Saturday Sibset: Nine Children in Nine Years

11 Saturday Feb 2012

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Chinese names, Greek names, mythological names, nature names, sibsets

Trudy and Clint Hill live in a five-bedroom house in South Penrith, a suburb on the outskirts of western Sydney. Clint works from home inventing fitness equipment, and Trudy is kept pretty busy, because she became pregnant with their first child in 2000, and then had nine children in nine years.

Trudy says, “I just fell in love with having kids. I love that whole experience of giving birth and having a newborn baby. For me, that’s really addictive and that’s what keeps me going back and having more.”

Family life is well-organised, and the Hills claim to average seven hours sleep a night. Trudy copes with stress by hitting the gym twice a week. In fact, Clint and Trudy first met at the local gym, and soon after they began dating, planned to have a large family.

At the end of the story, Trudy says she is open to the idea of having another baby, and says she might get clucky a bit further down the track – she’s never had the opportunity to get clucky before!

The Hill Children

Jett (boy), born February 2001

Cruize (boy), born November 2001

Bronte (girl), born March 2003

Reef (boy), born June 2004

Zye (boy), born October 2005

Finn (boy), born December 2006

Bay (boy), born February 2008

Skyla (girl), born May 2009

Nox (boy), born May 2010

This is a great collection of almost typically Australian on-trend names. The Hills seem to be very attracted to short names, as seven of the nine names are one syllable, and although the girls’ names are two syllables, neither has more than six letters. There is a noticeable absence of classic names, Biblical names, elaborate names, names with a long history of usage, or frilly names for the two girls. These are names that are fresh and punchy.

Although the Hill family are practising Christians, the names aren’t Christian-oriented, except maybe Zye, which might be short for Zion. However, it could also be seen as an attempt to Anglicise the Chinese word zai, meaning “young man”, or the Greek xy, relating to “wood, forest”. Nox even has the name of a Roman god.

If there is any particular “theme” to the sibset, I would say that it is one relating to nature, and in particular the beach. I think these are Australian surfer names, and show an affinity with the encircling sea and the great outdoors.

Famous Name: Edna

28 Saturday Jan 2012

Posted by A.O. in Famous Names

≈ 14 Comments

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Biblical names, famous namesakes, fictional namesakes, hebrew names, Irish names, mythological names, name history, name meaning, name popularity, saints names

Each year on Australia Day, an Australian of the Year is chosen from amongst our highest achievers. The United Kingdom also chooses its own Australian of the Year, and we seem to send them so many people that there are plenty to choose from.

This year the winner was Barry Humphries, who, at the age of 77, accepted his award with the words, “It’s about time, really”.

Barry Humphries has created many comedy characters: vulgar Sir Les Patterson; gentle Sandy Stone; underground film-maker Martin Agrippa; sleazy trade unionist Lance Boyle; and failed tycoon Owen Steele, amongst others. But the most famous and successful is Dame Edna Everage.

Edna began in the 1950s as the average Melbourne housewife, and if she had stayed that way, would soon have become as quaint and irrelevant as a comic char or a music hall “turn”. The genius of Dame Edna is that she has continued to re-invent and update herself, whilst never losing the integrity of the character or even the back-story which accompanies her.

From her humble beginnings, she has evolved into a glamorous Gigastar, icon and diva in an ever-more extravagant wardrobe , while retaining the trademark wisteria-coloured hair, cats-eye spectacles, bunches of gladioli and cheery “Hello, possums!” greeting.

I feel her evolution owes a certain debt to Lady Thatcher at the the height of the powers – in particular the almost limitless self-confidence and meaningless charm, combined with an iron determination to remain “nice”.

Edna is a vehicle for Humphries to utilise his powers of satire against the cult of celebrity and modern vapidity, but also to make sly jests at the expense of his friends, and take gentle stabs at his enemies; sometimes, perhaps, even to slip in his real opinions on issues that he only dares to offer in the guise of Edna. As a result, you are never quite sure what Edna will say, and this glittering unpredictability is part of her fascination. It goes without saying that many of her sharpest barbs are aimed accurately at Australia.

Barry Humphries called his creation Edna after his childhood nanny, and Everage of course is the word average said in an Australian accent (or at least an Australian accent of the 1950s). Edna peaked in the 1910s in Australia, so in the 1950s she was supposed to be middle-aged, although by now the name sounds elderly – in fact, Edna must be nearing a century by now.

Edna is the name of several women in the Biblical apocrypha, including the wife of Methusaleh. It’s a Hebrew name translated as “pleasure”, and some believe the name for Eden comes from the same source, as if it was one of the “pleasure gardens” of the ancient Middle East.

However, in Ireland it has been used to Anglicise the name Edana; St Edana is an obscure saint from the west of Ireland. She may be linked to or named after a goddess called Eadaoin (AY-deen), and although it’s not at all certain, this name may be a feminine linguistic relative of Aidan.

In Australia, the Edana connection is far more likely as a source for Edna, as obscure Irish names are more common here than obscure Biblical ones.

Call me crazy, but I think if it wasn’t for La Grand Dame, Edna could be coming into vogue now, as others from her era have. It’s not too different from Edith, Edie and Eden, which are getting quite fashionable, it may be related to popular Aidan, and could ride on the back of Ed- male names, such as Edward and Eddie.

I won’t try to suggest Edna, but could I interest anyone in an Edana?

Celebrity Baby News: Aaron and Laura Payne

28 Saturday Jan 2012

Posted by A.O. in Celebrity Baby News

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celebrity baby names, famous namesakes, mythological names, Slavic names

NRL star Aaron Payne, and his wife Laura, welcomed their first child on January 25. Their daughter Naida was born at 2.20 pm weighing 2.5 kg (5 pounds 6 ounces).

Aaron is the hooker and vice-captain for the North Queensland Cowboys, and has played with them for the ten years of his career. He has been named their Player of the Year twice. Shortly after the birth of his daughter, he received the call-up to join the NRL All Stars, which plays the pre-season All Stars Match against the Indigenous All Stars. Players for both squads are chosen largely by votes from the public.

Aaron and Laura were married in December 2005, and shortly after her marriage, Laura apparently told an interviewer she was not planning on having children as she wanted the walls in her new house to stay white and clean! However, they did buy a house with four bedrooms ….

At the time of their marriage, Laura Payne (nee Richardson) was an occupational therapy student at James Cook University.

Naida is apparently related to the word naiad, meaning “water nymph”, from Greek mythology. It’s a popular name in Slavic countries, but seems to be fairly well used in Australia, especially Queensland (for example, the mother of Queenslander Governor-General Quentin Bryce has Naida as her middle name). It’s pronounced NY-dah.

(Photo from the North Queensland Cowboys website).

Names of Convicts on the Second Fleet

22 Sunday Jan 2012

Posted by A.O. in Name Themes and Lists

≈ 8 Comments

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angel names, astronomical names, Biblical names, celebrity baby names, famous namesakes, germanic names, Greek names, hebrew names, Irish names, Italian names, literary namesakes, mythological names, name history, name meaning, name popularity, popular names, Provencal names, Roman names, royal names, saints names, Shakespearean names, surname names, virtue names, vocabulary names

The Second Fleet arrived in Sydney in June 1790, and proved something of a disaster. The colony founded by the First Fleet was already struggling and in the grip of starvation, and the Second Fleet was sent partly to aid them with further supplies. The first ship to arrive was the Lady Juliana, which contained female convicts. It took such a leisurely route that although it left months before the other ships, it arrived only a couple of weeks before them.

The convicts on the Lady Juliana provided Australia with its first sex scandal, because the women and ship’s crew consorted freely together, some of the women sold themselves for money or alcohol, and whenever the ship made a port of call, the women entertained men from other ships. Several gave birth on the ship, and many were pregnant by the time they reached Australia.

The women were well treated on board, but on arriving in Sydney, the Lady Juliana was called “a floating brothel”, and its female occupants “damned whores”. A cargo of more than 200 women when provisions were wanted, the ladies couldn’t have been more unwelcome.

Worse was to follow. While the First Fleet had been an effort of the British government, and generally well-organised, the Second had been handed over to private contractors. They had little concern for the convicts’ welfare, and although only a small number died on the first voyage (the unfortunate Ishmael Colman being the exception rather than the rule), the mortality rate on the second was 40%. The ship carrying the majority of the supplies, such as livestock, hit an iceberg en route and was wrecked.

When the remaining convicts reached Sydney, the colonists were horrified to see that the new batch was in terrible condition – starved, filthy, sick with scurvy, covered in lice, and bearing the marks of cruelty on their emaciated bodies. Instead of being the saviours of the colony, the people of the Second Fleet were instead a great drain on its resources. A Third Fleet had to be sent (amazingly, they chose to use the same private contractors again).

More than 165 000 convicts were sent to Australia over eighty years. This is a tiny number compared to the number of free settlers. For many years, convict ancestry was something of which people were deeply ashamed, and it was hidden from the family histories. These days, people are proud of their convict ancestors, and there’s a wealth of information available to them.

WOMEN

Dorcas (Talbot)

At the age of 39, Dorcas was convicted at the Old Bailey of stealing sixty yards of material from a shop, and sentenced to seven years transportation. Dorcas was sent to the penal colony on Norfolk Island, a place of untold horror and abject misery. In 1804 she married John Hatcher, who had arrived on the First Fleet. She died on Norfolk Island in 1811. The name Dorcas is a Greek translation of the Aramaic name Tabitha, meaning “gazelle”. In the New Testament, Dorcas (or Tabitha) was one of the disciples of Jesus; the Bible makes her seem important, and she may have been a leader in the early church. It is said that she was a widow who did charitable works, and Dorcas Aid International is an organisation which raises money for the poor and needy. Dorcas is regarded as a saint in some denominations. Often used in fiction, Dorcas is a shepherdess in Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale. She has also given her name to a species of gazelle – the dorcas gazelle, meaning “gazelle gazelle”.

Isabella (Manson, aka Isabella Smith)

At the age of 28, Isabella was convicted at the Old Bailey for stealing clothes and sentenced to 7 years transportation; she seemed to have a male partner, but took full responsibility for the crime. She married John Rowe in Sydney in 1790. John had arrived on the First Fleet, and there was a scheme of marrying off the “best” Second Fleet convict women to the “best” remaining First Fleet men and giving them farmland to work. John and Isabella ran a farm together without much success, and had three children named John, Joseph and Sarah, and possibly another named Mary. They have many living descendants. Isabella died a widow in Gosford in 1847. The name Isabella is the Latinate form of Isabel, a medieval Provencal form of Elizabeth. It was commonly used by royalty, and is the name of Princess Mary of Denmark’s eldest daughter. Isabella has been on the charts since 1900, dropping from it in the 1950s and ’70s. In 1900 it was #75, and today it is #1; its big jump in popularity occurred in the 1990s, although rising since the 1980s. Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise naming their daughter Isabella in 1992 may have assisted.

Phoebe (Williams)

At the age of 41, Phoebe was convicted at the Old Bailey of stealing 5 yards of cloth and sentenced to seven years transportation. She married Edward MacLean, a First Fleeter, in 1790, and they ran a farm together in Parramatta. Edward died in 1794 and Phoebe died in Parramatta in 1798. The name Phoebe is from the Greek for “bright, shining”. In mythology, Phoebe is one of the Titans, a moon goddess who was the grandmother of Artemis; her name was given to one of the moons of Saturn. Phoebe was also one of Artemis’ titles, and there are several Phoebes in legend, including an Amazon, and the sister of the beautiful Helen of Troy. In the New Testament, Phoebe was a deacon in the early church regarded as a saint by several denominations. It was used by Shakespeare for another of his shepherdesses in As You Like It. Phoebe was #148 in the 1900s and by the 1930s was off the charts altogether. It made a comeback in the 1960s, and climbed at such a rate that it was in the Top 100 by the 2000s. It is maintaining its position around the #50 mark.

Rosamond (Dale, aka Rosina Dale, aka Mary Woods)

At the age of 22, Rosamond was convicted at the court in Lincoln, and sentenced to seven years transportation. She married James Davis from the First Fleet, and they were sent to the penal colony on Norfolk Island, where she died. The name Rosamond is a variant of Rosamund, a Germanic name meaning “horse protection” which was introduced to England by the Normans. From early on, the name was associated with the Latin phrases rosa munda (“pure rose”) and rosa mundi (“rose of the world”), referring to the Virgin Mary. Rosa mundi was transferred from the cult of the goddess Isis who was worshipped throughout the Roman Empire; roses were sacred to her, as they became for Mary as well. There is a heritage rose called the Rosa Mundi which has existed since the 1500s. One of the old Gallica roses, it has red and white striped petals.

Violetta (Atkins)

Violetta was a servant. She was convicted of stealing from her employer at the Old Bailey and sentenced to seven years transportation. I think Violetta must have either died on the voyage, or soon after her arrival in Sydney. Violetta is the Italian form of Violet. Violetta Valéry is the main character in Verdi’s 1853 opera La Traviata, based on the play adapted from the novel La Dame aux camélias by Alexandre Dumas, fils. It’s a romantic and emotionally wrought tale of a courtesan who finds true love, but tragically dies of tuberculosis.

MEN

Ephraim (Lindsay)

Ephraim was convicted by the court in Northampton and sentenced to seven years transportation. In the Old Testament, Ephraim was a son of Joseph, born during his years in Egypt. Ephraim’s mother was a priest’s daughter named Asenath; their marriage was arranged by the Pharaoh. A Christian story is that she converted from paganism to the worship of Yahweh; it’s a fanciful tale involving an angel and some magical bees. According to Jewish tradition, she was actually Joseph’s half-niece, conceived in rape. How she got to Egypt involves yet another angel who leaves her under a bush wearing a necklace inscribed with an explanation of her origins; the priest finds and adopts her. You can see there is some discomfort with the idea of Joseph’s bloodline being “besmirched” by an Egyptian. Ephraim can be pronounced several ways, including EE-free-im and EE-fruhm. It seems like a good alternative to popular Ethan.

Janus (Everard)

Janus was convicted at the Middlesex Guild Hall and sentenced to transportation for life. Janus was the Roman god of beginnings, and thus all points of transition, such as gates and doors. He is famously depicted as having two faces, to indicate that he looks forward to the future and backward to the past simultaneously – a rather neat visualisation of the flow of time, which Janus oversees. The Latin name for “door”, janua, is named after him, and thus doorkeepers and caretakers of building are sometimes known as janitors. Janus was an important deity, and when the Roman calendar was regulated, the first month of the year was called Januarius in his honour. We still start the year off in January, making Janus suited to this month.

Ormond (Burcham)

Ormond was convicted of stealing five bushels of barley and sentenced to death by the court of Norfolk. This was commuted to seven years transportation. Ormond is an Irish surname named after the ancient Irish kingdom in Munster. It simply means “east Munster”, and was a hereditary title within the Irish aristocracy. It may also have become (perhaps deliberately) confused with the Irish surname O’Ruadh, meaning “son of the red one”. Francis Ormond was a philanthropist who founded the college which later became the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, as well as endowing Ormond College at the University of Melbourne. There is a 6^th century French abbot named Saint Ormond, however, this is an Anglicisation of Armand, the French form of Herman.

Traverse (Spileye)

Traverse was convicted of attempting to steal five dozen tallow candles by the court in Nottingham and sentenced to seven years transportation. This may be a Puritan virtue name, very interesting if so, because they are rarely found in Australia compared to the United States. As the word traverse means to travel, it could refer to pilgrimage, or the soul’s journey through life, or perhaps even the Israelites traversing the desert for forty years. However, I can’t help wondering if it is just a variant of the surname Travers, coming from the French for “to cross”; it was an occupational name for someone who collected tolls at crossing places such as city gates and river fords. There is a Puritan connection with this surname, because Walter Travers was an English Puritan theologian.

Uriel (Barrah, aka Uziel Baruch)

Uriel was a Jewish butcher with a long history of being convicted for debt and theft, although he had also been a constable. His wife’s name was Judith. He was convicted of theft by the Old Bailey and sentenced to seven years transportation. He was originally going to be sent to a penal colony in Africa, an idea the British tried which didn’t work out, so he was sent to Australia instead. When he completed his sentence he returned to England; a relative seems to have taken over his butcher shop during his absence. Uriel is one of the archangels in Jewish and Christian tradition; he isn’t mentioned in the scriptures. He is given several interesting roles, one of which is to guard the gates of Eden with a flaming sword so that none living may enter; he is said to have buried Adam and Abel there. In Jewish mystical tradition, he is called the Angel of Poetry. Uriel appears several times in literature, including Milton’s Paradise Lost. His name means “light of God”.

Names of Convicts on the First Fleet

15 Sunday Jan 2012

Posted by A.O. in Name Themes and Lists

≈ 31 Comments

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Aramaic names, Biblical names, english names, famous namesakes, fictional namesakes, germanic names, Greek names, hebrew names, Latin names, locational names, mythological names, name history, name meaning, name popularity, popular names, royal names, saints names, Shakespearean names, Spanish names, surname names

It is Australia Day next week, and so my name lists for January are names of convicts from the First and Second Fleets.

Convicts were the prisoners who filled overcrowded British prisons in the 18^th and early 19^th centuries. Because the death penalty was applied even to what we would consider minor offences, people were sent to prison for what we would consider to be misdemeanours, such as petty theft, or not crimes at all, such as being in debt.

Many convicts were disposed of by sending them to the colonies as cheap labour – nearly always North America – until the term is now understood as those prisoners sent to the colonies. The American War of Independence putting an end to America as a colony, another place had to be thought up to send convicts, and the east coast of Australia seemed a likely spot.

The First Fleet sailed from Portsmouth, Hampshire on May 13 1787, and consisted of eleven ships, led by Captain Arthur Phillips. Aboard were around 1487 people, including 778 convicts (192 women, 586 men). They travelled 24 000 km (15 000 miles) across the sea for 252 days.

On January 26 1788, the ships sailed into Port Jackson, which Phillips called “the finest harbour in the world” – an opinion many have shared since. They anchored in a sheltered place they called Sydney Cove, after British Home Secretary, Lord Sydney.

Life was very difficult in the new colony, and punishments could be extremely harsh. Convicts were basically slaves, mostly used on public works, but also assigned to individuals as a personal labour force.

The names of the convicts were those common in Britain in the 18^th century, with names from the Bible being often used. Rather than cover historically famous convicts, I chose people for their names, giving a rather random selection of ordinary people and their unremarkable fates.

[All convicts’ names can be found here. Information on convicts from the First Fleet Database].

WOMEN

Deborah (Elam/Ellam/Elias)

At the age of 20, Deborah was found guilty of stealing 36 shillings worth of clothing, and sentenced by the court in Chester to seven years transportation. She sailed to Australia on the Prince of Wales. She married a fellow convict and brought a complaint against him; it was judged to be “trivial” and she received 25 lashes in punishment. The couple had seven children and have many descendants. Deborah died in 1819, “universally respected by her numerous friends and acquaintances”. The name Deborah means “bee” in Hebrew, and in the Old Testament Deborah was a prophetess, judge, advisor and warrior. The Song of Deborah, which she is said to have composed, may be the earliest Hebrew poetry we know of. Deborah didn’t rank in Australia until the 1940s, and peaked in the 1960s at #12. It left the Top 100 in the 1980s and hasn’t ranked since the 1990s.

Dorothy (Handland aka Dorothy Gray)

Dorothy made her living as a dealer in old clothes. In her early 60s, she was found guilty of perjury at the Old Bailey and sentenced to 7 years transportation. She sailed to Australia on the Lady Penrhyn. Dorothy is believed to be the oldest convict, and despite her age, she survived the voyage and returned to England when she had completed her sentence. Dorothy is the English form of Dorothea, from the Greek meaning “gift of God”. There are three saints named Dorothea, one of whom we call Saint Dorothy. A legendary virgin martyr of the 4^th century, said to be of surpassing beauty, her cult spread across Europe in the Middle Ages. The name Dorothy was #2 in the 1900s and 1910s, and remained Top 100 until the 1950s. It has been unranked since the 1980s.

Flora (Lara/Larah, aka Laura Zarah)

Flora is thought to have been Jewish. She was found guilty of stealing a mahogany tea chest and money to the value of 5 shillings, and sentenced by the court in Westminster to seven years transportation. She sailed to Australia on the Prince of Wales. She was described in the court records as being of an evil disposition; she married in Australia and left the colony in 1801. Flora was the Roman goddess of spring, married to the west wind, Zephyr; her name is from the Latin for “flower”. Flora is the scientific term for all plant life. Flora was first used as a personal name in France, and it’s especially famous in Scotland, because of Jacobite heroine Flora MacDonald. Flora has never been Top 100 in Australia – it peaked at #112 in the 1900s, and left the charts in the 1950s.

Lydia (Munro, aka Letitia Munro)

At the age of 17 Lydia was found guilty of stealing material to the value of 20 shillings. She was sentenced to death by the court in Kingston-upon-Thames, which was later commuted to 14 years transportation. She sailed to Australia on the Prince of Wales. The convict records show that she was the victim of a sexual assault and attempted rape by another convict. She married, and she and her husband went to Tasmania where they raised a family of eleven children; they have numerous descendants. She died in 1856. Lydia of Thyatira is a character in the New Testament, regarded as the first convert to Christianity in Europe. She was a successful merchant who was baptised by St Paul and became a deacon in the early church; she is considered a saint by several denominations. Her Greek name is after the place name Lydia, an area of the ancient world now part of modern Turkey. Lydia has charted almost continually without ever hitting the Top 100. It peaked in the 1900s at #137, disappeared from the rankings in the 1930s and ’40s, and is currently #322.

Rachel (Earley/Early/HurleyHarley/Arrly)

At the age of 25 Rachel was found guilty of stealing tea and silk worth 3 shillings, and sentenced by the court in Reading to seven years transportation. She sailed to Australia on The Friendship, and spent time in irons onboard, for the twin crimes of “theft and dirtyness”. As a convict, she once received 10 lashes for not obeying orders. She married twice, and had a daughter, but was left by both husbands; she has living descendants. She died in Tasmania in 1842. In the Old Testament, Rachel was one of the wives of Jacob. Her name is Hebrew for “ewe”, perhaps with connotations of purity and submissiveness, although in the Bible Rachel did literally take care of her father’s sheep. Rachel is said to have been of overwhelming beauty, and Jacob loved her best of his wives. She was plagued by infertility issues, but managed to give birth to Joseph and Benjamin, her husband’s favourite children. Unfortunately, she died in childbirth, and her tomb is still a place of pilgrimage. The name Rachel has charted almost continually since 1900, dropping from the rankings during the 1940s. It peaked in the 1970s at #19, and is currently #118.

MEN

Barnaby (Denison/Dennison/Deneson)

At the age of 28 Barnaby was found guilty of “intent to rob”, and sentenced by the court in Bristol to seven years transportation. He sailed to Australia on the Alexander. According to the convict records, he was once sentenced to 50 lashes for “singing loudly at an improper time”, and became a night watchman. He died in 1811. The name Barnaby is a medieval English form of Barnabas. In the New Testament, Barnabas was a companion of St Paul and fellow missionary. His name was Joseph, but when he converted from Judaism to Christianity he was given the name Barnabas, which is a Greek form of Aramaic, and can be translated as “son of prophecy” or “son of encouragement”. There are many literary characters named Barnaby, most notably Dickens’ eponymous Barnaby Rudge.

Cooper (Handy/Handley/Henley)

Cooper made his living as a weaver. At the age of 33 he was found guilty of assault and highway robbery to the value of 20 shillings and sentenced to death by the court in Salisbury. This was commuted to seven years transportation, and he sailed to Australia on the Friendship. Cooper was held in a hulk at Dunkirk before he left, and at one point managed to escape during an uprising, but was recaptured. His report says that he behaved “remarkably well” otherwise. Not long after his arrival in Australia, Cooper was killed by Aborigines while gathering greens. Cooper is an English surname referring to someone who makes barrels as their occupation. Apart from being a popular name, Cooper is well known in Australia as the surname of the family who owns Cooper’s Brewery in South Australia. The name Cooper first joined the charts in the 1990s and peaked in 2009 at #4. It’s currently #7.

Ferdinand (Dowland/Dowlan/Doolan)

Ferdinand was a dustman. At the age of 32 he was found guilty of stealing a horse worth 30 shillings. He was sentenced to death at the Old Bailey, commuted to seven year’s transportation, and sailed to Australia on the Scarborough. He died in 1827. The name Ferdinand is from the Spanish form of a Germanic name meaning “daring journey”. Brought to Spain by the Visigoths, it was used amongst the royal houses of Spain and Portugal, and through them became common in the Hapsburg family, rulers of the Holy Roman Empire. One of its most famous namesakes is Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese explorer whose expedition was the first to circumnavigate the globe (although Ferdinand himself did not survive the voyage). Ferdinand is also a character in Shakespeare’s play The Tempest; a prince who is shipwrecked on Propsero’s island, and falls in love with his daughter Miranda.

Ishmael (Colman)

At the age of 32 Ishmael was found guilty of stealing woollen blankets worth 14 shillings, and sentenced to seven years transportation by the court in Dorchester. Ishmael was held in a hulk at Dunkirk before sailing, where he was described as “decent and orderly”. He died after only 16 days at sea on the Charlotte; the report from the ship’s doctor says that his death was brought about through his long confinement before the trip, which had brought about “low spirits and debility”. Ishmael is a name from the Bible which is translated as “God has heard”. In the Old Testament, Ishmael was the son of Abraham and his wife’s handmaiden, Hagar; Ishmael and his mother are two Biblical characters who get a raw deal, being cast into the wilderness to fend for themselves and not receiving any inheritance from Abraham. According to tradition, he is the father of the Arabic people, and is considered such in Islam, Judaism and Christianity, although this isn’t historically accurate. The prophet Muhammad traced his bloodline from Ishmael, and he is one of the prophets of Islam. In literature, Ishmael is the brooding narrator of Herman Melville’s famous novel, Moby Dick.

Job (Hollister)

At the age of 21 Job was found guilty of stealing tobacco and sentenced to seven years transportation by the court in Gloucester. He sailed to Australia on the Alexander. When he completed his sentence, Job left the colony and migrated to Vancouver Island in Canada. Job is another Old Testament character who has a miserable time. A righteous man, God allows Satan to take away his wealth, his children and his health in an effort to tempt him to curse his Creator. He never does so, although he is aggrieved by the process, and spends a lot of time wondering why all these dreadful things keep happening to him. The story ends happily, with God rewarding him many times over, but with no reasonable explanation for his treatment. Although the tale bears all the hallmarks of an allegory on the human condition, Job is regarded as a prophet in Judaism and Islam, and is given a saint’s day in several Christian denominations. In line with the narrative, Job’s name is translated as “hated, persecuted”.

Image is of The First Fleet in Sydney Cove, January 27, 1788 by John Allcott (1938). Painting held by the National Library of Australia.

Famous Name: Elvis

14 Saturday Jan 2012

Posted by A.O. in Famous Names

≈ 12 Comments

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famous namesakes, honouring, Irish names, Latin names, mythological names, name history, name meaning, saints names, surname names, UK name popularity, unisex names, US name popularity

This article was first published on January 14 2012, and substantially revised and re-posted on September 14 2016.

Famous Festival
On January 11, the 20th annual Elvis Festival kicked off in the country town of Parkes, west of Sydney – an annual celebration of Elvis Presley’s life and music. For five days in the second week of January, the population of Parkes is swelled by Elvis impersonators, women with big hair, and people wearing blue suede shoes. There are parades, contests, dancing, singing, hip swivelling, and a mass renewal of wedding vows performed by a celebrant in an Elvis costume.

The festival began in 1992, when a small group of local Elvis fans decided to hold a festival on the day of the star’s birthday, January 8. The next year the festival attracted 200 people from around the country; by 2005 they came in their thousands, by 2007 it had been extended to five days, and now there are more than a hundred events, and the town’s population of 10 000 more than doubles during the Elvis Festival.

The townspeople were originally lukewarm on the Elvis Festival idea. Parkes is the proud owner of an observatory, which has at times assisted NASA on space missions (as fictionalised in the movie The Dish), and had always seen itself as devoted to science and research. An Elvis Festival seemed a bit frivolous.

However by now Parkes has fully embraced the festival, and the whole town gets into the fun by dressing up and decorating the buildings. It’s one of the mayor’s roles to dress as an Elvis impersonator and meet the train from Sydney, where all the similarly-attired fans have travelled together.

People flock here from all over the globe to come to the self-proclaimed Elvis Capital of the World. It injects millions into the economy of the town, and in 2007 they set a record for the most number of Elvis impersonators in one place.

In 2017 the Festival will celebrate its 25th birthday and the theme will be Viva Las Vegas.

Name Information
Elvis Presley was one of those performers lucky enough to have been given such a distinctive name that he had no need to choose a stage name. He was named for his father Vernon, whose middle name was Elvis.

Elvis is an Anglicisation of the Irish name Ailbhe, said like Alva: the meaning is not known for sure, but may derive from the Gaelic albho, meaning “white” – it is also Anglicised as Albus, the Latin for “white”. The name Ailbhe could be given to either sex, and in Irish legend there is a female warrior and follower of Finn McCool named Ailbhe.

A male example of the name is Saint Ailbhe, nearly always known as Saint Elvis. He was a 6th century bishop venerated as one of the four great patron saints of Ireland. Saint Ailbe’s legend is quite fairy-tale – cast out by his royal father (like Oedipus), he was raised by a she-wolf (like Romulus and Remus), and at the end of his life voyaged by ship to the Otherworld (like King Arthur going to Avalon). There is a Welsh village named St Elvis in the saint’s honour, as he is said to have baptised Saint David, the patron of Wales, in this area.

The English surname Elvis does not seem to be derived from the Irish name, and is probably a variant of the surname Elwes, which comes from the female name Heloise or Eloise.

Elvis has been used as a name since perhaps the 18th century, and in Ireland seems to have been used as a female name, although it wasn’t common (today Ailbhe is a popular name for girls in Ireland). However in England the name was mostly masculine, suggesting that there the surname was the primary influence.

The name Elvis went on to become most commonly used in the United States, and was usually a boy’s name. Despite the feminine origin of the surname, it probably sounded like male names such as Alvis and Alvin, giving it a masculine feel.

In Australian records Elvis was nearly always given to girls in the late 19th and early 20th centuries which makes sense considering our strong Irish heritage. It also fit in with turn-of-the-century name trends for girls, such as Alva and Elva. Once Elvis Presley became famous in the 1950s, the name virtually disappeared from records as a girl’s name.

In the US, the name Elvis has charted on and off in the Top 1000 for boys since the late 19th century, becoming more established there around 1910. Before Elvis Presley became famous, its highest peak was #584 in 1919, and it was #900 in 1935, the year Elvis Presley was born.

The name Elvis went off the charts around the time Elvis Presley began his career in 1954, but returned in 1955, so the star did affect the name’s popularity. Elvis peaked in 1957 at #312, the year after Presley released number one hits such as Heartbreak Hotel and made his film debut in Love Me Tender – female fans screamed with excitement non-stop during the movie, even though it had quite a serious plot and a sad ending.

The name Elvis last charted in the US Top 1000 in 2011. Last year in the US there were 180 baby boys given the name Elvis, and numbers are fairly stable.

In the UK, the name Elvis has charted since the 1990s, and the name made the Top 1000 in the early 2000s, peaking at #761 in 2003, and again in 2008 when it made #943. It rose steeply last year, and was back on the Top 1000 at #873.

In Australia, Elvis is not a common name, but I generally see two or three examples of it as a baby name per year – enough to convince me it isn’t a rare name either, and probably has a similar popularity to the UK. A famous Australian with the name is former mixed martial artist Elvis Sinosic.

Elvis has two other musical namesakes. One is British star Elvis Costello, who was born Declan MacManus, and the other is American folk singer Elvis Perkins, the son of actor Anthony Perkins (Elvis Perkins was born the year before Elvis Presley died). Costello’s manager chose the stage name Elvis in reference to Presley, while Anthony Perkins was an Elvis fan.

Elvis, if you forget about its most famous namesake for a moment, sounds like a vintage name ready for revival, complete with fashionable V. And yet it never can be separated from Mr Elvis Aaron Presley. The name will always conjure images of white satin bodysuits covered in rhinestones, brilliantined dark hair, and a heart-stopping smile.

Even though Elvis is not a rare or unusual name, it’s still something of a bold choice as it’s likely to elicit some strong opinions. But you’ll have to tell the naysayers you’d like a little less conversation about it, because you can’t help falling in love with the name Elvis. It’s a truly royal name because it belongs to the one and only king, baby!

POLL RESULTS
Elvis received an approval rating of 42%. 35% of people thought the name was too closely associated with Elvis Presley, although 9% thought it was either handsome or cute. Only one person thought the name Elvis sounded redneck.

(Picture shows Elvis impersonators at the Parkes Elvis Festival, with the Observatory in the background)

Boys Names from Stars and Constellations

18 Sunday Dec 2011

Posted by A.O. in Name Themes and Lists

≈ 21 Comments

Tags

Akkadian names, Arabic names, astronomical names, Chinese names, colour names, english names, fictional namesakes, gemstone names, Greek names, Latin names, locational names, mythological names, name history, name meaning, popular culture, popular names, surname names, unisex names, vocabulary names

It is only a few days until the Christmas holidays, or the holidays have already begun. Although the stars seem more crisp and vivid in winter, and some constellations of spring and autumn are spectacular, it is summer I connect with star-gazing. The warm nights and long lazy Christmas holidays seem to go with lying in your backyard looking upwards, or watching the night sky glittering above you on camping trips. Little wonder that the stars of summer are often the first we learn to identify, and the first we yearn towards as we gaze into infinitude.

This is the companion list to Girls Names from Stars and Constellations, and should be read in conjunction with it. Need a super quick guide to the southern skies? Go here! The picture used is a Christmas card created by Thomas Le, a refugee from Vietnam. He donated this artwork to help other migrants, and it is on show at the Museum of Victoria.

Altair

Altair is the common name for Alpha Aquila, the brightest star in the constellation Aquila (“The Eagle”), and one of the brightest overall. Altair is a translation of the Arabic for “the flying eagle”, and the identification of the star with an eagle goes back to the Babylonians and Sumerians, who called Altair “The Eagle Star”. The Kulin people of central Victoria also saw the star as an eagle; it is Bunjil, their creator, who was blown into the sky by a great wind and became a star. Other peoples of southern Australia saw Altair as a hunter; it is his Boomerang thrown across the sky which became the constellation in which Gemma can be found. This cool star name can either be said al-TAH-yir, or al-TARE, and is also on the list Boys Names from Video Games. You can see Altair from Australia in winter and spring, and it’s in the north of the Milky Way.

Asterion

Asterion is the common name for Beta Canes Venatici, the second-brightest star in the constellation Canes Ventatici. This constellation began as the club of the constellation Boötes (“The Herdsman, The Ploughman”). However, due to a number of errors in translation from Greek to Arabic to Latin, “club” became “dogs”. Having invented these dogs, astronomers had a good squint and decided that the constellation looked like two greyhounds. It’s never explained why a herdsman would have hunting dogs rather than herding dogs. Astronomers named one star Chara (“dear”) and the other Asterion (“starry”) – then they swapped the names around to create further confusion. In Greek mythology, Asterion was the personal name of the Minotaur, a bull-headed monster who was the product of an unnatural coupling between a queen of Crete and a bull. It’s a flamboyant name, but it is actually a star name with a starry meaning; it’s said as-TEH-ri-on. Canes Ventatici is visible in the autumn from Australia, but its stars are not bright or easy to see.

Atlas

Atlas is the common name for 27 Tauri, a triple-star system in the constellation Taurus and part of the Pleiades cluster. As well as the Seven Sisters, which include Maia, the Pleiades cluster contains their parents, Atlas and Pleione. Atlas was one of the Titans, and after warring against the Olympians, he was sentenced to hold up the heavens on his shoulders (before this, the Sky and the Earth, parents of the Titans, were free to lie together in a lingering embrace, so Atlas is basically being used as a birth control device for deities). He has come to be a symbol of superhuman strength and stoic endurance. The name is so ancient that its meaning is very uncertain, but it may mean “endure”, “support”, or “sea”. Atlas has given his name to the Atlas Mountains in North Africa, and the Atlantic Ocean, as well as the word for a book filled with maps. The name is starting to have a mild vogue here. You will be able to see Atlas in the Pleiades during summer in Australia.

Garnet

The star Mu Cephei is commonly known as Herschel’s Garnet Star, because when astronomer William Herschel described it, he wrote that it was “a very fine deep garnet colour”. Indeed it is, being a red supergiant that is one of the largest in the Milky Way. It’s in the constellation Cepheus, which represents Andromeda’s father. Without doubt he is the dullest creature in the whole Andromeda drama, but I guess since they put the sea monster in the sky, it would have seemed rude to leave him out. You may recall that the aliens in TV comedy 3^rd Rock From The Sun came from a planet in a galaxy on the Cepheus border. Unfortunately, Cepheus is only visible in the northern hemisphere, so we cannot see the Garnet Star from here. The colour garnet is named for the red gemstone; its name is said to be derived from the (also red) pomegranate fruit which means “seeded apple”. It’s a unisex name, but historically better known as masculine in Australia.

Keid

Keid is a common name for Omicron2 Eridani, or 40 Eridani, a triple star system in the constellation Eridanus consisting of two red dwarfs and a white dwarf. Eridanus represents a great river, and is meant to be the water pouring from the jar of the Water Bearer, the constellation Aquarius. In ancient times, it was said to be the path of souls. Eridanus can be easily seen from Australia; it is virtually overhead during the summer months. You can see one of the red dwarf stars in Keid with the naked eye; however the other two stars can only be viewed through a telescope. In the TV series Star Trek, 40 Eridani is the location of the planet Vulcan, home of Mr Spock. Eridanus is also a system of planets in the video game Halo, so it’s got sci-fi credentials galore. Keid is from the Arabic word for “eggshells”, and can be pronounced KYED or KEED. I prefer KEED, but KYED sounds like popular Kai (maybe too much, as people will no doubt confuse the two names).

Kio

Kio (KEE-oh) is the ancient Chinese name for Spica, the common name for Alpha Virginis, a blue giant binary star and the brightest in the constellation Virgo. While Spica means “ear of wheat” in Latin, Kio comes from the Chinese for “horn, spike”, as it was seen as “the horn of Jupiter”. Spica was the star used to discover the precession of the equinoxes, and the constellation Virgo contains the spring equinox point (autumn equinox in the northern hemisphere). The constellation has represented a goddess holding sheaves of grain from the earliest beginnings of astronomy in Babylonia. Not only is Kio one of those perky three-letter names that appeal to many people, but the Chinese saw Spica as a “lucky star” – what could be more positive than being named after a lucky star? The constellation Virgo can be seen throughout autumn and winter in Australia, and the very brightness of Spica makes it easy to find.

Leo

Leo is a familiar constellation, because it is one of those in the zodiac. It’s already in the list Boys Names From the Top 100 of the 1930s, however I think it is worth revisiting from an astronomical viewpoint. The constellation’s name means “lion”, and seems to have been pictured as a lion by many ancient civilisations. I’m not sure if there was a single original Lion in mythology, but the Babylonians had many leonine protective gods, and a winged lion was the symbol for the city of Babylon. The Ancient Greeks identified it with the Nemean lion, a monstrous beast, both fierce and cunning, which was killed by Heracles as the first of his twelve labours. Its hide was impervious to attack, so Heracles wore it as his armour. The constellation Leo is truly majestic, and contains many bright stars. The chief of these is Regulus, also called The King Star, and The Heart of the Lion. Leo can be seen for most of the year, but is easiest to view in late summer to early autumn from Australia.

Nash

Nash is a common name for Gamma Sagitarrii, an orange giant binary star in the constellation Sagittarius. Sagittarius depicts a centaur, said to represent the wise teacher and healer Chiron. The Milky Way is at its densest in Sagittarius, as this is where the centre of the galaxy lies, so it contains many star clusters and nebulae. In Australia this impressive constellation is easy to find, and we also get the best view of it, being able to see the Milky Way so much more clearly. Look in the west part of the sky in the early evening, halfway between the horizon and the point directly overhead. Its brightest stars form a recognisable shape which is called The Teapot; Nash is the spout of this teapot. Sagittarius is most visible in the middle of winter, and bright enough that you can see it even if there is a moon. The name Nash is from the Arabic for “arrowhead”, for this star is the tip of the archer’s arrow, which points toward the star Antares, in Scorpius. It’s also a surname derived from the word for “ash tree”.

Orion

Orion is a constellation representing a character from Greek mythology. This gigantic hunter seems to be a bawdy folk hero – larger than life and twice as natural. It is lusty Orion who pursued the Pleiades, so that Zeus had to turn them to stars for their protection. One version of his ending is that Orion boasted of being able to kill any animal on Earth, and so the Earth goddess, in her displeasure, created the Scorpion to sting him to death. Both Orion and the Scorpion were placed in the sky as constellations. Orion contains many brilliant stars, such as Betelgeuse, Rigel and Bellatrix, and even the astronomical novice can locate the three stars forming Orion’s Belt; I was taught these were The Three Sisters (a South African name). Orion is clearly visible in the summer from Australia, and because it is positioned differently in the southern hemisphere, we sometimes call this constellation The Saucepan. The name Orion is from the Akkadian for “heaven’s light”.

Perseus

Perseus is a constellation representing a character from Greek mythology; he was a hero, the son of Zeus and a mortal princess. Perseus led an extremely exciting life, part fairytale, part soap opera, but he is probably best known for killing the Gorgon Medusa, a woman who had snakes on her head, and thus had a permanent bad hair day of epic proportions. Perseus had nifty flying sandals to zip around on, although much later people liked to imagine him riding the flying horse Pegasus (this never actually happened in the legends). Perseus rescued and married Princess Andromeda, and the constellation has his hand reaching up to Andromeda’s foot, to show the moment of deliverance. The star Algol in Perseus is called The Demon Star, and represents the head of Medusa. We can see the constellation in late spring and summer from Australia, and the meaning of Perseus is not certain; it may mean “to destroy”. Percy is the obvious nickname, and the one used in the novel series Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan.

Phoenix

Phoenix is a minor constellation in the southern sky named after the mythical bird. The Phoenix can be found in the mythologies of many lands, from Egypt to China to Russia, and is famous for being able to renew itself in fire, which made it a popular symbol of resurrection in Christianity. Its name is from the Greek for “crimson”. Phoenix has become a popular name lately; it’s unisex, but used more for boys. It’s hard not to connect it to The Order of the Phoenix in the Harry Potter books; Fawkes the phoenix is the loyal pet of Albus Dumbledore. A phoenix is also a major character in the children’s book The Phoenix and the Carpet by Edith Nesbit. The constellation Phoenix can be seen from Australia during the summer, however it is faint and only possesses two stars bright enough to be seen with the naked eye.

Sirius

Sirius is the common name for Alpha Canis Majoris, a binary star which is the brightest in the constellation Canis Major (“Great Dog”), and the brightest in the sky, being almost twice as bright as Canopus, the second-brightest. Canis Major is seen as one of the dogs following the hunter Orion, with Sirius representing its doggy nose. However, Sirius was considered to be a dog in his own right, and is called The Dog Star. In the northern hemisphere, Sirius rises in summer, and so the very hottest time of year is called “the dog days”. Although Sirius rises in the winter here, we don’t call the coldest time of year the dog days, although strictly speaking, we should! In July, you can see Sirius both evening and morning. Almost every culture in the world has connected Sirius with dogs or wolves, but the Boorong people of Victoria saw it as part of a constellation representing the Wedge-Tailed Eagle – one of the most important of the spirit elders. The Sirius was also the flagship for the First Fleet to Australia, giving it another Australian connection. Its name comes from the Greek for “burning, scorching”.

Girls Names From Stars and Constellations

11 Sunday Dec 2011

Posted by A.O. in Name Themes and Lists

≈ 32 Comments

Tags

Arabic names, Aramaic names, astronomical names, Biblical names, British Baby Names, celebrity baby names, famous namesakes, flower names, Greek names, Latin names, literary namesakes, locational names, mythological names, name history, name meaning, nature names, popular culture, popular names, Sanskrit names, Slavic names, Spanish names, surname names

Christmas is a time for stars – we put stars on our Christmas trees, sing about stars in carols, send cards with glittering stars on them, and cut gingerbread in the shape of stars. Elea at British Baby Names has a post on starry names up on her lovely Advent calendar; she also had a post on astronomical names back in October, which contains many star names. If you name your child after a star, you will want to show them “their” star when they get older, so I’ve given a few hints as to the best time to view the star from Australia; to learn more, two great resources are the Skynotes newsletter from the Melbourne Planetarium (includes video), and the Beginner’s Guide to the Night Sky at ABC Science. I normally do ten names per list, but because it’s the last set for the year I’ve done twelve – besides, stars naturally seem to go in groups of twelve, don’t they?

Alya

Alya is a common name for the yellow binary star Theta Serpentis in the constellation Serpens (“The Serpent”). Its name comes from the Arabic word alyah, meaning “fat tail of the sheep”. Arab astronomers saw this part of the sky as a pasture, with Alya representing a sheep’s tail. The Arabs have cooked with the rich fat from a sheep’s tail for centuries, and it is still considered a delicious comfort food. It might seem like calling your daughter Lard, but it fits in with the popular Aaliyah variants, while being simpler to pronounce and spell. You can always tell people the baby is named after a star that represents a sheep gambolling in a field; however vegetarians may not be able to get past the fact that the Arabs were looking up at the star and thinking, “Yum yum yum”. Serpens is visible in Australia in the middle of winter, and its stars are not easy to see.

Andromeda

Andromeda is a constellation named after a character from Greek mythology. This princess was chained naked to a rock for a sea monster to gobble, thanks to her rather stupid mother’s boasting of her beauty. The hero Perseus, on his way home from other heroic deeds, saw her in distress, and did the traditional hero’s rescue-and-marry-damsel manoeuvre. An awkward detail was that Andromeda was already engaged to her uncle, but Perseus turned him into stone, which got rid of him nicely. The name is pronounced an-DROHM-eh-da, and is said to mean “to think as a man” in Greek, interpreted as meaning to be as intelligent or brave as a man – which sounds a bit sexist, but the story isn’t exactly a feminist fairytale, and it’s clearly meant to be complimentary. Andromeda is a stunning name which can easily be shortened to Andie, Annie, Meda, Mia or Romy; it will remind people of the Andromeda Galaxy, which you can see best in November from Australia, along with the constellation.

Capella

Capella is a common name for the yellow star Alpha Aurigae, the brightest in the constellation Auriga (“The Charioteer”). It means “little she-goat” in Latin, and represents the divine goat Amalthea from Roman mythology. Amalthea was the foster-mother of the god Jupiter, and provided him with milk. When Jupiter broke off one of her horns, it became the ‘”horn of plenty”, which provided its owner with whatever food they desired. For the Boorong people of Victoria, this star was Purra, a kangaroo who is chased and killed by the twins in the constellation of Gemini; the tracks of Purra form the bed of the Wimmera River. Capella is a small town in central Queensland named after the star, so it’s a surprisingly Australian choice as a star name. It’s a fresh twist on Capri or Caprice, with the popular -ella ending. You can see Capella on the northern horizon during summer in Australia, and it’s bright enough to be clearly visible.

Carina

Carina is a constellation of the southern hemisphere; its name is Latin for “keel”, and it represents part of the ship, the Argo, sailed by Jason and the Argonauts in Greek legend. The most prominent star in the constellation is Canopus, the brightest star of southern skies, clearly visible and high in the sky. If you live in the far south of Australia, Canopus will never set. The Bibbulum people of south-western Australia saw Canopus as their ancestor Waa Wahn, the trickster crow. The Maoris called it Atutahi, or “Stand Alone”, because of its brightness. Carina also has meteor showers which peak around Australia Day, and contains the Diamond Cross, sister to the Southern Cross. Considering that the winged keel on Australia II is said to have won us the America’s Cup in 1983, Carina adds up to being a patriotic star name (and suitable for boaties). As Carina is also a name related to either Cara or Katherine, it has the added advantage of sounding like a “regular name”.

Gemma

Gemma is a common name for the binary star Alpha Coronae Borealis, the brightest in the constellation Corona Borealis (“The Northern Crown”). In Greek mythology, Corona Borealis represents a crown worn by Ariadne when she married the wine god Dionysus; Gemma is Latin for “jewel”, so it’s “the jewel in the crown”. Australian Aborigines called this constellation The Boomerang, because of its shape (being in the southern hemisphere, we see the constellation upside-down). Gemma is a popular name in Australia, and the star association helps give it another layer of meaning, while also showing that you don’t need to have a strange or rare name to be named after a star. The constellation is best viewed in winter from Australia, and its difficult to see without practice.

Lucy

In the constellation Centaurus (“The Centaur”) is a tiny white dwarf star, smaller than the Earth, with the boring name of BPM 37093. Its carbon atoms are believed to have formed a crystalline structure, and because diamonds are also carbon arranged in crystalline formation, astronomers have nicknamed this star Lucy – as in Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. It’s a fun star and song reference for a very popular name, and as you probably know, Lucy means “light”, which seems apt for a star. Because of its size, you can only see Lucy with a telescope; however the constellation Centaurus is the most magnificent in the southern hemisphere, with two of the brightest stars, Alpha and Beta Centauri. You can see a great portion of the Milky Way in Centaurus, and on a moonless autumn night, it will be easy enough to point at Lucy’s general location. Does it matter if it cannot be seen? The Little Prince told us that what is essential is invisible to the eye …

Lyra

Lyra is a small constellation whose name is Greek for “lyre”. It is associated with the myth of Orpheus, a legendary musician, poet and prophet who is best known for his descent into the Underworld in search of his wife, Eurydice. According to some accounts, he died being ripped apart by savage Bacchantes, the female worshippers of the god Dionysus; the Muses gave him a proper burial, and he was finally reunited with his beloved. The Muses took his lyre to heaven and placed it amongst the stars in his honour. In Australia, you can see Lyra low in the northern sky during winter. The name has become well known since Lyra Belacqua is the young heroine of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials Trilogy. English model Sophie Dahl named her daughter Lyra in May this year.

Maia

Maia is the common name for 20 Tauri, a blue giant in the constellation Taurus, and the fourth-brightest star in the Pleiades cluster. In Greek mythology, the Pleiades were seven beautiful nymphs who were sisters. They were pursued by the hunter Orion, and Zeus changed them first into doves, and then into stars – where they are still chased by the constellation Orion. The Pleiades are often called the Seven Sisters, and you can see them clearly in summer from Australia. The Aborigines have several legends about the Pleiades, and one involves seven sisters being pursued by a man, just like the Greek myth. Maia was the eldest of the Pleiades, and the mother of the god Hermes. The meaning of the name is uncertain; it may be a respectful title for a mature lady. Maia the star appears as a character in Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers – an Australian writer who clearly loved stars, because the Mary Poppins books are filled with them. Maia is said like the popular Maya (MY-ah), but seems more elegant and literary.

Mimosa

Mimosa is a common name for the yellow binary star Beta Crucis, the second-brightest in the constellation Crux (“Cross”). Crux is the smallest of the constellations, but very significant in Australia, as it is our dear Southern Cross, represented on the national flag as well as the Eureka flag (Mimosa is the left-hand arm of the Cross). Various Aboriginal peoples saw the Cross as an eagle’s footprint, a stingray, a possum in a tree, or two brothers cooking a fish on their campfire. The Aborigines of Eastern Australia called it Mirrabooka; Mirrabooka was a kind and clever man who was placed in the sky by the creator Biami so he could watch over the earth. Because the Southern Cross is always visible here, Mirrabooka never leaves us. The Maoris call it The Anchor; it anchors the Milky Way. The star Mimosa received its name because of its colour; the mimosa is another name for the silver wattle. The name is from the Greek for “mimic”. It’s an extravagant name that’s very patriotic; you could use Mim, Mimi, Mia or Mo as nicknames.

Mira

Mira is the common name for Omicron Ceti, the most notable star in the constellation Cetus. It’s a binary star consisting of a red giant and a white dwarf; the closest symbiotic pair of stars to the Sun. Mira is a variable star; like other red giants, its surface oscillates so that its brightness increases and decreases. Mira was the first variable star ever observed in modern times, and so it gained its name, for Mira means “wonderful, astonishing” in Latin, and is said MEE-rah. The constellation Cetus depicts the sea monster that was going to eat Andromeda: for some reason it has also been immortalised in the stars, and placed worrying close to its intended victim. It’s a large constellation, but not very bright or easy to see; it’s best viewed in Australia in November. At its brightest, you can see Mira with the naked eye; at its dimmest, you will need powerful binoculars to view it. Mira is also a Sanskrit name meaning “ocean”, and a Slavic name possibly meaning “peace”.

Talitha

Talitha is one of the common names for Iota Ursae Majoris, a yellow and purple star system in the constellation Ursa Major consisting of two binary stars orbiting around each other. The name is Arabic, and means “the third leap”, referring to a gazelle jumping about, which is how Arab astronomers saw this portion of the sky. Talitha is also the Aramaic for “little girl”, and is taken from the New Testament when Jesus raises a child from the dead by saying Talitha cumi (“Little girl, get up”). Talitha is pretty, and fits in with popular names like Talia and Taia; it’s pronounced TAH-lith-ah. Ursa Major, or the Great Bear, is one of the best known and loved constellations of the northern hemisphere, but in Australia it can only be viewed in April/May, and is so low on the northern horizon we see only part of it; we cannot see Talitha at all.

Vega

Vega is the common name for Alpha Lyrae, the brightest star in the constellation Lyra, and fifth-brightest star in the sky. The name is from Arabic, and means “falling” or “landing”, referring to the constellation Arab astronomers called The Alighting Vulture. Lyra was seen as a descending vulture; an idea dating back to ancient Egypt and ancient India. Even when the Greeks said it was a lyre, it was still often pictured as a vulture or eagle holding the instrument in its talons. The Boorong people saw Vega as a Mallee Fowl, and knew that once the star disappeared in October, it was time to collect that bird’s eggs. Vega is also a Spanish surname meaning “meadow-dweller”; it’s familiar from the Spanish playwright Lope de Vega, and folk singer Suzanne Vega. Vega is a glamorous-sounding name that’s strongly associated with its star. Once you learn to find Lyra, it will be easy to spot Vega because of its luminosity.

Names of Australian Fashion Designers

13 Sunday Nov 2011

Posted by A.O. in Name Themes and Lists

≈ 19 Comments

Tags

African names, Australian Aboriginal names, Biblical names, created names, Etruscan names, famous namesakes, French names, Gaelic names, Greek names, hebrew names, Korean names, Latin names, literary names, locational names, Maori names, mythological names, name history, name meaning, nicknames, Scottish names, surname names, unisex names, Zulu names

Last week we began our gender re-balancing with the names of some beautiful Australian models. Yet without the clever and creative designers, models would have nothing to wear. Here are ten female fashion designers whose names I found interesting in some way.

Arabella (Ramsay)

Arabella Ramsay grew up on a sheep farm in country Victoria; her family are all very creative, and she was encouraged to become a fashion designer. She did a course in textile design at RMIT, then spent a year in Paris studying fashion before opening her first store in Melbourne in 2006. This year, Arabella welcomed her first child, a daughter named Marlowe. The name Arabella originated in medieval Scotland, and it is thought that it is probably a variant of Annabel, meaning “lovable”. However, it is found in old documents in the forms Orable and Orabella, and from early on seems to have been influenced by the Latin word orabilis (also used as a name in the Middle Ages). This means “invokeable”, in the sense that a saint can be invoked by prayer. Arabella has never been a common name in Australia, despite our love of names from Scotland; I think it has seemed too old-fashioned or perhaps too upper-class. However, with -bella names all the rage, this looks like the perfect time for Arabella to shine.

Camilla (Franks)

Camilla Franks was a theatre actress who loved to design and make her own costumes, and formed her own fashion label in 2004. She is known as the “kaftan queen” because of her signature flowing lines in colourful prints, and hosts her own fashion shows in exotic locations around the world. Camilla sells internationally, and her designs are worn by celebrities such as Kate Hudson, Lily Allen, Beyonce and Oprah. In Roman mythology, Camilla was a virgin warrior queen of the Volscian tribe who was bound to be a votary of the goddess Diana since infancy. It is said that she was so fleet of foot that she could race across a field without bending a blade of grass, and could even run across water without getting her feet wet. We are told by the Romans that she was named Camilla because this is what the Etruscans called all their young priestesses (the male form is Camillus); if so, it seems to be more a title than a personal name. Queen Camilla’s mother’s name was Casmilla, and this seems significant. Once a favourite in literature, it’s best known today as the name of the Duchess of Cornwall. Milla and Millie are so popular at the moment that this may give Camilla more of a chance.

Collette (Dinnigan)

Collette Dinnigan was born in South Africa and moved to New Zealand as a child. After studying fashion design at Wellington Polytechnic, she moved to Sydney and worked for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s costume department. She opened her first store in 1992 and exported her fashions to New York, London and Hong Kong; she was the first Australian to launch a ready-to-wear collection in Paris. Her clothing lines sell in major department stores, and many Australian women will have at least one Collette Dinnigan piece in their wardrobes. The Australian government sent a Collette Dinnigan cardigan as their gift to French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s baby daughter, Giulia. Collette is a variant spelling of Colette, a French pet form of the name Nicole. The name Collette is well known as Australia as the stage name of lycra bike shorts-wearing pop singer Collette Roberts, who sang Ring My Bell, as well as the surname of actress Toni Collette. French names are very fashionable at the moment, but I wonder whether Collette is still sounding a bit dated. I think Nicollette might do better, maybe with Collette as the nickname.

Clea (Garrick)

Clea Garrick is originally from the Northern Territory, studied design in Brisbane, then moved to Melbourne where she set up the Limedrop label in 2005 with Nathan Price, who handles the marketing side of things. Limedrop has won a major award, sells around the world, and recently broke into the Tokyo market. Clea is a Greek name meaning “glorious”, and was the name of one of the Delphic oracles, who held the title of Pythia. These priestesses foretold the future at the town of Delphi in a temple dedicated to the god Apollo; it seems that some kind of shamanistic trance was used to foresee the future, and it has been speculated that hallucinogenic gases were involved. We are told by the ancients that these predictions tended to be ambiguously phrased, but usually gave good advice, and that the prophetic process was physically demanding on the Pythia – sometimes to the point where it killed her. We don’t know whether Clea was this priestess’ real name, or a name she adopted. I think Clea has a lot of potential – it’s underused, sounds similar to Claire and Leah, and is perhaps more feminine than its sister Cleo.

Elke (Kramer)

Elke Kramer is a Sydney-based jewellery designer known for her bold, chunky pendants and bracelets. She launched her label in 2004, and has a range of other creative pursuits, including art and illustration. Elke is the feminine form of the Hebrew name Elkanah, which is translated as “God has purchased”, and often interpreted as “belonging to God”, or “in God’s possession”. There are several men named Elkanah in the Old Testament, most notably the husband of Hannah, the father of the prophet Samuel. (Elkanah had another wife called Penninah, meaning “pearl”, but she was mean and jealous, so he didn’t like her as much as Hannah, even though Penninah gave him more children.) Elke is said EL-kuh, and it fits with popular names like Ella and the trend for EL sounds in girl’s names, but may possibly remind people of that large deer, the elk.

Jolet (Ucchino)

Jolet Ucchino is an independent fashion designer from Melbourne who launched her own label in 2008. She is committed to supporting local industry and using high-quality natural fabrics. It has been suggested that Jolet was originally a male name, derived from the French word joli, meaning “attractive”. It’s more common as a surname, but is still used as a personal name by both genders. Jolet Ucchino pronounces her name yo-LET. This is an unusual French name that’s a little like Yolande and a little like Juliet, and a fresh alternative to the name Jolie.

Kirrily (Johnston)

Kirrily Johnston studied at the Melbourne Institute of Textiles, and began her career in 1999 before moving to Sydney. She founded her own label in 2004, and was immediately met by rave reviews. Kirrily Johnston clothes sell in boutiques and department stores in Australia, the USA, UK, Asia and New Zealand, and are worn by stars such as Miranda Kerr, Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon and Diane Kruger. This year Kirrily became a judge on Project Runway Australia. Kirrily is a much liked name here, and seems to be uniquely Australian. The origin is very uncertain. It could be a variant of the Maori name Kiri, which means “fruit skin, bark”, and is well known as the name of opera star Dame Kiri Te Tanawa. Kirri is the Maori word for “wild dog” and the South African word for “stick”, and also looks similar to kirra, an Aboriginal word meaning “leaf”, and Kirribilli, a Sydney suburb meaning “good fishing spot” in the local language. Most likely it came into use because it sounded similar to popular names of the 1960s and 1970s, such as Kylie, Kerry and Kelly. It has helped influence a new generation of soundalike names, such as Kirra-Lee, Keira-Leigh, Kirri-Li and Kyralee, of which you can find many examples given to recent babies and toddlers.

Lorna (Clarkson)

Lorna Jane Clarkson began her career as a dental therapist, but moved into fitness instruction. Finding the existing range of women’s activewear limited, she started making her own line of fashionable gym clothing. In 1990 she opened her own store, and today there are 122 Lorna Jane stores. The name Lorna was created by novelist R.D. Blackmore for his historical romance, Lorna Doone (1869). He may have based it on the Scottish place name Lorne, which is in a region once named Lorna, and is possibly based on the male name Loarn – Loarn mac Eirc was a legendary king who was one of the sons of the first Gael to arrive in Scotland from Ireland. Loarn may be from the Gaelic word latharn, meaning “fox”; perhaps a tribal totem. Lorna Doone is an exciting tale of a long-lost heiress, forbidden marriages, unexpected changes in fortune, and all manner of adventures. It was the favourite novel of Australian bushranger Ned Kelly, and he may even have got the idea of wearing armour from the book, as the outlaw Doone family are said to wear “iron plates on breast and head”. Lorna was an “old grandma” name when I was a little girl, which means another generation has gone by and maybe now it seems more usable. It really doesn’t sound much different to currently popular names such as Laura and Lauren, and has a surprisingly Australian significance.

Thulie (Ellis)

Thulie Ellis is an emerging fashion designer who was born in the Transkei Zulu region of South Africa, raised in New Zealand, and educated in Australia, studying at Sydney’s premier fashion school FBI. She debuted her first collection in 2009 and opened her online store the same year. Thulie is pleased that many of her clients are from the United States, as she has been in love with America since a trip there as a teenager. She hopes to expand further into the US market. Thulie’s name may be a pet form of Nokuthula, a common Zulu name meaning “peace and tranquillity”, although the word Thula (“peace”) is also used as a name, with Thuli or Thulie as the short form. Thulie is pronounced TYOO-lee; the first syllable is said like the word tulle, or the beginning of tulip. Exotic, yet simple, I can imagine many people being drawn to this pretty name.

Yeojin (Bae)

Yeojin Bae was born in Korea, and wanted to be a fashion designer when she was two years old; her grandfather was a designer, and both her parents worked in the industry. With their full support, she attended art school from the age of 4, and became the youngest student at the Whitehouse Institute of Fashion in Melbourne at the age of 14; she graduated when she was 17. She has done internships in New York with Marc Jacobs and Anna Sui, won the 2007 Tiffany and Co Young Designer of the Year Award, and in 2009 was nominated for the Prix de Marie Claire Designer of the Year Award. Her collections sell in major department stores in Australia, the UK, the USA and the UAE. Yeojin’s name means “beautiful treasure” in Korean. Her name is pronounced yo-jhin – at least in an Australian accent. I’ve included a short interview with Yeojin so you can hear her name said aloud.

(Photo of Thulie Ellis with one of her garments at Rosemount Fashion Week from Southern Courier, May 10 2010)

Names of Australian Models

06 Sunday Nov 2011

Posted by A.O. in Name Themes and Lists

≈ 27 Comments

Tags

Cornish names, created names, famous namesakes, fictional namesakes, French names, hebrew names, Indian names, Italian names, Latin names, Maori names, mythological names, name history, name meaning, Native American names, nicknames, Shakespearean names, Tamil names, Welsh names

Because we had two sets of male names for Boys N ames from the Australian Football League and Boys Names from the National Rugby League, we need to have two sets of female names to keep the numbers even. As the spring fashion collections are out now, and ladies are getting frocked up for the spring racing season, it seemed a good time of year to feature women’s names from the world of Australian fashion.

Bambi (Northwood-Blyth)

Bambi Northwood-Blyth is a young up and coming model from Melbourne. She became known once her photo started being seen in tabloids partying with her surfer boyfriend who owns a fashion label, and soon became an internationally known “it” girl. At 5 foot 7, Bambi is unusually short for a fashion model, has a very distinctive look with heavy dark eyebrows, and sports tattoos and facial piercings. Bambi is a diminutive of the Italian word bambina, meaning “girl child”; English equivalents of Bambi might be Babe or Lassie. A girl named Bambi (real name Francesca) is the heroine of 1914 novel, Bambi, by Marjorie Benton Cooke. It recounts the romantic adventures of a lively young society girl in New York, and seems an entertaining enough read. However, it’s been overtaken in the public consciousness by a male deer called Bambi, hero of a novel by Felix Salten which was made into an animated Disney movie. Since then, Bambi has taken on connotations of being doe-eyed, long-limbed and generally adorable, like a baby deer. Bambi is usually a nickname or stage name in real life, and this case is no exception: Bambi Northwood-Blyth’s real name is Stephanie.

Cheyenne (Tozzi)

Cheyenne Tozzi was raised in Sydney, and is the type of blonde bikini babe which makes her suitable to be the face of Mambo Goddess and Just Jeans. She’s been hailed as “the next Elle McPherson”, and seems to be dating someone new every time you open a gossip magazine, from Kanye West to Mickey Rourke to Brandon Davis to our own Taj Burrow. Cheyenne is the name of a Native American people from the Great Plains region. Their name is what the Dakota Sioux called them, and means something like “the people of an alien language” (literally, “red-talkers”). One of their most famous members was the chief Black Kettle, who tried to make peace with the American settlers, and was killed by General George Custer. It’s pronounced shy-AN, and seems to be have been first used as a name in 1950s TV western, Cheyenne, about a cowboy called Cheyenne Bodie. It’s now seen as a primarily feminine name, and you should be aware that many Native Americans find using tribal names as personal names culturally insensitive or even offensive.

Demelza (Reveley)

Demelza Reveley is from Wollongong, and won the fourth series of Australia’s Next Top Model. Despite winning the show, judges said she lacked the sophistication to be a top model, and was just young and pretty. She has posed for Cosmopolitan and Vogue, and is currently the face of Sydney’s fashionable Strand Arcade shopping centre. Demelza is the name of a Cornish village said to mean “fort of Maeldaf”. The name Demelza was used for a character in the Winston Graham’s Poldark novels, and it became well known after the novels were turned into a TV series in the 1970s; the part of Demelza Poldark was played by Angharad Rees. Part of the success of the name at the time may be because, in the story, Demelza is told that her name means “thy sweetness”. Demelza Reveley’s parents obviously like unusual names – her sister’s name is Tanith.

Elle (Macpherson)

Elle Macpherson (pictured) was born in Sydney, and first modelled in New York as a teenager to raise money for her law degree (soon abandoned). She became known for her girl next door looks and magnificent figure, which earned her the sobriquet of “The Body”. Elle became part of the generation of supermodels in the 1980s, and went on to control many business interests. Today she is a multimillionaire businesswoman with her own fashion label, and is the face of Revlon cosmetics. She lives in Britain with her two sons. Elle’s name is short for her real name of Eleanor. Elle is the name of the world’s largest fashion magazine, founded in Paris in 1945. At one time, Elle Macpherson appeared in every issue of the magazine for six years in a row, and at the age of 21, married its creative director, Gilles Bensimon. The magazine’s name is the French word for “she”.

Miranda (Kerr)

Miranda Kerr was raised in the country town of Gunnedah in New South Wales before her family moved to Brisbane. She won the 1997 Dolly magazine contest at the age of 13, became a swimwear model, and relocated to New York. She is the first Australian to become a Victoria’s Secret lingerie model. She is married to actor Orlando Bloom, and is the mother of Flynn Christopher Blanchard Copeland Bloom. The name Miranda was created by William Shakespeare for his play, The Tempest; Miranda is the teenage daughter of the duke Prospero, and the two of them have been exiled on a remote island since Miranda was a toddler. Miranda’s name is derived from Latin for “admirable, miraculous” – Prospero is a magician, and perhaps chose a rather magical sounding name for his daughter. Miranda seems to be a popular name in Australia, at least in fiction; there seems to be a lot of Mirandas in films and television shows, including the beautiful schoolgirl Miranda in Picnic at Hanging Rock, based on the novel by Joan Lindsay. As this movie is very mysterious, it adds up to Miranda being a remarkably magical and mystical name.

Myfanwy (Shepherd)

Myfanwy Shepherd is from Cairns; she auditioned for the fourth series of Australia’s Next Top Model, but was rejected, as judges didn’t believe she had what it takes. A few months later, she was on the runways of New York, London, Paris and Milan. Myfanwy is a medieval Welsh name revived in the 19^th century. It is often translated as “my fine one” or “my rare one”, but this seems to be an imaginative gloss, as it is more likely from the Welsh for “beloved”. A 14th-century legend tells of Myfanwy Fychan, who was said to be the most beautiful woman in Powys, and vain enough to love nothing more than hearing her appearance praised. She took a fancy to a penniless bard because he could compose poems extolling her loveliness. Fickle as well as vain, she soon dumped him for someone richer and better looking, and the bard was left to wander around sadly composing poetry to his lost love. This rather unpleasant character’s story was turned into a popular song by Joseph Parry in the 19^th century. The name is pronounced muh-VAHN-wee, however Australian Myfanwys have a range of pronunciations, including like Tiffany with an M at the front. Like Myfanwy Shepherd, they all seem to use Myf (said MIFF) as the nickname.

Pania (Rose)

Pania Rose is from Perth in Western Australia; she was discovered during a national teen covergirl contest. She’s posed for Marie Claire and Spanish Vogue, and is most famous for her 2006 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition appearance. The name Pania is one from Maori mythology; Pania of the Reef was a beautiful sea maiden. She fell in love with a handsome son of a chieftain, and the pair became secretly married. These mortal-to-sea creature love affairs always seem to go horribly wrong in tales, and this one is no exception. Pania stayed with her husband every night, but during the day she needed to be in the sea in order to survive. Her frustrated husband got tired of not having a wife around during the day, and tried to force her to remain on land against her will. Horrified that he would risk her life, she fled from him into the ocean. There is a statue of Pania on the city of Napier’s Marine Parade that is sometimes compared to that of The Little Mermaid in Copenhagen. The name is said PAH-NEE-AH, and it may mean “polished”.

Tabrett (Bethell)

Tabrett Bethell was born in Sydney, and was a teenage model and cheerleader for the NRL Cronulla Sharks. After this she trained as an actress, has been in several films, and played a key role in the US fantasy TV show, Legend of the Seeker, where she gained a fan following. Tabrett’s unusual name came about because of an argument her parents had about what to name her. Her mother had chosen the name Siobhan, but her father preferred the name Murray. Her dad left the hospital and went for a drive, where he saw a sign for Tabrett Street. He drove back to the hospital, and suggested Tabrett instead, which her mother proved equally enthusiastic about. Tabrett is pronounced with the emphasis on the first syllable, and for many years, Tabrett was told her name was Welsh. I have read that it is derived from the Hebrew word tofe, for the hand drum that is used to praise Yahweh, and is interpreted as meaning “celebration”. Although Tabrett’s surname is Welsh, meaning “son of Ithel”, by coincidence it looks similar to the Hebrew for “house of God”, so there is some odd Welsh-yet-Hebrew/Hebrew-yet-Welsh theme to her name, I think.

Tahnee (Atkinson)

Tahnee Atkinson is from Perth, and is the winner of the fifth series of Australia’s Next Top Model. Tahnee has a curvaceous figure, and her weight was sometimes an issue during the course of the show. As part of her prize, she received a contract with Maybelline and a spread in Harper’s Bazaar, which retained exclusive rights to her for six months. Tahnee is a name that has long been a favourite in Australia; the oldest Tahnee I know is in her late fifties, and the youngest was born last year. The meaning of the name is uncertain, but Australians often fondly believe it to be Aboriginal or Maori in origin. Most likely, it just a variant of Tania; it is pronounced TAH-nee (like tardy with an N in it instead of a D).

Valli (Kemp)

Valli Kemp was born in Kenya to British parents, moved to London when she was seven and to Sydney when she was twelve. She was chosen Miss World Australia in 1970, and seen as the epitome of early ’70s glamour, with bedroom eyes and full lips. After moving to London for the Miss World finals (Grenada won), she became part of the “beautiful people” scene, and appeared in a few films, most notably cult horror flick Dr Phibes Rises Again, opposite Vincent Price. After moving back to Australia in the 1980s, she became a full-time artist and art teacher. The name Valli means “creeping plant” in Tamil, which refers to either a sweet potato or a yam; both of these grow on vines. Valli is a Hindu goddess in the mythology of South India and Sri Lanka. In the stories, a chieftain and his wife prayed for a child, and found a baby girl amongst the vines in the forest; they raised her as their own and she grew up to be princess of her tribe. She became the wife of Lord Murugan, the most loved deity in Sri Lanka – a brave warrior who protects even the most humble.

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