Tag Archives: Mer de Noms

Famous Names: Sebastian and Jenson

21 Wednesday Mar 2012

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The Australian Grand Prix was held in Melbourne on the weekend, and before the event there was plenty of buzz in the media around German Sebastian Vettel, and British Jenson Button. These glamorous visitors from Europe always get a lot of attention, for both are handsome and charming; Vettel amusing and slightly mysterious, Button affable and quietly confident. In the end, Button opened the F1 season with a victory, winning comfortably against Vettel with a 2.2 second margin. It is his third Australian Grand Prix victory. (Picture has Vettel on the left in black).

I thought we’d take a look at the names of both these Formula One champions, because Sebastian and Jenson are Googled often to reach my blog, and so far I haven’t added any requested boys names to the Featured Names list, while I’ve been quite conscientious about adding the girls.

Sebastian is from the Latin name Sebastianus, which means “from Sebaste”. There were several places called Sebaste, because it is the Greek form of Augusta, named in honour of the Emperor Augustus. His adopted name meant “great, majestic, venerable”. There are towns in modern-day Turkey and Palestine with this name (or a version of it), still with ancient Roman ruins which can be visited.

The name became well known because of Saint Sebastian, a 3rd century Roman soldier originally from southern France. Skilled at converting people, according to legend he was shot through with arrows, yet did not die, so had to be martyred twice. He became popular in the Middle Ages because he was said to protect people from the plague, and also began to be depicted as a beautiful, semi-nude young man. (In early pictures, he looks like an ordinary bearded fully-clothed saint).

The name was popular amongst Continental royalty and nobility, and still retains a slightly upper-class image. Sebastian is Viola’s twin brother in Shakespeare’s gender-switching romantic comedy, Twelfth Night. Lord Sebastian Flyte is one of the main characters in Evelyn Waugh’s novel, Brideshead Revisited; beautiful and rather fey, the TV series and film makes it clear Sebastian is homosexual, although this is left ambiguous in the novel. Indeed, Saint Sebastian himself is considered a gay icon (for pretty flimsy reasons), and the name was a code for homosexuality; Oscar Wilde’s pseudonym was Sebastian Melmoth. So far, so androgynous.

However, the name got a watery overhaul when the name Sebastian was given to a Jamaican lobster in the Disney film, The Little Mermaid. Sebastian is a court composer, and a good friend and adviser to Ariel, the mermaid of the title. A Rastafarian who can lay down a reggae beat, he has given the name a new level of cool. The choice of his name seems like a deliberate reference to another famous composer: Johann Sebastian Bach. Incidentally, Sebastian is the lobster’s surname – his first name is Horatio (maybe after the American composer, Horatio Parker).

Sebastian first entered the charts in the 1960s and began steadily climbing, to become Top 100 by the 2000s. At #38 it still seems to be gaining in popularity – an elegant name that belongs to many people’s favourite Disney character.

Jenson is a lot more straightforward. It’s a surname which is basically a form of Johnson, being based on the name Jens, a short form of Johannes. According to Lou at Mer de Noms (rather a Jenson Button fan), the name Jenson has edged itself into the UK Top 100, and its growing popularity can be attributed almost solely to Mr Button himself. As to how he got his name, he was named after a family friend, Erling Jensen (father of F1 driver Steven Jensen). The spelling was altered so that it didn’t reference Jensen Motors, who made British sports cars until the 1970s.

It’s an attractive name, and one I think we’d be using in spades if Jenson Button was Australian. As it is, it’s one many parents are at least putting on their lists, although my personal feeling is that Jensen is slightly more popular, thanks to handsome American actor Jensen Ackles, from Supernatural. As I’ve said before, with female Jennifer become less popular, it gives male names starting with Jen- more of a chance.

When I try to decide which name I like best, Sebastian or Jenson, I find myself in private debate. If I take the side of Sebastian, it seems more sophisticated than Jenson, complex and multi-syllabled, romantic and princely. On the other hand, if I take the side of Jenson, it seems more laddish and chipper, down-to-earth and unpretentious, with oodles of cheeky British charm.

So I am content to say these are both very nice names, and I won’t force them to compete against each other in some Baby Name Grand Prix. When it comes to nicknames for them, I think of Seb and Bastian, and Jens and Sonny, respectively.

Famous Name: Kevin

29 Wednesday Feb 2012

Posted by in Famous Names

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Over at The Name Station, there is an article quoting two studies which demonstrate that Kevin is the worst possible name to have in Germany. For some reason, this name really gets up the noses of Central European schoolteachers and cyber-daters.

As it turns out, the Germans aren’t exactly Robinson Crusoe in this regard. According to Lou at Mer de Noms (niece of a Kevin), the French also look down their noses at the name Kevin, and say, Non, non, non! Across the Channel, Kevin is considered a chavvy (bogan) name, to the point where kev is a synonym of chav, innit?

And if we hop over the Pond, American TV shows such as Daria and South Park depict Kevins as either dumb jocks or disposable meaningless characters. Oddly enough, in the United States Kevin is disliked for the exact opposite reason as in Europe – far from being too lower-class and urban, Kevin is seen as too middle-class and suburban.

A persistent Internet rumour is that the name Kevin is banned in Mexico because it will lead to “teasing and ridicule”. Actually the Chihuahua state government forbids parents from using any non-Spanish name without a Spanish middle name, and for some reason, reporters always seem to use Kevin as an example, hence the confusion. That may say more about how the name Kevin is viewed by the reporters than how it is in Mexico.

Apparently vast tracts of the Northern Hemisphere are infected by an intense loathing of people named Kevin. Here, another group who has joined the We Hate Kevin Club is the Australian Labor Party Caucus, who on Monday morning voted against Kevin Rudd’s bid for the leadership, two votes to one. So much do they detest Kevin Rudd that they profess a preference to losing an election without Rudd than winning one with him.

Their vote in support of Julia Gillard is not so much a ringing endorsement of her leadership as it is a sign of their determination to vote for ABK – Anyone But Kevin.

Kevin Rudd was elected Prime Minister of Australia in a landslide victory in 2007, his supporters running with the slogan Kevin ’07. Soon his non-stop work ethic led to him being labelled Kevin 24/7, and his frequent diplomatic trips around the world Kevin 747. Some papers sneeringly called him Kevin 7-11 for catering to the public a little too readily, like a convenient corner shop, and rumour had it he was Kevin 007 – a double-agent leaking information that could damage his enemies.

However, his authoritarian work style and biting insults made him anything but loved by his Labor colleagues, who ousted him the minute his popularity slipped in the polls and replaced him with his Deputy, Julia Gillard. This was all done so quickly that Rudd supporters have some basis for seeing him as stabbed in the back, as happens so often in the workplace.

Since his dumping, there has remained the vague threat (or hope) that he would one day rise up and take back his power. When Julia Gillard’s own popularity plummeted to record lows, he suggested he might run for party leader (and thus Prime Minister).

Polls done in the lead-up to Monday morning’s ballot showed great public support for Kevin Rudd, with the majority of people preferring him to either Julia Gillard or Tony Abbot, the Opposition Leader. The Pro-Kevin lobby reached fever-pitch. He was treated like a rock star wherever he went, received messages from people all over the country in his support, and was proclaimed the People’s Prime Minister. However, the people’s support is useless without the support of your party. That’s politics.

Maybe the Germans, the French, the British, the North Americans, and possibly the Mexicans can’t stand Kevin, but it seems Australians are pretty okay with it. We elected a Kevin Prime Minister, even though Dame Edna Everage expressed some doubts about the idea (she was probably catering to the anti-Kevin prejudices of her chiefly British audience). And even though he’s gone, he was never voted out, and clearly a sizeable chunk of the population would like him back.

The media love the name Kevin as well – it’s so useful for catchphrases and headlines. Not only Kevin ’07, Kevin 24/7, Kevin 747, Kevin 7-11 and Kevin 007, but also in the headlines were Kevingate, The Kevinator, Good Heaven’s It’s Kevin, Kevin Heaven, Kevin in Heaven, A Kevinly Sign from Above, Knocking on Kevin’s Door, and Kevenge (an act of revenge committed by someone named Kevin).

Australians have never had problems with names of Irish origin (as the list of Famous Names is starting to make pretty obvious). Kevin is the Anglicised form of the Irish name Caoimhin, a form of the older Cóemgein, which can be translated as “gentle” or “handsome”. Saint Kevin is the patron saint of Dublin, and is sometimes called the Irish St Francis of Assisi for his love of animals and nature. According to legend, an angel turned up at his baptism and instructed that he should be called Kevin, which the bishop naturally felt obliged to go along with. Maybe Kevin truly is a name from heaven? (A more plausible tale is that his name was bestowed upon him by fellow monks in tribute to his sweet nature).

In Australia, Kevin is a classic name which has never left the charts since record-keeping began in 1900. It first joined the Top 100 in the 1910s, and peaked in the 1930s at #6. It remained a Top 100 name for nine decades until the early 2000s, when it just dipped out at #101. Currently it’s #154.

In Queensland, which is Mr Rudd’s home state, there were twice as many babies named Kevin last year than babies named Julia, his deposer. And I have noticed in the birth announcements how common Kevin is as a middle name for boys.

Are they being named after a father, an uncle, a grandfather … or a lost Prime Minister who may still return, like the once and future king? Rudd Redux?

NOTE: Kevin is a Top 100 name in at least nine different countries, two of which, France and the United States, supposedly despise it. Go figure. Maybe this whole anti-Kevin thing is a beat-up.

Brittania Rules at British Baby Names

05 Sunday Feb 2012

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

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

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

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

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

Name Lists

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

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

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

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

Names of the week

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

Name Data

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Q & A with Elea

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

See the Real Deal at For Real Baby Names

27 Sunday Nov 2011

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Have you ever looked at a simple, yet highly successful, invention and thought, “I could have done that”? I sometimes wonder what genius came up with the idea of sticking a cute image onto a magnet so that we could attach things to our refrigerators. (Wikipedia says a man named William Zimmerman did, but provides no sources). I mean, who even knew we needed fridge magnets? And I can’t survive a day without them.

The point is, you think you could have invented these things, but you didn’t. You didn’t come up with the fridge magnet, the post-it note, play-doh, stop signs, Cubism, the snuggie, or the all-you-can-eat buffet. Someone with more brains, creativity, business sense, or plain old gumption got in there first and pipped you.

That’s kind of how I feel when I read Sarah’s blog, For Real Baby Names. The subtitle is All names on this site are names of actual babies, and it consists of lists of baby names culled from recent birth announcements in newspapers. It’s such a perfectly simple concept that only an absolute genius could have come up with it, and yet once you see it, you immediately think, “Why didn’t I think of that?”

If I sound a bit envious, there’s a good reason for that: I am. Out of the name blogs I have reviewed so far, this is the one I’m most jealous of. Even though Abby is so famous, and Lou so young and vibrant, and Isadora so beloved, it’s Sarah’s blog that I wish I’d thought of first.

As far as I know, For Real Baby Names is a unique concept in the blogosphere. Some name blogs include birth announcements in their entries, but this is one just of birth announcements. I have also seen name blogs consisting of birth announcements, but they exist as a springboard for the blogger to vaunt their own opinions. These names, the blogger will insist, are horrible and vulgar, while this list of names shows class and breeding. These names are tasteful; this lot over here, trashy. Emulate these names; eschew those. For Real Baby Names has a purity of intention and a clarity of purpose that these birth announcement name blogs lack, and Sarah exhibits a remarkable restraint in not providing a commentary on every list of names.

I stumbled upon For Real Baby Names quite early in my blogging career, and was immediately struck by the difference between it, and most other name blogs. There was no advice as to what you should name your baby; no suggestions as to the correct spelling of a name; no opinions as to whether the name would be better for a girl or a boy. This was baby names at their most fundamental and authentic. While other name blogs tell you what people should name their children, For Real Baby Names tells you what people actually do name their children. The gap between the two is sometimes quite arresting. I can’t think of any blog that would advocate naming your child Delightful Unique, but nevertheless someone chose this name.

As someone who has long collected names out of newspapers and magazines, I was drawn to this blog like a Trekkie to a sci-fi convention that’s handing out free Spock tee-shirts. And instead of warning me to stay off her turf, Sarah was generous enough to encourage me to share some of the names I was collecting on my blog.

Sarah has been blogging on WordPress for two years, and by now she has a huge collection of baby names from around the world. Entries are organised by area, so you can see baby names from London, the United Kingdom, Scotland, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and many states of the US, from Alaska to California to Kansas to Georgia to New York to Hawaii and more. These are headed with attractive little pictures so you know where you are, and often make me want to dash off to whatever country is on offer.

I must admit to being a little sceptical about these lists at first – I couldn’t help wondering if Sarah had selected names for each region with the view of making them fit a particular stereotype of that area. Was she deliberately choosing “southern-sounding” names for Georgia, or sweetly old-fashioned yet whimsical names for Ireland? However, the names listed for Australia are, I think, very typical of those names which are popular or fashionable now – many of the Australian baby names are the names of my friends’ and relatives’ children.

This convinces me that the name lists from most areas are probably representative of the type of baby names you will encounter there. You do begin to pick up on national or regional tastes on names, so that Alaska often has daring name choices, Arizona seems fond of nature names, Canada is quirky, and Hawaii mellifluous. I have seen a couple of familiar names in the Australian listings, including Jed Hardy – the name of one of our celebrity babies.

There is a good mix of crowd-pleasers, such as Cressida Blueberry; modern names such as Destin Ryder; interesting names, such as Bronze Quinten; contemporary standards, such as Scarlett Bella; old-fashioned names such as Mabel Olive; grand names such as Henry Leonidas Tiberius; sweet names such as Pixie Rose; tough names, such as Jake Buster; weird names such as Boo!; and plain awful names such as Charley Willard Horse Dick. Whether you wish to admire, criticise, be amazed, or gasp in horror, you will find names to revile and revel in.

For Real Baby Names also has posts on particular topics, such as this one on surprising middle names or this one on celebrity baby names. Each Sunday is a post listing names which Sarah appears to have found pleasing or interesting, and occasionally there is a Pop Quiz, on which I usually do rather badly. There are also Name Round Ups, which list unusual names, often grouped around a particular topic. These give Sarah an opportunity to share some of her thoughts on individual names, and her opinions on naming in general; her musings can often be witty, but they are never snide, or an excuse to start name bullying.

As you can imagine, this blog is very popular, and Sarah has many dedicated followers who enjoy commenting on the names. For Real Baby Names is a fun blog, and a big part of that is seeing what names other people love, hate, are bemused or baffled by, and sharing your own opinions for others to agree or disagree with. Sarah is very conscientious about answering comments, and even your most throw-away line will probably get a courteous response. You may also follow her on Twitter.

At the beginning of this review, I made a differentiation between regular baby name blogs as espousing an idealistic view of baby naming, whereas For Real Baby Names demonstrates the reality of naming practice. However, that’s an overly simplistic view of things. Real life baby Luella Hummingbird has a middle name that any name nerd would be proud to add to their blog, and one of the first entries on For Real Baby Names was for Seven Miller, whose name has been often covered on blogs this year, thanks to famous babe Harper Seven Beckham. I have seen real babies called Anjali and Tigerlily – names that have featured on Appellation Mountain and Nook of Names.

If you are interested in baby names, this blog is recommended reading; if you have a name blog of your own, For Real Baby Names is essential reading. Not only do you get a digest of baby names being used around the English-speaking world, you will learn many new names, see naming trends in action, and get a feel for what kinds of names and name combinations parents have a fondness for. Best of all, you will be exposed to a staggering variety of names, and understand that almost no baby name can be called “unusable”.

For Real Baby Names is addictive, and if you have even a passing interest in baby names, you will soon be impatiently waiting for the next instalment to be released. You didn’t know you needed it, and now you can’t live without it.

Q& A with Sarah

Name: My name is Sarah Elizabeth, the most popular Sarah combination it seems. I see my full name all the time when searching through birth announcements.  Plus, I tend to ask every Sarah I meet, “What is your middle name?”,  and it’s usually Elizabeth.

Name you would like to have: I’ve always liked Elizabeth more than Sarah so I used to write to penpals as a kid, and always signed them Elizabeth. I tried to switch over once, but it didn’t take. I guess I wasn’t persistent enough. Now, I would probably keep Sarah, but go by Sadie.

What began your interest in names?: I can’t remember exactly what started it. I do remember my first day of fourth grade. I changed schools that year and remember looking at the new class list on the wall and picking out who I would be friends with based solely on which names I liked.  🙂  It (of course) didn’t work out that way. 🙂

How did you start blogging?: I have always kept a list of names I saw in birth announcements that I liked, names I had never seen before, and the crazy and outrageous ones.  Once Nameberry started, and I found the blogs You Can’t Call It It! and Appellation Mountain, I realised I wasn’t the only one interested in names.  I thought maybe there would be others who would want to see which names were actually being used, so I decided to share them.

Your favourite blog entry on For Real Baby Names: Chisel and Wave (unexpected word names). I love word names and I’m always interested in what people use and why some words are more acceptable as names than others, so this one is my favourite.

Your pet naming peeve: I don’t like the sites that just trash baby names. Any name that isn’t Biblical or had a 100+ years of use, is deemed ridiculous, trashy or stupid, and will ruin the baby’s life.  I don’t think that is true.

Your favourite names: My naming style is all over the place.  I like names like Matilda, Henry, and August, like a good name nerd; but I also love names like Sawyer, Fenway, Wilder, Everly, Belle, and Forest (for a girl).

Names you dislike: I don’t like when names are a joke.  I don’t think your baby’s name should be a laughing matter, so I don’t care for names like Sudden Lee, Sincere Leigh, Merry Christmas, or Stormy Sea Waters.

Names you love, but can’t use: I love Isabella, Lily, and Emma, but in the 9th grade I was in school with seven girls called Jennifer, and I swore I would never use a popular name. Years ago, I dreamt once that I had a daughter named Fable, but I’m not sure if I’m cool enough to use such a bold name.

Your future children’s names: I have loved the name Matilda for a long time. This was my “for sure” name until I mentioned it to my Mom.  She said okay, but they would just call her Mattie, so now I’m not so sure.  I’ve dated two boys named Matthew and called Matt, and I do not love Mattie, so now my girl name is still under construction.  I think if I had a boy today, his name would be Sawyer or August.

The one piece of advice you would give to someone choosing a name for their baby: Give the baby a name you love. No matter what.  Don’t listen to other people. A name chosen from the heart could never be a wrong choice. It doesn’t matter if it is too popular, too unusual, or unheard of. If you love it, use it.

Get Enchanted at Bewitching Names

23 Sunday Oct 2011

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Tomorrow it will be only a week until Halloween, and so it seems a befitting time to review one of the most beguiling name blogs out there: Bewitching Names, which is written by Isadora Vegas. Its subtitle is Naming Enthusiasm from a Wiccan Perspective, and Isadora covers names that she thinks Neo-Pagans and Wiccans may want to choose – either for their children, or as a “magickal name” for themselves. However, so broadly does she sweep for names, and with such discernment and imagination, that anyone who shares her enthusiasm for names will find themselves becoming charmed by her selections.

Bewitching Names came highly recommended by Lou at Mer de Noms, and its entries often covered by Abby at Appellation Mountain in her Sunday Summaries, so it was only a matter of time before I eventually meandered over there to check it out for myself. The first name I saw on the front page was Seawillow, and after reading about the homely yet mystical origins of this lovely name from 19th century Texas, I was hooked.

Isadora has been writing Bewitching Names since mid-December last year, and has already produced 260 posts. It’s a one-name-at-a-time type blog, and one of the beauties of this format is that each name gets a chance to really shine in its own light. Isadora modestly says that she is a name enthusiast, not a name expert, but in fact she is selling herself short. The meaning and origins of each name are covered pretty thoroughly, including conflicting theories and ambiguities. Where her knowledge reaches its limit, she says so frankly, and can even be over-scrupulous, such as when she confesses to not having enough training in chemistry to fully understand the atomic composition of the gemstone when covering the name Topaz.

Names are often chosen to fit in with a seasonal theme, so that Cupid turns up just after Valentine’s Day, and Plum at Christmas (a fantastic Christmassy name too!). Isadora also delights to present names on a theme for a particular month, such as Harry Potter names in time for the film’s release,  and names of fictional witches to coincide with a Pagan Culture Blogosphere Party. One of my favourites of these was the American names for early July to honour Independence Day, when she treated us to such delicious bites of Americana as Huckleberry, Treemonisha, Meriweather and Sojourner. I enjoyed these as they were a chance to see another side of the American story, as well as American names.

I think this is one the strongest points of Bewitching Names – the way that Isadora has the ability to find the story behind the name and bring it to life. Because let’s face it, what makes you fall in love with a name, or at least get interested in it, isn’t the Greek etymology or how it translates into Russian; it’s the story of how it came into being, and how it came to be used as a name. I was fascinated, for instance, to read all about the god of the seasons, Vertumnus; his obscure Etruscan origins, and the story of how he wooed the goddess Pomona dressed up as a pantomime dame. I also became engrossed in the story of that controversial lady and her controversial name – Jezebel. If you’ve ever thought of this Biblical queen with horror or disgust, Isadora presents Jezebel’s side of the story in a very sympathetic way.

She also tells wonderful little stories about her own life and family, that demonstrate so profoundly how a name becomes valuable to us through our personal associations with it. So we learn about her grandmother from Puerto Rico who was nicknamed Gladiola, and the names of Spanish ancestors from her family tree. She shares with us names from her favourite authors, and favourite musicians, as well the name of one of her favourite artists.

If you began by wondering what kinds of names a Wiccan name enthusiast gets enthusiastic about, I hope by now you are beginning to get an idea. Isadora covers names of the astrological signs; names of Celtic tree months, such as Hawthorn; nature names, such as Savannah; gemstone names, such as Diamond; names of gods and goddesses, such as Shango; names from mythology, such as Kitsune; and names from fairytales, such as Rapunzel. There are also names of famous Pagans, such as voodoo priestess, Marie Laveau, and Wiccan folklorist, Gerald Gardner, and names of historical witches, such as Marable Cooper and Nicodemus Hirsch.

Isadora has strong opinions on quite a few subjects, and isn’t afraid to share her thoughts on why Pagan parents may choose non-Pagan names for their children, name sites  that are short on information and long on catty remarks, and what a crappy movie The Craft is. Isadora, unlike many other name bloggers, doesn’t feel the need to “sell” every name that she covers and convince you that you simply must use it; in fact sometimes she admits that perhaps Cicada might be a bit weird, Vixen on a child is pretty creepy, and that Bird isn’t to her personal taste. She has a feisty sense of humour, and can often see the funny side of name stories, such as this one on the name Orchid.

Each entry is well tagged, with categories neatly arranged on the right-hand side, and she also has Master Lists for girls, boys and unisex names, which she calls The Maidens, The Princes and The Shape-Shifters. Isadora is very broad-minded on the subject of gendered names, and this is the only name site I’ve seen where Willow and Pearl are listed as being for both sexes. Having done lots of searching of the site for this review, I very much wish she had installed a Search Bar on her blog to save me from performing multiple advanced Google searches.

Isadora is an artist and illustrator, and one thing I must say is what gorgeous photos and drawings she chooses for each of her name entries. She has the ability to pick out the perfect picture to mesh with the name and make it seem “real”, and each one has a touch of fantasy to it.

At Bewitching Names, you will find one of the most creative collections of names you have ever seen, beautifully presented, and each name with its own narrative. If you have an interest in names, history, culture, mythology, religion, literature, art and nature, you will find much to intrigue you here. If you are searching for name ideas, you will be dazzled by the choices. If you can appreciate a smart, funny, plain-speaking, daring name blogger who’s a natural story-teller, then prepare to be enchanted.

The wonderful thing is, Isadora has been blogging for less than a year – she’s barely got started. I can’t wait to see where she takes this.

Q & A With Isadora

Online name: It depends where you find me. Increasingly, I’ve been going by the name Isadora Vega, but I haven’t legally changed it yet. So many of my old websites still list me as Tina. Calling me either one is fine. The name on my birth certificate is Christina Patrice, by the way.

How you chose that name: It’s weird, I was never convinced that my birth name “fit” me, but growing up I never thought about changing it. I placed Isadora in my pile of names for future children, but for some reason, it haunted me. The name means “gift of Isis” so I looked up Isis, and found that she is a powerful magical figure and a mothering icon. I was obsessed with Ancient Egyptian culture as a child so it just seemed meant to be. And then I paired it with Vega. Vega is the maiden name of my maternal grandmother and my great-grandmother’s last name. I’m very drawn to my maternal lineage, and both of these women were wonderful. To top it off, my grandmother died immediately after my college graduation, so her name had been on my mind. The more I referred to myself as Isadora Vega, the more I realized that this was the person that I wanted to become. It just felt right.

What began your interest in names?: I don’t remember the exact point. I’m sure my very popular name had something to do with it – Christina was ranked #12 the year I was born. But I also loved to write stories, and these characters and places needed names.

How did you start blogging?: I wanted a website that was like all the great baby name blogs out there, but with a Neo-Pagan slant. But there wasn’t really anything like that. The websites I found  on this topic were old, with questionable descriptions. So that got me thinking, “Why don’t I just make my own?” I experienced a lot of doubt starting out. I wasn’t an expert in etymology or Neo-Paganism, and I was afraid that people would think I was a fraud. But then I realized that being wrong didn’t stop most people who wrote about either of these topics, and many of them have even  published books! I knew that at the very least, I could do a better job than they did.

Nook of Names did not come out until a few months later. Had it been around back then, I probably wouldn’t have had the courage to start Bewitching Names.

Your pet naming peeve: I’ve noticed that many new unisex names, like Kestrel, October, and Topaz, are often only listed with the girls names. I find that very interesting. It’s my hypothesis that up until recently boys names have been more about tradition and passing on the family line, while girls names adhere more towards the fashion of the day. So all the sparkly bits tend to get thrown in with the girls. And there’s a popular idea in America that you can’t give a name used for girls to a boy, because feminine qualities are inferior. That’s a very un-Pagan way of thinking. We venerate women. So that’s an attitude that really upsets me and that I’m fighting it all the time. I’m very proud of my collection of unisex names.

Your favourite names: I love Italian/Latin/Spanish names, nature names, and mythological names. I’m influenced by art and literature. But I cull inspiration from everywhere. Some of my favourites are Fortuna, Romulus, Sirocco, Lavender, Midori, Kahlo, Oberon, Aradia, Peregrine … I could go on forever. I’m constantly finding names and making up new names; half of what I profile on Bewitching Names I’ve never actually seen on a person. I’m currently in love with Nimbus and Remedy. I read of someone who met a boy named Labyrinth, and I love that.

Names you dislike: I never really understood the appeal of Mackenzie, Madison, Addison, and that whole group, not even for boys. I hate Dashiell for no logical reason. An old high school chum is pregnant with a Gage, which just makes me think of NASCAR (no, I didn‘t tell her that). And there are certain ones beloved by name enthusiasts that a part of me wants to warm up to, but I can’t (Astrid and Maud come to mind). I don’t really hate traditional names like Thomas and Richard, it’s just when someone tries to push them on me that I flare up.

Names you love, but can’t use: I’m a little crazy about avoiding names in the Top 1000. Well, that’s not true. I’ve relaxed about that somewhat – I don‘t have the heart to get rid of Archer and Kimora. But Sophia, Genevieve, and Sebastian were tossed out. The Top 1000 is probably, what, 0.09% of the names in the world and most of them are alternate spellings? I don’t see staying away from it as limiting in any way.

There are also certain names I’m avoiding because I’ve noticed they’re very popular among Neo-Pagan parents. Rowan and Tabitha are lovely, but I’ve seen a lot of them in this community.

Your future children’s names: I’m not sharing them because I’m paranoid someone will take my precious combos. Besides, what would I surprise you with? You’ll just have to wait until I get pregnant.

The one piece of advice you would give to someone choosing a name for their baby: Substance over style. I’ve seen perfectly ordinary names become magical with great thoughtfulness attached to them. Imagine telling your child the story of how she got her name. What’s the one that would make you the proudest? Of course, you never know how that’s going to turn out. My parents did this with me and it didn’t work. But they don’t regret bestowing it. And that’s all you can ask for, really.

The Tide is High at Mer de Noms

18 Sunday Sep 2011

Posted by in Blog Reviews

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I first got to know Lou when I realised she was following my blog. I think that was when I found out that WordPress doesn’t alert you if another WP user hits the “follow” button; you have to haunt your own dashboard with stalkeresque obsession to discover this. Up until that point, I barely knew I had a dashboard, so much of a novice was I.

Naturally I went and checked her blog out, although at first I thought it was called Merde Noms, which struck me as either aggressively punk or unnecessarily modest. Eventually I worked out that it was actually Mer de Noms, with the subtitle Floating Around in the Oncoming Tide of Names. The blog’s name is a reference to the debut album of rock band A Perfect Circle.

Lou is an English girl from Nottingham, a city most of us are familiar with, because of the dastardly Sheriff who gave Robin Hood such a hard time in the stories. According to her avatar photo, she has long, wavy, red hair, and cunningly hides her real identity behind dark glasses.

At first we bonded over neither of us being from America, but luckily there was so much more to her blog than not being American, as membership of the Commonwealth can only take you so far.

I immediately became a fan of her crammed-suitcase style of blog writing, where multiple subjects are covered under the one heading. For example, in this blog entry on names from her French textbook, she also manages to cover the Canadian Grand Prix, the drought in England, other blogs she has read that week, family names, her gay cousin’s wife’s cat called Edith, and sisterly nicknames.

The thing I like most about Lou’s blog is that she is an avid, even obsessive, name collector, and will find names absolutely everywhere. You might not think that a teenager’s life in a small Midlands city would yield a rich crop of interesting names, but you would be wrong.

A visit to the Tate Gallery in Liverpool gives rise to an examination of the name Tate for boys. A disturbingly empty pantry leads to a long shopping list of herb and spice names, both homely and exotic. The late-night BBC Shipping Forecast listened to while kept awake with nausea makes her ponder the names of British seas and waterways.

Sport is a major focus of name inspiration for Lou, who keenly follows English football, rugby, cricket, and motorsports. The names of sporting stadiums provided the subject matter for one blog; Jenson Button, Lou’s favourite F1 star, has worked his way into many entries discussing the popularity of his name; and the name of Silverstone Circuit itself has been analysed. Her French studies are also zealously mined for name material, with not only French textbooks, but French dictionaries, French films, and French place names encountered on school trips proving valuable resources.

Other popular name-gathering areas are family and friends, children’s books, video games, television, English place names, music, and names of British celebrities. Celebrity babies are announced, as are interesting happenings in the blogosphere.

A favourite blog idea is to suggest alternatives to popular names, unconventional long forms for common nicknames, and unexpected nicknames for standard names. There’s also name data – lots of name data. A dedicated number cruncher, there’s nothing Lou enjoys more than looking at the popularity of names, whether aristocratic, natural, common, rare, or double-barrelled.

Lou has been on WordPress for over a year, and started out on Blogspot, so she’s an experienced blogger by now. She releases male and female Names of the Week; Name Spot of the Week, where she looks at a particular name or group of names; Sibset of the Week, where the families of famous people are brought to light; and Weekend Posts, which look at all manner of naming issues.

These can be found by clicking on The Week, and going to the drop-down menus for each category. I think she has made work for herself there, as she could have sorted them into WordPress Categories and then added a Category Menu, but it’s perfectly neat and easy to use.

She also has Master Lists for Male and Female Names on the blog, offers her ten favourite posts under Get Started, and is busy working on providing popularity data for each name as well. There aren’t any tags on her blog entries, but she does have a handy search bar called Browse Some More, so it is relatively easy to find things.

When I first subscribed to Lou’s blog, it had the Gray-Z theme, which looked cool and grungy, but never quite struck me as in tune with the blog’s subject matter. Recently, she swapped over to the mellower Notepad, which seems like a better fit. In line with this revamp, she joined Twitter, and you may follow her there by simply clicking the blue button. You can also easily subscribe to the RSS feed by clicking the orange button right next to it.

These changes all let you know that the blog is growing and evolving. Lou’s blog posts from last year are slightly stiff and self-conscious, as is common for nearly all of us when we first begin to blog. I think that she has found her voice as a writer, and developed a more confident, relaxed and chatty style which is very readable. She’s settled into a tolerant and egalitarian stance toward naming, and demonstrates that mixture of sturdy practicality and fey anarchy which we think of as the hallmark of the English character.

Lou’s ideas on names, and mine, are quite harmonious, and I have at times stolen ideas found inspiration from her blog. She is a conscientious and considerate commenter on other people’s blogs, so if you can snag her as a subscriber you’re on a good wicket. Unfortunately for me, her opinions on names seem to correspond so well with my own that I’m often left racking my brains to come up with something to add to other people’s blogs, as “Yeah what she said” seems an inadequate response.

What you get at Mer de Noms is a name blog from a modern English perspective, plenty of zippy Gen-Z ideas, savvy insights into the blogosphere, and a very broad scoop from the sea of names. The tide is rising, and this is a young blogger who’s going places. The next generation of naming is here, and the future is in safe hands.

Q & A With Lou

Name: I’m Lucy Emma, if we’re going to be strictly honest about it, even though I regularly lie and say that I’m Lucy Emmeline. Generally speaking, I mostly go by the short form Lou, namely because people were starting to shorten my name to Luce, which they said the same as the word loose, not exactly the best thing to have shouted at you in public. I also consider Lucy to be a rather girly name, not perhaps fitting for a girl who can rattle off all the names of current drivers in F1. Since shortening down to Lou, I’ve had people calling me Lo instead, proof you never can win with some people.

Name you would like to have: Sometimes I wish my parents had gone with their initial front-runner, Demelza, but then I wouldn’t have been Lou, a name I’ve grown fond of. Out of all the names you could get Lou from that aren’t Lucy, I think I lean heavily towards Luca or Lucretia. I met a female Harry the other day, a name I reckon I could’ve rocked just as well, albeit perhaps as a short form of Harriet.

What began your interest in names?: I’m the eldest of four, so I think it started when I was six, and about to welcome my second sibling, who was due to arrive in a few weeks. My parents let me join in on the naming discussion, not thinking I would amount to much; I promptly started campaigning for the name Jack because I thought it’d be nice for him to share his name with the game (not that I told my parents that reasoning). Unbelievably, my parents actually used the name, and so things looked good when another sister turned up when I was nine. They failed to use my choice that time, the botanical Clover. 

How did you start blogging?: One of the rules of life I live by is Thumper’s [from Bambi] – if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all; this makes life on name boards difficult when you’re faced with the suggestion of Elixyvett. I eventually had to pull myself out because I hated seeing people’s front-runners torn apart by the unforgiving. Afterwards, I just limited myself to blogs, but couldn’t really identify with the few that were going at that time. Mostly because, since most were American ones, they were out of step with the current styles here in England, so I just started my own.

Your favourite blog entry on Mer de Noms: I’m still quite satisfied with my post on Gyles Brandreth’s kids. I remember I only knew the first names initially when I wrote up the post, but I then combed all sources available to me looking for the middle names, to see if they’d gone traditional, or equally eye-popping, with them.

I also really enjoyed writing my post on names in British comedy, since that’s pretty much all I watch on the TV, aside from the news and sports.

Your pet naming peeve: I always feel bad for the guys, since female names are usually covered in much more breadth than male names are; I know I’m as guilty as this as everyone else. Of course, my other pet peeve is seeing great names cast aside because someone on the Internet hated it and told you your child would be ridiculed for having such an unusual name – I grew up with a female Brogan who’s never had issues with having a male name.

Your favourite names: Right now, I find myself drawn to short and fun names, things like Beck, Mika, Wren and Kit, but I’m an indecisive person – shelves of biscuits [cookies] in the shop can and have caused much distress for me – so I fully expect to embrace names like Deborah or Meredith in the near future. I also know that I tend to lean towards male names that aren’t exactly butch; I consider all of the above names male. (editorial note: surely not Deborah?!)

Names you dislike: A style of naming I’m not 100% behind is naming your child after a famed person with a notable name, who is still alive. It is kind of rich coming from me, since I love Jenson, but I’m a cynical person and I know there’s still every chance that Button could still do something really dodgy, not dissimilar from the Tiger Woods saga of last year; an example of a name pretty much ruined overnight by its most famous bearer.

Names you love, but can’t use: I love the name Clover, but alas, sister #2 kind of has dibs on that name (I also decided about a year ago that I love Jack, go figure!). When I found out that the name Wren is used pretty much equally for males and females here in England & Wales, the name really clicked for me as a name for a lad instead of a lass, although I do believe the name is set to begin to rise as a female name. I also quite like the name Nancy, but my Great Auntie is one, and my family truly hates the idea of family names, something I’m more than happy to honour.

Your future children’s names: I have names in the back of my head, which I’d love to use – Darcey, Stanley, Jenson, Harry, Flora – but right now I’ve no idea whether I’ll still like them when/if I have children. The only name I’ve consistently loved for years is Cassius, and perhaps Zuleika.

The one piece of advice you would give to someone choosing a name for their baby: No name another person loves can ever be better than the one you love. Going around the naming forums, you pick up on the same scenario quite a few times: you and your partner love this one name so completely, but someone else – usually a family member – tries to write if off. One of my sisters would’ve been Isobel if my Nana hadn’t intervened.

Girls Names That Only Chart in Australia

24 Sunday Jul 2011

Posted by in Name Themes and Lists

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Recently, Lou at Mer de Noms has had a couple of articles on names that are in the UK Top 150, but fail to make the US Top 500. It’s an interesting look at differences in name popularity between the two countries. I thought about doing the same thing from an Australian perspective, but found the list became too long for my purposes. So I made my conditions a bit tighter – these are names that are on a Top 100 list in Australia, but don’t make the Top 100 in any other country, and aren’t on the US Top 1000.

Asha

Asha has two different origins and meanings. It can be seen as an Indian name from the Sanskrit for “hope, wish, desire”, or an East African name from the Swahili word for “life”. Either way it has a beautiful meaning, and both Indian and Swahili names are becoming fashionable in Australia. It fits in well with other popular Ash- names, such as Ashley, Ash, Asher and Ashton. There’s an attractive TV presenter in Australia called Asha Kuerten (pictured), which has probably helped it gain momentum here. Asha is currently #89 in Victoria, #77 in South Australia, and #68 in the ACT. It’s never been higher than #794 on the US Top 1000 (in 1989), and hasn’t charted there since 2003.

Bridie

This is a pet form of the Irish name Brighid or its anglicised form, Bridget, which means “exalted one”. In Irish mythology, Brighid was the goddess of fire, poetry and wisdom. There was a 5th century Irish saint called Brigid, who is the patron saint of Ireland, and whose feast day on February 1 coincides with the pagan festival of Imbolc (possibly this day was sacred to the goddess of the same name). As around 30% of Australians claim Irish heritage, the name Bridie isn’t too unusual here, and there are several well-known women with this name, including Bridie Carter, a popular soap actress. Bridie is #70 in Tasmania, which has a particularly strong Irish community. It doesn’t chart in any other country.

Ebony

This is from the English word for the valuable black wood which comes from the ebony tree; different species are native to India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Mauritius, and West Africa. Although Ebony is often said to be used mostly by African-Americans in the United States, in Australia it is not connected to a person’s skin tone and is just seen as another colour name, like Ruby, Jade or Amber, or a plant name, like Rose or Holly. The exoticism of this name seems to have possessed a strange fascination for Australian parents, and it has been a Top 100 name since the early 1980s. Perhaps popular songs from that decade, such as Ebony Eyes and Ebony and Ivory, helped give it a boost. It’s #63 in South Australia and #55 in Tasmania. In the United States, Ebony got as high as #132 in 1982, and hasn’t been on the Top 1000 since 2005.

Indiana

The name of an American state, it means “land of the Indians”, because of the high Native American population in the area at the beginning of the 19th century (unfortunately, not to last). Indiana was used as a girl’s name (at least in fiction) before the American state was founded: Fanny Burney’s 1795 classic novel, Camilla, features a beautiful but shallow character called Indiana Lynmere. Possibly the name was intended as an elaboration of India, then part of the British Empire. French author George Sand also gave a character this name in her first novel, Indiana (1832). In this book, Indiana is a beautiful, romantic Creole from Reunion, of part-Indian descent. Here, there is a young TV actress called Indiana Rose Evans, and early this year, former NRL player Glenn Hall had a daughter named Indiana Maree. This name has only been Top 100 since last year, and it’s #98 in Victoria. Indiana has not been on the US Top 1000 since the late 19th century.

Jorja

The name Georgia, also an American state name (the state is named after King George II), is more popular in Australia than anywhere else in the world, hovering around the #20 mark on most lists, and Top 100 since the early 1980s. The phonetic spelling Jorja has also proved popular here. It’s currently #88 in Tasmania. Jorja has only been on the US Top 1000 once, in 2006, when it was at #976.

Lucinda

This is an elaboration of the Latin name Lucia, meaning “light”. Always a rather literary name, it was created by Miguel de Cervantes for his 1605 novel, Don Quixote for a character in a farcical romantic subplot. The 17th century Spanish poet Lope de Vega wrote love sonnets to a woman he called “Lucinda” to protect her identity. In more recent fiction, Lucinda is the rather silly fairy godmother in the children’s novel Ella Enchanted, later made into a movie. Australian novelist Peter Carey’s Oscar and Lucinda won the 1988 Booker Prize, and was made into a film directed by Gillian Anderson. Another Australian connection is that Lucinda is the name of a small coastal town in Queensland. As Lucy is so popular, Lucinda seems like a pretty alternative which will allow Lucy/Lucie as a nickname. It was chosen for the name of lifesaver and reality TV star Dean Gladstone’s daughter Lucinda May. It’s # 67 in Tasmania. Lucinda hasn’t been on the US Top 1000 since 1987, and peaked in 1881 at #153.

Tahlia

The name Talia can come from a range of origins. It’s a variant of the Hebrew name Talya, which means “dew from God”; it’s the Italian form of Greek Thalia, which means “to blossom” (Thalia was one of the nine Muses); and it can also be a short form of Natalia, a Latin name which means “Christmas Day”. However, In Australia, Talia is often taken as coming from an Aboriginal word meaning “near water”. Talia has become hugely popular in many parts of Australia; it has a certain patriotic flavour, and is pleasingly multicultural, suiting a variety of backgrounds. Yet it is not found consistently on the Top 100 because it has so many variant spellings. Tahlia is the most common of these variants, and is beginning to overtake Talia because it makes the favoured pronunciation more clear. It’s #47 in New South Wales, #41 in Victoria, #39 in South Australia, #35 in Western Australia, #84 in Tasmania, and #52 in the ACT. Tahlia has never charted in any other country.

Tayla

A specifically feminine form of the popular unisex name Taylor, this may have been coined in imitation of Kayla and related names. However, I can’t help thinking it’s taking off in Australia partly because it looks similar to Talia and Tahlia. It’s #68 in South Australia, #40 in Western Australia, and #94 in Tasmania. Tayla has only been on the US Top 1000 twice – in 1998 and 2006, and was never higher than #924.

Zahra

This is an Arabic name usually translated as “radiance”. The meaning is gorgeous, and Arabic names are becoming increasingly fashionable here with our growing Islamic population. However, almost certainly the reason for its popularity in Australia is due to its similarity to the name Zara. Zara has been used in Britain since the 18th century, where it is the English form of the French name Zaïre, created by the author Voltaire in 1732 for his hugely successful play of the same name, and possibly based on the name Zahra. The drama was soon translated as Zara: A Tragedy, and proved a big hit with English audiences too, being staged well into the 19th century. For some reason, Zara has been a favourite in Australia for over a century, and there are several famous women from Australian history called Zara, including the glamorous wife of former Prime Minister Harold Holt. Zara is more popular in Australia than in any other country, and Zahra is rising on the basis of its success. It’s #82 in the ACT. Zahra has never charted in the United States.

Also Qualifying

Bronte and Lara, which were covered on earlier Name Lists – Bronte in Sydney Suburbs That Can Be Used as Girls Names, and Lara in Girls Names from Video Games. Bronte is #68 in Tasmania. Lara is #43 in New South Wales, #80 in Victoria, #79 in Tasmania and #52 in the ACT. Neither has ever charted in another country.

Close But No Cigar

These names don’t make the top 1000 in the United States, but do chart in countries besides Australia

Freya – #19 in Scotland, #21 in England/Wales, #68 in Ireland, #70 in N. Ireland

Harriet – #89 in England/Wales

Imogen – #32 in England/Wales, #77 in Scotland

Maisie – #34 in England/Wales, #36 in Scotland

Milla – #48 in Norway

Poppy – #22 in England/Wales, #47 in Scotland, #60 in N. Ireland

NOTE

There are some serious statistical issues facing anyone doing comparisons between countries. Australia doesn’t produce a national Top 100, states and territories have different population sizes, not all states and territories provide their Top 100, and one has refused to divulge any of its name data. Countries don’t all release their popularity charts for the year at the same time, so we are still waiting for the ones from England/Wales, for example, and I had to use the one for 2009. I used popularity charts from Behind the Name, and sometimes they are slow in updating their data as well. Not only that, but there is no data available for many countries.

So rather than getting into a mathematical tangle, this is only intended to be of general interest and show a few broad trends.

Help, Help, a Girl Stole My Boy Name!, or, How Much Should We Panic About Gender-Bending Names?

10 Sunday Jul 2011

Posted by in Naming Issues

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A few days ago, Abby over at Appellation Mountain ran an excellent article on unisex names, in which she alludes to the strong emotions many people have on this issue. If you hang out on a few name forums, you’ll almost certainly come across people who are violently against gender-swapping names. Of course we all have our likes and dislikes, but for some at least, you do get the impression that they think unisex names are lower-class or a sign of poor education.

To get a local feel for this topic, I scoped out some Australian parenting sites to see how vehement we were on this issue. I’d have to say, not very. Mostly parents seemed to be pretty relaxed about it, and many were positively enthusiastic about the idea of unisex names. There did seem to be a fairly vocal group who tended to admonish parents who were too timid to use a loved name for their son out of fear it might sound “too girly”.

There could be a movement out there determined to stop “unisex names becoming girls names”, and after all, it really is up to parents. Sometimes you hear people say, “Such and such a name used to be a male name, but now girls have stolen it and it’s a female name”. Well, that’s not possible – it’s parents of boys who threw it away by refusing to use a name once it became “tainted” with femininity.

The impression you get from the more hysterical of the anti-unisex brigade is that practically every traditionally male name is being given to girls, the pool of names available to boys is shrinking alarmingly, and there is a dangerous tide of girls-with-boy-names sweeping down upon us, which will bring about some kind of naming cataclysm.

To test this theory, I had a look at the Top 100 names for boys and girls in New South Wales. If it were true, the Top 100 should be filled with girls called Henry and Benjamin, and many names should appear on both the girls and boys lists.

As far as I could tell, this nightmare scenario they envisage does not seem to have occurred. Rather than Henry and Benjamin becoming widely used as female names, the most popular names for girls seemed to be very feminine: Isabella, Chloe, Ruby, Olivia, Lily, Emily. Nor did there seem to be any lack of names for boys. There were even a couple of new names up there, such as Chase and Phoenix, suggesting that parents of boys are not completely lacking in inventiveness, as the “unisex doomsayers” seem to suggest. As some names for boys lose popularity, they can apparently find new ones to replace them.

Although there were ambiguously-gendered names on the girls list, such as Alexis, Scarlett, Madison, Paige, Mackenzie and Piper, these names have never been popular on boys, so can hardly have been said to have been “stolen”. Far from girls stamping out certain boys names, Blake, Darcy, Cameron, Bailey, Riley, Jordan, Dylan, Jayden, Cody and Luca were sitting comfortably on the male Top 100, but nowhere to be seen on the female Top 100. If there had been some sort of “battle” for these names, then the boys had been victorious.

The only name that girls seemed to have “won” is Taylor, which is on the girls list, but not on the boys. Instead, Tyler was the name of choice for boys. If boys being called Tyler instead of Taylor is your idea of Naming Hell, then yes, Armageddon has arrived. Bunker down with a crate of Georges and Adams to protect them from the onslaught, and pray for mercy upon Cooper. If you just see this as a change in fashions, then you can continue taking it easy.

Because that’s what this about: not some evil plan by parents of girls to steal all the boys names until parents of boys have only the choice of three names to call their sons, but changes in naming fashions. Parents of girls are often parents of boys as well, so it really doesn’t make sense that they would try to limit their own choice of boys names.

Some of you may be unconvinced because you can only see names going one way – from the boys to the girls. You may be wondering why boys are not being called Olivia, for example.

Well, I can’t say there’s many boys called Olivia, or girls called William either. These names are right at the top of the popularity charts, and if you want a name that will be seen as definitely male or female, I recommend the Top 10, as these will be most clearly gendered.

However, just as I know a little toddler girl called Billy, I know a baby boy called Olive. These are often the places where gender-swapping takes place – with less popular names, with nicknames, and name variants. You probably won’t see a baby boy called Ruby or Lily, but it’s not impossible you’ll meet one called Diamond or Oleander.

Anti-unisexers often complain that because of “name stealing”, good solid masculine names like Stacey and Jocelyn are no longer used on boys. They never seem to notice that there are very few baby girls called Stacey and Jocelyn any more either. Once names begin to lose popularity for boys, they sometimes get a second chance as girls names, but inevitably they sink again. Most recently, Ashley, which disappeared from the boys Top 100 in 2000, left the girls Top 100 two years ago.

When popular names like Bailey or Jayden are “poached” on behalf of girls, they are usually spelled a different way, such as Baylee or Jaedyn. Although this might bring a new kind of criticism down upon them, you can’t say they are “stealing” the names, as they obviously wish to differentiate their little girl Baylee from all the little boy Baileys. In fact there wasn’t even one name on the charts that was truly unisex – that is, used equally for both sexes.

When I look at babies born recently, I don’t see the flow of names being only one way, or unisex names only being for girls. Just in this blog, we have seen boys called Kalani Jean, Gem, Lux, Tanami, Poe and Ilo. In the past two years, I have seen baby boys called Marley, Jedda, Kaya, Ariel, Shaya, Shai, Sunny, Dee, Rio, Paris, Sky, Harper, Andrea, Sasha, Laney, Easter, Mackenzie, Ainslie, Jayne, Shelby, Suede, Jade, Jess, Brooke, Winter, Silver, Kelly, Everly, Ever, True, and Blu.

I hope that parents are becoming more confident at choosing names that are truly unisex, and more bold in choosing names for boys that have traditionally been seen as “feminine” sounding. At the very least, ideas for boys names don’t seem to be running out just yet.

NOTES
1. You’re probably thinking I have some vested interest in this topic, and you’d be correct. You see, my own name, Anna, happens to be unisex. As you can read on Mer de Nom’s entry, Anna and Erica, there was once an English male name Anna, which came from the Germanic root word for “eagle” and is therefore related to the name Arnold. I suspect it was pronounced AHN-ah rather than ANN-uh. Anyhow, I just wanted to make it clear that Anna for boys had long died out by the 18th century, when the female name Anna was introduced to Britain. We didn’t steal it!

2. I came across a site which purports to predict whether the blog you are reading is written by a man or a woman. I couldn’t resist typing in my own blog, and was given the diagnosis that the blog was very gender-neutral, but there was a 51% chance I was a man. Clearly someone called Anna with a flower as their avatar babbling about babies and celebrity gossip seems slightly blokey to them … I knew I should have gone with a pink background, curly font, and lots of exclamation marks!!!!!!

So there you go, an entry on unisex names written by someone with an androgynous name on a sexually ambiguous blog. This may be the most gender-neutral thing you read all year.