data for the United States and England/Wales in May, and did something pretty interesting with it.)

That Australians are becoming increasingly Americanised, including their choice of baby names, is something not debated, but accepted as a truism. It is often mourned by older generations that Australians used to call their children good solid Aussie names like Barry and Sheila, and now give them sleek American-style names like Logan and Scarlett.

It’s a myth which sounds very plausible – I certainly know far more children named Logan and Scarlett than I do Barry and Sheila (actually I don’t know any children called Barry or Sheila). But I thought we should try to get some numbers to back the myth up.

So I decided to look at the Top 100 names from both countries, in the years 1930, 1950, 1970, 1990 and 2011. If the number of names shared by both countries went steadily up, that could help support the theory that Australian names were becoming increasingly “American”. By no means conclusive proof, but it would be a start, and frankly I couldn’t think of any other way of doing it.

As I went through calculating the number of shared names, I also took note of those trends at work in Australia and the United States, where they were the same and where they differed. This gave me a picture of changing trends through the years. (The data is from Victoria, because theirs go back to 1929).

1930

MALE – 65% shared with US Top 100

1930 marked the highest percentage of shared names between the countries. This wasn’t because Australians were more “American” in 1930, but because in every year, the common denominator for both countries were classic names like John, Thomas and William, and these sort of names took up more space of both countries’ Top 100.

Trends noticeable on the Australian Top 100 were names from Ireland, Scotland and Wales, such as Kevin, Malcolm and Trevor, and aristocratic English surnames, such as Neville. Americans preferred prominent surnames of their own citizens, such as Elmer and Lee. Popular names from America we didn’t share were “cowboy” names – Wayne, Earl and Jesse. In America, nicknames for boys were all the rage, including Billy, Bob and Jimmie.

FEMALE – 51% shared with US Top 100

Popular girls names in both countries were homespun names such as Margaret and Dorothy, as well as plant names like Hazel and Rose.

Australian trends for girls included names from Ireland and Wales, such as Sheila and Gweneth, saints names such as Carmel and Veronica, and literary inventions like Doreen and Mavis. American trends were for Germanic names such as Emma and Clara, and the clunky Old English Mildred and Bertha. America’s Hispanic population meant that Delores and Juanita were Top 100 there.

1950

MALE – 59% shared with US Top 100 (down 6%)

American trends for boys we had picked up by 1950 include Gary, after Hollywood star Gary Cooper, and that supposed Australian favourite, Bruce, also popular in the US.

America continued its love of nicknames, with Bobby, Joe and Fred all Top 100. Several of the Irish boys names such as Kevin and Barry were now on the US Top 100 as well, but new Irish-style names such as Shane were still to gain American acceptance. Already in the US you can see a reluctance to use “feminine sounding” or unisex names such as Lindsay and Noel, which were Top 100 in Australia. In Australia, that same 1950s gender-anxiety produced the opposite result, with some unisex names like Leslie becoming male-only.

FEMALE – 47% shared with US Top 100 (down 4%)

The most noticeable shared trends for girls were those glamorous Hollywood names such as Marilyn (Monroe) and Rita (Hayworth). Even when Australians did take a name from America, such as Jennifer from Hollywood star Jennifer Jones, it didn’t always follow that Americans would embrace it as rapidly themselves. Jennifer was a 1950s name in Australia, but didn’t peak in the US until the 1970s.

Australian girls were being given French names like Annette and Jeanette, while Americans girls had Jacqueline. Another popular Australian “French” name was Lorraine, given in honour of St Joan of Arc, sometimes called The Maid of Lorraine. The American love of the nickname meant that names such as Judy and Peggy were Top 100 for girls.

1970

MALE – 56% shared with US Top 100 (down 3%)

Popular 1970 names which we think of as “American style” were in evidence on both charts, such as Bradley, Jason, Glenn, Darren and Craig.

Australian boys names not picked up in the US included Scottish-style names such as Ross, Graham, Stuart and Gavin, and the “feminine sounding” Ashley and Jamie. Differing ethnicities also made their mark, with Spanish Carlos in the US Top 100, and Italian and Greek names like Giovanni and Giorgio in the Australian Top 100. American nicknames powered on, with Larry, Terry and Jerry amongst them.

FEMALE – 51% shared with US Top 100 (up 4%, return to 1930 level)

It was the decade of those 1970s names Sharon and Tracey, although Sharon in particular had been popular in America for some time and we’d only just caught up.

Names such as Samantha and Amanda were already popular in Australia in 1970, but would have to wait until the 1980s to make it big in the US. Conversely, Amy was popular in the US, but wouldn’t be here until the 1980s. French Nicole was in vogue in both countries, and we’d caught up with Jacqueline; however Australia also had Danielle, Louise, Justine, Natalie, Simone and Josephine – typical 1970s girls names that were underused in the US. Scottish and Welsh names like Fiona, Megan and Bronwyn were popular here but didn’t get a look-in in the US. We were proudly using names of Australian origin, like Kylie and Narelle; naturally these were unknown in the US.

1990

MALE – 56% shared with US Top 100 (no change)

Trends from the US we were embracing were Old Testament names, such as Jacob and Zachary; and the new surname names, such as Ryan and Mitchell.

A new generation of “too feminine” boys names that were popular in Australia were ignored in the US, such as Shannon, Tristan and Leigh, as were more Scottish, Welsh and Irish-ish names, such as Lachlan, Rhys and Kane. Hayden and Jayden were already Top 100 in Australia, but not in the US. America had finally gone off nickname names, while Australia now had Jack, Jake and Ricky. American names Beau, Jackson and Tyson were popular then, as now, in Australia; of the three, only Jackson has hit the US Top 100 so far.

FEMALE – 56% the same as the US Top 100 (up 5%)

Names that both countries had in common were those typical 1990s names, like Tiffany, Brittany, Kayla and Caitlin.

Americana we were still to discover included unisex names for girls like Ariel, Shelby and Paige. Although the US had Danielle and Natalie by now, French names such as Monique, Elise, Renee and Madeleine which were popular here had apparently failed to make an impression. Although Welsh Caitlin was all the rage, the US were not on board with Tegan and Rhiannon, as we were. Most notably, Emma, Amelia, Charlotte, Sophie, Chloe and Zoe were missing from the US Top 100 – while American parents who chose these names in 1990 were ahead of the trends, in Australia, parents choosing these names in 1990 were just following the trends.

2011

MALE – 59% shared with US Top 100 (up 3%, return to 1950 level)

Congruence in popularity between the two nations has risen to 1950 levels, with many name trends in common, mostly a fresh crop of Biblical names, such as Elijah, and surname names, such as Mason.

American parents are now avoiding a new generation of Scottish names, such as Angus and Hamish, while Irish names like Declan and Flynn are also neglected in the US. Oddly enough, Kevin is still Top 100 in the US, while it’s considered a bit dated here. The scunner against nicknames continues as Americans shun Australian populars Charlie, Harry, Archie, Sam and Nate. No longer merely shying away from “feminine sounding” names for boys like Bailey and Riley, parents in the US have actually given these names to their daughters in such numbers that they are now Top 100 for girls, while Top 100 for boys here. Several names we have taken from the US, such as Jett, Hudson and Jasper, are still not popular in America.

FEMALE – 47% shared with US Top 100 (down 9%, return to 1950 level)

Girls names have also returned to 1950s levels. Many names are shared because America has caught up with our popular names from 1990, but Australian parents have also begun to use unisex names for girls like Madison and Addison.

America has abandoned many names as “outdated” such as Amy, Jessica, Holly and Amber that have taken on “modern classic” status here. While America has accepted Lily, it is less keen on our popular plant names Daisy, Ivy, Violet, Willow, Olive and Rose. British-style names such as Isla and Imogen cut no mustard in the States. Meanwhile, popular American virtue names like Genesis, Serenity, Trinity, Nevaeh and Destiny do not resonate here. Perhaps they will in the future.

CONCLUSIONS

I did not manage to bust this myth, but neither did I find much evidence to support it, so I will give its status as MYTH UNCONFIRMED.

As I compared popularity charts from the two countries, I realised more and more that it was a case of apples and oranges. Names took longer to gain popularity in the US, and it was harder for them to stay in the Top 100; name popularity was a competitive environment there. Australia has a much smaller population size, which means that name trends show up faster here. We’re also more likely to hold onto our favourite names once we’ve found them, sometimes for generations.

I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that American parents are absolutely obsessed with getting ahead of the current trends, and can watch the slowly rising popularity of their chosen names with almost comical anxiety. This makes some sense, because trending names can take so long to reach the Top 100 that they have a good chance of having ten to twenty years before that happens. In Australia, this behaviour makes no sense at all, because as soon as a name begins to show up in the data, it’s basically already quite popular. As we keep names around for longer, there’s no real rush to “catch” a name on the way up either; we can always wait until it’s a cosy, familiar “classic”.

In any given year, Australia and the US will share around half the names on their respective Tops 100s, and this has not changed across time. We share many name trends, and since at least 1950, Australia has been drawn to names from America. Sometimes it took us a long time to get onto a particular trend from America, and other times we took to it with greater enthusiasm than Americans did themselves.

Both countries also have their own styles of naming. Australia has always been fond of Irish-inspired names, and although Barry and Sheila have fallen by the wayside, we now have Finn and Molly. Scottish names continue to be a growth area, with Angus, Hamish, Callum and Isla seeming rather stylish to us. Through the years, there were many names unique to the Australian popularity charts. Names that I thought of as typical of their period, such as Dulcie in 1930, Glenys in 1950, and Jacinta in 1970 seemed to be unknown in the US.

Americans are slow to adopt Irish names, but often touchingly faithful to them, and are wary of Scottish and Welsh names. They have a deep suspicion of unisex names for boys or anything that even sounds remotely feminine, while comfortable with briskly masculine names for girls. Flower names are not popular there; perhaps they seem too girlish even for girls.

Due to going overboard on nicknames in the past, America has developed almost a horror of them, much in the same way I can no longer stomach gingerbread after overindulging on it a few Christmases ago. As nicknames are currently internationally popular, this has seen them unfairly branded as a bit stuffy on the issue, when they’re really just over the whole thing.

We don’t have to try to follow American trends, and in fact a couple of them would be downright foolish for us to imitate. But the United States has proved a rich source of name inspiration for many decades, and I know it will continue to be so for many decades to come.

Waltzing With … Lawson

17 Sunday Jun 2012

Posted by A.O. in Waltzing with ...

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english names, famous namesakes, locational names, name history, name meaning, names of bands, nicknames, Norwegian names, surname names, UK name popularity, US name popularity

This blog entry was first posted on June 17 2012, and revised and re-published on April 6 2012.

Today is the birthday of the Australian poet Henry Lawson, who was born June 17 1867. Public celebrations to mark this event were held last weekend, to coincide with the Queen’s Birthday long weekend.

There are two festivals in his honour in the Western Plains region of New South Wales. The town of Grenfell has one because that’s where Henry Lawson was born, and so does the town of Gulgong because Henry’s parents moved there when he was just six weeks old, and spent his first five or six years there.

Willoughby council in Sydney holds a bush poetry reading every two years at Henry Lawson’s Cave, and this year it fell on Henry Lawson’s actual birthday. Henry Lawson’s Cave is a small cavern which the author used as an occasional refuge, and perhaps wrote some of his work there. Another site for Lawson-lovers to visit in Sydney is the statue of Henry Lawson near the Domain, an area that Lawson enjoyed walking in, and perhaps sometimes slept out in.

Henry Lawson is said to one of our three national poets, the other two being Banjo Paterson and C.J. Dennis, yet it is as a writer of short fiction that he really shone. His style is quite modern, being spare and unflinching, with plot being less important than powerful imagery. He has sometimes been compared to Hemingway and Chekhov in terms of a lean, raw writing style. His mother was the feminist Louisa Lawson, and the political bent of his work was greatly influenced by her and her radical friends.

His importance as an Australian bush writer is that he wrote of the realities of the Australian bush, rather than the romanticised version you get from Banjo Paterson. Henry Lawson was born to a struggling family on the goldfields, and his parents’ marriage broke up; as a man who greatly admired his mother, he had a deep appreciation of how hard bush life could be for women, and how strong they needed to be just to survive, let alone thrive. The outback frequently appalled Lawson, and he saw it as a place of suffering.

Yet his perceptions of the bush have helped to shape our identity, and he had a gift for capturing and evoking the national character in just a few words. He stressed the egalitarianism and mateship of the Australian psyche, and championed the underdog and the urban poor. He understood the laconic Australian sense of humour, with its sharp sense of irony.

Lawson’s life was a sad one; he was bullied as a child and never felt that he fit in, his little sister died, his parents split up, he went deaf early in life which increased his sense of isolation, he struggled to gain recognition and find steady work, his marriage was unhappy and mirrored his parents’ by ending in separation, and he drank to ease his sadness which made things worse. He spent time in gaols, convalescent homes, and mental asylums.

It’s tempting to think that he inherited a strain of Nordic gloom from his Scandinavian father, and that depression was at the back of many of his misfortunes. Because of this, last year two men did the Henry Lawson Walk, which re-enacted a walk Lawson took with a friend from Bourke in outback New South Wales to Hungerford in outback Queensland – a trip of around 450 km (280 miles).

They did it to raise awareness and funds for Beyond Blue, the national depression initiative. Beyond Blue has programs which focus on men’s health, alcoholism, and those facing isolation in rural areas – in fact many of the problems suffered by Lawson in the late 19th and early 20th centuries are still being battled today. He is truly one of the moderns, both in life and art.

Name Information
Lawson is an English surname meaning “son of Law”, with Law a popular medieval nickname for the name Lawrence. The name was especially associated with Yorkshire, as the Lawson family was prominent during the War of the Roses. Lawson has been used as a personal name since the 17th century, with use concentrated in the north of England – an apparent legacy of its Yorkshire origins.

It should be noted that Henry Lawson’s father Anglicised his surname from the Norwegian form of the name, Larsen. There is a suburb of Canberra named after Henry Lawson – not to be confused with the town of Lawson in the Blue Mountains. Although Henry Lawson did live in the Blue Mountains at one point, the town is named after the explorer, William Lawson.

In the US, Lawson was especially associated with the southern states: John Lawson explored North Carolina in the 18th century, and Gaines Lawson was a Confederate captain in the American Civil War. Alfred Lawson was a popular philosopher in the Midwest, promoting vegetarianism, the end of banking, and racially integrated baseball; an aviation pioneer, he is cited as the inventor of the airliner, although it immediately crashed.

The name Lawson charted in the US Top 1000 from the late 19th century until World War II, then had a long break from 1950 to 2000. Since then, the name has been steadily going up the charts and is now #485 – the highest the name has been since the early 20th century.

In the UK, the name Lawson has been in the Top 1000 since 2003, and has been climbing since 2010, when the British band Lawson formed. Since their first album came out in 2012, the name has gone up even more steeply, and is now #409.

In Australia, Lawson is in steady use, and perhaps also around the 400s here. It’s a name which pays tribute to the first Australian writer to be given a state funeral, and is less popular and more modern-sounding than his first name, Henry, and fits in with popular names such as Lincoln and Logan.

Historian Manning Clark wrote that Australia was “Lawson writ large”, and this patriotic name honours the man who who been called “the people’s poet”, “our poet-prophet”, and “the real voice of Australia”. It’s a voice that is not always comfortable to hear, but this is a great name for anyone who loves the real Australia, and not an idyllic vision of it.

POLL RESULTS
Lawson received an approval rating of 89%, making it one of the highest rated names of 2012. 39% of people loved the name Lawson, and nobody hated it.

Less Commonly Used Boys Names

10 Sunday Jun 2012

Posted by A.O. in Name Themes and Lists

≈ 9 Comments

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Anglo-Norman names, Apache names, Australian vocabulary words, celebrity baby names, english names, fabric names, famous namesakes, fictional namesakes, germanic names, Hindi names, Indian names, Italian names, Latin names, locational names, mythological names, name data, name history, name meaning, name popularity, Native American names, nicknames, popular culture, Roman names, saints names, slang terms, surname names, unisex names, US name popularity, vocabulary names, Welsh names, Yorkshire dialect names

This follows on from Less Commonly Used Girls Names. The names are from the bottom of the popularity charts in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania, and in each case, the name was used less than ten times in 2011.

There seems to be a lot of musical references in this entry, so I’ve linked relevant names to YouTube videos of the person performing.

Atticus

This Roman name means “man from Attica” – Attica being the area of Greece surrounding the city of Athens. This name wasn’t uncommon in the ancient world; there is a Platonist philosopher called Atticus, and there is also a Saint Atticus, a soldier who died a martyr by being burned at the stake. However, today it is most associated with Atticus Finch, the principled lawyer and loving single father in Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. Atticus Finch, who defends a black man on a rape charge in a small Southern town during the 1930s, is considered a folk hero in legal circles. In the 1962 film adaptation, Atticus is played by Gregory Peck, who was a civil rights activist; Peck won an Academy Award for his performance, and in 2003 the American Film Institute voted his character the greatest hero in American film. It is that decent, understated heroism of Atticus Finch that makes him such a beloved character in literature and film. The character has inspired the names of both a clothing line run by musicians and an alternative rock band. It’s a hip choice which has been burning up the US popularity charts since 2004.

Bryn

Bryn is a modern Welsh name which means “hill”; as well as being a man’s name, it is also a common place name in Wales and England. A famous person with this name is Welsh opera star Bryn Terfel, a bass-baritone best known for his roles in the works of Mozart and Wagner. Apparently he applied to study music in Cardiff, but was so annoyed when they assumed he was a woman that he ended up studying in London instead. Bryn Terfel, whose first language is Welsh, is a patron of Welsh language and culture, and hopefully by now everyone in Wales recognises his name as male. Even though Bryn isn’t a common name in Australia, I don’t think it would seem too out of place either, as there are several boy’s name beginning with Br-, such as Brent and Brody. It looks rather like a cooler version of Irish Brian, which may have a similar meaning.

Corbin

Corbin is an English surname which started as a nickname based on the Anglo-Norman word for “raven”. It may have been given to someone who had raven-black hair, although less flattering possibilities also come to mind. Corbinus, the Latinised form, is found as a first name in the Domesday Book, so it has a long history of use. Despite being an old English name, this tends to be thought of as a modern American one, because it’s been solidly Top 500 in the US since the late 1980s. This may be because of television actor Corbin Bernsen, who began playing lawyer Arnold Becker on LA Law in 1986 and remained on the show until it finished in 1994. Another famous namesake is Corbin Harney, an elder and shaman of the West Shoshone people. He devoted his life to spreading a message about the dangers of nuclear energy, and the environmental issues facing the world. You may also know the name from Corbin Bleu, who was in High School Musical. This name is apparently so unusual in Australia that the article the information came from described it as a “bizarre” choice, although it seems a perfectly nice, normal name to me.

Denim

The fabric denim was originally called serge de Nîmes, after the French city where the tough cotton material was originally made by the Andre family. This was eventually shortened to denim. Denim is inextricably linked with jeans, which began life as sturdy clothing for workers, and then became fashion icons which symbolised teen rebellion. Today they are worn by pretty well everybody. Denim is an interesting name choice; it’s not really a “bad boy baby name” like Axe or Vandal, because while denim is worn by rebel icons like rock stars and bikers, it’s also worn by suburban mums and little kids. Also fabrics are usually thought of as girls names, like Velvet and Paisley, but denim is tough and hard-wearing. It’s definitely an ambiguous sort of name – one that, like the fabric, may grow with the person better than you’d expect. It’s also a soundalike with the surname and place name Denham.

Jagger

This English surname originated in Yorkshire, and means “hawker, carrier”, the word jagger being Yorkshire dialect for someone who carries a pack or load. It is claimed that most people with this surname are descended from a single family who came from Staniland, near Halifax. There was a high concentration of people named Jagger in Yorkshire, compared to the rest of England. The most famous person with this surname is undoubtedly Sir Michael “Mick” Jagger from The Rolling Stones, whose mother was born in Australia. I don’t know if this is correct, but Mick Jagger is said to be distantly related to Joseph Jagger, the 19^th century British engineer famous for being “the man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo”. Joseph Jagger was indeed from Halifax in Yorkshire. The name Jagger is almost always given in relation to The Rolling Stones frontman, and may have been given a boost in 2011 from the Maroon 5 song, Moves Like Jagger, which is a tribute to Sir Mick. The number of baby boys named Jagger went from 5 to 8 in Queensland last year.

Naiche

Naiche was the last hereditary chief of the Chiricahua band of Apache Native Americans. He was an ally, protege and relative by marriage of Geronimo, the famous Apache leader and war chief. Naiche and Geronimo successfully went to war together in the 1880s, but Naiche ended up being imprisoned. Although he had resisted the process of being moved onto an “Indian Reservation”, eventually he was forced to give in, and ended his days on an Apache reservation in New Mexico. He lived only six years after moving there, and his descendants are still on the reservation. The name Naiche means “meddlesome one, mischief-maker” and it can apparently be pronounced NAY-chee, but I’m not sure if that’s the correct Apache pronunciation, or even whether it depends on which Apache accent you’re using. Naiche is for sure a very unusual name in Australia, but it has a fascinating namesake, and actually sounds slightly like Nate and Nathan. Pronunciation and spelling seem like they would be an issue.

Occy

Occy is the nickname of Australian surfer Marco “Mark” Occhilupo. Occy is short for his Italian surname, which means “eyes of the wolf”. At the same time, it is a play on the Australian word occy straps, short for octopus straps – those stretchy cords which are used by surfers to tie their surfboards onto their car’s roof rack. Mark Occhilupo was a precocious teenage surf god of the 1980s who lost his way for several years as his life spiralled out of control. In the mid-1990s, he made a comeback, and stunned everyone when he won a world title in 1999 at the age of 33. He considered retiring in 2005, but realised he still had a lot left in him. Now aged 45, he only competes part-time, but this year he made it into the final four of the Telstra Drug Aware Pro semi-finals, defeating top-ranked surfers to do so. Mark, also dubbed The Raging Bull, is an inspirational sporting icon who teaches us that mature experience can be more important than youthful talent, and that things are never over until you give up. Although Occy is a nickname and a slang term, it means so much more.

Pax

Pax is the Latin word for “peace”, and the Romans recognised a goddess of this name who symbolised peace, and was associated with the spring. The word pax also means “treaty, accord”, and the Pax Romana is the name given to the two-century period (approximately 27 BC to 180 AD) of stability and minimal military expansion in the Roman Empire. For the Romans, peace wasn’t about everyone holding hands and singing Imagine together in a field of daisies – it described that period during war when all your opponents had been thoroughly beaten and were no longer able to resist. It denoted ultimate military victory, rather than co-operation and unity. Today we see peace rather differently, and the name is probably given with the modern concept in mind rather than the ancient Roman one. In 2007, Angelina Jolie adopted a son from Vietnam and named him Pax Thien. Pax may be the name of a goddess, but this one has very much gone to the boys, as it fits so well with popular male names such as Max and Jax.

Veer

Veer is an Indian name meaning “bravest of the brave” in Hindi. Veer (“valour”) is one of the nine rasas of ancient Hindu philosophy. These emotional states are repositories of energy drawn from our life force, and by learning to master these energies, we gain emotional balance. The rasa of Veer stops us from running away from our problems, and instead face them head on; it also gives us the courage to not allow adversity to defeat us, but to get up after a fall, and continue on. It also allows us to have the healthy confidence and self-esteem needed to achieve in life. Veer Teja Ji is an Indian folk hero and saint, and the highly successful 2004 Bollywood film Veer-Zaara is about the star-crossed romance between Indian Air Force Squadron Leader, Veer Pratap Singh, and a wealthy Pakistani woman, Zaara Haayat Khan. Veer has a very positive meaning, and looks the same as the English word veer, meaning “to swerve”. It’s also a homonym of the English name Vere, so both sound and spelling are familiar to English-speakers, and it seems a very usable heritage choice.

Ziggy

Ziggy is a nickname for Germanic names such as Sigmund, but in practice is used for a variety of names starting with Z. It is famous as the name of pop star David Bowie’s alter ego, Ziggy Stardust. Bowie based the name on a London tailor’s shop called Ziggy’s that he saw from a train one day. The surname Stardust was taken from American country and western singer Norman Carol Odom, a weird novelty act billed as The Legendary Stardust Cowboy. Norman appealed to Bowie because he had a crazy band of misfits who barely understood music, and was unconsciously hilarious. The character of Ziggy was based on pioneering English rocker Vince Taylor, who modelled himself on Elvis Presley. Like so many after him, drugs proved his downfall, and he ended up believing he was the son of God, and existing solely on eggs. Bowie got to know him, and was impressed by his magnificent repertoire of dottiness. So Ziggy Stardust was a mixture of fashion, madness, outsider art, and rock and roll excess. Ziggy is also the nickname of Bob Marley’s son David, although in his case it was a drug reference. Cute name, with a solid musical background.

(Photo shows David Bowie’s final performance as Ziggy Stardust at the Hammersmith Odeon in London, 1973)

Famous Name: Diamond

06 Wednesday Jun 2012

Posted by A.O. in Famous Names

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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 18^th 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.

Interesting Names Spotted in Print, on Radio and on TV – Autumn Edition

05 Tuesday Jun 2012

Posted by A.O. in Names Spotted at Home and Abroad

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animal names, astronomical names, Australian Aboriginal names, Chinese names, Cornish names, created names, english names, famous namesakes, Fijian names, Greek names, honouring, Indian names, Latin names, literary namesakes, locational names, mythological names, name history, name meaning, nature names, popular culture, Scottish names, sibsets, unisex names, vocabulary names, Welsh names

This celebrates the fourth birthday of a little boy who was the first baby born at Saltwater in New South Wales in over a century. The beachside area is the traditional place of the Worimi-Biripi people, and is now in a national park. Dawn Morcombe gained special permission to give birth at this spiritually significant location, and she named her son Yarramundi John Michael Hollis. Yarramundi was a famous Indigenous leader of the colonial era; his son was Colebee, who was featured on the blog last year. His name is said to mean “deep water”. Fantastic story, namesake, and meaning, especially for a baby born at Saltwater!

Debbie Bell from South Australia has had a rough life and been through more than her fair share of heartache. However, after a great deal of physical and emotional suffering, she and her husband Ian were at last able to have a baby through a donated embryo, and named their son Derlerean. I think Debbie and Ian may have created this name themselves. It reminds me of the car, the Delorean.

Victorian couple Charlotte Gernandt and Dale Hynes called their first baby Tinkabell Darling [pictured]. Now this sounds like a name straight out of Peter Pan, but Charlotte and Dale say she is not named after the fairy. Um, okay … must be inspired by some other Tinkerbell … She’s called Tinka for short.

Emma Preston was so crippled by endometriosis that she was confined to a wheelchair, and had little hope of ever having a baby. But then Sydney fertility specialist Dr Geoff Reid not only got her out of her wheelchair, he helped her to conceive through embryo transfer. Emma was so grateful, she named her baby after him. No, the baby’s not called Geoff; her name is Reid Louise. Nice gesture and name story.

It’s not often a baby ends up in the paper just because of his name, but this one is quite striking. Kate Anderson and Lance Walshe, from the Yarra Ranges just outside Melbourne, named their son Viper. His name was inspired by Lance’s love of snakes, and the couple wanted an original name that nobody else had. They considered Wolfgang, but rejected it because they thought it might lead to teasing. Viper Walshe doesn’t have a middle name, and if he’d been a girl, his name would have been Ruby Joanne. Kate says his name has met with mixed reactions.

A story from Port Macquarie on the ever-rising prices on electricity bills featured a struggling single mum named Bek Latimore. Bek’s baby girl is named Arizona; although I generally don’t go for American-states-as-names, this one always puts a smile on my face. I’m not sure I can ever imagine using it myself though. Arizona’s older brother is named Nick, which made me think – could Nick be short for Phoenix? Hmm?

This story about a midwifery programme at Canterbury Hospital in Sydney showed a mother with an elegant name: Eglantine Jalicot. Eglantine’s son has an equally stylish name – Lysander. His ancient Greek name means “release of a man”, and belonged to a famous military general of ancient Sparta. Eglantine is another name for the sweetbriar, and is first found as a personal name in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.

Two interesting and pretty girls’ names from a story on sleep and babies: Luna and Reya. Luna is of course Latin for “the moon”, and Reya is an Indian name which means (I think) “wealth”.

A story on a new breech birth clinic at Westmead Hospital in Sydney showed mum Mallissa Tulfua with her son Tevita. His name is the Fijian form of David.

A Brisbane columnist covers a naming dilemma from real life when two of her friends cannot agree what to name their baby. Readers are invited to help name their sprog, but as we’re not told what names they’ve come up with already, it seemed a rather futile exercise (although apparently the mother had rejected Luke as “not masculine”, which seemed odd). The columnist notes some of the baby names from her own extended family are Echo, Theo, Roarke, Ziad, Ingrid and Rudi.

Alana Mahadik had a very difficult childbirth with her first son, Avighna. With her second, she opted for hypnobirthing at Caboolture Hospital in Queensland on Anzac Day, and found the whole experience very quick and stress-free. Her new baby son’s name is Rudra, which is an Indian name meaning, aptly enough, “remover of pain”. Avighna’s name means “remover of obstacles”.

A rather adorable little baby girl was sadly abandoned at Canterbury Hospital early this year. The baby has been named Li-Ye, which means “beautiful child” in Chinese. Only a few babies have been abandoned this way in New South Wales in recent years: two others were named Adam and Sunday April. All of these babies were eventually adopted after their birth mothers failed to come forward.

Interesting Names of Adults

An ABC radio podcast on parenting featured a Melbourne child psychologist named Angharad Candlin. This Welsh name meaning “greatly loved” is one I have admired since childhood, yet never before seen on a real person (although I didn’t actually see her, as it was radio).

This travel writer, enjoying the Sicilian sun, has the name Dugald Jellie. There’s quite a few Australians with this Scottish form of Douglas as their name, but Dugald Jellie seemed just a bit more interesting and storybook-character somehow.

The junk mail of one April morning produced a community newsletter about a new medical centre opening in the area. One of the doctors was named Demelza – a Cornish place name from the Poldark books and TV series. I briefly thought about changing doctors just to have a GP named Demelza, but couldn’t face all the paperwork.

I read One Way or Another: The Story of a Girl Who Loved Rock Gods, the memoirs of Gold Coast rock star groupie Nikki McWatters. Eventually she sees the error of her ways, and settles down by sensibly marrying a schoolteacher. Her husband’s name? The very rockstar-sounding Zeus. As well as teaching school, Zeus is a trained opera singer, so she obviously never lost her thing for male vocalists.

Channel 7 have resurrected The Price is Right, which I find keeps the troops quietly occupied while I make dinner. As I stir and chop, I keep an ear out for names: so far I have seen a pair of sisters named Jalila and Janita (late teens to early twenties), a woman named Feda, pronounced like “feeder” (twenties), and a grandmother named Dixie (around sixtyish).

Less Commonly Used Girls Names

03 Sunday Jun 2012

Posted by A.O. in Name Themes and Lists

≈ 20 Comments

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Abby Sandel, alphanumeric names, Arabic names, Baby Name Wizard, Bonds Baby Search, celebrity baby names, Celtic names, created names, english names, famous namesakes, fictional namesakes, French names, Greek names, hebrew names, Italian names, locational names, Mer de Noms, modern names, mythological names, name data, name history, name meaning, name popularity, Nameberry, Names from the Dustbin, nicknames, popular culture, pseudonyms, rare names, Scottish names, Semitic names, Shakespearean names, stage names, surname names, The Nameberry Nine, Turkish names, unisex names, vocabulary names

When all the name data for the most popular names was released, there were also several articles which looked at some of the names closer to the bottom of the popularity lists than the top. Dorcas at Names from the Dustbin calls these names Bottom of the Barrel – not meaning that they are necessarily of poor quality, but just low in the rankings.

Most names at the bottom of the lists are just re-spellings of common names, or short forms of names that are usually kept as nicknames rather than a full name. However, if you sift through these, there’s some interesting finds at the “bottom of the barrel”, and even some neglected gems.

These names are from the popularity charts of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, and Tasmania. Nearly all of them are taken from the very rarest names in their state.

Adeline

This is a pet form of the French name Adele; the French pronunciation is a-de-LEEN, but the English is AD-uh-line. The name is well known from the American ballad Sweet Adeline, which was a standard for Australian folk band, The Seekers. There’s also the piece, Ballade pour Adeline, written for the composer’s baby girl, which I had to thump out tunelessly with my chubby fingers during many a childhood music lesson. However, Adeline has got considerably cooler since then; Kasey Chambers has a song called Adeline, Green Day’s Adeline Records handles indie rock bands, and Elliot Smith released his own darker version of Sweet Adeline. I read at Abby’s Nameberry Nine that Simon Helberg from The Big Bang Theory welcomed a daughter named Adeline last month, making it an up-to-the minute celebrity baby name. Adeline has never been on the Top 100; it was #162 for the 1900s, and then sank until it was out of regular use by the 1940s. Today it fits in well with Adelaide, Addison, Madison and Madeline; however it may be difficult for short form Addie to stand out amongst the sea of Maddies and Abbies.

Allegra

Allegra means “cheerful, lively” in Italian, related to the musical term allegro, and has a long history as a celebrity baby name. Romantic poet Lord Byron re-named his illegitimate daughter Clara Allegra Byron (called by her middle name, and originally named Alba by her mother). Despite poor little Allegras’s life being brief and marked by neglect, the name seems to have been an apt one, because she was described as a vivacious child. Her story didn’t stop American poet Henry Longfellow from using it as his daughter’s middle name; in his poem The Children’s Hour, he describes her as “laughing Allegra”. The American inventor and designer, Buckminster Fuller, also gave this name to his daughter. Allegra Versace is the daughter of Italian designer Donatella Versace, and Allegra Kurer is the daughter of British radio host Vanessa Feltz. In Australia, news presenter Jessica Rowe chose it for her eldest daughter in 2007, and last year it was chosen for the daughter of Emmy Kubainski. Frothy and elegant, with a positive meaning, this fashionable favourite would also make a good Italian heritage choice.

Bonnie

Bonnie is taken from the Scottish word bonnie, meaning “pretty, beautiful”; it’s derived from the French bon, meaning “good”. Bonnie has been used as a personal name since the 19^th century, and was even sometimes given to boys, but received a huge boost when it was used in Margaret Mitchell’s popular romance, Gone with the Wind. Bonnie Blue Butler is the daughter of Scarlett and Rhett, and receives her name because she has eyes the colour of the Bonnie Blue Flag – the banner of the Confederate States in the American Civil War. British rocker Billy Idol, who sang Rebel Yell, named his daughter Bonnie Blue, and we had a Bonnie Blue competing in the Bonds Baby Search. Another famous Bonnie is Bonnie Parker, one half of notorious crime duo Bonnie and Clyde. Bonnie has been on the charts almost continuously, albeit in rare use in the 1950s and ’60s. It had a peak in the 1920s at #172, then peaked again in the 1990s at #157; it’s currently climbing in the mid-100s in New South Wales, but is obviously rarer in other states. It’s a sweet old-fashioned name which is also linked to rebellion, giving it a spunkier image.

Cleopatra

This Greek name means “glory of the father”, and is almost impossible for us to disassociate from the famous Queen of Egypt. From a dangerously inbred family of Macedonian Greek origin, she ruled Egypt alongside her father, and then her brothers (who were also her husbands), but then seized control and reigned alone for many years. She was able to align herself with Rome as both ally and lover to both Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, but after Mark Antony’s death, is said to have poisoned herself before she could be captured and humiliated. According to tradition, she killed herself with an asp. Her story captured the imagination of William Shakespeare, who based his play Antony and Cleopatra on the last part of her life, and her story has been made into several films, including the lavishly dreadful one starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Cleopatra is always depicted as a woman of great beauty, although early traditions suggest her attractiveness was based more on enormous charm and sex appeal. This ancient, glamorous name carries a lot of weight, but with short form Cleo becoming fashionable, some parents may wish for a long form of the name.

Elif

This Turkish name is after Alif, the first letter of the Arabic alphabet, and has connotations of “tall and slender”, as if the person is shaped like the letter, which is a long vertical line. It is pronounced ay-LEEF. You probably recall that Natalie Portman had a son named Aleph last year; Aleph is the Hebrew form of the same letter. The meaning of the letter goes back to the West Semitic word for “ox”, as the cuneiform originally represented the shape of an ox’s head. In Arabic, the word is connected via folk etymology to the word for “coy, tamed”, giving it a subtly demure feeling. It’s a common girl’s name in Turkey, and there are several Turkish celebrities with this name. There’s also a town in Turkey called Elif. I’m not sure a non-Turkish person would ever use it, but it’s certainly an attractive name that is easy enough for an English-speaker to understand and pronounce, once they’ve learned how it’s said.

Harlow

This name is inspired by Jean Harlow, a Hollywood superstar of the 1930s. With her platinum hair and vampish image, she was the forerunner to many blonde bombshells of the movies. Despite her beauty and success, Harlow’s life contained much tragedy, and she died of kidney failure while only in her twenties. Harlow took her mother’s maiden name as her stage name; her birth name was Harlean Carpenter. The surname Harlow is from several places in England. Harlow in Yorkshire means “hill of rocks” in Old English, while the meaning of Harlow in Essex is disputed. One theory is that it means “army hill”, with the idea being that local landmark Mulberry Hill was a meeting place for the local people. Another is that it means “temple mound”, as there is an Iron Age burial mound in the area which later had a Roman temple built on the site. Harlow is a unisex name, but more common for girls; the name came to public attention when Nicole Richie named her daughter Harlow in 2008. There were 20 babies named Harlow in Queensland last year, up from 12 the year before. Although numbers are still low, that’s a significant jump.

Pixie

This name is after the small mythological being of English folklore, tales of which come from Cornwall and Devon. They are usually depicted as small sprites who could be mischievous, but were often helpful to humans. A famous Australian with this name was the prolific illustrator and artist Pixie O’Harris (aunt of singer-artist Rolf Harris). Her real name was Rhona Olive Harris, but when she migrated to Australia from Wales she changed her name to Pixie because she was nicknamed “the Welsh pixie” on the boat over. A printer’s error changed her name from Pixie O. Harris to Pixie O’Harris, and she stuck with it as her pseudonym. Last year, businesswoman Roxy Jacenko named her new baby Pixie-Rose. I think some people will find the name Pixie adorably cute, and others impossibly twee; it’s bound to get some interesting reactions, and does have the fashionable X in it.

Sippie

The only person I know of named Sippie is the blues singer Sippie Wallace, who was born Beulah Thomas. Her career spanned seven decades, and although she found fame as a young woman in the 1920s, she was rediscovered in the 1960s and ’70s and was a big influence on Bonnie Raitt, who went on tour with her. Her album Sippie won the Blues Album of the Year in 1983, so her comeback was a definite success. The name Sippie is one that she gained in childhood because the gap in her teeth meant that she had to “sip” all her food and drink. Coincidentally, there is a place on the Gold Coast called Sippy Downs; its name is a corruption of an Aboriginal word meaning “winged creatures”, and interpreted as meaning “birds”. As Sippie Wallace was billed as “The Texas Nightingale”, I find this juxtaposition very charming. Sippie is an unusual name, but what a wonderful namesake. This would be very suitable for a family who loves music, especially jazz and blues.

Torah

In Australia, this name is well known as belonging to snowboarder Torah Bright, who won gold at the 2010 Winter Olympics. Her parents named her after the Torah, which is the Jewish word for the first five books of the Old Testament. The word is from the Hebrew, meaning “teaching, instruction”, however, Torah Bright’s mother believed that it meant “bearer of a great message”. Torah Bright is a member of the Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormon), and lives in Salt Lake City, Utah. There was slight disbelief at this name on The Baby Name Wizard, with a couple of people feeling that it seemed rather offensive, or at least strange. Torah’s name was reported on in Washington Jewish Week; there was no mention of it being offensive to Jews, but they did appear to find it slightly amusing. Like calling your child Bible or Gospel, many will find this name a head-scratcher. It would be given in honour of our Olympic champion, but the religious ramifications may be lost on some people. The fact that it sounds as if it could be short for Victoria is probably a help.

Zahlia

This name is pronounced ZAH-lee-uh, and as far as I’m aware, it’s a modern invention. It seems to be an elaboration of the name Zali; Zali Steggall is Australia’s most internationally successful alpine skier (now retired). Her name has proven a great success here, and spawned many variants, such as Zarly, Zahlee, Zalie etc. It’s unclear where the Stegalls got the name Zali from, and to the best of my knowledge, it’s made up. Zahlia does well in Australia, because it sounds rather exotic, while also being similar to popular names such as Zara and Tahlia (it even looks like a combination of those names). Despite being listed as a rare name, I have seen some parents dismiss Zahlia as being “too common”; perhaps it’s not rare enough to seem “unique”, or perhaps the many variants and sound-alike names make it appear to be one of the pack.

(Picture is from one of the posters for the 1963 movie Cleopatra)

Famous Name: Winton

30 Wednesday May 2012

Posted by A.O. in Famous Names

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Tags

Anglo-Saxon names, Banjo Paterson, Bonds Baby Search, British-Roman names, english names, famous namesakes, locational names, name history, name meaning, Old English names, popular culture, surname names, Waltzing Matilda

The small town of Winton in outback Queensland has played a pivotal role in Australian literature and the development of an Australian legend, for it was at a cattle station named Dagworth Homestead, just to the north of the town, that A.B. “Banjo” Paterson wrote Waltzing Matilda, and it was set to music (based on a traditional tune) by Christina Macpherson in 1895.

Indeed, the very plot of the song is said to have been inspired by events which took place at Dagworth Homestead during the Great Shearer’s Strike of 1891, when three policemen gave chase to a swagman named Samuel Hoffmeister, who shot and killed himself at the waterhole rather than allow himself to be arrested. It is thought that Christina and her brother Bob told Banjo Paterson the story during his stay at the station.

The folklore of the song and its creation is the pride of Winton, which has its own museum, the Waltzing Matilda Centre. Waltzing Matilda received its first public performance in Winton’s North Gregory Hotel, on April 6 1895, and this year, the town of Winton held its inaugural Waltzing Matilda Day on April 6, to honour and celebrate our national song.

In fact, the town’s mayor, Ed Warren, has asked that Waltzing Matilda Day be declared a public holiday. A worthy notion, but even someone as keen on holidays as me cannot help noticing we already have Easter and Anzac Day that month, so April seems a little full up.

The town of Winton was named by postmaster Robert Allen, supposedly after his birthplace in England, a suburb of the seaside town of Bournemouth in Dorset. The suburb is named after Winton Castle in Scotland, home to the Earl of Winton, a relative of local Dorset family, the Talbots. Winton Castle is near Edinburgh, and was originally owned by one of the oldest families in Scotland, the Setons; it was built in 1480 on lands the family had acquired in 1150. It is now an award-winning hotel and conference centre.

However, as it turns out, Robert Allen was actually born in Winchester in Hampshire, which was also known as Winton. This lovely cathedral town’s name is a mixture of British-Roman and Anglo-Saxon, and means “market town”.

The surname Winton is famous in Australia as belonging to Western Australian novelist Tim Winton. He has won a swag of literary prizes, including the NBC Banjo Award for Cloudstreet. He has been named a Living Treasure by the National Trust, and awarded the Centenary Medal for services to literature and the community.

While writers who have found literary acclaim aren’t always popular with the ordinary reading public, nearly everyone I know who reads at all lists Tim Winton as one of their favourite authors. He manages to combine wonderful storytelling with a uniquely spare prose style

As well as writing and winning awards, Tim also finds time to support the environmental movement. As a patron of the Australian Marine Conservation Society, he has raised awareness about sustainable seafood consumption and campaigned against shark finning; he is also patron of Stop the Toad Foundation and has contributed to The Last Whale website. He has been prominent in the campaigns to save Moreton Bay and Ningaloo Reef.

Mr Winton writes novels for grown ups, and also children’s books, most notably the Lockie Leonard stories, about young surf rat Lockie who moves from the city to the coastal south-west of Western Australia (probably not coincidentally, this is exactly what Tim Winton did when he was twelve). The TV series based on the books is filmed in Albany, where Tim grew up, and has also won a stack of well-deserved awards.

The English surname Winton can come from Winton in Lancashire, whose name means “willow wood farm” – a place where willow trees were farmed for their extremely useful wood. Winton in Westmoreland, however, means “Wina’s pasture”. The name Wina meant “friend” in Old English. It is from this personal name that Winton Castle in Scotland is also named, which seems to have brought us full circle.

I saw the name Winton on a baby boy who competed in the Bonds Baby Search. It’s very similar to the aristocratic Winston, yet with its own connections to the world of Australian literature, the Australian coast and the Australian outback. It seems like an unusual yet stylish choice.

(Photo above shows the statue of the Jolly Swagman in Winton, sculpted by Daphne Mayo)

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