Names of Australian Female Olympic Swimmers

25 Sunday Nov 2012

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During the winter, I compiled lists of names from Olympic medalists, and perhaps you noticed that no swimmers were included. That’s because swimmers are such a big part of our team, and historically the big medal winners, so that they really needed lists all to themselves. Now that it’s hot again, maybe they will inspire you to hit the pool!

Alva (Colquohuon)

Alva Colquhuon won silver at the 1960 Olympics. Alva is the feminine form of the Scandinavian name Alf, from the Old Norse for “elf”. Alva is also a male name, a variant of the Hebrew name Alvah, meaning “his highness”. As a male name, it is best known as the middle name of American inventor Thomas Alva Edison. Today it almost seems like a cross between Ava and Alba.

Brittany (Elmslie)

Brittany Elmslie is a young swimmer who attended her first Olympics this year, where she won a gold and two silvers. Brittany is the name of a region in north-west France, which in French is known as Bretagne. It was once known as Little Britain in order to distinguish it from Great Britain, hence its name. The Breton language is Celtic, related to Welsh and Cornish, and the history of the land and its people is intimately connected to Great Britain. Even today, Brittany retains its own identity and culture within France. Brittany has been used as an English girl’s name since the late 18^th century – perhaps originally because Brittany was known for its resistance to the French Revolution. The name first entered the charts in the 1970s, making #245 by the 1980s. It peaked in the 1990s at #31, then sharply dropped, leaving the Top 100 in the early 2000s. It hasn’t charted at all since 2009 (the year actress Brittany Murphy died), and this is a good example of a name which reaches popularity very quickly, then becomes just as rapidly dated.

Dawn (Fraser)

Dawn Fraser is one of our most famous swimmers, who has received many honours; she is considered the greatest sprint swimmer of all time. She won two golds and a silver at the 1956 Olympics, a gold and two silvers in 1960, and a gold and a silver at the 1964 Games, setting two world records and two Olympic records. She is well known for her blunt speech and larrikin character, and one of the ferries on Sydney Harbour is named after her. Dawn is the period just before sunrise, where there is pale sunlight, but the sun itself is still below the horizon. The word comes from the Old English for “to become day”. The name is found from the 16^th century onwards, and must at least sometimes have been given to girls born at daybreak. Dawn first entered the Australian charts in the 1910s, reaching #103 for the 1920s. It peaked in the 1930s at #32, and left the Top 100 in the 1950s. It hasn’t ranked since the 1980s, and the 1970s song Delta Dawn, about a crazy middle-aged woman, probably didn’t do its image any good – although covering it gave Australian singer Helen Reddy her first #1 hit. I wonder whether it might be time for a revival of this 1930s name? Apart from the fragile beauty of dawn, the word is filled with hope and optimism, and a sense of renewal.

Emily (Seebohm)

Emily Seebohm has been a champion swimmer since 14 and is now 20. She won gold at the 2008 Olympics, and a gold and two silvers at the London Games. Emily is the English form of the Roman name Aemilia, the female form of the family name Aemilius. The Aemilii were one of the noblest and most ancient patrician houses of Rome, and were probably of Sabine origin. They interpreted their name as meaning “persuasive”, and others derived it from Latin aemulus, meaning “rival”, but most likely these are both false etymologies. The English form is first found in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales; he adapted it from a character named Emilia in a poem by Giovanni Boccaccio, where two men are rivals for the affections of the same woman. Although in use from early on, it didn’t become popular until the Hanoverians came to the throne in the 18^th century, as Princess Amelia, daughter of George II, was called Emily by her family. Emily was #36 for the 1900s, but fell until it had left the Top 100 by the 1930s. It reached its lowest point in the 1950s at #455, then climbed steeply; it skyrocketed to make #26 for the 1980s. Emily peaked at #1 in 1998, and remained there for most of the early 2000s. Currently this pretty classic is #12.

Hayley (Lewis)

Hayley Lewis was at her peak during the 1990s, when she won many medals internationally, but although she attended three Olympics, only won silver and bronze at the 1992 Games. Hayley is now the host of Channel Ten’s weight-loss show, The Biggest Loser. Hayley is an English surname from a common English place name meaning “hay clearing” in Old English; the surname dates from the 13^th century and is especially associated with Yorkshire. It’s been used as a personal name for both boys and girls since the early 18^th century, but only became popular in the 20^th century, and only as a girl’s name. This was because of English actress Hayley Mills, who was the most popular child star of the 1960s, and made several Disney films as a teenager. Hayley first entered in the charts in the 1960s, when Mills began her career, debuting at #489. It climbed steeply during the 1970s, and was Top 100 by the 1980s. Hayley peaked in 2005 at #21, and is currently #50. It dropped just one place in 2011, and looks set to maintain a graceful decline that could see it in the Top 100 for several more years.

Jacinta (van Lint)

Jacinta van Lint won silver at the 2000 Olympics. Jacinta is the feminine form of the name Jacinto, a Spanish/Portuguese name meaning “hyacinth”. The Spanish pronunciation is something like ha-SEEN-tah, but in English we say it juh-SIN-tah. It is best known as the name of Blessed Jacinta Marto, who was one of the three children of Fátima in Portugal, who reported witnessing visions of an angel and the Virgin Mary in 1916-17. Jacinta has been rather a favourite in Australasia, first entering the charts in the 1950s, and climbing until it peaked at #101 for the early 2000s. It fell to #197 in 2009, and since then has picked up slightly, to make #189 last year. The fact that it entered the charts in the 1950s makes me wonder if use of the name was originally inspired by the 1952 Hollywood movie, The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima, which starred Sherry Jackson as Jacinta (the name had the English pronunciation in the film). It’s a pretty name which has had steady use without ever becoming highly popular in New South Wales – although more common in Victoria.

Lisbeth (Trickett)

Lisbeth “Libby” Trickett won gold and bronze at the 2004 Olympics, two golds, a silver and a bronze in 2008 while setting a world record, and gold at the London Games this year. Lisbeth is a variant spelling of Lisbet, a Scandinavian short form of Elisabeth. The name has recently become well-known due to Lisbeth Salander, the antiheroine of Swedish author Stieg Larsson’s crime thriller Millennium series. The first novel, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, was turned into a Hollywood movie last year, with Rooney Mara as Lisbeth. Lisbeth Salander is a disturbed computer hacker with a punk-Goth style, and a victim who refuses to lie down, but instead turns vigilante. It’s definitely given sweet Lisbeth a far more dangerous and edgy image.

Marilyn (Wilson)

Marilyn Wilson won silver at the 1960 Olympics. Marilyn is a portmanteau name combining Mary and Lynn. It can be found from the late 18^th century, and seems to have sprung up in several countries almost simultaneously, so that an origin for the name isn’t obvious. Its most famous namesake is Hollywood sex symbol Marilyn Monroe, and thanks to Elton John’s Candle in the Wind, nearly everyone knows her birth name was Norma Jeane. The name Marilyn was chosen for her by a studio executive because she reminded him of Broadway beauty Marilyn Miller (oddly enough, Marilyn later married writer Arthur Miller). Marilyn Miller was born Mary, and combined her name with her mother’s middle name to create her stage name. Marilyn first entered the charts in the 1920s, when Marilyn Miller began her career, and by the 1930s was #146. It skyrocketed to make the Top 100 in the 1940s, and peaked in the 1950s, the era in which Monroe enjoyed her greatest success, at #44. It then plummeted into the 200s during the 1960s after Monroe’s death, and hasn’t ranked at all since the 1980s. This is a dated name, yet still possesses some of the lustre of its two glamorous namesakes.

Nadine (Neumann)

Nadine Neumann had to battle against the odds, first recovering from chronic fatigue syndrome as a teenager, then breaking her neck before she could attend the 1992 Olympics. She made it to the 1996 Games, but failed to win a medal. After retiring, Nadine became an educator and writer. Nadine is the French form of the Russian name Nadia, a short form of Nadezdha, meaning “hope”. The French pronunciation is na-DEEN, but in Australia we usually say it nay-DEEN. Its most famous namesake is South African novelist and political activist Nadine Gordimer, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1991. In the 1960s, the name got its own popular song when Chuck Berry released Nadine, describing his object of desire as moving “like a wayward summer breeze”. Nadine first charted in the 1950s, the decade that Nadine Gordimer published her first novel; it debuted at #535. The name peaked in the 1970s at #145, and by 2009 no longer charted at all. However, Nadine recently made a minor comeback, reaching #573 last year. Irish singer Nadine Coyle, from pop group Girls Aloud, may have been a help; her first solo album was released at the end of 2010.

Sarah (Ryan)

Sarah Ryan won silver at the 1996 Olympics, silver in 2000 and gold in 2004. In the Bible, Sarah was the wife of the prophet Abraham, and a woman of surpassing beauty; she is honoured in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. She was barren until extreme old age, when God blessed her and Abraham with a son named Isaac. Her name was originally Sarai (said suh-RYE), but when she and Abraham made their covenant with God, her name was changed to Sarah. As both names have the same meaning (“woman of high rank, female ruler of the court”, translated as “princess”), it is unclear what the purpose of the change was. It’s possible the ah sound in Sarah suggested the name of Yahweh more closely, as if to demonstrate she was now a woman of the Lord, not of the world. In fact, Sarah is the only prophetess in the Bible who is spoken to directly by God. Although Sarah is a Hebrew name, its origins are Babylonian, and some scholars identify the Biblical Sarah with the goddess Ishtar. This vaguely fits with the Old Testament story, which says Abraham and his wife were originally pagans from Sumeria. Sarah was #43 in the 1900s, but had left the Top 100 by the 1920s, and reached its lowest point in the 1940s at #284. By the 1960s it was Top 100 again, and peaked in the 1980s at the #1 name. Currently it is #31, and remains a lovely classic.

(Picture is of Dawn Fraser at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne; photo from Wikimedia Commons)

Names of Australian Male Paralympic Medalists

28 Sunday Oct 2012

Posted by A.O. in Name Themes and Lists

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Bruno (Moretti)

Bruno Moretti won silver in table-tennis at the 1960 Paralympics, and a gold and two silvers in athletics at the 1964 Paralympics. Bruno is a Germanic name meaning “brown”. The name was used by the nobility in medieval Europe, and there are several saints named Bruno. One of them is Saint Bruno of Cologne, who was the son of Saint Matilda. He was Duke of Lotharingia and Archbishop of Cologne, and his court in Cologne was an intellectual and artistic centre. Bruno was also the given name of two popes – Gregory V and Leo IX. Bruno has a long history of use in Europe, and today is Top 100 in Croatia, Catalonia, Spain, and Chile. It’s also a common surname in Italy, and Giardano Bruno was a Dominican friar, philosopher, mathematician and astronomer, who suggested that the Sun was a star, and the universe had infinite worlds, populated by intelligent beings. He went down very badly with the Spanish Inquisition, who had him burned him at the stake. Today he is regarded as a martyr to science. Bruno is a warm cuddly-sounding name, and seems to be a popular choice for bears, both real and fictional.

Cody (Meakin)

Cody Meakin grew up playing both rugby union and Australian rules football; he broke his back in a rugby scrum, and while still in high school, became quadriplegic after a car accident. He took up wheelchair rugby in 2010, where he became an international champion. He won gold at the London Games this year. Cody is derived from the Gaelic surname Ó Cuidighthigh, meaning “son of Cuidightheach”. Cuidightheach is an Old Irish epithet meaning “helpful”. The most famous person with the surname must be “Buffalo Bill” Cody, an American frontiersman who became a celebrity for his Wild West touring shows; these introduced the concept of the American West to Britain and Europe. Buffalo Bill was a supporter of Native American rights, women’s rights and conservation, making him a very modern namesake, as well as giving the name Cody an “American West” feel. In the 1990 Disney film, The Rescuers Down Under, the boy from the Australian outback is named Cody. Cody first charted in the 1970s, and was top 100 by the 1990s. It peaked in the early 2000s at #59, and only left the Top 100 last year, when it dropped to #124.

Dylan (Alcott)

Dylan Alcott has been paraplegic from birth due to a spinal tumour, and began playing wheelchair basketball in 2003. He won gold at the 2008 Paralympics, and silver at this year’s London Games. Dylan is a Welsh name which is difficult to translate exactly, but very roughly means “flood, wave, tide”. In Welsh mythology, Dylan Ail Don was a blond god of the sea, and his epithets were “son of the wave” and “son of the sea”. In the legends, he is killed, and it’s said that the sound of the waves is the sea lamenting his death. The name became well known outside Britain due to the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, who was named after the god. In Welsh, his name is pronounced DUL-uhn, but Thomas himself preferred the Anglicised pronunciation of DIL-uhn. Thomas’ emotionally powerful yet tightly controlled verse was admired by a young American named Robert Zimmerman, who promptly changed his name to Bob Dylan. As Dylan went on to become a folk balladeer, protest singer and counter-cultural icon, the name Dylan ended up with a double helping of street cred. Dylan first charted in the 1960s and reached the Top 100 in the 1980s. It peaked in the early 2000s at #17, and is currently #41.

Erik (Horrie)

Erik Horrie was left paraplegic after a car accident in 2001, and became involved in wheelchair basketball, but last year switched to canoeing. He won a silver medal at the 2012 London Games, and also welcomed his son Lewis. Erik is derived from Old Norse, and interpreted as “only ruler, eternal ruler, eternal power”. It has been heavily used in the royal houses of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, the most famous to us being Erik the Red, who explored a little-known country, called it Greenland, and became its head chieftain. King Erik IX of Sweden is considered to be a saint, and according to legend was martyred while attending a church service. The name Erik was used in England by the Anglo-Saxons, and settlers from Scandinavia but only became popular in the form Eric in the 19^th century, thanks to an earnestly moralising book called Eric, or Little by Little. Other fictional Eriks include the Phantom of the Opera and Erik the Viking from the Monty Python film.

Fabian (Blattman)

Fabian Blattman became paraplegic after a motorcycle accident, and took up wheelchair athletics to improve fitness. One of our most successful Paralympians, he has set several world records. He won a silver and bronze in 1992, a gold and a silver in 1996, and a gold, silver and bronze in 2000. The name Fabian is derived from the Roman family name Fabius, one of the most ancient noble houses of Rome. According to legend, the Fabii claimed descent from Hercules, and were shepherds who followed founding father Remus. Their name is said to be from the Latin word for “broad bean”, a vegetable that the Fabii were supposedly the first to cultivate. The surname Fabianus was given to freed slaves who had been owned by the Fabii, and Fabian is from this name. It was introduced to England by the Normans, but never became as popular there as its equivalents in Continental Europe. There is a 3^rd century Saint Fabian, who was elected pope by a dove; despite this unorthodox beginning, he was highly-regarded and worked hard for the early church. The Fabian Society gives this name a left-wing edge; the socialist organisation took its name from the Roman general Fabius Maximus, who wore Hannibal down by attrition rather than engaging in head-on battle.

Jago (Mikulic)

Jago Mikulic was a blind athlete who competed at the 1976 Paralympics, and won a silver in javelin and a bronze in the pentathlon. Jago is a Croatian form of James or Jacob, and is said YAH-go. It can also be a Cornish form of those names, but is pronounced JAY-go in this case. However, the Welsh form Iago is very old and predates the common use of Biblical names in Britain; K.M. Sheard suggests that it may be from the Celtic word for “ice”. If so, this would give Cornish Jago another possible origin.

Kerrod (McGregor)

Kerrod McGregor was a track and field Paralympian who won two golds, three silvers and two bronzes at the 1984 Paralympic Games, one gold in 1988, and one silver in 1996. Kerrod is an English surname that can be derived from the village of Curridge in Berkshire, with the village’s name meaning “Cusa’s ridge”. Cusa was a common Anglo-Saxon name, but what it meant I have been unable to discover. Another possible origin is the hamlet of Kerridge in Cheshire, which means “key ridge” – Kerridge Ridge is one of the foothills of the Pennines. The surname seems to have been most common in Yorkshire. The name Kerrod is well known in Queensland from former NRL star Kerrod Walters, who had a twin brother named Kevin.

Nazim (Erdem)

Nazim Erdem was born in Turkey and came to Australia early in life. As a kid, he practised holding his breath under water as a little game with himself. At the age of 20 he dived into shallow water in an effort to impress some girls; he was underwater for two and a half minutes before being rescued, and his technique of holding his breath saved his life. After the accident, he was quadriplegic. He began playing wheelchair rugby in 1992, and won silver medals at the 200 and 2008 Paralympics, and a gold at the London Games. Nazim is an Arabic boy’s name which means “organiser, convenor”, and as a title, loosely corresponds to the word “mayor” in English. The name isn’t uncommon in Turkey, and Nâzım Hikmet was a charismatic Turkish writer, a leader of the literary avant-garde who was often arrested for his revolutionary political beliefs, and spent much of life in prison or exile. His poetry and his struggles for peace are widely admired in Turkey and outside it; some of his poems have been turned into songs by folk singers such as Joan Baez and Pete Seeger. The name is pronounced NAH-zim.

Rene (Ahrens)

Rene Ahrens won a bronze in discus in 1980 and 1988. René is the French form of the Latin Renatus, meaning “born again, reborn”, referring to the act of baptism, and a popular choice for early Christians. René was a name used by the French aristocracy, and the name is known to us through the philosopher René Descartes (“I think therefore I am”). There is a Saint René Goupil, a French missionary to Canada who is one of the rare North American martyrs. The name is pronounced reh-NAY. Although the feminine form Renee has been popular in Australia, masculine Rene remains very rare here – no doubt partly because it could easily be confused with the girl’s name.

Tristan (Knowles)

Tristan Knowles lost his leg at the age of 9 as a result of cancer, and also lost a lung at the age of 11. He has been playing wheelchair basketball since 1999, and in 2002 was named the NSW Wheelchair Basketballer of the Year. He won silver in 2004, gold in 2008, and a silver at this year’s Paralympic Games in London. Tristan is a Cornish hero of Celtic folklore who is also one of King Arthur’s knights of the Round Table. He is best known as the lover of the beautiful Irish princess Iseult (or Isolde). Iseult was to marry Tristan’s uncle, King Mark of Cornwall, but she and Tristan accidentally drank a love potion that had been prepared for Mark and his bride to share. The two became hopelessly infatuated with each other and embarked on a passionate affair, until Tristan was banished from Cornwall by an understandably irate Uncle Mark. The story was enormously popular in the Middle Ages, and is one of the forerunners to the story of adulterous lovers Lancelot and Guinevere. The name Tristan was yet another revived in the Victorian era, thanks to Tennyson, and the poems he wrote based on Arthurian legends. In the story, Tristan’s name is supposed to be linked with triste, the French word for “sad”, to fit in with his tragic love life. However, it is a form of the Pictish name Drust, which means “riot, tumult”. Drust was a traditional name amongst the royalty of Scotland, and it’s quite a puzzler as to how a Cornish story ended up with a hero with a Scottish name. Some claim that Tristan was a real person, pointing to a 5^th century stone in Cornwall, which is supposed to be the grave marker for someone named Drustanus, the son of Cunomorus. Titillatingly, Cunomorus is said to be King Mark himself, suggesting that Tristan and Iseult’s step-incest was even closer and creepier (although his uncle was also his adoptive father anyway). Tristan and Iseult are two literary characters I’ve never been able to warm to, as their actions are so selfish; perhaps the story is trying to tell us that nobody does very well out of an infatuated love affair, not even the lovers themselves. Tristan first charted in the 1960s, and has managed to reach #100 twice, in the 1980s and late 2000s. It’s currently #123.

(Photo of Dylan Alcott celebrating victory from Zimbio)

Names of Australian Female Paralympic Medalists

21 Sunday Oct 2012

Posted by A.O. in Name Themes and Lists

≈ 8 Comments

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Amber (Merritt)

Amber Meritt was born with a club foot, and is originally from England; she came to Australia as a child (she’s now 19). She started playing wheelchair basketball in 2007, and won silver at the London Games. Amber is fossilised tree resin, and since prehistoric times has been valued as a gemstone. The word amber is derived from Arabic, and means ambergris, the waxy substance regurgitated by the sperm whale; it was only later realised these were different substances. Amber has been used as a girl’s name since the 17^th century, but wasn’t popular until the 20^th. The name became notorious in 1944, when the racy historical romance, Forever Amber, was published, with its heroine the sleep-her-way-to-the-top Amber St. Clare. Despite being condemned, and even banned here until 1958, the book was a bestseller, and made into a film. Amber was in rare use in the 1950s, and during the 1960s made #647 (about one Amber per year). It absolutely skyrocketed during the 1970s up to #135, peaked in the early 2000s at #49, and is now #91. This pretty gemstone name is still popular, and it’s all thanks to a “dirty” book! If looking for a nickname, Miss Merritt goes by Bambi.

Danae (Sweetapple)

Danae Sweetapple was blind from birth, and started swimming in 1990. She won a silver and two bronzes at the 1992 Paralympics. In Greek mythology, Danaë was a Greek princess and the mother of the hero Perseus. Her father shut her up in a bronze tower due to a prophecy that he would be killed by her son, but she was impregnated by Zeus, who came to her in the form of golden rain. The king had Danaë and Perseus cast into the sea, and they washed ashore onto an island, where a kind fisherman raised Perseus as his own son (as an adult, the prophecy was fulfilled when Perseus did kill his grandfather). Getting it on with a godly shower of gold was either supremely satisfying or very traumatising for Danaë, as she had no interest in mortal men afterwards, and never married or had further children. Her name is derived from the Danaans, one of the names the Greeks used for themselves, with the idea that they were partly descended from Danaus, a mythical prince of Egypt. I’m not sure how the Greeks would have said her name (nobody seems to agree), but not like the way it is usually said in Australia, which is dan-AY.

Elaine (Schreiber)

Elaine Schreiber won a bronze in table tennis, a gold in club throw, and a silver in javelin at the 1964 Paralympics, and a silver in table tennis at the 1968 Games. Elaine is a name shared by several characters in Arthurian legend, who are occasionally confused with each other. One of the most famous is the fair Elaine of Astolat, who dies of unrequited love for Sir Lancelot. The story inspired Tennyson’s poem, The Lady of Shalott, and it was only after the popularity of his poem that Elaine became a commonly-used English name. Elaine is an Old French variant of Helen. Elaine was #254 in 1900, joined the Top 100 in the 1920s, and peaked in the 1930s at #18. It left the Top 100 in the 1960s, and reached its lowest point in the late 2000s, when it was in rare use. Since then, it has been very gently rising, and is currently #457.

Gloria (Pascoe)

Gloria Pascoe developed epilepsy at the age of 9, and became totally blind by 55. At 61, she attended the 1980 Paralympics, where she took gold in lawn bowls. Gloria is the Latin for “glory, fame, renown”, and in Christian tradition it denotes the manifestation of God’s presence, often associated with a divine light. The name Gloria has been in use since at least the 16^th century, but received a boost in popularity in the 19^th from two literary works. One was Gloria, a romantic novel by popular American novelist E.D.E.N. Southworth in 1891; the other was George Bernard Shaw’s 1897 comedy of errors, You Never Can Tell. Both these works feature very attractive heroines who seem to have done the name more good than all of God’s glory. Gloria was #257 in 1900, Top 100 by the 1920s, and peaked in the 1930s at #23. It left the Top 100 in the 1960s, and hit its lowest point in 2009 when it was in rare use. Since then it has risen again, and is currently #427. If you’ve been paying attention, you will see this makes it the virtual twin of Elaine in terms of popularity.

Jemima (Moore)

Jemima Moore became paraplegic at the age of 6 from a virus, and is now 20. She won a silver medal in the 100 metres relay at the 2008 Paralympics, and attended the London Games. In the Bible, Jemima was the eldest of Job’s three daughters, and she and her sisters are described as being the fairest in the land. The name Jemima literally means “warm” in Hebrew, and can be translated as “day”. The name could actually be derived from Arabic, as there is an ancient land in Arabia who had a queen called Jemama; if so, Jemima from the Bible could be inspired by the queen of Arabic folklore. This does fit in with the Biblical story, because Job and his family were said to be from an Arabic country. The name Jemama means “turtledove”. It first charted in the 1960s, the same decade children’s show Playschool first broadcast, which has a rag doll named Jemima. Never in the Top 100, it peaked at #196 in the late 2000s and is currently #254 and stable. This is a fashionable name which has never gained popularity or lost cachet.

Lorraine (Dodd)

Lorraine Dodd became paraplegic at the age of 13, after contracting transverse myelitis. She attended the 1968 Paralympic Games, where she won three golds for swimming, and a silver and a bronze in athletics. Lorraine is a region in north-eastern France; its name comes from an earlier kingdom named Lotharingia, meaning “Lothar’s kingdom. Lothar I was a Frankish king and a great-grandson of Charlemagne; his name is Germanic and means “famous army”. As a personal name, Lorraine has been used since the 18^th century, a century in which Lorraine first became part of France. It’s sometimes said to be a Catholic name, since St Joan of Arc was also known as The Maid of Lorraine. There was a World War I Battle of Lorraine, which probably boosted numbers, and the area’s importance during World War II reflects a peak in popularity at this time. Lorraine was in rare use in the 1900s, and reached the Top 100 in the 1930s. Peaking in the 1940s, it left the Top 100 in the 1970s, and hasn’t charted since the 1990s. You can see how Lorraine helped Lauren appear feminine, and Lauren also seems to have replaced Lorraine.

Madison (de Rozario)

Madison de Rozario became paralysed by a rare neurological condition at the age of 3 and is now 18. She won silver in 2008 as the youngest Paralympian on the team, and was also at the London Games. Madison is a surname meaning “son of Matthew“, although in some rare cases it may be derived from “son of Maddy”, with Maddy being a pet form of Maud. It’s been used as a personal name since the 18^th century, and seems to have been given almost exclusively to boys in the beginning. Although certainly used in England, it was much more common in America, where it may often have been given in honour of James Madison, the fourth president of the United States (I only found one man named Madison in Australian records). Madison is famous in baby name circles for only becoming popular, and only becoming common for girls, after the movie Splash in 1984. This romantic fantasy, a rewrite of The Little Mermaid, stars Daryl Hannah as the mermaid, who chooses her “human name” from a street sign for Madison Avenue in New York City, named after the former president – although Tom Hanks’ character tells her this isn’t a “real name”. Madison was #606 for the 1980s, with about three born each year. It then absolutely screeched up the charts to make #52 for the 1990s, and peaked in the early 2000s at #22. It sunk to #44 in 2010, then rose last year to make #41. It’s been a real success story, with its nickname Maddie fitting in with Madeline.

Priya (Cooper)

Priya Cooper was born with cerebral palsy, and spends most of her time in a wheelchair. She began swimming competitively while still at school, and is one of our greatest disabled swimmers, winning nine gold medals and breaking world records at the 1992, 1996 and 2000 Paralympics. She was twice team co-captain, and twice a flag-bearer at closing ceremonies. She has received many honours, and since retiring has become a spokesperson and fundraiser for several charities. Priya is an Indian girl’s name which means “dear, beloved” in Sanskrit. In Hindu legend, Priya was one of the daughters of King Daksha, a son of the god Brahma. The name is pronounced PREE-yuh, and has been rather a favourite in Australia for many years.

Siobhan (Paton)

Siobhan Paton is an intellectually disabled swimmer who holds thirteen world records, and won six gold medals at the 2000 Olympics. She was named Paralympian of the Year in 2000, and also received an Order of Australia. Siobhán is the Irish form of the Norman-French name Jehanne, a variant of Jeanne. There were several medieval queens named Siobhán. It is said that the twentieth century popularity of Siobhan owes a great deal to the actress Siobhán McKenna, who was born in Belfast. She was most famous as a stage actress, but also appeared in King of Kings (playing Mary), Of Human Bondage, and Dr Zhivago. Ms McKenna’s son, Donnacha O’Dea, was an Olympic swimmer for Ireland in 1968. Siobhan first charted in the 1950s, and during the 1960s was #571, which represents about one Siobhan a year. Use of the name increased sharply during the 1970s and ’80s, and it peaked in the 1990s at #211. It hasn’t charted since 2009, so this is another attractive name which has never made the Top 100. Pronunciation is an issue, because the usual Irish pronunciation is SHIV-on, but in Australia it’s usually said shi-VAWN.

Ursula (King)

Usula King was a swimmer who won a silver and two bronze at the 1984 Paralympics. The name Ursula means “little she-bear”, derived from the Latin ursa (which we know from constellations Ursa Major and Minor – the Great and Little Bears). According to legend, Saint Ursula was a Romano-British princess who was sent by her father to marry the pagan governor of Armorica (Brittany). Possibly to stall proceedings, she got all bridezilla and declared that before the wedding she must go all over Europe on a pilgrimage, taking an unbelievable 11 000 virgins with her as her handmaids. On their way to Cologne, they were besieged by Huns, who had a busy day beheading the lot of them. The story doesn’t fit with any known historic facts, and one theory is that Ursula is a Christianised form of the goddess Freya. However, Cologne has a magnificent basilica dedicated to St Ursula and her companions, and a little village in Wales also has a church in their honour, in the belief that Ursula was originally from Wales (in the legend, she is from the West Country). Because of the saint, the name came into use in medieval times, and got a little boost in the 20^th century from beautiful Swedish actress Ursula Andress, who was the first Bond girl, in Dr No. It’s clunky by contemporary standards, but strangely alluring.

(Photo of Madison de Rozario from her Twitter account)

Meanings of Names

07 Sunday Oct 2012

Posted by A.O. in Your Questions Answered

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There’s many different ways to choose baby names. Some people pick out a name they like, and perhaps quickly check to make sure it doesn’t mean something horrible, like “he who has the face of a deranged warthog”, or maybe not even care what it means. Others think of a meaning they would like to associate with their baby, and then hunt around for a name that fits that meaning.

These are all the web searches people used to get to the blog this year, looking for names with particular meanings. I don’t know if I’ve always come up with a name they wanted to know about, and I’m not even completely sure that I’m correct on each one, but I did my best.

NAMES WITH MEANINGS RELATED TO STARS

Boys name that means “star”

The English word Sterling, referring to sterling silver, is said to most likely mean “little star”, as some early Norman pennies were imprinted with a small star. The Old French word for the pennies is Esterlin. We also use the word sterling to mean “excellent, of high quality”, so you get another layer of meaning from it.

Latin boy’s name meaning “star”

The Latin for star is Astrum. Astro is a Latin prefix meaning “pertaining to the stars”, as in the word astronomy. I have seen this used as a name.

Swedish girl’s name that means “star”

Stjarna.

A boy’s name that means “bright star”

Nayyar is an Arabic boy’s name which is understood as meaning “bright star”. It also refers to the sun, which of course is our nearest, and thus brightest, star.

Male name meaning “bright star in the southern hemisphere”

There’s isn’t a star name which means that, but Sirius is the brightest star in the sky, and is visible in both hemispheres. However, Canopus, the second brightest, is more often connected with the southern hemisphere; it is always visible from some parts of Australia. It is occasionally called Soheil in English, and the Maori name for it is Atuatahi, meaning “stand alone”.

Spanish girls name that means “constellation”

I’m not sure there is one, but the Spanish for constellation is Constelación. I haven’t heard of it being used as a person’s name, but Constelacia might look a bit more name-like. I don’t speak Spanish, so apologies if this looks absurd to Hispanophones.

Boy name that means “many constellations”

The Japanese name Ikuto has this meaning, although I’ve only seen it used as a fictional surname.

A constellation name which means “small”

All the constellations have names which are nouns or “things”, not adjectives, so there isn’t one. A few have Minor as part of their name, to indicate they are the smaller of two eg Ursa Minor. The closest I could find was Equuleus, meaning “little horse, foal”.

Name meaning “starry sky”

In Japanese, Hoshizora means “starry sky”. It’s used as a surname in the Japanese anime Smile Pretty Cure!

Boys name that means “galaxy”

I have seen Galaxos as a character name in online games, and Galaxian would mean “of the galaxy” or “from the galaxy”.

NATURE NAMES

Boys name that means “beach”

Beach, Bay or Cove.

Names that mean “songbird”

Hebrew has both a male and female name with this meaning. Efrona for a girl (meaning “lark”), and Zalmir for a boy.

Flower name that means “peaceful”

There’s a native plant from Western Australia called the Gunniopsis pax – it’s a succulent, and it does have small flowers. There is also the Peace Lily, and the Peace Rose, and a type of guzmania (a bromeliad) called Pax. The White Poppy, the Lotus and the Daisy have all been used as symbols of peace.

Boy name meaning “otter”

In Japanese, Rakko means “sea otter”. That seemed to be the most usable word for otter in another language I could find.

POSITIVE MEANINGS

Indian boy’s name meaning “one who cannot be defeated”

It seems to be a popular meaning for boy’s names in India, for there are several. I managed to find Adityendra, Ajay, Ajeenkya, Ajeesh, Ajit, Aparajita, and Durjaya. Take your pick!

Viking name meaning “prince”

Balder is translated as meaning “lord, prince, king”, and it was used as an epithet for heroes. In Norse mythology, Balder was the son of Odin and Frigg.

Girl name that means “independence”

Liberty or Freedom.

Sanskrit girl’s name meaning “bright, happy”

Nandita.

Girl’s name that means “beautiful”

There’s a lot. A few you may not be familiar with are Mei (Chinese), Shayna (Yiddish) and Ziba (Persian).

Name that means “bewitching”

Mohana is an Indian unisex name which means “bewitching, infatuating, charming” in Sanskrit. It is used as an epithet of several gods and goddesses.

The word for “lovely” in some other language

Delightfully vague! I pick French – Jolie.

NEGATIVE MEANINGS

Baby name that means “spiteful”

I hope this is for a story and not a real baby! The German surname Sauer means “spiteful” (related to the word sour, acid), and it can be Anglicised as either of the unrelated names Sawyer or Sayer, so I guess those are possible options.

Hindi word for “proud”

Ooh there’s quite a few. Garvi, Garvit and Nidar look the most like names, to me.

DOESN’T EXIST

Name that means “daughter of a princess”

Hmm, seems a bit narcissistic as a baby name, somehow! Anyway, there’s no term for a princess’ daughter, and the daughter of a princess doesn’t necessarily have any special status – Princess Anne’s daughter Zara is just Mrs Tindall. I would choose a name that simply means “princess” or is royal-related. However, the Indonesian name Putri means both “daughter” and “princess”.

Norse name which means “female knight”

Vikings didn’t generally fight with a cavalry, and although there were some female warriors, it’s very unlikely they would have ridden horses, as this was usually reserved for leaders of a warband. It does make me think of the Valkyries, who were mythological women of the afterlife, always depicted on horseback. Valkyrie means “chooser of the slain”.

Norse name meaning “hunter”

There isn’t one. The Old Norse word for hunter is Veiðimaður, and some think this word is the basis of the English surname Waitman. This is occasionally used as a first name.

Name for a girl that means something

More specific, please!

NAMES FOR SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES

Name that means “perfect time”

I know it’s not quite right, but I keep thinking Serendipity. Also Season, because of the saying that “For everything there is a season, and a time for everything under heaven”. The Japanese girl’s name Aya means “design”, suggesting a planned pregnancy. Musical names like Rhythm or Cadence come to mind, as music must be perfectly timed. Ogechukwukama is an Igbo girl’s name meaning “God’s time is the best” – good for a surprise, but very welcome, baby.

Name that means “beating the odds”

Lucky or Chance.

Boy’s name that means “when two souls join”

I’d probably be thinking of names that mean “bliss, joy”. Anand is a Sanskrit name meaning “bliss”, while Anglo-Saxon has Wynn, meaning “joy, bliss”. The word Bliss itself can be used for both sexes. The Chinese unisex name Zheng or Zeng means “harmony, union”, which seems to describe the state of soul togetherness.

Zulu name for boys that gives hope for the future

Mduduzi is a Zulu boy’s name that means “bringer of hope”.

Boy’s name meaning “not meant to be”

Oh how sad, and what a sad meaning. I’m so sorry. I thought long and hard about this one, and it seems to me that the concept behind “meant to be” and “not meant to be” is the same, that is, some idea of Fate, Fortune or Destiny. We usually think of it as feminine (“Dame Fortune” etc), but the Ancient Egyptians had a god of fate, named Shai or Shay, meaning “that which is ordained”. I think that’s a nice name for a boy, and has the sense of the meaning you’re looking for.

(Picture shows the Milky Way above Lake Moogerah in south-east Queensland; photo from Perth Now)

Names Spotted at Home and Abroad (Winter Edition)

04 Tuesday Sep 2012

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

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aristocratic names, Armenian names, band names, cartoon names, created names, english names, famous namesakes, fictional namesakes, Fijian names, French names, Greek names, hebrew names, honouring, Indian namaes, Japanese names, Latin names, locational name, middle names, modern names, mythological names, name history, name meaning, nicknames, Norman names, Norman-French names, polynesian names, popular culture, saints names, Sanskrit names, sibsets, Spanish names, stage names, surname names, Tibetan names

International Names

Kalden Edwards (Qld) – son of Korinna and Doug, brother of Indigo. Kalden is a traditional Tibetan name meaning “from the Golden Age”, and there are several men of this name from Tibetan history.

Savvas Stergos (NT) – son of Afrodite, brother to Maria, Irene and Michael. The Greek name Savvas is from the Hebrew for “old man” (I’m guessing intended as a title of respect), and there are several saints bearing this name.

Vaishvi Jani (NSW) – daughter of Monalisa. Vaishvi is an Indian name connected to the worship of the goddess Parvati and the god Vishnu. Interestingly, we had a baby called Monalisa mentioned this year, and now we have an adult one.

Xevi Campisi (Qld) – son of Rene Flanagan and Zac Campisi. His name is a common Spanish pet form of Xavier.

Surnames as-First Names

Abbeney Manning (Qld) – daughter of Luise. As far as I know, this aristocratic Norman surname is another form of Albany, based on French place names such as Aubigne, meaning “Albinius’ town”, with the Latin name Albinius meaning “white”. It was used by sci-fi writer Ursula Le Guin as a place name in her fictional universe depicted in The Hainish Cycle. Although historically more often male, today it does sound like an ornate version of Abby.

Kasabian Sentance (NSW) – son of Jodi. Kasabian are a British rock band; the band’s name is from Linda Kasabian, a member of the Charles Manson cult, famous as his getaway driver. She did not participate in any violence, was the star witness for the prosecution, and expressed great remorse for her part in the group’s crimes. Her married surname is a common Armenian one, meaning, “butcher”.

Vaokakala Nevaeh Mara Tere-Vave (NSW) – daughter of Glory Mara Tere and Tevita Vave. Her name is a Fijian surname, but I don’t know what it means. I had never seen Nevaeh on a real person before, but wasn’t surprised to see it used in the Pacific Islander community, as not only does it have strong Christian associations, but the pronunciation (nuh-VAY-uh) is vaguely Polynesian-sounding.

Wiley Huber (NSW) – son of Nicole and Tim. This English surname is from a common place name meaning “willow wood”. It’s the stage name of English rapper Richard Cowie; he took it from a cartoon character named Wiley Kat. It reminds me of the cartoon critter Wile E. Coyote.

Middle Names

I saw a number of babies with intriguing middle names in the papers over the winter.

Archie Elvis Lincard (Qld) – son of Gemma Hall and Chris Lincard.

Austin Kelly Beadle (Qld) – son of Leah and David. Austin’s middle name is in honour of his aunt – one of the handy things about unisex names is their versatility. His first name is after his American-born father’s cousin.

Jake Tiger Gow (Qld) – son of Wendi Leggatt and Bede Gow.

Lily Pepper Van Veen (NSW) – daughter of Xan and Adam [pictured]

Sabine Mirah Thiedeman (Qld) – daughter of Leanne and Nick. Her middle name is a form of the Arabic Amira, meaning “princess, female ruler”.

Adult Names

There was a story in the paper about a construction worker who was awarded more than $100 000 damages named Ark Tribe. His lawyer was named Stephen Dolphin.

The family has rebelled against the slightly brain-sapping entertainment of The Price is Right, and have opted for a noisy educational TV show before dinner instead. I think they became suspicious I had it on to do some clandestine name-spotting (I blame educational shows for making them brainy enough to figure this out!).

So no more names from TPIR – the only one I can remember is a forty-ish lady named Blondie who was indeed blonde-ish. Was this her legal name, or a nickname? I have no idea, as the host did not ask her. It seemed a bit of an odd name to give a child (it reminds me of Blondie Bumstead from the newspaper cartoons). On the other hand, it seemed a slightly odd nickname to retain into middle age as well (although Mrs Bumstead managed to pull it off, at least).

Names Seen in Real Life

We went to the speedway a few times over the winter – my fashion tip is to wear every jumper, jacket and coat you possess, and then cover yourself in gloves, hats and scarves until no skin is in contact with the icy air.

The speedway is the place to go if you want to hear some hardcore-type boys names – over the winter, I heard the names Ajax, Axel, Blade, Cruz, Diesel, Harlem, Hendrix, Hunter, Jagger, Jett, Nash, Taj, Tosh and Zayd. I remember someone saying on Twitter that you mostly hear boy’s names in public places, as they are the ones getting called or yelled at by anxious or petulant mamas, and it’s so true. The only girl I can remember getting yelled at the same place was a non-harmonious Harmony.

Two tots entered in a local kids photo contest were called Sai (boy) and Leto (girl). Sai is a Japanese name that can be translated as “genius”, and Leto was the mother of Apollo and Artemis in Greek mythology. Her name may mean “the hidden one”, or more prosaically, “woman, wife”.

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

Girls: Aoife, Beatrix, Cynthia, Jemima, Tallulah

Boys: Julian and Miles (twins), Emmett, Ronan

Names of Australian Male Olympic Medalists

19 Sunday Aug 2012

Posted by A.O. in Name Themes and Lists

≈ 9 Comments

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American slang terms, aristocratic names, Arthurian names, Australian slang terms, Babylonian names, Biblical names, epithets and titles, famous namesakes, French names, Gaelic names, Greek names, hebrew names, Indian names, Irish names, Italian names, Korean names, Latin names, locational names, meteorological names, mythological names, name history, name meaning, name popularity, nicknames, Norman names, Norman-French names, Old Irish names, Old Norse names, Pictish names, popular culture, popular names, royal names, saints names, Scottish names, surname names, tribal names, unisex names, Welsh names

Bevan (George)

Bevan George is a hockey player who won gold at the Olympics in 2004, and bronze in 2008. Bevan is a Welsh surname meaning “son of Evan”; as Evan is a Welsh form of John, this is the Welsh form of Johnson. One of the most prominent people with this surname was Aneurin Bevan, a Welsh Labour Party politician most active in the 1950s. Recognised as one of the leaders of the party’s left-wing, he was a champion of social justice and the rights of working people. As Minister of Health, he was responsible for bringing in the National Health Service – that wonderful institution celebrated so effusively in the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics. For reasons unclear to me, this name seems to have been used more often in Australasia than anywhere else, and unfortunately, familiarity seems to have bred a certain amount of contempt, for in Queensland especially, Bevan is seen much in the same way that Kevin is perceived in the United Kingdom, the word bevan used to denote a lower-class person. As such, parents would rather use the name Evan.

Deveraux (Mytton)

Deveraux “Dev” Mytton won a bronze medal in sailing at the 1956 Olympics. The surname Deveraux is a variant of Devereux, and it’s Norman-French, meaning “from Évreux” in Normandy. The city of Évreux gained its present name from the Gallic tribe the Eburovici, whose name may be related to the word for “yew tree”, so the French city could have a similar meaning to that of York in northern England. According to the BBC, so many of the gold medal-winners from Team GB were from Yorkshire that if this historic county was its own nation, it would have finished 15^th on the Olympics medal tally – ahead of South Africa and Brazil. The city of Évreux has its own Olympic champion – Didier Courrèges, who won gold as an equestrian in 2004. The surname is one with an aristocratic air to it, and in the early twentieth century would have been considered a very upmarket, perhaps even pretentious, name to bestow upon your son (a 1920s version of a “preppy” name). Pronounced DEV-er-oh, I cannot see this name coming into use, despite the fashionable ending, but Dev has a brisk sound to it.

Eli (Matheson)

Eli Matheson is a hockey player who won bronze at the 2008 Olympics. Eli is a Hebrew name which means “ascension”, and in the Old Testament, Eli is a judge and high priest of Israel who is the teacher and mentor of the prophet Samuel. Eli himself is regarded as a prophet also in Judaism. According to how it is written in Hebrew, Eli can also be a separate name which means “my God”. In Hebrew, it is said EH-lee, but English-speakers tend to pronounce the name EE-lie (probably so it doesn’t get confused with the girl’s name Ellie). One well known person with this name is Hollywood actor Eli Wallach, who starred in the westerns, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, and The Magnificent Seven. As Old Testament names for boys gain increasing momentum, Eli continues to rise and rise. It first entered the charts in the 1970s, and joined the Top 100 in 2009. It’s already #45 and still forging ahead.

Fergus (Kavanagh)

Fergus Kavanagh is a member of the men’s hockey team, and won bronze medals in 2008 and 2012. Fergus is the Anglicised and Old Irish form of Fearghas, a Gaelic name meaning “man of vigour, strong virile man” – very apt for an Olympian. It was a name common amongst royalty in both ancient Ireland and Scotland, and is still often used amongst Scottish nobility. One of Queen Elizabeth II’s uncles was named Fergus, and another royal connection is Fergus Boyd, a friend and former flatmate of Prince William. There is a Saint Fergus, an 8^th century Irish bishop who was a missionary in Scotland. King Arthur also had Sir Fergus as one of his knights, and he appears in a witty 13^th century romance in which he appears valiant but lacking in sophistication. The name Fergus is currently gaining favour with the sort of parents who love Angus and Hamish, but are dismayed by their popularity. Aristocratic Fergus seems so much more select.

Hector (Hogan)

Hector “Hec” Hogan was a sprinter who was Australian champion seven times over in the 100 metres, and was able to equal the world record in this event. He attended the 1956 Olympics, and although he was already feeling strangely fatigued, still managed to win bronze. He was afterwards diagnosed with leukaemia, and died in hospital a few years later, while listening to the 100 metre sprint race at the Rome Olympics. In Greek mythology, Hector is a Trojan prince, and the greatest warrior of Troy, who slays Achilles in battle. A leader noted for his brave and noble nature, he is seen as far more worthy than his younger brother Paris, who caused the war. In Greek, Hector means “to hold”, and is interpreted as “holding firm, holding everything together”. It may be an epithet or title rather than a real name. In Scotland, Hector is used to Anglicise the Gaelic name Eachann, meaning “horse lord” or “brown horse”. Sir Hector is one of King Arthur’s knights in the legends, and is the brother of Sir Lancelot, while Arthur’s foster-father Sir Ector shows another form of the name. In Australia, Hector is the name of a cloud which forms each afternoon in the Tiwi Islands during certain months. This name is fast becoming seen as hip and quirky.

Ji (Wallace)

Ji Wallace is a gymnast who won a silver medal for trampolining at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. He later came out as gay, and was the first Australian to be an ambassador for the Gay Games; while attending the 2012 Olympics, he revealed that he is HIV-positive. Ji is a unisex Korean name which means “wisdom”; it’s also the word for an ancient Korean flute. This name sounds similar to the Indian name Jai, but manages to use even fewer letters, and is suitable for both boys and girls.

Kenneth (Wallace)

Kenneth “Ken” Wallace started out competing in Ironman, and switched to sprint canoeing while still in his teens. He won gold and bronze medals at the 2008 Olympics, and last year took part in Channel 7’s Australia’s Greatest Athlete. He came third, with Shannon Eckstein beating him to second place. Kenneth is the Anglicised form of two separate names. One is the Pictish Coinneach, meaning “handsome”; the other is Gaelic Cináed, meaning perhaps “born from fire” or “fire-head”, possibly to denote someone red-haired or hot-headed. According to tradition, the 9^th century Kenneth MacAlpin was the first king of Scotland, and is known as Kenneth I (during his lifetime, he would only have been known as king of the Picts, however). There also two legendary saints named Kenneth, one Irish, one Welsh. For some reason, Kenneth became a “funny name” – perhaps because of uber-camp comic actor Kenneth Williams, from the Carry On movies. Kenneth was #38 for the 1900s, and peaked in the 1920s at #6. It left the Top 100 in the 1980s, and is currently #409. It rose last year, so things may be looking up for this attractive name.

Nimrod (Greenwood)

Nimrod Greenwood won bronze for rowing at the 1952 Olympics. In the Old Testament, Nimrod is a great-grandson of Noah, and king of several Mesopotamian cities. He is depicted as a man wielding great political power, a warrior, and a mighty hunter. Although the Bible never states this, according to tradition, he is the king for whom the Tower of Babel was constructed. This hubristic piece of engineering sought to build a tower into heaven itself, and so alarmed God that He scattered humanity over the globe, and made them speak different languages, to prevent further outbreaks of co-operation and harmony. It’s obviously a story to explain cultural differences, and there are similar myths around the world. The name Nimrod is traced to the Hebrew for “rebel”, but as he was Sumerian, this seems unlikely. The most convincing theory is that he is based on the Babylonian god Bel Marduk, one of whose titles was Bel-Nimrod, meaning “to pursue, to make someone flee before him”. Nimrod has entered our language to mean either a tyrant, a warrior, or a huntsman; however, in the United States it is slang for “idiot” – perhaps due to a 19^th century play with a character called Nimrod Wildfire. It is still an Olympian name, for one of the Israeli swimmers at this year’s Olympics was Nimrod Shapira-Bar-Or.

Ralph (Doubell)

Ralph Doubell had a brief career in athletics, but was lucky enough to peak just as an Olympics came around. He won gold in 1968 in the 800 metres, and set a world record of 1:44.3. No other Australian has ever managed to equal this, and it’s stood as the Australian record for more than 40 years. Ralph is a contraction of the Old Norse name Ráðúlfr, meaning “wolf counsel”, which was introduced to England by Scandinavian settlers. When the Normans arrived, they brought with them their own form of the name, Radulf, and English Ralph can be seen as a continuation of both these names. Ráðúlfr is pronounced ra-THOOL-fer, and Radulf is said RAD-oolf; in the beginning Ralph was spelled Ralf and pronounced RAYF. By the 17^th century the spelling had been changed to Rafe to reflect the pronunciation, and the Ralph spelling appeared in the 18^th century. You are now free to pronounce this name either RAYF or RALF, but as far as I know, only one Ralph seems to say his name like Rafe, and that’s English actor Ralph Fiennes. The name was favoured by the ruling classes during the Middle Ages, but American pop culture has not been kind to it, often assigning it to comic or dim-witted characters. In American slang, ralph means “to vomit”, which can’t have done its image any good. Ralph was #91 in the 1900s, and peaked in the 1920s at #89. It left the Top 100 by the 1950s, and hasn’t ranked since the 1980s.

Verdi (Barberis)

Verdi “Vern” Barberis was a seven times Australian champion in weight-lifting, and took the bronze medal in the Lightweight category at the 1952 Olympics. He was the first Australian lightweight to clean and jerk over 300 lb (140 kg), which at that time exceeded his state’s heavyweight record. The name Verdi is an Italian surname, common in the north of Italy, and best known as that of the composer, Giuseppe Verdi. One of the most influential composers of the 19^th century, he is famous for such operas as Rigoletto, Aida and La Traviata. The name means “green”, from the Latin viridis, related to the word virere, meaning “to bloom and flourish”. In the same way, the English word verdant, from the same Latin root, means “green”, but also has connotations of lush vegetation. It’s very much a name of freshness, spring time and new life. I think this rare unisex name is very appealing, and also begins with the fashionable V.

(Photo shows Ken Wallace after winning gold at the 2008 Olympics)

Famous Names: Sally and Malcolm

15 Wednesday Aug 2012

Posted by A.O. in Famous Names

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english names, famous namesakes, fictional namesakes, hebrew names, Italian names, Latin names, name history, name meaning, name popularity, nicknames, royal names, Scottish names, Shakespearean names, vocabulary words

The 2012 Olympics came to an end on the weekend, and today our athletes came home, to be met by huge crowds at the airport, which included the Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition. Although the London Olympics had many critics and doubters before they began, from the stunning Opening Ceremony onwards, all was forgotten as everyone agreed that London had done a bang-up job hosting the Summer Olympics.

Everything had gone smoothly, athletes were well taken care of, the historic capital looked grand and stately, the weather was good, and the wonderful volunteers ensured that, above all, it was a friendly and fun Olympics where people felt free to relax and enjoy themselves. No wonder that Rio has said that it watched and learned from London, as it prepares for its own hosting gig in 2016.

There were so many memorable moments from the Olympics, but from an Australian perspective, I am choosing two athletes who, for me, were the stand outs from our team. The first is hurdler Sally Pearson, simply because her race, which ended in a photo-finish, was nail-bitingly close. Nearly everyone I’ve spoken to has nominated Sally’s gold medal win as the most exciting of the Olympics. Sally not only set an Olympic record, she joined a select group of athletes who were world champions when they won at the Olympics, and is the first Australian woman to win Olympic gold in athletics since Cathy Freeman.

The other is sailor Malcolm Page, because our sailing team did so well at the Olympics, and it’s obvious their training regime really paid off. Malcolm is the first Australian sailor to win two gold medals at consecutive Olympic Games, and he was chosen as the Australian flag-bearer for the Closing Ceremony. Just as Sally was named the IAFF Female Athlete of the Year in 2011, Malcolm was inducted into the Australian Institute of Sport’s “Best of the Best”. Two sportspeople at the top of their game, and here’s a closer look at their names.

The name Sally is a pet form of Sarah, a Hebrew name meaning “princess”. It’s been used as an independent name since the 16^th century, and seems to have been first used in the southern coastal areas of England. Since then, it has become a short form of almost any similar name, including the Italian male name Salvatore. It is also, by coincidence, an English vocabulary word, for sallies is an old word for “willow trees”, as in the W.B Yeats poem, Down by the Salley Gardens (the Latin for “willow” is Salix). In military terms, a sally is a sudden attack on an enemy, and we use this word to also mean to attack someone verbally in a witty way. To sally also means to rush off or venture out – very suitable for a sportswoman!

Like Jack, Sally is a name we are familiar with from dozens of cultural references. Sally has appeared in many popular songs, from the nursery rhyme Sally Goes Round the Sun, the traditional Sally in Our Alley, to the blues song Mustang Sally to the rock and roll Long Tall Sally. There is the traditional English fairground game, Aunt Sally, in which a ball is thrown to knock off a wooden woman’s head. We know many a fictional Sally, from wayward Sally Bowles in Cabaret, to Charlie Brown’s sister in the Peanuts cartoon, to the good-looking but annoying Sally Hayes in Catcher in the Rye, the Sally who was met by Harry in the romantic comedy, and the little sister of Dick and Jane in the vintage reading books.

Sally first entered the charts in the 1920s, and was Top 100 by the 1950s; it peaked in the 1970s at #53, and left the Top 100 in the 1990s. Currently it’s #492, and fell last year after a sharp rise in 2010. Sally is one of the most popular names Googled to reach my blog, and I can see the attraction – it’s a fresh, spunky little name that seems clean and wholesome, but not exactly goody-two-shoes. It’s girlish without being girly, and a fuss-free way to wear a princess name without sounding the slightest bit princessy.

Malcolm is the Anglicised form of the Scottish name Máel Coluim, meaning “devotee of Saint Columba”. Columba is a Latin name meaning “dove”. It was a common name amongst medieval royalty in Scotland, which has a long line of King Malcolms. The most well known is Malcolm III, for it is claimed that he is the historical person on which the character of Malcolm in Shakespeare’s Macbeth is based, and who becomes king of Scotland after Macbeth is killed. Although his second wife, Margaret, is recognised as a saint, King Malcolm does not seem to have been very religious.

Scottish-born Malcolm Young is famous in Australia as the brains behind rock band AC/DC, but although the name of his younger brother Angus is a popular favourite, Malcolm’s name has languished. Malcolm was #81 for the 1900s, and peaked in the 1950s at #52. It left the Top 100 in the 1980s, and hasn’t charted since 2009.

Part of the reason may be that Malcolm is a name well known in politics, which rarely seems to do a name any favours. Liberal Party Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser came to power in 1975, a time which saw a definite plummet in popularity for the name Malcolm. In recent times, Malcolm Turnbull has been the Liberal Party Leader of the Opposition, and is currently Shadow Minister for Communications and Broadband. He is known for being Australia’s wealthiest parliamentarian, and is the only sitting politician to make the BRW Rich List. Since he was elected in 2004, the name Malcolm has gone out of regular use altogether.

So although Scottish names for boys continue to be fashionable choices in Australia, the related name Callum, which is the Scottish form of Columba, has taken over from Malcolm – soaring in popularity during the 1980s as Malcolm sank. Is it purely coincidence that the 1980s was a decade in which Malcolm Fraser’s party suffered the worst defeat of a non-Labour party since Federation, and he was discovered in a confused condition in a seedy hotel in Memphis, wearing only a towel? I cannot help but feel neither of these things improved the prospects of the name Malcolm.

Names of Australian Female Olympic Medalists

12 Sunday Aug 2012

Posted by A.O. in Name Themes and Lists

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Chantal (Meek)

Chantal Meek is originally from Britain, and won a bronze medal in 2008 for sprint canoeing. The name Chantal was originally given in honour of Saint Jane Frances de Chantal (her non-saint name was Jeanne-Françoise Frémiot, Baronne de Chantal). Jeanne-Françoise was of the nobility, and married a baron; she devoted herself to prayer and charity, and later in life founded a religious order. Not only kind and sensible, she was known for her great sense of humour. The place name Chantal is from Old Provençal cantal, meaning “stony”, but people often imagine it is from the French word chant, meaning “song”. Chantal was first used as a personal name in France in the 1920s, and was most popular there during the 1940s-60s. The name entered the US Top 100 in 1968, the same year Marie-Chantal Miller was born to American millionaire and socialite, Robert Warren Miller (Marie-Chantal later became Crown Princess of Greece). Chantal (shan-TAHL) has never charted in Australia, with the preference here being for the variant Chantelle (shan-TEL).

Clover (Maitland)

Clover Maitland has won gold twice for hockey, in 1996 and 2000. Although usually thought of as a nature name, Clover was originally from the surname. It was an occupational name given to an official mace-bearer (a mace was called a clavia), or to a timber-worker, with the origin being from the word cleave. This accounts for boys named Clover. The plant of this name plays a role in folklore, for it is said that to find a four-leafed clover is lucky. The shamrock is a clover variety which is one of the symbols of Ireland, and proudly displayed on Saint Patrick’s Day. The word clover ultimately goes back to a Proto-Indo-European word meaning “sticky” – quite apt, as white clover flowers make excellent honey. Clover is also used in farming and gardening to enrich the soil, and so good for stock to eat that we say someone is living in clover if their life is one of ease and prosperity. So many positive things attached to this fresh green plant – another one is that it contains the word love. Clo, Cloey, Clove and Lola could all be used as nicknames.

Maree (Fish)

Maree Fish is a hockey player who won gold at the 1988 Olympics. The name Maree is typically Australasian, and so little known elsewhere that Abby at Appellation Mountain even asked about it, as she was puzzled why so many baby girls in Australian birth announcements had Maree in their names. There are several possibilities. The original pronunciation of Maree was MAH-ree, so it could be an Anglicisation of the Scottish Màiri, which is a form of Mary, and can be pronounced the same way. On the other hand, MAH-ree is how the name Marie was pronounced in England until the early twentieth century, and is also a common Gaelic and Irish pronunciation of the name. There is a Loch Maree in the Scottish Highlands, named after Saint Maree – however, he was a man, and his name is the Anglicised form of Máel Ruba, which roughly means “red haired monk” (sometimes it’s Anglicised as Rufus). These days, Maree is usually pronounced muh-REE, as a variant spelling of Marie. Maree entered the charts in the 1920s and was Top 100 by the 1940s. It peaked in the 1960s at #62, and left the Top 100 the following decade. It hasn’t charted since 2009. Like Marie, it’s much more common as a middle name.

Nova (Peris-Kneebone)

Nova Peris began her sporting career in hockey, becoming the first Indigenous Australian to win an Olympic gold medal when the Australian team won at the 1996 Olympics. She then switched to athletics, and although she won gold twice at the Commonwealth Games as a runner, she never received another Olympic medal. The name Nova is from the Latin word for “new”, and the word nova is well known in astronomy to describe a nuclear explosion in a white dwarf star. This makes it another “star” name. Although a rare name here, it has been on the US Top 1000 since the 1880s, and last year returned at #882, after not being seen there since before World War II. It now seems very usable, with its fashionable O and V sounds – it fits right in with popular girls’ names such as Ava and Eva, and can also be seen as an unusual nature name. It may remind some Australians of the radio station, Nova FM, but I’m unsure whether that would bother anyone.

Rohanee (Cox)

Rohanee Cox is a basketball player with the national women’s team who won silver at the 2008 Olympics. She is the first Indigenous Australian to win an Olympic medal in basketball. She has been awarded many sporting honours, including NAIDOC Sportsperson of the Year in 2010. Rohanee, pronounced ro-HAH-nee, is an Indian girl’s name which is a variant of Rohane, based on Rohana, meaning “sandalwood”. Sandalwood trees are native to southern India, and incense made from the tree is used in Hindu ceremonies, while devotees wear a paste made from it on their bodies, so the name has spiritual connotations. Another person with the name is Rohanee Walters, the sister of actor Brandon Walters, who served as his stand-in during the making of Baz Luhrmann’s Australia. Like Ms Cox, Miss Walters is from Broome in Western Australia, and I think is young enough to have been named after local sports star Rohanee Cox – although I don’t know if that’s what happened.

Shirley (Strickland)

Shirley Strickland is one of our most famous athletes, gaining more Olympic medals than any other Australian woman in track and field. She won silver and two bronze at the 1948 London Olympics, gold and bronze at the 1952 Olympics, and two gold at the Melbourne Olympics in 1956. Shirley is a surname from a common English place name meaning “bright clearing”. It was a rare male name until Charlotte Brontë’s 1848 novel Shirley was published. In the story, the lively young heiress Shirley Keeldar has been given a boy’s name, because her parents had no son to pass the family name on to. The US Top 1000 shows Shirley as a unisex name from the 1880s onwards, with 1957 being the last year it appears as a male name. The name began steadily rising just before World War I, coinciding with the 1908 publication of L.M. Montgomery’s novel, Anne of Green Gables, with its imaginative red-haired heroine, Anne Shirley (in a later book, Anne calls her youngest son Shirley). In Australia, Shirley was in rare use in the 1900s, and skyrocketed in popularity to be #10 for the 1920s. It peaked in the 1930s at #3, and had left the Top 100 by the 1960s. It hasn’t charted since 2009.

Taryn (Woods)

Taryn Woods was a member of the women’s water polo team which won gold a the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Taryn is a name popularised by Hollywood matinee idol, Tyrone Power, and his second wife, Linda Christian. They gave the name to their second daughter in 1953, and the name Taryn first appears on the US Top 1000 in 1955. Her name is presumed to be a feminised form of the name Tyrone, which is the name of an Irish county. Taryn is found in ultra-ultra-rare use before that as a unisex name, and similar-sounding names such as Taren, Terrian, Toreen and Torunn were common in the 1940s and ’50s, so the Powers did seem to be tapping into a mid-century zeitgeist. Many of these names look to be inspired by Scandinavian links to the Norse god of thunder, Thor, or perhaps combinations of names, such as Terri and Karen. Taryn first entered the Australian charts in the 1960s, and peaked in the 1980s, at #230. It hasn’t charted since 2009. The name seems to have been more popular in Australia than anywhere else, although its only tenuous Aussie connection is that Linda Christian was one of Erroll Flynn’s lovers.

Tatiana (Grigorieva)

Tatiana Grigorieva was a national hurdler in Russia, but when she migrated to Australia in 1997 she took up pole vaulting. Within a year of picking up a pole for the first time, she won a medal at an international competition. After winning silver at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, she became a household name, and her blonde good looks made her very marketable. Tatiana is the feminine form of Tatianus, derived from the Roman family name Tatius. The name may be of Sabine origin, and the meaning is unknown. Saint Tatiana is supposed to have been a 3^rd century Roman Christian who was martyred for her faith. She was venerated in Orthodox Christianity, and her name has been commonly used in Russia and surrounding areas. Although Tatiana is unusual in Australia, its forms Tania and Tanya both peaked in the 1970s in the Top 100. Last year, NRL star Akuila Uate welcomed a baby girl named Tatianna, and its short form Tiana peaked in the early 2000s.

Virginia (Lee)

Virginia Lee is a rower who won bronze at the 1996 Olympics. The name Virginia is the feminine form of the Roman family Verginius; the meaning may be “bend, turn toward”, but modern writers often spell it Virginius, to make it seem as if it is derived from virgo, Latin for “virgin”. According to legend, Verginia was a beautiful Roman girl murdered by her father to protect her honour. Virginia was the name of the first English colony in North America. In 1584, Sir Walter Raleigh’s expedition to what is now North Carolina brought word of a Native American chief named Wingina. The first Native American leader to meet English settlers, he died by their hand soon after, setting an unhappy precedent for future cultural relations. Queen Elizabeth I called the new colony Virginia in her own honour, due to her status as Virgin Queen; it is thought that Wingina’s name may have helped inspire her choice. The original colony stretched from North Carolina into Canada, but the modern American state of Virginia is of more modest proportions. The first child born in the Americas to English parents was Virginia Dare, named after the colony, and her fate is a mystery, for all the colonists disappeared a few years later. Because of its origins, Virginia has been more popular in the United States than elsewhere. In Australia, it first charted in the 1920s, and peaked in the 1950s at #94 – the decade when Virginia McKenna starred in A Town Like Alice. It hasn’t ranked since the early 2000s.

Wendy (Schaeffer)

Wendy Schaeffer is an equestrian who won gold in eventing at the 1996 Olympics. The early history of the name Wendy is rather murky, and it’s usually suggested that it began as a pet form of Gwendoline or Wanda. Unfortunately for this theory, the first Wendy I can find was born in 1615 in Cambridgeshire, and was male. He may have been named after the Cambridgeshire hamlet of Wendy, meaning “island on the river bend”. In fact, boys named Wendy in 18^th century England did tend to come from Cambridgeshire. The earliest woman named Wendy I can find died in Essex, and is estimated to have been born around 1711. Wendy is also a surname which is most commonly found in Essex – as this county is next to Cambridgeshire, could it be inspired by the place name? Leaving aside this mysterious origin, the name’s popularity is due to author J.M. Barrie. He knew a wee lass called Margaret Henley, and she called Barrie “fwendy”, as a childish way of saying “friend”. Margaret died aged five, and Barrie named the heroine of his 1904 play, Peter Pan, Wendy Darling; the novelisation of the play was published in 1911. In Australia, Wendy first entered the charts in the 1920s, and was Top 100 by the following decade. It peaked in the 1950s at #15, and left the Top 100 in the 1980s. It is still in rare use.

(Photo shows Tatiana Grigorieva after winning silver at the Sydney Olympics in 2000)

Waltzing With … Olivia

22 Sunday Jul 2012

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

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This blog post was first published on July 22 2012, and substantially revised and re-posted on May 4 2016.

This Friday, July 27, it is Schools Tree Day. I always think this is a great way to start off the Spring Term, as it gets students out of the classroom and connecting with nature. This year there will be an emphasis on programs where children plant and care for trees in public bushland, teaching them about the environment and community responsibility.

National Tree Day (on Sunday July 29), and its “junior partner”, Schools Tree Day, are Australia’s biggest tree-planting events. National Tree Day was co-founded by pop singer Olivia Newton-John and Australian environmental group Planet Ark in 1996; since then more than 3.8 million people have planted over 22 million trees and shrubs.

Olivia Newton-John is an ambassador to the United Nations Environmental Program, and has won awards for her efforts on behalf of the environment from the Environmental Media Association and the Rainforest Alliance. This year she was named one of Australia’s Living Treasures by the National Trust. In honour of Ms Newton-John’s achievements and charity work, I am taking a closer look at her first name.

Name Information
Olivia is a name invented by William Shakespeare for his play Twelfth Night. It is generally believed that Shakespeare based it on the Latin name Oliva, meaning “olive” and pronounced oh-LEEV-ah.

Oliva of Brescia was a Roman saint martyred in the 2nd century. Interestingly, the saint is now often known as Saint Olivia, to distinguish her from a legendary saint from the 9th century called Oliva of Palermo, and known as Blessed Olive.

Blessed Olive was a beautiful thirteen year old girl of noble family who was kidnapped by Muslims and martyred by them after the usual imprisonment and torture. It’s clearly a piece of propaganda, but she is still a patron saint of music. Confusingly, sometimes she is also known as Saint Olivia, to distinguish her from Saint Oliva of Brescia.

Shakespeare chose the name Olivia for a beautiful countess of Illyria, an ancient land in the Balkans on the Adriatic Coast, where Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro and Albania are now. As its name suggests, Twelfth Night was written as an entertainment for the end of the Christmas season; its first performance was after Candlemas in 1602.

The eve of Epiphany was supposed to be a time when all the usual rules were turned topsy-turvy, so it is not surprising that cross-dressing plays a big part in the plot. The countess Olivia falls in love with a woman named Viola (an anagram of Oliva, while Olivia is an anagram of I, Viola) believing her to be a man named Cesario. The joke in Shakespeare’s day, when only males were permitted on stage, was that the role of Viola was played by a boy pretending to be a woman pretending to be man.

Olivia is such a stunning beauty that Viola’s twin brother Sebastian marries her virtually on sight, in an almost dreamlike state, while she thinks he is “Cesario”. They both marry under false pretences, but it is less illegal than Olivia marrying Viola. It’s a comedy, so everything works out.

The name Olivia was too good not be used by other writers, so a character named Olivia is in William Wycherley’s 1676 play The Plain Dealer, cleverly utilising a similar plot to Twelfth Night. In Oliver Goldsmith’s 1766 novel The Vicar of Wakefield, Olivia is the vicar’s strikingly beautiful daughter. In an impetuous rush of passion, she is tricked into a fake marriage with a womanising squire; luckily, it turns out the squire himself was tricked and the marriage is real.

A real marriage to an evil womaniser doesn’t sound like much of a happy ending for Olivia, but it’s happier than not being married at all, it seems. Arresting beauty and dodgy weddings seem the hallmark of the literary Olivia.

Olivia has been in use as an English name since the 17th century, and became more common in the 19th. An early famous namesake was the English socialite Olivia Devenish, who married Thomas Raffles, the vice-governor of Java.

Olivia Miss Newton-John emigrated to Australia from Britain in the 1950s, and during the 1960s was a regular on Australian radio and television before becoming a successful country-pop singer overseas. The name Olivia first appeared on the Top 100 in 1978 at #64, the same year that Olivia starred as Sandy in the hit musical film Grease.

The name Olivia was only on the Top 100 sporadically in the 1980s, never getting any higher than its initial position (Newton-John’s “sexy” image in this decade probably wasn’t a help). It began rising in the 1990s after Olivia’s career quietened down and she put away the spandex, shooting up to #46 in 1990. By 1998 it was in the Top 10 at #5, and it peaked at #1 in 2005, and then again in 2014.

Currently Olivia is #2 nationally, #2 in New South Wales, #1 in Victoria, #2 in Queensland, #3 in South Australia, #1 in Western Australia, #26 in Tasmania, #6 in the Northern Territory, and #4 in the Australian Capital Territory.

In the US, the name Olivia has charted consistently in the Top 1000 since the 19th century, rarely leaving the Top 500. It has been in the Top 100 since the 1990s, and is currently at its peak position of #2. In the UK it has been in the Top 100 since the 1990s, and peaked at #1 in 2008-2010. It is currently #2. Olivia is also #2 in New Zealand, and is popular across the English-speaking world as well as East and West Europe, and Scandinavia. Olivia is a name that travels very well.

Coincidentally or not, the rise and stability of Olivia looks similar to the trajectory of the name Oliver, which is now at #1 – in fact, the two names were #1 together in 2014. Olivia’s success may have helped her twin sister Olive rise through the ranks, for this retro charmer began zooming up the charts in the 2000s, and is now in the Top 100.

Other famous namesakes include Hollywood star Olivia de Havilland; author Olivia Manning; George Harrison’s widow, Olivia Harrison; and actresses Olivia Wilde and Olivia Williams. Although there are many fictional Olivias, one of the most famous is the adorable pig from the children’s book and TV series, named after the author’s niece (I’ve noticed many baby Olivias seem to get toy pigs as gifts).

Lovely Olivia has become one of our modern classics, currently at the peak of its success and still stable after 17 years in the Top 10. I think, like that other Shakespearean coinage Jessica, it will be with us for some time to come.

POLL RESULT
Olivia scored an approval rating of 89%, making it the most popular girl’s name of 2012 in this category. 35% of people thought the name Olivia was okay, while only 4% hated it.

(Picture shows old olive trees in Albania).

Melbourne Suburbs That Could Be Used as Girl’s Names

08 Sunday Jul 2012

Posted by A.O. in Name Themes and Lists

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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)

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