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Waltzing More Than Matilda

~ Names with an Australian Bias of Democratic Temper

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Tag Archives: initials

Celebrity Baby News: Dale and Sophie Vine

23 Tuesday Dec 2014

Posted by A.O. in Celebrity Baby News

≈ Comments Off on Celebrity Baby News: Dale and Sophie Vine

Tags

celebrity baby names, initials

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Reality TV contestants Dale and Sophie Vine recently welcomed their first child, and have named their son Van Byron. The papers have speculated that perhaps Van’s name was inspired by a road trip the Vines went on in September, where they drove an old van to Byron Bay. Another humorous suggestion is that the initials VB immortalise Dale’s love of VB (Victoria Bitter) beer. Nobody seems to have commented on the fact that Van Vine is a bit of an odd tongue-twister.

Dale and Sophie competed on renovation show The Block in 2012; Dale has also taken part in The Block All Stars in 2013, and Block Fans vs Faves this year. Dale has started his own Block news parody, called Dale-e News, appeared as a presenter on Postcards and Getaway, and been a guest panellist on ManSpace. Dale is the face of CAT clothing and workwear and APCO service stations, and an ambassador for Holmesglen Institute, where he completed his Landscaping apprenticeship.

Choosing Between Two Baby Names

09 Sunday Jun 2013

Posted by A.O. in Your Questions Answered

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Baby Name Genie, choosing baby names, honouring, initials, middle names, name popularity, nicknames, popular names, sibsets, US name popularity

k-bigpicA lot of times, parents end up with two front-runners on their baby name list – both equally good choices, both equally loved. They’re usually fairly similar in style and popularity, which makes it harder to decide.

One of the most common questions used to search for the blog is choosing between two different names, so today I thought we would take one of these questions as an example of different ways you could use to make the choice between names. Not all of them will work for you, but hopefully at least one of them will make sense.

The names I’ve chosen are Sophia nn “Sophie” and Matilda nn “Tilly“, which are only four places apart in the 2012 NSW 100. For the purposes of the exercise, I’ve picked the surname Conway out of the phone book, and we will imagine that the middle name has to be Jane, after grandma. The baby’s siblings are named Audrey and William nn “Will“.

Check how each name sounds with the middle name and surname

Take your names on a road test by trying all possible combinations of each name, including nicknames and initials.

Sophia Jane, Sophia Conway, Sophia Jane Conway, Sophie Conway, S Conway, SJ Conway, SJC

OR

Matilda Jane, Matilda Conway, Matilda Jane Conway, Tilly Conway, M Conway, MJ Conway, MJC

Don’t just write them down on a piece of paper, say them aloud. Put them into sentences. Sophie, please set the table for dinner … Tilly, where were you? I was so worried! This road test from Baby Name Genie is quite good.

Call them out – Sophia, are you ready for school? Matilda Jane Conway, get in here this instant! (The usual advice seems to be to do this in a supermarket or playground, but where I live, this will get you called “the crazy woman who yelled at an imaginary person in the supermarket/playground” for the next forty years. Everyone else must have more open-minded supermarkets, or else they drive to another town to do it or something.)

Does one name appeal more than another when you say it out aloud? Do you prefer the smooth sound of Sophia Conway, or the perky lilt of Tilly Conway? Does Matilda Jane seem “right” to you, in a way that Sophia Jane doesn’t? Do the initials MJ bug you for some indefinable reason?

Check how each name sounds with the siblings

Audrey, William and Sophia

OR

Audrey, William and Matilda

Which one can you best imagine as Audrey and William’s baby sister? Can you see yourself saying, These are my children – Audrey, William and Sophia or My kids are called Audrey, Will and Tilly? Do Will and Tilly sound too much alike to your ears?

Popularity

If you care about popularity even a little (and let’s face it, most of us do), have a quick check of each name’s popularity. Not just how popular it is now, but whether it is becoming more or less popular.

Sophia is still climbing in popularity, while Matilda has begun to descend in the charts, although both names are fairly stable – Sophia rose only 1 place last year, while Matilda didn’t move.

While both names have a similar popularity, Sophia is likely to become more popular, and perhaps even reach #1, as it has in the United States. Matilda is unlikely to overtake its peak of #16, but will probably remain fairly popular for some time.

A lot of parents have a great anxiety about their baby’s name becoming “too popular” and reject names on an upward trajectory, but I think names rising in popularity are nothing to be afraid of. For girls especially, having a rising name seems to correlate with liking their own name a great deal.

In this case, they may not have too many years to have a rising name, as Sophia could peak fairly soon. You may want to take the nickname into account and consider the popularity of Sophie too.

In practice, parents are going to be more concerned about local popularity – if they know ten Matildas and no Sophias in their neighbourhood, Sophia is going to be more attractive to them, no matter what the charts say.

As we don’t have crystal balls or the ability to control other parents’ names choices, I think it’s wisest to educate ourselves about popularity, but not to fret over it.

Wait until the baby is born before deciding

This must be the most common piece of advice handed out to indecisive parents, and with good reason: a lot of the time it seems to work. Many parents seem able to instinctively feel that their baby looks like a particular name, and no other can be considered. They look at their daughter, and know at once she is a Matilda, and not a Sophia, and the question is settled.

It doesn’t work for everyone, or for every baby, so I would consider this a technique you would hope to work, rather than expect it to.

Flip a coin

This is another common piece of advice handed out when you need to make a decision. It’s not as silly as it sounds, because the important part is not whether you get heads or tails, but how the outcome makes you feel. In other words, the coin toss is just a way to gauge your gut reaction. You toss a coin, and you get heads, which means the name is Matilda. Do you feel a pang of loss that it isn’t Sophia? Were you secretly hoping it would be tails? Maybe your gut is telling you something.

Choose a third option

If you get all the way through this and you still can’t decide between Sophia and Matilda, chances are neither name is right. Maybe the perfect name has been staring you in the face the whole time, and you’ve been too distracted obsessing over Sophia and Matilda to notice it. Stop obsessing, and the right name might make itself known to you.

Things to consider

  • It’s fine to ask other people for their opinions, but don’t follow them blindly. Asking too many people may end up confusing you more, so it’s best to limit how many people you ask, and choose them wisely. The best people to talk to are those that ask you questions to help you understand your own feelings better, rather than people who just tell you their own opinions, and those who can share their own experiences, so you can learn what techniques worked for other people.
  • If you are hesitating about a name because of the middle name or the nickname, that’s something that might be easily fixed. For example, if Sophie as a nn for Sophia seems too common, you could always use Fia. If you think Tilly sounds odd next to a brother named Will, maybe Tilda or Matti is more pleasing to you (or you might just choose to be glad you didn’t nickname William “Billy”). If you don’t love Sophia Jane, perhaps you could add another middle and call her Sophia Violet Jane instead. Think about whether a particular issue can be changed to suit you better before you cross it off.
  • Trust your instincts. There’s no right or wrong answer, so go with what feels right to you. A name doesn’t have to tick every box to be the right one.
  • Don’t stress over the decision or over-think it. In the grander scheme of things, it doesn’t make a huge difference whether you pick Sophia or Matilda – they are both nice names. Since there isn’t a wrong choice to make, you might as well relax about it!

Have you ever had to choose between two names which both seemed perfect? How did you make a choice?

Names Spotted at Home and Abroad (Summer Edition)

25 Monday Mar 2013

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

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

animal names, Australian Aboriginal names, changing names, culinary names, english names, ethnonyms, famous namesakes, fictional namesakes, fish names, floral emblems, flower names, food names, French names, German names, honouring, initials, Japanese names, Latin names, locational names, makes of cars, name combinations, name meaning, names of horses, names of spices, names of weapons, Native American names, nature names, nicknames, Persian names, plant names, rare names, rose varities, sibsets, surname names, types of boats, unisex names, vocabulary names

297602-baby-namesThe first baby born in Wollongong for 2013 was Rumi Vassilakoglou; he is named after the medieval mystical Persian poet, whose moniker means “from Rome” (this name for him is not used in Muslim countries, by the way). Rumi’s mum is named Leila, and his younger sibling is Mahli.

Your baby disappearing is every parent’s worst nightmare, but little Minowa Worthington’s story ended happily. Minowa is the name of a Japanese town, and a Japanese surname, but baby name books tell me it also Native American for “one with a moving voice”. They don’t say which language it is from, but I have seen Native Americans online with Minowa as their surname.

A Gold Coast baby born in the Queensland floods was named Sabre Smith. Although his name can be after the sword, putting it in the same genre as Blade or Steel, a sabre is also a class of racing boats – which seems apt for a baby born surrounded by water.

Another water baby is Dwight Anderson, who was born in the bath. I was a tiny bit surprised to see such an old-fashioned name in use … much more surprised to see that Dwight is a girl. Dwight’s sister is named Billie-Jo.

Allegra Bluebelle from Canberra, born in the city’s centenary year, has a middle name after its floral emblem, the royal bluebell. A little girl born on the city’s birthday seven years ago has the same initials as the Australian Capital Territory – Aisha Caitlyn Truselsen. A fisherman has a daughter named Makaira Indica, which is the scientific name for the black marlin (this isn’t connected to Canberra, so not sure why they mentioned it, but there you go).

The Hallett family changed their name by deed poll to Holden, in honour of the make of car. Not content with that, they have given their children Holden-related names too. Their son is named Toree, after the Torana, and his little sister is named Elcee – after the LC generation of Toranas.

An article about “unique” names quoted brothers named Mac and Fonzii. I have no idea why Mac is supposed to be unique, but Fonzii does seem slightly out of the ordinary. He’s not named about Fonzie from Happy Days, which reminds me of the baby named Tinkabell not named after the fairy. Other unusual names of real babies mentioned were Dragon, Justus, Porch, Ever, Notorious, Cash, Lychee and Bandit.

Another article on the same subject, with much the same information, featured a baby boy named Ace Bear Johnson, which strikes me as both cute and sporty (Ace’s sister is named Esmee). There was also a baby girl named Annecy Belle Easton [pictured], named after a French town that her parents fell in love with after they stayed there. She is called Annie for short, and Annecy’s mum also has the name of a French town – Nancy. Article also mentions real babies named Batman, Blaze and Charisma.

Darwin schoolteacher Wendy Green named her racehorse Rogan Josh, after the Indian spice mix, which she saw at the supermarket. She claims that in Tennant Creek, she was asked to baptise a baby, which she did using champagne, and named the baby Rogan Josh as well. You may take this story with as many grains of salt as you wish – but Rogan Josh really isn’t too bad a name. It literally means “boiling oil” in Persian.

Friday’s birth notices included a new baby named Passion Brinessa Ajayla Quinatee Martin, who is the 12th child in her family. The rest of the family are Samantha Jayne (18), twins Shantelle Victoria and Stephanie Catherine (15), Jenaya Lee (11), Shania Kay (10), Brandon Bradley (7), Brandi Shyla Molly Robyn (6), Cruz Richard (5), Clayton Adam Logan (4) and Diammond Sparckle Zedekeyah Lilly Ann (3). Mum is named Brinessa, which is a variety of rose, and quite an unusual name too. She admits she did find it difficult to come up with original names, and turned to an iPhone application for inspiration.

Names of Adults

Lyra Benbow is a primary schoolteacher in the Melbourne suburb of Digger’s Rest who is just about to spend her Easter break doing volunteer work in Uganda. Is anyone else just loving her name? It sounds like something out of a fantasy novel.

Another awesome name from the papers: Eugenie Pepper, who runs a children’s fashion business named Plum. I feel like ringing her number to hear if she answers, “Hello, this is Pepper of Plum”.

Last year, Cressida Moneypenny attended the Anzac Day commemorations in Turkey. Originally from the Gold Coast, Ms Moneypenny was drawn to her name’s spiritual home, and moved to London. Ian Fleming never gave his Miss Moneypenny a name, but I feel sure it should have been Cressida …

The Melbourne Comedy Festival will feature eight comedians named Dave. Why so many funny guys named Dave? Dave O’Neil was a David until he started in comedy – then he became Dave, which seemed more man of the people. Dave Hughes also began as a David, but said he couldn’t make it stick – people just expect a comedian of a certain age to be a Dave, apparently. All the Daves agreed they had been stuck with an uncool name – while a David can be hip or sexy, a Dave is always daggy.

Names From Real Life

A pair of sisters named Ilse and Matine, which I thought went together really well without being in the least matchy. Ilse is a German nickname for Elizabeth, while Matine is based on the French word for “morning”.

Another cute sibset, this time a little hippyish – Lotus, Jewel and Sunny (two girls and a boy). They are names which just make you smile.

Someone I know told me they have a new niece named Berrilee, which is the name of a suburb of Sydney (and one I missed!). It is derived from an Aboriginal word meaning perhaps “mouth” or “food”, and far from being a modern innovation, baby Berrilee is named after an ancestor.

A name I saw on a class list at the start of the school year – Phonique. It’s French for “phonic”, as pertaining to sound, and is used by a (male) DJ in Europe. To me it almost seems like a portmanteau of phony and unique …. and quite technological.

In spring it was Aryan … here’s another name I saw some people find controversial – Gypsy. This is a name more common in Australia than it is in the UK and other European countries, which have significant populations of Romanis or Travellers (who sometimes refer to themselves as gypsies). Romanis are not in fact from Egypt, which is what Gypsy literally means – their origins are from the Indian subcontinent.

Names of Babies Born to People I Know or Know Of:

Girls: Florence, Harriet, Lola, Marina

Boys: Arlo, Gus, Huxley

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