Famous Names: Lleyton and Daria

18 Thursday Feb 2016

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East European names, english names, famous namesakes, locational names, modern names, mythological names, name history, name meaning, names of rivers, Persian names, Russian names, saints names, surname names, UK name popularity, US name popularity

January is the great month for tennis in Australia. There’s the Australian Open and Kooyong Classic in Melbourne, the Hopman Cup in Perth, the Brisbane International, and the Sydney International, as well one-off events and exhibition matches around the country. I have to watch all of them, because my husband is a tennis fan who started playing as soon as he could hold a racket without falling over from the weight of it.

This year one Australian champion bowed out of competition, while a young player began competing under the Australian flag for the first time.

Lleyton Hewitt retired after making his twentieth appearance at the Australian Open, a former world number 1 and youngest ever male to make number 1, at the age of 20. Not only remembered as someone who was once at the top of the game for several years, he never lost his fighting spirit, and catchphrase warcry of “C’mon!”. He has been an inspiration for many young tennis players, and made the Australia Day honours list year.

Daria Gavrilova is a Russian-born tennis player who was the world number 1 junior, winning gold at the 2010 Youth Olympics. She emigrated to Australia last year, as her boyfriend is Australian player Luke Saville, and became an Australian citizen. Last month she won the mixed doubles at the Hopman Cup with partner Nick Kyrgios, and is the number 2 Australian player in women’s tennis.

LLEYTON
Lleyton is a variant spelling of Leyton. This English surname is derived from several places in the UK called Leyton, Layton, or Leighton. Depending on regional accent they can either be said LAY-ton, LIGH-ton, LEE-ton, or even LAW-ton, but the first is by far the most common.

Leyton in north London means “farm on the River Lea”; the River Lea’s name may come from the Celtic meaning “light, bright”, and possibly refers to the god Lugus. Layton in Lancashire comes from the Old English meaning “farm near water channels” – Layton is part of Blackpool, which had a drainage system of channels running over its peat bog. However, most places with these names are derived from the Old English for “leek farm”.

As a first name Layton and Leighton are the earliest spellings, in use since at least the 16th century. Most people with the names have been male, although from the beginning they were sometimes given to girls too. The names had early associations with Shropshire and Warwickshire, suggesting the inspiration may often have been the village of Leighton in Shropshire.

Leyton has been used as a first name since the 18th century, nearly always given to boys. Also strongly associated with Shropshire and Warwickshire, Leyton shows up in the Leyton area near London. For reasons I have been unable to identify, the name Leyton is also associated with south Wales, and there are several well-known Welshmen with the name Leyton or Leighton.

Lleyton seems to be a modern innovation, and to be found quite rarely. It is interesting to speculate whether the double L is an attempt to make the name seem more Welsh, in the style of names like Lloyd and Llewellyn. The name has become more common in the 21st century, perhaps due to Lleyton Hewitt himself.

In the UK, the spelling Layton has charted in the Top 1000 since the mid-1990s, and rose until a peak in 2011 at #161. It is currently #175 and stable. The spelling Layton has been on and off the US Top 1000 since the 19th century, with its most recent burst starting in 2001 – the year after Lleyton Hewitt won his first Grand Slam title at the US Open. It is currently #643 and fairly stable.

In the UK, the spelling Leighton has charted in the Top 400 since the mid-1990s. It hit a peak of #150 in 2013, and is now #154. It has occasionally been given to girls in the UK. In the US, Leighton has been on the Top 1000 for boys a few times since the 19th century, and made #892 in 2014. Since 2009 it has regularly made the Top 1000 for girls, and is currently #540 and gradually rising. The American actress Leighton Meester from TV show Gossip Girl has recently made this spelling of the name seem feminine.

In the UK, Leyton has charted in the Top 1000 since the mid-1990s, and peaked in 2007 at #345; it is now #434. In the US in 2014, there were 131 boys and 27 girls names Leyton, so it is much less common than in the UK.

Lleyton has shown up in the UK data since 2000, the start of Lleyton Hewitt’s career and his first Grand Slam win. The name peaked in 2005 at #747, and in 2014 there were 15 baby boys given the name Lleyton. In the US, 34 boys were named Lleyton and no girls, so if nothing else, this spelling seems to be only one which is currently male-only.

I see this name quite often in Australian birth announcements, with such a variety of spellings that no single variant would ever show up in data. It is sometimes used for girls here, but in these cases is invariably spelled Leighton, perhaps because of Leighton Meester.

This is a contemporary unisex name with a perhaps confusing array of spellings – but only Lleyton will always seem male, and remind people of the famous tennis player.

DARIA
Daria is the feminine form of Darius, a Romanised form of the Greek form of the Persian name Dārayavahush, meaning something like “possessing goodness, holding onto goodness”. In modern Persian, the name Darya coincides with the word for “sea”.

St Daria is a legendary saint. According to legend, she was a Roman Vestal Virgin married off to an early Christian nobleman named Chrysanthus. He converted her to Christianity, and persuaded her to live with him in a state of chastity (which helpfully agreed with her vows as a Vestal Virgin). The pair of them went around converting loads of other Romans, and eventually they were tortured and executed.

The story (written centuries after the supposed events) goes against everything we know about the status of Vestal Virgins in ancient Rome – they weren’t allowed to marry before the completion of their vows, and at one point, Daria’s punishments include being placed in a brothel as a common prostitute, an act of sacrilege which simply could not have occurred.

However, the story must have been appealing as they became quite popular saints. Three cities claim to have the remains of Chrysanthus and Daria, and the ones in Italy have been been confirmed as a male and female in their late teens, dating to roughly the correct era, so they at least got some believable bones.

St Daria was especially venerated in the Orthodox faith, and the name Daria is much more common in Central and Eastern Europe than elsewhere, although also used in Spain and Latin America. It is popular in Poland and Romania.

Daria has been used in the English-speaking world since the 18th century, without ever becoming very common. It’s been on the US Top 1000 a smattering of times, and in 2014 there were 104 baby girls named Daria – the same number as those called Arwen and Memphis. In the UK the name Daria is #439 and rising: a reflection of high immigration from Poland and Russia.

The name Daria isn’t common in Australia. It may be familiar to some because of Daria Gavrilova and Australian gymnast Daria Joura – although perhaps best known from the sardonic teenage cartoon character Daria Morgendorffer.

Daria has several possible nicknames – Dasha, Dasia, Danya, Darinka, and Dolly are a few in use. Both Daria Gavrilova and Daria Joura are known as Dasha (said like DAH-shah, not like Dasher the reindeer), and this makes Dash another possible nickname.

Darius is becoming better used, and the fame of the Australian tennis player could give more publicity to its feminine form. Strong and attractive, Daria would work well multiculturally.

POLL RESULTS

Lleyton received an approval rating of 33%. 52% of people weren’t keen on the name, and only 6% loved it. Daria did better with an approval rating of 54%. Although 41% of people weren’t keen on it, only 6% thought it was a terrible name.

(Photo shows Lleyton Hewitt at the 2014 Brisbane International)

Requested Name: Iden

03 Wednesday Feb 2016

Posted by A.O. in Requested Names

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english names, famous namesakes, locational names, mythological names, name history, name meaning, names from television, Norse names, rare names, Shakespearean names, surname names, UK name popularity, unisex names, US name popularity

Iden is an English surname which comes from the village of Iden near Rye in East Sussex, whose name in Old English means “woodland pasture where yew trees grow”. The Iden family were once Lords of the Manor in this village, Anglo-Normans who took their surname from the village.

A famous member of the Iden family is Alexander Iden, a medieval High Sheriff of Kent. He is a character in William Shakespeare’s historical play Henry IV, where he puts down a rebellion almost by accident and is knighted for his good deed.

Iden has been used as a first name since the Middle Ages, and was strongly associated with Sussex and Kent (where there is a hamlet named Iden Green). It was originally almost entirely feminine in usage, most likely because it looks and sounds very much like the name Idunn.

This is the name of a Norse goddess of spring, whose name is conjectured to mean something like “one who rejuvenates”, to indicate immortality and ever-youthfulness. In medieval England, the name was Anglicised to Idonae, Idony, and Idonea (the last one coinciding with the Latin for “suitable”). You could therefore see Iden as another attempt to Anglicise the name.

The gender ratio of Iden gradually evened up, and by the 18th century was significantly more common as a boy’s name, although still given to both sexes. It’s interesting that even in the 19th century, births of Idens in England were still strongly tied to Sussex and Kent, showing a local appeal to the name.

Probably the most famous person with the name is the Shakespearean actor and director B. Iden Payne. He went to the United States just before the First World War, and had a successful career as a director and drama teacher, working on Broadway and in the academic world. He finished his career at the University of Texas, and they have a theatre and acting award named in his honour.

Iden has been used as a character name on Star Trek. In the series Iden, played by Jeff Yagher, is a highly intelligent hologram who tries to defend and save his fellow holograms. In the process, he develops a Messiah complex, which leads to his downfall.

Another science fiction connection is the popular time-travelling cyborg novel In the Garden of Iden, by Kage Baker. In the story, the garden of the title belongs to Sir Robert Iden, a 16th century owner of a country manor house.

Nineteenth century English author Richard Jeffries also had a “garden of Iden” in his novel Amaryllis at the Fair. In it, Mr Iden turns his garden into a miniature paradise, with his daughter Amaryllis as its loveliest bloom. The rich prose and detailed descriptions make this a treasure for garden lovers.

The name Iden has never been common, and in Australia just a few examples can be found in historical records, mostly in the middle. I only saw it as a man’s name, but one or two women had it as a middle name.

The name is in occasional use in the UK, and in 2014 5 boys were named Iden. In the US, 42 boys were named Iden in 2014, and numbers appear to be increasing. The name does not seem to be in use for girls in the English-speaking world, despite the name starting out as feminine. Yet another example which shows that names do not always go from male to female when they switch gender.

Iden isn’t a common name, but neither is it bizarre or unfamiliar, and it has a significant history as a first name. Even for people who aren’t aware of the name Iden, it sounds enough like commoner names such as Aiden, Eden, and Arden not to sound too strange (there’s also Idan, a Hebrew name for boys).

On the flipside, its similarity to other names mean that it might be confused with them. Likewise, its deceptively easy pronunciation (IE-den, so the first syllable sounds like the word eye) will no doubt cause a certain amount of misunderstandings.

Short and simple, Iden is a medieval name that sounds completely modern and even space-age. It travels well, and works cross-culturally, because the name Iden is used in several other languages and countries.

I’ve seen quite a few people considering the name Iden, and can see it increasing in use, especially if it becomes more of a favourite in popular culture.

Thank you to V for requesting the name Iden be featured on Waltzing More Than Matilda.

POLL RESULTS

Iden received an approval rating of 54%. People saw the name as handsome or attractive (23%) and uncommon without being strange (19%). However 16% thought it was too much like other names, and would get confused with them. Only 5% of people thought the name Iden was ugly.

(Photo shows a view of countryside near Iden, East Sussex)

Waltzing With … Paris

22 Sunday Nov 2015

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

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Celtic names, english names, ethnonyms, famous namesakes, fictional namesakes, French names, Greek names, locational names, Luwian names, mythological names, name history, name meaning, names from television, saints names, Shakespearean names, surname names, UK name popularity, unisex names, US name popularity

Like everyone else, I watched in horror and disbelief as the news unfolded in Paris last week. A place where I had briefly lived as a student, my heart went out to my Parisian friends, and to all those in this beautiful but troubled city.

Abby from Appellation Mountain wrote how it sometimes feels almost wrong to write about baby names when the world is torn by tragedy. How can I keep blogging about celebrity babies, birth announcements, birth data, and so on in the face of human suffering?

Not only would it fail to help anyone if I gave up blogging, I believe it is our duty to continue our normal routine as much as possible during dark times. This goes for my own private tragedies as well, having lost a loved one just days before the Paris attacks.

Babies will keep being born, and named, and I will keep writing about it as my small effort towards hope and healing. As memorials all over Paris say – la vie continue. Life goes on.

Paris – The Legend
Before Paris was the name of a city, it was the name of a person. In Greek legend, Paris was a prince of Troy, infamous for starting the Trojan War by abducting the beautiful Helen away from the king of Sparta. There was plenty of warning, because before Paris was born, his mother was told in a dream that he would cause the downfall of Troy.

He was supposed to be killed to avoid this fate, but the king and queen were unable to do it, and handed the job over to their cowherd. Rather like the plot of Snow White, the cowherd reared him as his own, and Paris became an organiser of bull-fights (bulls fighting other bulls, not people).

He impressed the gods with his sporting honesty enough that he was asked to judge a beauty contest between Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite. Paris chose Aphrodite, and his prize was the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen. Aphrodite neglected to mention that Helen was already married, and that’s when all the trouble began.

The meaning of Paris‘ name isn’t known. It’s thought to be a Greek rendition of the Luwian name Pari-zitis, which has been found as the name of a scribe. The meaning of the first part isn’t understood, but the –zitis part means “man”.

Legend gives Paris the nickname of Alexander, meaning “defender of men” – he gained this while still a child, by saving his foster-father’s cattle from thieves. It’s tempting to wonder if Pari-zitis has a similar meaning to Alexander, such as “protecting man” or “guardian man”, and the Greek authors looked for a name which was a close equivalent.

The Greeks explained Paris’ name as being from the backpack that the cowherd brought him home in – the Greek word for the bag is pḗra. However, this is just folk etymology.

The Paris of legend is described as intelligent and extremely handsome, but he isn’t a very attractive character. He seduced another man’s wife, brought about the destruction of his homeland, and wasn’t a gallant or skilful warrior. Mind you, he was tricked by Aphrodite, and as he was doomed to die by his city you can’t blame him for his lack of patriotism, while being brought up by a cowherd would hardly equip him with courtly manners or battle skills. Nonetheless, he’s generally thought of as rather weak and selfish.

This did not stop people from naming their sons Paris, and there is even a Saint Paris listed as a 4th century bishop of Teano, near Naples. According to legend, he was born in Greece and performed that well known saintly show-stopper of killing a dragon. Another famous Paris was a 1st century actor in Rome who became enormously popular and influential. Unfortunately he followed the legendary Paris too closely by having an affair with the emperor’s wife: he was murdered, and the emperor killed anyone who mourned his death, and even someone who looked like Paris.

Paris is a Shakespearean name, as Count Paris is Juliet’s unwanted fiance in Romeo and Juliet. Handsome, wealthy, and well-connected, Paris is an eminently suitable husband, and little wonder Juliet’s parents are thrilled at this opportunity. Of course any audience member worth their salt is barracking for Juliet’s choice of romantic Romeo, and almost no one sheds a tear for poor Paris at the end.

Paris – The City
The place where Paris is today was settled by a Gaulish people called the Parisii – it is their tribe that the city is named for. The city’s original Latin name was Lutetia Parisiorum, which probably means “swamp or marshland of the Parisii”. The tribal name Parisii could be from the ancient Celtic word par, meaning “boat” – as the Parisii lived on the River Seine, it would make sense for them to be skilled in using boats. Other ideas are that their name means “commanders”, “”fighters”, “workers, artisans”, or “cauldron, kettle”. In other words, nobody really knows.

Interestingly, there was a British tribe with the similar name of the Parisi in Yorkshire. It is unclear whether there was any connection with the Parisii in Gaul, but there is just enough vague evidence to support it that it can’t be ruled out.

Situated between trade routes on land and water, the Parisii had a thriving town on one of the islands of the Seine. After being conquered by the Romans, Lutetia Parisiorum became a prosperous Roman city with a military camp on the island, but the main part of the city where the Left Bank is now. The city became known as Parisius, and in French, Paris.

Paris was claimed as their centre of operations by both the Frankish kings, and the first king of France (the islands were good for defence), and by the Middle Ages Paris was not only the capital of France, but the largest city in the western world. Now we know it as the City of Light, the City of Love; famous for art, fashion and food, its monuments become icons. A cultural centre which remains, even after tragedy, a beacon of light.

The city of Paris provided another inspiration for the name. It is generally felt that when Paris is a boy’s name it is after the legendary character, while girls called Paris are named after the city connected with romance and fashion. However, in practice it is not possible to be so cut-and-dried (the surname Paris makes it even more complicated).

Girls have been named Paris since at least the 18th century, and although Paris was already a fashion capital by then, the French Revolution may have been an inspiration for American parents in particular.

In the US, Paris has charted as a boys name on the Top 1000 intermittently since the late 19th century. Its longest continuous stretch was from 1979 to 2000, and its highest peak in the 20th century was in 1991 at #592. It hasn’t charted as a boys name this century, but last year 96 boys were named Paris in the US, with numbers continuing to fall.

Paris has been on the US Top 1000 as a girls name since 1985. It peaked in 2004 at #157 when socialite Paris Hilton was in the reality TV show, The Simple Life. Paris Hilton’s own name was just ahead of the curve, as she was born in 1981 – although the name Paris had been gradually rising for girls for some time. Incidentally, Paris Hilton was once engaged to a man named Paris – Greek shipping heir Paris Latsis. Currently the name Paris is #269 and relatively stable.

In the UK, Paris has charted for both sexes since the mid-1990s, peaking for boys and girls in 2004 during The Simple Life. At that point, it was #119 for girls, and #717 for boys. Currently it is #463 for girls, while last year just 3 baby boys in the UK were given the name Paris.

Paris has been a Top 100 name for girls in Australia and New Zealand, the only countries where the name has ever been popular. The name was on the Top 100 from 2002 to 2004, peaking in 2003 at #58 when The Simple Life was first on air. In New Zealand it peaked in that fateful year of 2004 at #35, making it the most Paris-loving place on earth. Currently Paris is around the 500s for girls in Australia, while it doesn’t chart for boys.

It is a strange fact that tragedy can help inspire baby names – I reflect on this knowing that the name Boston became more popular outside the US after the bombings at the Boston Marathon. Could an even larger set of terror attacks in another beloved city cause an uptick in the number of babies named Paris?

POLL RESULTS
As a boy’s name, Paris received an approval rating of 52%. 32% of people disliked it, and 11% loved it.

It did slightly better as a girl’s name, receiving an approval rating of 55%. 27% of people thought it was okay, while only 6% loved it.

(Photo of Paris street memorial from the BBC)

Famous Name: Martin

11 Wednesday Nov 2015

Posted by A.O. in Famous Names

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classic names, European name popularity, famous nameksakes, French names, honouring, international name popularity, locational names, mythological names, name history, name meaning, name popularity, Roman names, saints names, surname names, UK name popularity, US name popularity

Famous Location
Today is Remembrance Day, when we remember all those in the armed forces who have laid down their lives in the line of duty. It marks the end of hostilities of World War I, when by the terms of an armistice, fighting formally ceased at the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month. Remembrance Day takes place on same day as the feast of Saint Martin, a patron of soldiers, so it seemed like a good opportunity to look at the name connected with this day.

If you would like to see the Anzac Cenotaph in Sydney honouring those who fell in World War I, you must go to Martin Place in the heart of the city, named for three-times New South Wales Premier and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Sir James Martin. It is here that Anzac Day parades and commemorations are traditionally held in Sydney.

The reason this spot was chosen for the Cenotaph was because conscription rallies were held here during World War I, and it was at the old General Post Office across from the Cenotaph that so many soldiers enlisted. As the GPO’s telegraph office was where important news first arrived, people gathered here to learn of significant events, and where the Cenotaph now stands, crowds formed waiting for the end of World War I to be announced.

The General Post Office was really the beginning of Martin Place, its Victorian-era neo-classical grandeur making it the largest building in Sydney when it was first built, and its granite and sandstone arcade providing a link between George and Pitt Streets. It demanded a public space around it, and by the 1970s Martin Place had become a major pedestrian mall.

Martin Place is the centre of the city’s business and finance sector, with the head offices of major banks and insurance corporations, and the Reserve Bank. Still a centre for news distribution, it is where Channel Seven’s Sydney news station is located.

Crowds continue to gather in Martin Place, for the annual Christmas tree concert, for festivals and performances, for major sporting events shown on huge screens, for political protests such as the Occupy Sydney movement, and as a backdrop in television programs and films, including The Matrix series.

Its very centrality and importance made it a target for violence during the hostage siege crisis last year, and a focus for remembrance and healing afterwards when Martin Place was transformed into a “field of flowers”. Martin Place is a place to remember, to celebrate, to mourn, and to heal.

Name Information
Martin is from the Roman name Martinus, derived from Martis, which means “belonging to Mars”. In Roman mythology Mars was the god of war, and etymologists dispute the origin of his name. It must come from some older god, but quite who it was, whether they were Oscan or Etruscan, and what their name signified, is something lost in the mists of time.

The name Martin has become well known to us because of Saint Martin of Tours, a Christian soldier conscripted into the Roman army who felt that a military life was incompatible with his faith and turned conscientious objector. He became a disciple of St Hilary in France, and then a hermit before he was elected bishop of Tours by popular acclaim.

There are many stories about Saint Martin. One is that he was so reluctant to become bishop that he hid in a barn full of geese, but their cackling gave him away (this legend shows that the mythology of the god Mars may have got involved here, because geese were sacred to Mars in pagan Gaul). Another famous story is while still a soldier he used his military sword to cut his cloak in half to give to a ragged beggar shivering in the depths of winter. That night he dreamed of Jesus wearing the half cloak, which convinced him he was on the right path by following the Christian faith.

Saint Martin was enormously popular in France during the Middle Ages, and was adopted by the royal houses of France. Saint Martin is not only a patron of soldiers, but of France itself, and Martin is the most common French surname. Saint Martin has been called upon during many modern conflicts in France, including World War I, and when his feast day of November 11 was chosen as the day to sign the Armistice, the French saw it as a sign of his intercession.

Saint Martin’s Day was widely celebrated in Europe, and in Britain was known as Martinmas. Occuring at the beginning of the coldest months, it was the traditional day to slaughter animals for the winter, with a feast naturally following – goose was often served, and wine drunk liberally, as Saint Martin is also the patron of the grape harvest and winemaking. Martinmas was a Christian successor to the pagan feast of Samhain, which took place on October 31/November 1. It was formerly seen as the beginning of the lead-up to Christmas.

There are several other saints named Martin in his honour, and popes as well. The famous theologian Martin Luther was named after the saint, and he was baptised on November 11, Saint Martin’s Day. The great Civil Rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King Jr gained his name from Martin Luther – his father had been a pastor named Michael King, but changed his name to Martin Luther King after becoming inspired by the life of Martin Luther on a trip to Germany. One way or another, the name wields a powerful spiritual clout.

Martin is a classic name which has never left the charts. It was #93 in the 1900s, and left the Top 100 the following decade. It began climbing during the 1940s (perhaps the war brought this military name to the fore). By the 1950s Martin was in the Top 100 again, peaking in 1967 at #41 (around the time of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr’s greatest publicity). It left the Top 100 in the 1900s, and is now around the 200s.

In the US, Martin was a Top 100 name from the late 19th century until 1970, and reached its peak in 1880 at #44. Its highest point in the twentieth century was #63 in 1964, the year after Martin Luther King’s famous I Have a Dream speech. It is now #261 and very stable, even rising slightly last year – in 2014 the film Selma was released, with David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King Jr.

In the UK, Martin was in the Top 100 from the mid 19th century until the 1990s, peaking in the 1960s at #18. It is now #247 and stable, and as in the US, numbers went up last year. Martin is still a popular name in Europe, including Ireland, and is a particular favourite in Spain and Latin America. It is rising in Spain, where it is #8, and in France, where it is #46, so the French are still backing their patron saint.

With Martin you get a classic name seems both strong and gentle – a warrior under Mars, and a man of firm principles and the power of his convictions, like Saint Martin, Martin Luther and Martin Luther King Jr. It’s a traditional name that isn’t common, and yet isn’t disappearing into obscurity either: it’s stable and even had a small boost. A surprisingly safe choice that’s possibly just a little cooler than you might think.

POLL RESULTS
Martin received an approval rating of 57%. 21% of people believed it was old-fashioned and dated, while 16% saw it as geeky or dorky. However, 13% thought it was a strong yet gentle name for a boy. The tease names of Martian or Fartin’ Martin each bothered 2% of people, while only one person thought it was too closely connected to alcohol because of Remy Martin cognac or the martini cocktail.

(Photo shows the GPO at 1 Martin Place)

Fresh Names For Boys

01 Sunday Nov 2015

Posted by A.O. in Name Themes and Lists

≈ 5 Comments

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American names, angel names, Aramaic names, Biblical names, celebrity baby names, english names, European name popularity, famous namesakes, fictional namesakes, Greek names, hebrew names, imperial names, Latin names, literary names, locational names, modern names, mythological names, name history, name meaning, name popularity, name trends, names from films, names from television, names of bands, New Zealand name popularity, nicknames, papal names, Puritan names, Romani names, saints names, Spanish names, surname names, UK name popularity, US name popularity

An audit of Featured Names on the site has revealed there are less boys names than girls, so I’m going to cover two lots of boys names this month to give them a chance to catch up. These names seem “fresh” because they don’t have a history of charting in Australia, aren’t popular, and are rising in other countries. They are ones to keep an eye on!

Arlo
May be a variant of the surname Arlow, a corruption of Harlow. Arlo is the Anglicised form of Aherlow, and the Glen of Aherlow is a picture-postcard valley in Ireland. Its name comes from the Irish eathralach, meaning “between two highlands”, as the valley is nestled between major peaks in the Galtee Mountains. The name became part of English literature when Edmund Spenser used Arlo Hill as a place name in his poem The Faerie Queene; Spenser’s estate in Ireland was near the Glen of Aherlow. Arlo has been used as a boy’s name since the 18th century, and originated in the United States: I think probably from Arlow, used at the same time, and in a couple of records the person is listed as both Arlow and Arlo. One of the its most famous namesakes is folk singer Arlo Guthrie, although you may also think of street skater Arlo Eisenberg, and agent Arlo Glass from TV series 24. Around the 200s in Australia, Arlo is climbing steeply in both the US and UK, and is already popular in New Zealand. Arlo fits in with the trends for an AR sound and O-ending, and being chosen for their sons by both Toni Colette and Kasey Chambers can only have helped.

Bodhi
In Buddhism, bodhi is the deep understanding gained about the true nature of reality; this understanding is part of the Buddha’s liberation on the path to Nirvana. It literally means “awakened” in Sanskrit and Pali, but is often translated as “enlightenment”. The great spiritual teacher Gautama Buddha is said to have attained bodhi while sitting under a sacred fig tree in India, now known as the Bodhi Tree, and Bodhi Day is celebrated by Buddhists on December 8. Bodhi has been used as a personal name since the 20th century, with a surge of interest in the 1970s, when all things Eastern became trendy. The name received a notable outing in the 1991 cult film Point Break, with Patrick Swayve as a rebel surf leader named Bodhi. The film ends at Bells Beach in Victoria, which may help explain why Bodhi is such a favourite in Australia, and around the 200s. It is much rarer in other countries, but climbing steeply in both the UK and US. Apart from the spiritual meaning, Bodhi fits in with names like Beau and Brody. Chosen for his son by actor Cameron Daddo, this is a relaxed surf-friendly name.

Casper
A form of the name Jasper, which has a huge number of European spelling variants. It’s been in use since the Middle Ages, when it was most common in Central Europe. Today Casper is a popular name in The Netherlands and Scandinavia, and rising briskly in the UK, where it is in the 200s. It is around the 400s here, and would make a great alternative to popular Jasper – especially as Casper the Friendly Ghost is no longer much of an issue.

Djanjo
Nickname of the great French jazz guitarist, born Jean Reinhardt. Reinhardt was of Romani descent, and his nickname means “I awake” in the Romani language”: it is pronounced JANG-go. There was a revival of interest in his “gypsy jazz”sound in the 1960s, and Django’s musical influence can barely be overstated; he has been an inspiration to generations of guitarists. His music has been used in movie soundtracks, and Djanjo himself is a character in Martin Scorcese’s Hugo, while being referenced in other films. Djanjo is the main character in a popular series of spaghetti Westerns, and got a reboot in Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained, with Jamie Foxx as freed slave Djanjo Freeman. Django isn’t common in any country, but has been rising in the UK since Tarantino’s 2012 film. Cool and on trend, this is a musical name with a cowboy vibe.

Ezra
In the Old Testament, Ezra was a scribe and priest, and according to Jewish tradition is credited with introducing several of the main aspects of Jewish law and teachings. This makes him a greatly respected figure in Judaism, and also in Islam and Christianity. His name is translated as “help”, although it may be a contraction of the Hebrew name Azaryahu, meaning “God helps”. Ezra has been in use as an English name since since at least the 16th century, and has been more common in the US; a famous namesake is the American poet Ezra Pound, and it’s referenced in the name of rock band Better Than Ezra. Ezra is around the 300s here, but is rising steeply in the US and UK; it is only just outside the US Top 100. This is becoming an increasingly hip choice.

Micah
In the Old Testament, Micah was a prophet of Israel. His name looks a lot like Michael, and has a similar meaning: “who is like Yahweh?”, while Michael means “who is like God?” (in both cases, it it is rhetorical, as nobody is God’s equal). Micah’s prophecies became especially relevant to Christians, as one was interpreted as meaning the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, and Jesus referred to the Book of Micah several times in his teachings. Because of this, the prophet is regarded as a saint, and the name Micah has been used since the 17th century, introduced by the Puritans. Micah is around the 100s here, and is even more popular in the US, although not so common in the UK. The name has become a favourite in horror and fantasy works, and will appeal to people who like Michael, but want something with a more contemporary feel.

Rafael
From the Hebrew name Rafa’el meaning “God heals”; the name is often spelled Raphael, with Rafael most common in Spanish-speaking countries. In Jewish tradition, Raphael is one of the seven archangels, and mentioned in the Old Testament. He is an angel of healing and protection from demons, and venerated in Christianity and Islam as well as Judaism. Regarded as a saint in Catholicism, St Raphael is the patron of pilgrims and travellers, as well as of medical workers. The name Rafael has been in use since the Middle Ages and was common in Spain. A well-known contemporary namesake is Spanish tennis champion Rafael Nadal. Rafael is around the 100s here, and in the 200s in the US and UK. It is a popular name in Europe, especially in Portugal, and is rising in France and Switzerland. Romantic and with strong, positive associations, this comes with the obvious nicknames Raf and Rafe.

Roman
Derived from the Latin name Romanus, which simply means “a Roman” to signify a man from Rome or a citizen of the Roman Empire. There are a number of saints named Romanus, including an early martyr, as well as a pope and several Byzantine emperors. The name is particularly associated with Russia and Eastern Europe, as there were quite a few Russian, Romanian, and Bulgarian leaders named Roman. However use of the name was internationally quite widespread, and can be found in Spain, Germany, and England from early on. There are two famous film directors with this name: Roman Polanski and Roman Coppola, the son of Francis Ford Coppola. Roman is around the 200s here, and is rising very steeply in the US and UK, only just outside the Top 100 in both countries. Rom- names are on trend, and this is a stylish multicultural choice which was selected for her middle son by Cate Blanchett.

Silas
In the New Testament, Silas was an early Christian leader chosen to be a companion of St Paul. The pair were briefly imprisoned together, until a convenient earthquake broke their chains and burst the prison doors open. Paul refers to him by the Roman name Silvanus, which is from the Latin silva meaning “forest”; in Roman mythology, Silvanus was the god of forests. This would identify Silas as the same person as Saint Silvanus, who was one of the disciples of Jesus; tradition says he became a bishop and died a martyr. If so, Silas could be a nickname, or understood as a Greek form of Silvanus. However, Silas is a Greek form of the Hebrew name Saul, meaning “asked for, prayed for”, which was also Saint Paul’s birth name. Whether Silas was two people or one is a question for the scholars, but Silas became an English name by at least the 16th century because of this character. Here the name Silas is around the 500s, but it is far more popular in the US, and rising in the UK. In popular culture, it has become associated with villains – the creepy albino monk from The Da Vinci Code, and serial killer Silas Blisset in British soap Hollyoaks. The wicked factor has actually boosted the name’s popularity.

Thaddeus
In the New Testament, the Apostle Jude is usually identified as being the same person as the Apostle Judas Thaddeus, called so to differentiate him from Judas Iscariot. Thaddeus (said THAD-ee-us) seems to be derived from tadda, the Aramaic word for “breast, heart”, perhaps an affectionate nickname in the same way we might say dear heart or bosom buddy. It could also mean “hearty”, to suggest someone strong-hearted or warm-hearted. Perhaps the closest thing in English is the familiar piratical address my hearty, which has connotations of strength and courage, but also loyalty and camaraderie. Sometimes the name is given as Lebbeus, which could come from leb, the Hebrew word for “heart”, and thus be a translation of Thaddeus. Another theory is that it is from Todos, an Aramaic form of the name Theodore, although this fails to explain why the Bible also translates it as Lebbeus. It is unclear whether Judas Thaddeus is the same person as St Thaddeus, said to be one of the disciples of Jesus who was a missionary in Syria. In use as an English name since the 17th century, and given impetus by American Puritans, Thaddeus has a strong history in the United States. It is in the US Top 1000 and rising, and has been rising steeply in the UK since 2013. It’s very rare in Australia, but this is a handsome traditional name with a great meaning – Thad, Tad, Ted, and Teddy are obvious nicknames.

POLL RESULTS
People’s favourite names were Arlo, Rafael and Casper, and their least favourite were Bodhi, Thaddeus and Djanjo.

(Picture shows a poster for the movie Django Unchained, with helpful pronunciation guide)

Boys Names from International Destinations

04 Sunday Oct 2015

Posted by A.O. in Name Themes and Lists

≈ 2 Comments

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animal names, Biblical names, Dutch names, english names, European name popularity, famous namesakes, honouring, Irish names, locational names, mythological names, name history, name meaning, name popularity, name trends, names from songs, names from video games, names of businesses, nicknames, saints names, Shakespearean names, slave names, superhero names, surname names, UK name popularity, unisex names, US name popularity

Arden
A region of Warwickshire in England, once thickly covered in trees and known as the Forest of Arden. It has strong Shakespearean connections, as William Shakespeare’s home town of Stratford-upon-Avon is one of the region’s main attractions. Furthermore, the Arden family were prominent in the area for centuries – they are one of the few landed families in England who can trace their lineage back to before the Norman Conquest. William Shakespeare’s mother, Mary Arden, was one of this family. Shakespeare’s comedy As You Like It is set in the Forest of Arden, a creative mixture of the real forest, a romanticised version of it, and the Ardennes Forest in central Europe. The name Arden is thought to come from the Ancient British word ardu, meaning “high land”; it has been used as a personal name since the 17th century, and had strong ties with Warwickshire. Arden is more popular for girls in the US (perhaps because of cosmetics company Elizabeth Arden), but is fairly even in the UK, and rising for both sexes. This matches my own observations in Australia, and it fits with both male and female name trends.

Boston
The capital of Massachusetts, one of the oldest and largest cities in the United States. Founded by Puritans in the 17th century, it was the scene of many of the key events in the American Revolution – perhaps most famously, the Boston Tea Party. Boston is one of the most economically powerful cities in the world, and a major educational centre, the home of top universities such as Harvard. It has been called “The Athens of America” for its contribution towards literature, art, music, and high culture in general. It is also known for its strong Irish history and culture: former President John F. Kennedy was from a Boston family of Irish Catholic heritage. The city is called after the town of Boston in Lincolnshire, whose name is said to be a contraction of “St Botolph’s town” – St Botolph was an obscure yet strangely popular Anglo-Saxon saint, and his name is believed to be an Old English one meaning “messenger wolf, herald wolf”. Also a surname, Boston has been in use since the 18th century. I saw this name more frequently after the Boston Marathon terrorist attacks in 2013, which matches the situation in the UK, although the name remained stable in the US.

Cairo
The capital of Egypt, and one of the largest cities in the world. Founded in the 10th century, it is close to several ancient sites, including the Pyramids, so that despite being a busy metropolis, it is often associated with the romance of Ancient Egypt. Cairo is a transliteration of the Arabic name for the city: al-Qāhirah, meaning “the victorious”. The reason for the name is because the planet Mars (in Arabic, Al Najm Al Qahir) was rising at the time of the city’s founding. The Egyptian name for the city is Khere-Ohe, meaning “place of combat”, referring to a battle which is supposed to have occurred here between the gods Set and Horus. Not only a strong, war-like name, Egyptian-themed names are very cool at present, and this might appeal to someone wanting a nod to African or Arabic culture. It fits very well with current trends in boys names and can be shortened to Cai.

Cuba
The largest island in the Caribbean, which was claimed for Spain by Christopher Columbus in 1492. It is an ethnically diverse nation with a tumultuous history, and has been under Communist rule since 1965. The island’s name comes from the indigenous Taino language, but the meaning is not certain: it may be from cubao, meaning “where fertile land is abundant”, or coabana, meaning “great place”. Cuba has become well known as a boy’s name due to Hollywood actor Cuba Gooding Jr. As his name tells you, Cuba was named after his father Cuba Gooding Sr, lead singer of the group The Main Ingredient. Cuba Sr’s father Dudley was from Barbados, but fled to Cuba, and met and married a woman there. After she was murdered because of their involvement in the Pan-African movement, Dudley promised her on her deathbed that he would name his first son Cuba. That is a very powerful name story for the name Cuba, and let’s face it, yours won’t be able to compete. However, Cuba has been used as a name since the 18th century, and in the US had strong ties to the African-American community: it may have originally been given as a slave name.

Denver
The capital of Colorado, and one of the largest cities in the American south-west. Set high in the Rocky Mountains, it has the distinction of being exactly one mile above sea level. The city was named after a 19th century politician, James W. Denver, in hopes of currying favour. The surname Denver is after a village in Norfolk, meaning “the passage of the Danes” in Old English – it’s a place on the River Ouse once crossed by Danish invaders. Famous people with the surname include Bob Denver from Gilligan’s Island, and singer John Denver (born Henry Deutchendorf). Denver Pyle played Jesse Duke in The Dukes of Hazzard, while a famous Australian namesake is Denver Beanland, a former Liberal politician from Queensland. The name isn’t particularly strongly tied to the city and can be seen just as easily as a surname name. In use in Australia since the 19th century, it has a reasonable history, so that it doesn’t seem too modern and trendy, despite having a fashionable letter V. Little wonder that it seems to be in quiet but steady use.

Harlem
An area of Manhattan in New York City which has been known as a major centre for African-American culture since the “Harlem Renaissance”of the 1920s. Originally a village settled by Dutch immigrants, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands. Haarlem is the capital of North Holland, and historically the centre of the famous tulip industry. Its name probably means something like, “home on the forested dunes”, as it lies on a thin strip of land near the North Sea. It is also a surname; one example is former Norwegian prime minister Gro Harlem. I see this name fairly regularly, and that’s probably because it fits in so well with the strong trend for Har- sounds in boy’s names, such as Harvey, Harley, Harland, and so on. Not only similar to these, Harlem celebrates a place with a cool, and perhaps slightly dangerous image. The Harlem Shake memes could even be a contributing factor!

Jericho
A city in Palestine on the River Jordan. It is believed to be one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world, and the oldest walled city; archaeologists have found remains in Jericho dated to 9000 BC. Jericho features in a famous Bible story, which tells how Joshua, the general of Moses, took the city of Jericho. The Israelites marched around the city perimeter for six days with the Ark of the Covenant. On the seventh day, they marched around seven times, then the priests blew a ram’s horn and the Israelites raised a great shout. The walls of the city fell down, and the Israelites slaughtered almost all the inhabitants. There is a very rousing African-American spiritual about the incident, where the “walls came tumbling down” – an inspiration for the Thatcher era pop song. Archaeologists tell us that although Jericho’s famous walls have been brought down during various conflicts, Jericho was temporarily abandoned during the time that Joshua was supposed to have lived. Perhaps more importantly for the name, it fits in with the current fashion for names with an -o ending, and joined the US Top 1000 in 2013, as it has recently become known as one of the Teen Titan superheroes, and a common name in video games.

Kobe
A busy port in Japan, and one of the country’s largest cities. It is famous for its hot springs, which provide a tranquil retreat and have been in use since at least the 8th century, making them amongst Japan’s oldest. The city’s name is connected to its Ikuta Shrine, a Shinto shrine founded in the early 3rd century to venerate Wakahirume, the Japanese goddess of the rising sun and weaving. The city’s name is derived from kamube, an old name for the people who supported the shrine. It is also a Japanese surname, after the city. The name has been popularised by American basketballer Kobe Bryant, whose parents named him after Kobe beef, a very high quality meat from Japan, that they saw on a restaurant menu. Although the Japanese pronunciation is more like KO-BEH, English-speakers generally say it as a homophone of the name Coby, which is one of the name’s attractions. In fact, it is also a Dutch pet form of Jakob. Kobe is around the 100s in Australia, significantly more popular than in either the US or the UK, although it is a Top 50 name in Belgium.

Memphis
The largest city in the state of Tennessee. It is famous as a centre for popular music; because of this, almost a thousand songs are about Memphis, or mention it in some way, and Graceland, Elvis Presley’s famous estate, is a major tourist attraction of the city. Memphis is named after a a capital of ancient Egypt because the American city is situated on the Mississippi, just as the Egyptian one was situated on the River Nile. The Egyptian city is now in ruins, but was once a port and busy commercial centre. Memphis is the Greek transliteration of the Egyptian name Men-nefer, meaning “enduring and beautiful”, and Greek mythology personified it as a nymph named Memphis who founded the city along with her husband, a king and son of Zeus. Despite this feminine history for the name, Memphis is much more common as a male name than a female one, most likely because of Elvis. It is around the 600s for boys in Australia, more popular than in either the US or UK.

Tyrone
The largest county in Northern Ireland. Its name comes from Tir Eoghain, meaning “land of Eoghan”; according to Irish legend, Eoghan was a son of a great medieval king who claimed this land for himself. Eoghan may be derived from Eugene, and thus an Irish form of the Welsh name Owen; others say it is from the Old Irish, and means “born under the protection of the sacred yew tree”. Tyrone has been used as a personal name since the 18th century, and originated in the United States, presumably as an Irish heritage name. It later became used in Ireland too. The name was popularised by Hollywood actor Tyrone Power Jr; part of a long line of actors, the name Tyrone was traditional in his family. The original Tyrone Power, the great-great-grandfather of the Hollywood actor, was from a landed family in Ireland. Tyrone entered the charts in the 1960s at #413, and peaked in the late 2000s at #181. Currently around the 300s, it has never become popular, yet never gone out of use, pioneering, and still fitting in with, the well-worn trend for Ty- names for boys, such as Tyler and Tyson.

POLL RESULTS
People’s favourite names were Arden, Jericho and Boston, and their least favourite were Cairo, Harlem and Cuba.

(Photo of the Ikuta Shrine in Kobe, Japan by Suguri F)

Girls Names from International Destinations

27 Sunday Sep 2015

Posted by A.O. in Name Themes and Lists

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Arabic names, car names, Celtic names, Dutch names, english names, ethnonyms, fabric names, famous namesakes, fictional namesakes, gemstone names, honouring, locational names, mythological names, name history, name meaning, name popularity, names of deserts, names of rivers, names of US states, Native American names, nicknames, Sanskrit names, Scottish names, slave names, stage names, surname names, unisex names, vocabulary names

Aberdeen
The third largest city in Scotland, often called The Energy Capital of Europe because of its North Sea oil reserves, and Scotland’s most important city economically. Another of its claims to fame is that it is the coldest city in the UK. The original name for Aberdeen was Aberdon, a Celtic name meaning “mouth of the Don” – the River Don empties into the North Sea north of Aberdeen’s original site. The river’s name may be derived from Devona, a Celtic deity whose name means “river goddess”. I saw a baby girl named Aberdeen in the newspaper, and her mother emailed me to explain that her name is in honour of Kurt Cobain, lead singer for the rock band Nirvana, who was born in Aberdeen, Washington (Aberdeen’s father is a great admirer). The American city’s name is after a salmon cannery which was named for the Scottish city, because it is also situated on a rivermouth. A rare name with a possible feminine origin which can be shortened to Abby or Deeni.

Alaska
The most northern state of the USA, separated from the continental US by Canada. First colonised by Russia, it was purchased by the United States in the 19th century, and eventually became a state in 1959. Once famous as a gold rush area and wild frontier, it is now known for its vast gas and oil reserves, and stunning natural beauty. The state’s name was adopted during the Russian colonial period, derived from an Aleut word meaning “mainland” (literally “that which the sea breaks against”). The name has become better known since the 2005 publication of John Green’s first young adult novel, Looking for Alaska, with the character of Alaska Young a beautiful but unstable teenage girl who is the hero’s love interest.

Calais
A town and major seaport in northern France and a major trading centre since the Middle Ages. It is famously located at the narrowest point of the English Channel, and a popular place to make for when swimming the Channel (or crossing by ferry). It was once a territory of England, and called “the brightest jewel in the English crown” for its rich commercial opportunities. The Romans called it Caletum, apparently in reference to the local Celtic tribespeople; it was from Calais that Caesar launched his invasion of Britain. Pronounced kal-ay, Calais sounds similar to names such as Callie and Carly while having the fashionable AY sound. Calais is also a boy’s name – in Greek mythology, Calaïs was a son of the North Wind, and one of the Argonauts. The name means “turquoise” or “chrysolithe” (another blue-green jewel), so is a rare masculine gemstone name. It is pronounced KAL-uh-ees. I’ve seen several boys in Australia named Calais, but more likely because of the car, the Holden Commodore Calais, than after the Greek hero.

Havana
The capital of Cuba, and a popular tourist destination that’s almost instantly recognisable from its colourful architecture and vintage cars. Under American occupation before the revolution, it was a playground for the middle classes, a sort of offshore Las Vegas with an exciting tinge of corruption and decadence. The city was founded by the Spanish in the early 16th century and named San Cristóbal de la Habana. Saint Christopher is the city’s patron, but the meaning of Habana isn’t certain. It may come from Habaguanex, the name of a Native American chief who controlled the region. The name has become fairly well known in Australia because of the DJ, singer, and dancer Havana Brown. Born in Melbourne to parents from Mauritius, Havana’s birth name is Angelique Meunier. The name Havana was #339 in Victoria in 2012. Pronounced huh-VAH-nuh, it fits in with the trend for names with a strong V sound, and looks like a natural successor to Ava and Harper.

Holland
A historic region of the Netherlands, sometimes informally used to refer to the country itself (Dutch people outside North and South Holland may not appreciate this, just as Scots don’t care for being told they’re from England). The name comes from the Middle Dutch holtland, meaning “wooded land”, but folk etymology connects it to the modern Dutch hol land, meaning “hollow land”, because the Netherlands is famously low-lying. Holland is also an area of Lincolnshire, similarly flat and famous for tulips, but its name comes from the Old English for “hill spur land, ridge land”. It is from this area that the English surname Holland comes, and you can see Holland as a surname name too. Both Holland Park in London and the Holland Tunnel in New York are from the Lincolnshire connection. Holland is also a fabric; this heavy linen was in the past often imported from the Netherlands. Long in use for both sexes, on a girl this name easily shortens to Holly.

India
India is named for the Indus River, one of the longest rivers of Asia, which flows from Tibet into the Arabian Sea; the Sanskrit name for the river is Sindhu, which means “body of trembling water”. Alexander the Great crossed the Indus, and the ancient Greeks called the people of present-day Pakistan and India Indoi, meaning “people of the Indus” – it’s the origin of the word for the Hindu religion as well. The Indus Valley was the birthplace for an ancient civilisation, the oldest urban culture in South Asia. In Britain, India was often given as a name in reference to the British Raj, and still has a rather upper class image in the UK. In the US, India had steady use in Indiana, but overall was more common in the south – a famous fictional namesake is India Wilkes from Gone With the Wind, the sister of Ashley. India was also given as a slave name in colonial America, perhaps because it was associated with a dark complexion. It’s always been a name which symbolises exoticism to Europeans, and is around the 200s in Australia, a natural successor to popular Indiana and sharing the nickname Indi.

Mississippi
An American state in the south, named for the Mississippi River, another inspiration for the name. The Mississippi is the chief river of North America, and one of the largest in the world, rising in Minnesota and meandering to the Gulf of Mexico. The Mississippi River Valley is one of the country’s most fertile areas, and was the focus for the steamboat era, brought to life in the works of Mark Twain. It features in songs such as Johnny Cash’s Big River, Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Proud Mary, and Charley Pride’s Roll on Mississippi. The river’s name comes from Misi-ziibi, the Objibwe or Algonquin for “great river”. Lengthy, and a spelling minefield for the unwary, this comes with two snappy nicknames: Missi and Sippi.

Odessa
A city in the Ukraine founded by Catherine the Great. It was named thus because of a belief that it was the site of an ancient Greek city called Odessos – Odessos is now thought to have been where Varna, in modern Bulgaria, is today. The name is probably pre-Greek, and its meaning and origin unknown. A free port, Odessa was a city where people of many cultures and languages mingled; its cosmopolitan nature made it a place for freethinkers to congregate, and Mark Twain predicted it would become one of the great cities of the world. The first tremors of the Russian Revolution could be felt here in 1905, after a workers’ uprising was put down with a brutal massacre. Odessa looks as if it could be related to all kinds of familiar names, and is sometimes even touted as a feminine form of Odysseus, so it feels like a “real name”. It’s right on trend and would make a great alternative to popular Olivia.

Sahara
The largest desert in Africa, and the largest hot desert of the world, the Sahara stretches right across northern Africa, often very beautiful in its shifting sandscapes. Its name is an intensifier of ṣaḥrā , the Arabic word for desert, to suggest “great desert”. The singer-songwriter Sahara Smith received her name because her father hiccuped while suggesting the name Sara, and liked the result. This is a pretty name which is so similar to names like Sara, Sarah, Zara and Zahara that its main issue is probably being confused with them.

Venice
A city in northern Italy built on a series of islands separated by a maze of canals and linked by bridges. It is seen as one of the most beautiful cities in the world and a very romantic destination, thanks to its ornate architecture and the gondolas providing transport through its waterways. A wealthy city for most of its history, it has a particularly strong connection with the arts and music, and has featured in many plays, novels, and films. The city’s name comes from the Veneti, the tribespeople who populated the area in ancient times. Etymologists believe their name comes from an ancient root meaning “strive, wish for, love” (to suggest strong kinship bonds), giving it a very attractive meaning as well. The name seems to have been used since the 16th century, although in at least some records, may have been confused with the related names Venus or Venetia. This artistic name would make a good alternative to rising Florence.

POLL RESULTS
People’s favourite names were Odessa, India and Holland, and their least favourite were Havana, Venice and Mississippi.

(Photo is of Denali National Park in Alaska)

Famous Name: David

23 Wednesday Sep 2015

Posted by A.O. in Famous Names

≈ 4 Comments

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Biblical names, classic names, famous namesakes, hebrew names, international name popularity, mythological names, name history, name meaning, name popularity, popular names, royal names, saints names, Semitic names, US name popularity

Famous Namesake
Next week it will be the 143rd birthday of David Unaipon, who was born September 28 1872 – Unaipon is an Anglicised form of the name Ngunaitponi. David was a writer, mythologist, inventor, motivational speaker, lecturer, religious leader, and political activist; in his lifetime he was hailed as a genius. Yet he was given no schooling after the age of 13, and was often denied service because of the colour of his skin.

Born on a South Australian mission, his high intelligence was obvious even as a child. Frustrated by the scarcity of career paths open to him, and almost complete lack of educational ones, after work he would devour books on literature, science and philosophy until the early hours of the morning. He became obsessed with the idea of inventing a perpetual motion machine (a hot topic of the day), and this led to his first patented invention: an innovative design for shearing machines which is the basis for modern mechanical shears.

In all, David took out 19 provisional patents on his inventions, but could not afford to fully patent them: he made no money from his inventions, and received no credit apart from one newspaper article. His other inventions include a centrifugal motor, a multi-radial wheel, and a mechanical propulsion device. One of his ideas was a basic design for a helicopter in 1914, based on the spinning motion of a boomerang; this earned him the title of “Australia’s Leonardo”. A recognised authority on ballistics, he also had a great interest in lasers which he foresaw might one day have military applications – this was some years before Einstein’s pioneering work on lasers.

David worked as a lay preacher and missionary, but was also keen to educate white people on Indigenous mythology and culture. David compiled his versions of Aboriginal legends, influenced by his study of classical and Egyptian mythology, and written in a style reminiscent of John Milton. They were published in a series of booklets and articles, and eventually commissioned as Myths and Legends of the Australian Aboriginals in 1930: David was paid $150 for his work, but received no credit. He was the first Indigenous Australian writer to be published.

Urbane and cultured, dignified in bearing, formal of manner, and fastidious in speech, David defied the stereotypes then held about Aboriginal Australians, and confounded expectations. Even when sympathetic, the newspapers spoke of him in ways which now make us squirm.

He was not just a genius: he was a “black genius” or “Australia’s cleverest darkie”. One journalist calls him “a remarkably intelligent specimen of primitive man”, and writes that people can barely believe he is a “full blooded Aborigine”. “An outstanding representative of the primitive race”, and “remarkably able … even amongst superior whites”, it was made clear that he was an exception to every rule, and one fine shining hour for a people who were inevitably dying out.

David lived to the age of 94, packing many lifetimes into his generous span of years; he continued working on his inventions into old age, and right to the end remained determined to discover the secret of perpetual motion.

He had lobbied the government on Aboriginal rights, been the first Aboriginal person to attend a royal levee, and received a Coronation Medal. The David Unaipon Literary Award is given to an unpublished Indigenous author each year, and the David Unaipon College of Indigenous Education And Research at the University of South Australia is named after him. You may also have David in your wallet – he is on the $50 note.

An extraordinary Australian with an original mind, he was neither mute nor inglorious, yet his story is one of undeveloped potential. Howard Florey was sent to Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, and he changed the world: what might David Unaipon have done if given similar opportunities and advantages?

Name Information
David is derived from the Hebrew name Dawid, from the Semitic root dwd, meaning “to love”. It is usually translated as “beloved” or “my darling”. There were a number of Semitic deities with names from the same source, and it is possible the name David was originally given in honour of these gods, or came to be understood as “beloved of God”.

The name has come into common use because of the character from the Bible. In the Old Testament, David was an armour-bearer to Saul, the first king of Israel. David was a talented musician, and whenever Saul was feeling particularly wretched, David would play the lyre to him until he felt better. David was a great warrior, and Saul made him commander over his armies: eventually he became so popular that after Saul’s death David was anointed king.

A popular story from the Bible is about David’s youth. Saul’s armies were facing those of the Philistines, and their opponents sent their largest warrior to fight someone in single combat – a huge giant named Goliath (around six foot nine, or just over 2 metres tall). Everyone was afraid to take on the big boy, until David stepped forward and accepted the challenge. He brought Goliath down with a slingshot, then cut off his head using the giant’s own sword. In modern parlance, a David and Goliath battle is one where the underdog wins, and we all love a story where the “little guy” is victorious over someone more powerful.

King David is a central figure in Judaism, a symbol of Jewish kingship. According to the Hebrew canon, a descendant of King David will one day sit on the throne of Israel, heralding an era of global peace. Christianity views David as a divinely appointed king, and the ancestor of Jesus Christ. In Islam, David (Dāwūd) is revered as one of the great prophets.

David has been a popular figure in art and literature, most notably Michelangelo’s statue of him as a young man, the epitome of masculine strength and beauty. In the Bible, David is described as a handsome youth with beautiful eyes, and ruddy in colour. This has often been taken to mean David was red-haired (Jewish tradition makes David a redhead), but the word used refers to the same coppery-brown skin tone assigned to Adam. There is another connection between these two characters: Adam is the first name in the Bible, while David is the last.

David has been used as an English name since the Middle Ages; in medieval Europe, David was seen as the ideal chivalrous hero, and a model for kingship. Saint David is the patron saint of Wales, and his icons include the leek, a Welsh national symbol. A Welsh short form of his name, Taffy, was used to refer to a Welshman (often insultingly) for many years, just as a Paddy meant an Irishman. King Edward VIII went by David, which was his final middle name, given in honour of the national saint.

The name David also has a strong history in Scotland, as David I was a powerful medieval Scottish king who supported his niece, the Empress Matilda, in her claim to the English throne. A defender of the Scottish church’s independence from the English church, contemporary historians describe him as pious and just. He is regarded as a saint in Roman Catholicism.

David is a solid classic which has never left the Top 100. It was #28 in the 1900s, and peaked at #1 through most of the 1960s, making it the most popular boy’s name for that decade. Currently it is #91 nationally, #92 in New South Wales, #76 in Queensland (where it was one of the fastest rising names of last year), #98 in Tasmania, and #83 in the Australian Capital Territory.

Thanks to the fame of King David, David is a popular name around the world, including in eastern and western Europe, Scandinavia, and Latin America. It is most popular in Croatia, at #4. It is popular in all English-speaking countries, and most popular in the United States, at #18. It is still a popular name in Israel, and seems a patriotic choice as the national flag has a Star of David on it.

David is an attractive classic name with a beautiful meaning. An ancient name with a heroic royal namesake, it has never gone out of style and remains popular. Widely recognised around the world, it travels well and can work cross-culturally. A beloved name for thousands of years, it would not be surprising if this name was perfect for your darling son.

POLL RESULTS
David received a creditable approval rating of 70%. People saw the name David as a timeless classic which would never go out of style (27%), clean and wholesome (19%), and handsome or attractive (16%). However, 21% thought it was too common and boring. Only person thought David seemed too mature to give to a little boy, and just one thought it was too biblical.

(The photo of David Unaipon is the same one used for the bank note).

Famous Name: Ceridwen

02 Wednesday Sep 2015

Posted by A.O. in Famous Names

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Arthurian names, famous namesakes, fictional namesakes, mythological names, name history, name meaning, nicknames, rare names, Welsh names

Famous Namesake
Author Ceridwen Dovey was born in South Africa, raised both there and Australia, and was educated at Harvard University, doing postgraduate work at New York University. Living in Sydney, Ceridwen says Australia feels like home, but South Africa remains part of her, and she has ties to the United States as well.

Ceridwen’s book Only the Animals was published last year, has just come out in the UK, and will be released in the US later this month. It’s very unusual, with the souls of ten animals who have died in human conflicts telling their own stories. Each beast also pays tribute to a particular writer who has written about animals, from Henry Lawson to Virginia Woolf to Ted Hughes, and these can be playful as well as moving (imagine a mussell’s journey to Pearl Harbour in the style of Jack Kerouac, for example).

Only the Animals has been shortlisted for numerous awards, and won the Steele Rudd Award for a short story collection at the 2014 Queensland Literary Awards. It’s a beautiful, wise book which really gets under your skin and remains with you, long after you turn the last page. Hopefully it will be appreciated overseas as well.

Name Information
In Welsh legend, Ceridwen was an enchantress. According to a medieval tale, Ceridwen had a son named Morfran who was hideously ugly, and she sought to make him wise since he was never going to coast along on his looks.

She mixed up a magical potion in her cauldron which would give the gift of wisdom and poetic inspiration, and a long drawn-out process it was. The potion had to be boiled for a year and a day, and she outsourced the workload, having the fire tended by a blind man while a young boy named Gwion kept stirring it. Only the first three drops of the potion would confer wisdom: all the rest was deadly poison.

Three drops of the hot potion spilled onto Gwion’s hand as he stirred, and instinctively he put his thumb in his mouth to cool the burning. As soon as he did, he gained all the wisdom and knowledge that had been meant for Morfran. The first piece of knowledge he gained was that he’d better scram as Ceridwen was going to be peeved beyond belief. Correct! She was furious.

Gwion turned himself into a hare so he could run fast, but Ceridwen became a greyhound and ran even faster. He jumped into a river to swim away as a fish, but she transformed into an otter. When he turned into a bird to fly away, as quick as thought she was an eagle chasing after him.

Finally he turned himself into a grain of wheat. I know what you’re thinking: all the wisdom in the world, and the best he can come up with is wheat? I mean, come on, at least turn invisible or something. For some reason, Ceridwen turned herself into a chicken and ate the wheat. Not sure why she had to be a chicken to eat wheat; probably showing off.

When Ceridwen became pregnant, she knew it was that crafty little Gwion growing inside her. (I know wheat doesn’t go into your uterus when you eat it; you have to throw all rational thought out the window, because magic). Ceridwen planned to kill the baby as soon it was born, but he was so beautiful that she just couldn’t do it. Due to her wonderful nurturing instincts, she chucked him into the ocean instead, wrapped in a bag.

The bag washed up on shore, and a prince who was fishing caught him instead of a salmon, and took him home. He knew the kid was something special, because he recited poetry all the way back to the castle. He named him Taliesin, and Taliesin became the greatest of the Welsh bards, and later the chief bard at King Arthur’s court.

Ceridwen never bothered making another potion for Morfran, but if you’ve been worried about him all this time, don’t be. He became one of King Arthur’s warriors, had a beautiful white horse, and survived Arthur’s final battle because he was so hideous that people thought he must be a demon, and ran away in panic.

The oldest known version of the name is Cyrridven, translated as “crooked woman”, because cyrrid means “crooked, bent, hooked”, and ben or ven means “woman, female”. A popular theory is that the name is a corruption of cerdd, meaning “poetry, music”, and gwyn, meaning “white, blessed”, to be understood as “sacred poetry”. I find this etymology too convenient to modern sensibilities to be convincing.

In many ancient traditions, travelling in a crooked or winding path is considered a powerfully magical thing to do (think of labyrinths, for example), so “crooked woman” might be understood as meaning “woman of magic power” – spot on for an enchantress.

Ceridwen is a very magical figure, and her story has several ties to mythology. The thumb sucking leading to great, yet unlooked for, wisdom, reminds us of the Irish hero Finn McCool, who sucked hot oil off his thumb while cooking the Salmon of Knowledge. Is it just coincidence that the prince caught Taliesin while fishing instead of a salmon?

Another is the magical duel, where two sorcerers turn themselves into a succession of creatures until one takes a form the other cannot defeat. There is a faint echo of shamanism here, and it might remind you of the Irish legend of Fintan the Wise, who was able to turn himself into a salmon in order to escape the Great Flood. Another connection to salmon and wisdom!

Ceridwen really appealed to people’s imaginations, and she became seen as not just an enchantress but a goddess of poetry and wisdom. The Victorians identified her as an early pagan goddess, and in modern Paganism she is a goddess of rebirth, knowledge, and inspiration. This is a meaningful modern mythology for Ceridwen, although Welsh scholars tend to get a bit sniffy about it as a 19th century invention.

While the character was known in medieval literature, the name was not used in everyday life, and the form Ceridwen dates to the 16th century. Ceridwen has only been in use since the 19th century revival of old British names, and originated in Wales.

The name Ceridwen features is the novel How Green Was My Valley; Ceridwen is the narrator’s sister. The book is set in the Victorian era, and it is barely possible that a Welsh girl of that time would be called Ceridwen, as it was just coming into use. The author Ceridwen Dovey is named after the literary character.

Ceridwen is in sporadic use as a baby name in the UK, and in 2013 less than three babies were given the name Ceridwen. In the US last year, less than five babies were named Ceridwen.

Ceridwen is a genuine but rare name, and something of a contradiction, as it has medieval origins but is essentially modern – something which causes no end of trouble for the Renaissance Fair crowd, or at least the bodies which approve their names.

To me it seems like a “cool mum” name, which sounds wild and artistic on someone of around my generation, but is hard for me to imagine on a new baby. Perhaps it’s because it fits in so well with the name trends of the 1960s and ’70s, as it sounds rather like a cross between Kerry and Bronwen.

However, this is a name from Welsh legend which will appeal to those wanting a strong, unusual girl’s name which is magical and imaginative. The pronunciation is ker-ID-wen, but English-speakers may prefer KER-id-wen, which gives the obvious nickname Ceri.

POLL RESULTS
Ceridwen received a very good approval rating of 70%. 18% of people thought the pronunciation of Ceridwen was too much of an issue, but 17% saw it as wild and magical, 15% as powerful yet feminine, and a further 15% as a great Welsh heritage choice.

(Photo of Ceridwen Dovey from The Australian)

Famous Names: Bowie and Pluto

20 Thursday Aug 2015

Posted by A.O. in Famous Names

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

astronomical names, Disney names, dog names, english names, famous namesakes, Gaelic names, Greek names, historical records, Irish names, middle names, mythological names, name trends, names of weapons, nicknames, rare names, Scottish names, slave names, stage names, surname names, UK name popularity, unisex names, US name popularity

Names in the News
On July 14 this year NASA’s New Horizons space probe made its closest encounter with the dwarf planet Pluto. Australia was the first place on Earth to receive images of Pluto from New Horizons, at the CSIRO’s Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex at Tidbinbilla. The CDSCC has been tracking New Horizons since it was launched in 2006, and it will take more than a year to receive all the data.

Two days later, the David Bowie Is touring exhibition opened at Melbourne’s Australian Centre for the Moving Image, and broke all records for ticket sales before anyone stepped inside the doors. First staged at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, it has already been seen by more than 1 million people around the world. The show includes costumes, video, photographs, and items from Bowie’s own collection, including notes and sketches.

David Bowie has a special significance in Melbourne. His first Australian tour was in 1978, and the biggest concert of his career to that point was at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. People queued for three weeks to buy tickets, and the fact that it poured with rain did nothing to dampen the spirits of 40 000 fans. His experiences in Australia in the 1970s inspired the music video for Let’s Dance, filmed in Sydney and outback Carinda).

Besides having key Australian events at around the same time, there isn’t an obvious connection between Bowie and Pluto. Except that Bowie has had so many references to space in his music – Space Oddity, Ashes to Ashes, Ziggy Stardust, Moonage Daydream, The Stars (Are Out Tonight), Life on Mars?, Star Man – that it doesn’t seem too much of a stretch to cover these names together.

BOWIE
Scottish surname derived from the Gaelic nickname Buidhe, meaning “yellow”, to denote someone blond or fair haired. It has also been used to Anglicise the Irish surname Ó Buadhaigh, meaning “son of Buadhach”, with Buadhach meaning “victorious”, although more commonly that’s Anglicised to Boyce. In rare cases it may be a variant of the English surname Bye, from the Old English for “bend”, referring to someone who lived on a river bend.

The Bowie surname originates from Kintyre in western Scotland, and the Bowie family were early colonists to America, with John Bowie Snr one of the founders of Maryland in the early 18^th century. He was the grandfather of James “Jim” Bowie, who played a prominent role during the Texas Revolution, and died at the Battle of the Alamo in 1836.

The thick heavy blade known as a Bowie knife is named after Jim, who carried a hunting knife with him and had a reputation as a skilled knife fighter. His brother Rezin Bowie is supposed to have been the creator of the Bowie knife, although Bowie family history relates that it was Rezin’s blacksmith who created the knife.

David Bowie was born David Jones, and first performed as Davie Jones, which risked being confused with Davy Jones from The Monkees. He chose his stage name after seeing the movie The Alamo in 1963, with Richard Widmark as Jim Bowie; allegedly he wanted a name with a “cutting” feel to it, like Mick Jagger’s, and the Bowie knife gave it some edge. He deliberately chose the name of a famous American, as American music and culture had first inspired him.

Bowie has been used as a personal name since the 18^th century, and originated in Scotland. Mostly used as a middle name, it was first given as a family name, but in 19^th century America increasingly given to honour Jim Bowie: it was particularly found in the southern states. The name Bowie has been given to both sexes, but mostly to boys.

Jagger, Lennon, and Hendrix are reasonably common names, but even with the fame of David Bowie, the name Bowie is in rare use. It doesn’t chart in Australia, while in the UK there has been a smattering of Bowies on the charts since 2003; in 2013 there were 5 baby boys named Bowie. In the US last year, there were 59 baby boys named Bowie and 30 baby girls (numbers rose considerably for boys, but fell for girls).

It is slightly puzzling why Bowie isn’t used more. It sounds like familiar names like Beau, Bohdi, and Brodie, is a counterpoint to popular Archer, and as a knife it fits the trend for weaponry names like Blade.

One issue is that the pronunciation is slightly confused. In the US, Bowie tends to be said BOO-ee, the usual pronunciation of the surname and the Bowie knife. The British sometimes say the first syllable of David Bowie’s surname like the bough of a tree, whereas Bowie himself says it like bow and arrows.

PLUTO
In Greek mythology, Pluto is the god of the Underworld and the afterlife. His earlier name was Hades, but gradually this was used to mean the Underworld itself. Pluto is the Latinised form of the Greek Plouton, meaning “wealth, riches”, and the name is sometimes glossed as “giver of wealth”.

It makes sense that Pluto should be associated with wealth, because he has dominion over all the precious metals, gems, and resources under the earth, and all crops planted in soil. He was a god of abundance, and from early on was associated with agricultural fertility – which is why he was the natural husband for the agricultural goddess Persephone. Pluto and Persephone were revered as a divine couple with knowledge of the mysteries of birth and rebirth.

In the Christian era, there was often a horror of gods of death and the Underworld, who tended to be associated with Satan or demons. Pluto’s image, never a particularly cheerful one, became positively macabre, with Hades a place of torment. In Dante’s Inferno, Pluto rules the fourth circle of Hell, where those who have squandered their wealth are sent. Medieval English writers sometimes conflated Hades with Fairyland, giving Pluto a magical elf-king quality.

The dwarf planet Pluto was discovered in 1930 by a young astronomer named Clyde Tombaugh who had just started working at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona. It was named by an eleven-year-old Oxford schoolgirl named Venetia Burney. She made the suggestion to her grandfather Falconer Madan, retired from the University of Oxford’s Bodleian Library. He had the connections to ensure that Venetia’s idea got to the right people, they unanimously agreed, and Venetia was paid £5 (around $450 in today’s money). A big help was that the first two letters were PL – the initials of Percival Lowell, who had founded the observatory.

When Walt Disney studios created a pet dog for Mickey Mouse in 1930, he was named Pluto – apparently after the planet, although nobody is able to confirm that. So Pluto went from being a god name to a dog name!

Pluto is a gloomy god, a dwarf planet, a cartoon dog … but the name has also been rarely used for humans. The name is first found in colonial America in the 18th century, as a slave name. Pluto can be found in Australian historical records (Pluto Riches and Pluto Surprise are two interesting finds), and was also given to Aboriginal servants. Overall, Pluto has mostly been used in the United States. Use of the name, always low, fell after 1930 and never recovered, although it isn’t clear whether parents were put off by the astronomical body or the Disney character.

Pluto is probably too much of a space oddity to use as a first name, but would make a memorable middle.

Two rare names from the stars: which one will rate better?

POLL RESULTS
The name Bowie received an approval rating of 50%. 42% of people weren’t keen on it, although 17% loved it.

The name Pluto was much less popular, with an approval rating of 15%. 46% of people weren’t keen on it, and only 7% thought it was a good name.

(Picture of David Bowie in 1973 by Masayoshi Sukita; photo from Urban Walkabout)

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Waltzing More Than Matilda

~ Names with an Australian Bias of Democratic Temper

Tag Archives: mythological names

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Girls Names from International Destinations

Famous Name: David

Famous Name: Ceridwen

Famous Names: Bowie and Pluto