Tag Archives: name history

Underused Names for Girls

03 Sunday Feb 2013

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sabine women detailLast week we had names from Victoria which were used less than ten times in 2012. Those names are uncommon – but what if you wanted something even rarer? These are names which don’t appear even once in the Victorian data from last year, and have never charted in Australia. However, they are not strange or obscure, and all of them can be found in Australian historical records.

Angharad

Angharad is an Old Welsh name meaning “greatly loved”. It was reasonably common in medieval times, and there are several Angharads in Welsh history. In Welsh mythology, Angharad Golden-Hand is the lover of Peredur, one of King Arthur’s knights. Angharad Morgan is a main character in How Green Was My Valley, and in the film version was played by Maureen O’Hara. Actress Angharad Rees became well known in the 1970s for playing the role of Demelza in the TV series Poldark. Lots of famous Angharads, yet I could find only one woman named Angharad in Australian records. The pronunciation, ang-HAH-rad, may have caused some concern. This is a strong and unusual name with a lovely meaning. It would definitely stand out.

Beatrix

Beatrix is based on the name Viatrix, the feminine form of the Latin name Viator, meaning “voyager, traveller”. Early on, the spelling was altered to associate it with the Latin word beatus, meaning “blessed”, and it was common amongst early Christians. Some baby name books sandwich these two meanings together and interpret it as “blessed traveller”. Saint Beatrix was an early Roman martyr; according to legend, she was strangled by her servants. The name became less common in England after the Middle Ages, but was revived in the 19th century. One of the most famous people with this name is Beatrix Potter, the children’s writer and illustrator, who gave us such delightful characters as Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddleduck, Squirrel Nutkin and Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle. As well as these talents, she was also a scientific researcher, conservationist, farmer, and sheep breeder. Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands helps give this name a royal touch, and a famous literary character is Beatrix “Trixie” Belden, girl detective. To me, this charming name seems spunkier and more eccentric than her sister Beatrice.

Cressida

In Greek mythology, Chryseis was the daughter of a Trojan priest named Chryses, and she was captured by the Greek champion Agamemnon as part of the spoils of war; he refused to give her back even after being asked nicely. Chryseis’ dad prayed like blazes to the god Apollo, who obligingly sent a plague through the Greek soldiers until Chryseis was returned. A later legend says that she bore Agamemnon a son. Her name given in the Iliad simply means “daughter of Chryses”; appropriately for a priest of Apollo, Chryses’ name means “golden”, perhaps in reference to sunlight. Some writers say Chryseis’ real name was Astynome, meaning “possessor of the city”. When medieval authors retold the tale of the Trojan War, this story had a complete rewrite. Chryseis became Cressida (KRES-ih-duh), and one corner of a tragic love triangle; she is made the epitome of the false woman and the whore. Some authors were sympathetic to Cressida’s plight, and in Shakespeare’s version, Cressida is complex, highly intelligent and witty. A famous Australian with this name is the artist Cressida Campbell. I find this literary name quite bewitching.

Emmeline

Emmeline is the Old French form of the Germanic name Amelina, based on the word for “work”; it is therefore related to the name Amelia, and not to Emily. The name was introduced to Britain by the Normans, and many people prefer to give it a slightly French pronunciation as EM-uh-leen, while others seek to Anglicise the way it is said as EM-uh-line (like Caroline). My experience is that the British tend to say leen, Americans tend to say line, and Australians have a bob each way and can usually cope with either. There were several prominent suffragists named Emmeline, including Emmeline Pankhurst, Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence and Emmeline Wells. Australia mountaineer Emmeline Du Faur was the first woman to climb Mount Cook (in record time), and the first person to climb several peaks – always dressed in a skirt. Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence was a keen hiker and woodcrafter, and to me the name Emmeline sounds vigorous, healthy, and practical. Emmeline has a solid history of use in Australia, being commonly found in old records, and today its nickname Emmie means it fits in with popular names such as Emily, Emma and Emmerson.

Isadora

Isadora is a variant of the name Isidora, the feminine form of Isidore, from the Greek for “gift of Isis”; the Egyptian goddess Isis was worshipped widely in the ancient world, and she was also important to the Greeks and Romans. Saint Isidora was a 4th century Egyptian nun, considered to be a “holy fool”, and treated with contempt by the other nuns for her eccentric ways, such as wearing a dirty dishrag on her head instead of a veil, and eating only leftovers instead of proper meals. When a visiting saint came to the nunnery, he immediately picked out Isidora as the only person holier than himself; upset by the praise and attention, Isidora ran away into the desert to be a hermit, and nothing more is known of her. The most famous Isadora is the American dancer Isadora Duncan, who developed her own unique style of dance, based on the natural movements of the human body. Like the saint, she was considered eccentric and radical, and danced to the beat of her own drum. Isadora is a beautiful, glamorous and individualistic name!

Lavender

Lavender has been used as a personal name since the 17th century, and was given to both sexes. It may have originally been derived from the surname, which is Norman-French and based on the word lavandier, referring to a worker in the wool industry who washed the raw wool (this is an occupation that both men and women had). Even in the middle of the 20th century, you can still find boys named Lavender. By now, however, it is almost entirely thought of as a girl’s name, and considered to be from the flower. The flower name comes from the Old French lavendre, possibly from the Latin for “blue-coloured”, lividius, but also influenced by lavare, meaning “wash”, because lavender was used in washing clothes. Lavender is often used to scent soaps and beauty products, and has been used as a relaxation aid for thousands of years. The colour lavender is associated with sensuality and decadence, and at one time, was considered symbolic of homosexuality. Like Rose, this is a pretty old-fashioned flower name that is more complex that it first appears.

Sabine

Sabine is a French and German form of Sabina, the feminine form of the Latin name Sabinus, meaning “Sabine”. The Sabines were an Italian tribe who inhabited the region where the city of Rome stands today, and some of them fought against Rome for their independence. According to legend, the Romans abducted Sabine women to populate the city of Rome; the war between the Romans and Sabines ended when the women threw themselves and their children between the armies of their fathers and those of their husbands. The history behind the legend is that the conquered Sabines assimilated with the Romans, beginning a new line of inheritance. Many of the noble Roman families traced their ancestry to Sabine origins, and at least some of the deities and rituals of Rome came from the Sabines. The Sabines were said to have taken their name from the hero Sabus, who was worshipped as a deity. Although it is too long ago to be sure, one theory is that the tribal name Sabine meant “us, ourselves, our own people”. You can either say this name the French way, sa-BEEN, or the German way, za-BEE-nuh; most English-speakers use the French pronunciation. There is at least one famous man named Sabine – the writer Sabine Baring-Gould, whose name was after the surname (derived from the personal name). You can find both men and women named Sabine in Australian records. Sabine is smooth and sophisticated, but comes with a cute nickname – Bean.

Theodora

Theodora is the feminine form of the Greek name Theodoros, meaning “gift of God”. The name pre-dates Christianity, but its meaning appealed to early Christians, and there are a few saints with this name. One of them was Saint Theodora, who as punishment for her pious celibacy, was dragged into a brothel. Her first “customer” was a Christian man, who had came to save her; they were both martyred, but their virtue remained intact. This story is probably fictional, and may have been inspired by sacred prostitution, of which Christians obviously disapproved. An Eastern Orthodox Saint Theodora disguised herself as a man and joined a monastery. Her identity as a woman was only discovered after her death. The name was a very popular one for Byzantine empresses, and Theodora I is also regarded as a saint. A Roman Theodora was a senator, and supposedly the lover of one of the early popes. She was harshly condemned for daring to “exercise power like a man”. The hussy! The image you get from these historical Theodoras is of very strong, independent, determined women – which might explain why Disney has chosen this name for the Wicked Witch of the West in Oz: The Great and Powerful. Pop star Robbie William welcomed a daughter named Theodora Rose last year, called Teddy; he wanted a dignified full name for the cuddly nickname, and Theodora fit the bill perfectly.

Verity

Verity is an English word meaning “truth”, especially in regard to religious truth or doctrine. It has been used as a personal name since the 17th century, and would have been given as a virtue name by the Puritans. However, it was most likely also given in honour of the surname, for births of Veritys in Yorkshire are suggestive, given that the Verity family is a prominent one in that county. The surname is Anglo-Norman, and has the same meaning as the personal name. Originally, Verity was a unisex name, and in early records is given equally to boys and girls. The first Verity I can find born in the United States was a boy, and his family were Puritans in Massachusetts. You can find the name Verity given to both sexes in Australian records, but only as a middle name for boys, and it has never been very common here. Famous Australian women named Verity include the politicians Verity Barton and Verity Firth, the ABC presenter Verity James, and the actress Verity Hunt-Ballard, who played Mary Poppins in the Australian version of the musical. This is a crisp, clean name which sounds intelligent and upper-class to me.

Zia

Zia is a variant of the Arabic name Ziya, meaning “light, shine, splendour” – more specifically, it refers to light which shines by its own illumination, and is connected to the sun and sunlight. Traditionally, Zia is a male name, but Arabic baby name sites usually list it as female, and the name charts in France only for girls. There are quite a few people called Zia in Australian records, and they are not all Arabic men. There are women called Zia from different cultures, including Italian, where Zia may be short for a name such as Annunzia (zia means “aunt” in Italian, but this doesn’t seem to have been a hindrance to its use by Italians). Most women called Zia in the records seem to be of British descent, and I’m guessing either it was seen as a short form of other names, or parents just liked the sound of it. I can imagine parents today also liking the sound of it, because it is so similar to popular names such as Zara and Mia – indeed, it almost seems like a cross between these names. This is a zippy name which sounds a bit different, but won’t seem out of place in the playground.

POLL RESULT: People’s favourite names were Beatrix, Emmeline, and Isadora, and their least favourite were Lavender, Zia, and Angharad.

(Picture shows a detail from The Intervention of the Sabine Women (1799) by Jacques-Louis David)

Famous Name: Jackson

23 Wednesday Jan 2013

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Sydney_Harbour_Bridge_from_the_airOn Saturday January 26 it will be Australia Day, so we are looking forward to the long weekend. In Sydney, there will be many events in and around the harbour, with one of the most popular the Ferrython, where the Sydney ferries race against each other. Chartering a boat to spend Australia Day on the harbour, basking in sunshine under blue skies, must be one of the most perfect ways to spend Australia Day in Sydney.

It’s also very appropriate, because the early history of Sydney is centred on its harbour. The size of Port Jackson, in which Sydney Harbour is located, was one of the main things which convinced the British to set up base in this area. You may recall that Captain Arthur Phillip rated Port Jackson as “the finest harbour in the world”.

I was always taught that Port Jackson was the largest natural harbour in the world, but it turns out that this is a matter of disagreement. In fact, what with the difficulties in deciding what is classed as a harbour, and whether you count size by square kilometres, length of coastline, or water volume, it doesn’t seem possible to declare any natural harbour the largest in the world – although Port Jackson must be one of the world’s largest, at least.

Sydneysiders still firmly believe that Port Jackson is the finest natural harbour in the world, and many that it is the world’s most beautiful – and as beauty is very much in the eye of the beholder, this claim at least is difficult to dispute. I expect other cities feel the same way about their own harbours.

The first known European to come here was James Cook in 1770. Not being of a gushing nature, there is nothing in his ship’s log to indicate that he thought the harbour fine or beautiful, only recording that it “appeared to be a safe anchorage”.

He named it after Sir George Jackson, a fellow Yorkshireman, and Cook’s friend and patron. Jackson later got married and changed his surname to his wife’s, becoming Sir George Duckett. I can’t help but be thankful that this happened after the naming of Port Jackson, as Port Duckett doesn’t have quite the same ring to it – although like the island of Nantucket, it would no doubt be a boon to the authors of limericks.

Jackson is an English and Scottish surname meaning “son of Jack“, which must be one of the most straightforward name meanings. The surname Jackson can be found from the 14th century onwards, and was historically most common in the north of England.

Jackson was first used as a personal name in the early 17th century, and in the United States, may sometimes have been given in honour of the seventh president, Andrew “Stonewall” Jackson – before he was president, he was a national hero for defending New Orleans from the British. He had such a reputation for toughness  that his nickname was “Old Hickory”.

Although there are many examples of men named Jackson in Australian records, the name did not begin charting in Australia until the 1970s – around the time American teen idols, The Jackson 5, became a big hit. Jackson climbed steeply to make the Top 100 by the 1990s, and peaked in the early 2000s at #29. Since then it has gently declined in popularity, and was #40 in NSW for 2011.

Early results from 2012 name data in the ACT and Victoria suggest that Jackson is falling as the variant spelling Jaxon takes off. This spelling (also a legitimate surname), takes advantage of the fashionable X, while suggesting Jax as the nickname, rather than Jack.

While Jackson may not be quite as popular as it once was, this name makes a great one for a boy born on Australia Day, and is much more subtle than last year’s suggestion.

POLL RESULT: Jackson received an approval rating of 62%. More than half of people (56%) said the name Jackson was fine and handsome, although 22% believed it was too popular, and 17% saw it as boring. Nobody preferred the spelling Jaxon, or thought of Jackson as a patriotic name.

Famous Name: Rose

16 Wednesday Jan 2013

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Gift_white_rosesThis Friday will be The Day of the Roses, which sounds lovely, but has a tragic meaning. January 18 this year marks the 36th anniversary of the Granville train  disaster, when a crowded train was derailed in a suburb of western Sydney, and hit the supports of a railway bridge. The bridge collapsed onto the train carriages, crushing the passengers inside. 83 people were killed, and more than 200 injured; it was then Australia’s worst peace time disaster, and is still the worst rail accident in Australian history.

The Granville Memorial Trust was established to commemorate the victims and to campaign for improvements to rail safety. Since the disaster, there has been a substantial increase in money spent maintaining the railways, and standards have improved. Each year on the anniversary of the crash, the Trust organises a memorial service, in which a bell rings 83 times, and 83 roses are thrown onto the railway tracks – one for each of the victims.

Rose is not the simple flower name it at first appears, for it began life as the Germanic name Hrodohaidis or Hrodheid, meaning “bright kind, famous kind” (kind in the sense of type, sort). It was the Normans who introduced it to Britain in the forms Roes, Rohais, Roheis and Rohese. The name Rohese was a fairly common one amongst the Norman nobility in England after the Conquest.

The form Rose began to be used by the early 1200s – even this early it was already being associated with the flower, whose name is French, derived from the Latin rosa. It goes back to an ancient word meaning “sweetbriar” (a wild rose also known as the eglantine rose).

Roses are tens of millions of years old, and have been grown in gardens for thousands of years – perhaps first in China, although they were grown in Persia, Babylon and ancient Egypt as well. The flower was sacred to the goddess Isis, and later the Greeks and Romans identified it with Aphrodite or Venus, so that it became seen as a blossom of beauty and eternal love – which is one reason why you are more likely to receive roses on Valentine’s Day than daisies or sweetpeas.

In medieval Christianity, roses became associated with the Virgin Mary, were carefully cultivated by monks, and in both Christian and Islamic mysticism, the rose can be a symbol of divine love. The rose is the national flower of England and the floral emblem of the United States; the red rose is the symbol of socialism; the white rose of peaceful resistance. The Romans used it as a symbol of secrecy, and to alchemists it meant balance and unity.

This ancient flower speaks to our hearts on so many different levels, and the rose has a richness of beauty we cannot help but admire. Yet it is mysterious too, and its thorns urge us to keep our distance, even while its loveliness attracts. Roses are by no means vain beauties, because they can be used to make perfumes, skin care products and medicines; rose hips can be made into jams, syrups and teas (in fact I am drinking a cup of it as I write). Rose petals are also edible.

We often think of Rose as being a quintessentially English name, and a beautiful Englishwoman is even called an “English rose”. Yet the name is also French, and Rose is Top 100 in France, as well as in England/Wales and Scotland.

In Australia, Rose is a classic which has always charted. It was #55 in 1900, and gradually fell until it left the Top 100 in the 1930s. It reached its lowest point in the 1970s, at #287, and after that began a stately rise, with its sharpest increase in the late 2000s. By 2008 it was near the bottom of the Top 100, and each year has continued to steadily gain. In 2011 it was #66 in New South Wales, and in Victoria and the ACT it has proved to be one of the names with the most growth during 2012. Rose is also extremely popular as a middle name.

Rose is an overwhelmingly feminine name, yet isn’t frilly. It’s both sensual and sensible, possessing the ripeness of a mature woman rather than a frivolous girl. It’s a short name, yet doesn’t seem abrupt or harsh but rather, soft and velvety as one of its own petals. Despite being an English word, there are many international variants of Rose, and it is easily understood in other countries. It is a name from fairy tale, reminding us of Briar Rose, the sleeping beauty, and Rose-Red, the vivid sister of fair Snow-White – and yet it also has a practical and wholesome appeal.

Increasing numbers of parents are choosing the name Rose for their daughters. In The Little Prince, the prince, who is in love with the only rose on his planet, cries in dismay when he comes to Earth and sees dozens of rose bushes; he has given his heart to something special, and found it commonplace. But a wise fox teaches him that his rose is unique, because it is the only one that he loves. There may be a garden of Roses in the world, but only one Rose who blooms there will be the one in your heart.

POLL RESULT: Rose received an approval rating of 86%, making it one of the most highly esteemed names of the year. The name Rose was judged to be beautiful and feminine (54%) and pretty and wholesome (21%), although 7% thought it was better left in the middle position. Nobody thought that the name Rose was boring.

Waltzing with … Sullivan

13 Sunday Jan 2013

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thesullivansfamilynewWe are now about halfway through the summer holidays. Despite your best intentions that every day of the holidays will be productive, rewarding, and jam-packed with memorably fun activities, there always seems to come at least one day where you find yourselves slumped in front of the air conditioner watching non-ratings season re-runs on TV. Perhaps this is what has inspired me to cover a name from Australian television.

The Sullivans is one of Australia’s most successful soap operas. First aired in 1976, it centred on an ordinary middle-class Melbourne family, and the effects that World War II had on it. The war gave endless opportunities for dramatic plot-lines; various members of the Sullivan family, and their friends and neighbours, went off to battle, worked as nurses, opposed the war, developed psychological problems, married people from different countries, got divorced, committed suicide, were lost at sea, ran the black market, went to prison, were interned as enemy aliens, shot by the Nazis, killed by bombs during the London Blitz, and had to adapt to peace-time conditions.

The show’s producers went to great lengths to ensure historical and cultural accuracy. Not only did the sets use authentic period furniture, but even the weather in the show mirrored that which actually occurred on each day during the war. This attention to detail and high production standards, not to mention a new nostalgia for the recent past, made the show a success.

A consistent ratings winner which gained the acclaim of the critics, it won five Logie Awards in 1978 and was the first Australian drama series to be sold overseas; more than 45 countries broadcast The Sullivans, where it was most popular in the United Kingdom. It made a star of Lorraine Bayly, who played dignified matriarch Grace Sullivan, and employed dozens of Australasian actors in supporting roles. Like all good soaps, it provided a testing ground for young actors, and it was on the set of The Sullivans that later big names such as Mel Gibson, Kerry Armstrong, Kylie and Dannii Minogue, Sam Neill, Gary Sweet and Sigrid Thornton gained early experience.

Ratings for the show suffered after fan favourite Grace Sullivan was killed off, and as time went on, the war finished and most of the main characters were dead or had otherwise been written out. There was some talk of continuing the story into the 1950s and showing how Australia changed in the post-war era, but it was decided to let it come to an end in 1983.

Sullivan is an Anglicisation of the Irish surname O’Sullivan, which means “grandson of Súilleabhán”. The meaning of Súilleabhán is disputed, but one theory is that it means “dark eyed”. There are also Sullivans whose family name is derived from Súileacháin, meaning “quick eyed”.

The O’Sullivans originated in County Tipperary, and the original Súilleabhán was a direct descendant of one of the kings of Munster, so his dynasty is of royal blood. The O’Sullivans also claim descent from the first Celts to colonise Ireland, migrating there from northern Spain in 800 BC.

Although this story is mythological, it does have some truth to it, for DNA studies show that the Celts of Britain and Ireland (all Celts, not just the O’Sullivans!) are descended from a tribe of Iberian fisherfolk who migrated there about 6000 years ago, and formed what is considered to be the indigenous population of the British Isles. In fact, nearly everyone in Britain is descended from them, and any of us who have British and Irish ancestry are too.

Famous Australians Sullivans include Pat Sullivan, who helped create Felix the cat; Victoria Cross recipient Arthur Sullivan; Olympic swimmer Eamon Sullivan; and Paralympic athlete Tim Sullivan. Actor Sullivan Stapleton, who starred in Animal Kingdom, is a rare example of it as a first name.

Sullivan has never charted in Australia, and only a few with the name can be found in old records, although it is reasonably common as a middle name. In 2012, there were 16 baby boys given the name Sullivan in Victoria. In the US, it is #524 and rising briskly up the rankings; in England/Wales, it is #970, and also trending upward.

Last year country music singer Melinda Schneider welcomed a son named Sullivan James Gable, and this may help raise the name’s profile in Australia.

Sullivan is a name from Australian popular culture, and more specifically, it is one from Melbourne, where The Sullivans was set and filmed. It feels modern, yet at the same time rather nostalgic, looking back to the 1970s and ’80s – who in turn were looking back with nostalgia at the 1940s.

Irish-surnames-as-first names are a great favourite in Australia, as in other countries where a significant proportion of the population claim Irish heritage. For those wanting something more unexpected than old favourites like Ryan or Darcy, I think Sullivan fits the bill of being something that’s recognised as a “real name”, while still underused. Sully or Van could be used as nicknames.

Name Combinations for Sullivan

Sullivan James, Sullivan Kelly, Sullivan Lucas, Sullivan Maddox, Sullivan Patrick, Sullivan Thomas

Brothers for Sullivan

Beckett, Cooper, Finlay, Oscar, Ronan, Toby

Sisters for Sullivan

Aisling, Emerson, Isla, Kenzie, Maeve, Violet

Note: Middle names and sibling names partially based on real life examples

POLL RESULT: Sullivan received an approval rating of 96% – the highest-rated featured boys name of 2013, and the highest-rated overall. 40% of people thought it was okay, and nobody disliked it.

(Picture is a publicity shot from The Sullivans; photo from fan site)

Famous Names: Aneurin and Fortunato

09 Wednesday Jan 2013

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4448972-3x2-700x467New Year’s Eve is celebrated in Sydney with a huge firework display on the Harbour, the Harbour Bridge forming the centrepiece. Each year’s theme is displayed across the Bridge in words and pictures; for 2013 the theme was Embrace, asking us to embrace love, Sydney, possibilities, and the moment, illustrated by a butterfly and a pair of red lips.

Being one of the earliest places in the world to greet the New Year, the Sydney fireworks are amongst the first celebrations that people see, so they really do try to put on a show. Sydneysiders firmly believe their NYE firework display is the best in the world, although this year Abu Dhabi insisted theirs was clearly superior. I think London was my favourite, although Sydney was definitely the best city with a harbour fireworks display (sorry Hong Kong!).

Such an enormous spectacle necessitates a team of people working on it, but someone has to have their name at the top, and in this case it was Aneurin Coffey, the producer, Fortunato Foti, the director, and Kylie Minogue, the creative ambassador. As we have already covered Kylie in an earlier blog entry, when Ms Minogue was ambassador for the Sydney Mardi Gras, we are going to look at the names of Messrs Coffey and Foti instead.

Aneurin Coffey, originally from Perth, has been in event management and production co-ordination for many years, and been involved with the Sydney fireworks since the late 1990s. Fortunato Foti comes from a long line of pyrotechnicians; the Foti family have been creating firework displays since the 18th century in Italy. Fortunato’s grandfather Celestino migrated to Sydney in the 1950s, after being interned here during the war.

As you can imagine, in the lead-up to the Big Bang, these two gentlemen were often interviewed on the news and in newspapers, which is how I came to hear their intriguing names.

Aneurin is a variant of the name Aneirin, which has an important role in Welsh literature. Aneirin was a British bard in the Dark Ages, believed to have been a poet at a court which today is Edinburgh, and possibly the son of a queen of West Yorkshire. His best known work, Y Gododdin, is a series of elegies for warriors who fell in battle; there is a chance that it contains the earliest reference to King Arthur, although it isn’t certain. Revered in his own era, and rediscovered in Tudor times, he is still highly-regarded today.

The meaning of Aneirin is not certain, and it may be the British form of the Latin name Honorius, meaning “honourable, noble”. The name would have been familiar to Britons as that of the Emperor Honorius, under whose rule Rome was sacked in 410. There is a famous story that in this same year, Britain asked for Roman help against barbarian incursions, and Honorius, who had problems of his own, replied by telling them that Britain must guard itself. It is from this moment that the end of Roman control in Britain is dated.

From the 18th century, Aneirin’s name began to be spelled Aneurin, presumably to make it look as if it was derived from the Welsh for “all gold”. The name is usually pronounced a-NY-rihn, and the Welsh politician Aneurin Bevan, founder of the National Health Service, used Nye as his nickname.

The name has been mostly used in Wales, and by those with Welsh heritage. A contemporary namesake is attractive young Welsh actor Aneurin Barnard, who has won an award for his stage work, but also appears in films, and made guest appearances on TV shows such as Shameless.

Fortunato is the Italian form of the Latin name Fortunatus, meaning “fortunate, blessed”. There are several saints called Fortunatus, including Fortunatus the Apostle, listed as one of the Seventy Disciples of Christ, and mentioned by Saint Paul. Fortunatus also appears in literature as the hero of a German tale from the 16th century, who meets the goddess of Fortune and is given endless riches. Despite his charmed life, his heirs are unable to share his wealth, for they do not have the wisdom and honour to manage it.

Fortunato is not uncommon as an Italian surname, and there are quite a few streets and businesses in Australia bearing this name. A young namesake is Fortunato Caruso, who plays Australian rules football for West Adelaide.

The beginning of a new year, whatever it may bring, is always filled with hope for the future. Here are two rare names associated with luck, honour, gold and riches – good omens for the year ahead.

All the best for 2013!

POLL RESULTS: Aneurin received an approval rating of 23%, while Fortunato received a more favourable approval rating of 37%. More than 45% of people said they hated both names. One nice person said they loved both.

(Picture shows the fireworks on Sydney Harbour, January 1 2013; photo from ABC News)

Australian Beaches That Could be Used as Boys Names

06 Sunday Jan 2013

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SetWidth960-Kangaroo-on-the-beach-Lucky-Bay-Esperance-Western-AustraliaCheviot

Cheviot Beach is on Melbourne’s Mornington Peninsula, and will forever be remembered in Australian history as the place where our seventeenth Prime Minister, Harold Holt, disappeared without trace on December 17 1967, presumed drowned. To the best of my knowledge, we are the only country to have had a national leader disappear in modern times. The beach is named after the SS Cheviot, which was wrecked here in 1887, 35 people losing their lives. Not surprisingly, the public is not permitted access to Cheviot Beach, because the seas are far too dangerous – Harold Holt was only allowed to swim here because he was the Prime Minister, and as we see, it wasn’t a good idea. The SS Cheviot was named after the Cheviot Hills on the border between England and Scotland. They feature in The Ballad of Chevy Chase, which tells of a medieval battle between the English and the Scottish here. The name Cheviot is almost certainly Celtic, but the meaning is not known. This seems like an interesting way to get the nickname Chevy – which I’ve seen several times on baby boys.

Elliott

Elliott Heads is a small town in Queensland, set amongst farmland and sugarcane fields. The beach at Elliott Heads is family friendly, popular for swimming, fishing, sailboarding and jet skiing. The town is at the mouth of the Elliott River, with the river supposedly named after Gilbert Eliott, who was the first Speaker of the Queensland Parliament. If so, I’m not sure why it is spelled differently. Eliott came from a long line of Scottish barons and baronets, and being calm, courteous and dignified, avoided nearly all political controversy, and was extremely popular. The surname Elliott can be derived from a number of different personal names. One is Ellis, a medieval English form of the name Elijah. It can be from the Old English Athelgeat, a male name meaning “noble Geat” (the Geats were a tribe who inhabited what is now Sweden). Another source is Old English Athelgyth, a female name meaning “noble battle”. It can be from Old English Aelfwald, meaning “elf ruler”. Finally, in Scotland it can be from the Gaelic surname Elloch, meaning “dweller by the mound”. Elliott has never charted in Australia, with parents preferring the spelling Elliot for their sons, currently #181.

Henley

Henley Beach is a pleasant suburb of Adelaide, and its white sandy beach has gentle water for swimming and a jetty for fishing. The public square next to the beach is lined with shops, hotels and restaurants. A well-established older suburb, it was first advertised in 1860 as being “free of noxious smells”, but as you can see, it’s got a lot more going for it than that. Henley was named after Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire, a famous centre for rowing, with the Henley Royal Regatta held each summer. Sir Ninian Stephen, former Governor-General of Australia, was born in Henley, and came to Australia during his childhood. The name Henley means “high wood” in Old English, because the town is in the Chiltern Hills. Henley was in use as a boy’s name in the 19th century, and it is found in some rather aristocratic-sounding name combinations in Australian records (and the less inspired Henry Henley). It was a classy name choice 150 years ago – could it be again?

Kingston

Kingston is a commuter town just south of Hobart in Tasmania; Kingston Beach is one of its suburbs. The area was settled in the 19th century by a family who were evacuated from Norfolk Island. Norfolk Island was at first a convict settlement like Sydney, but it ran into such difficulties that settlers were eventually forced to relocate to Tasmania. Being sent from a balmy subtropical island to freezing Tasmania must have come as a shock, but the pioneers obviously flourished. After World War II, many Dutch immigrants moved to Kingston, and it is a sister city to Grootegast in The Netherlands. Kingston Beach is the first swimming beach south of Hobart. Kingston was nostalgically named after the capital of Norfolk Island, which gained its appellation from its founder, Lieutenant Philip King. As we know, it’s not possible to name your child King in Australia, but you can call a baby Kingston, and it’s reasonably well-used in the records – one girl from Tasmania was even named Revie Josephine Kingston Beach. Quite common as a middle name for girls, only boys seem to have received it as a first name, including Kingston Rainbow, who managed to get two beachy names from my lists.

Lennox

Lennox Head is a village in the Northern Rivers district of New South Wales near the town of Ballina. Lennox Head Beach is more popularly known as Seven Mile Beach, although technically it’s only 5.3 miles long. The head, often called Lennox Point, provides panoramic views and a world-class point break, which makes this a famous surfing destination. Young surfers can look forward to the Rusty Gromfest in Lennox Head, known as the original and best youth surfing event in the country, and boasting alumni such as Stephanie Gilmore and Joel Parkinson. People also use Lennox Point for hang-gliding, and dolphin and whale watching. Lennox Head was named after Charles Gordon-Lennox, Duke of Lennox and Richmond, a soldier and politician. The dukedom is named for the district of Lennox in Scotland, near Glasgow; its name comes from the Old Gaelic for “field of elm trees”. Lennox is a very cool name for boys at the moment, which not only has the fashionable X, but also gives the trendy nickname Lenny; it was chosen as a baby name by racing driver Jason Bright. Handsome and aristocratic, it’s a great choice, and one I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of in the future.

Lorne

Lorne is a seaside town on the stunning Great Ocean Road in Victoria. Settled in the mid 19th century, it was visited by Rudyard Kipling in 1891, who mentions it in his poem The Flowers. Kipling was obviously ahead of the trends, because the town only opened up to tourists in the 1930s. Lorne is one of Victoria’s most popular tourist destinations, and its beach one of the main attractions, offering good swimming, surfing and fishing. In January, the town holds the Pier to Pub swim, which, with a 1.2 km course, attracts thousands of entrants, and is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest organised ocean swim in the world (Kieren Perkins won in 1992). Lorne is named in honour of the Marquess of Lorne, to commemorate his marriage to Princess Louise, daughter of Queen Victoria. The Marquess became a very popular Governor-General of Canada; the Candian press feared he and his princess bride would be horribly snooty, but the young couple turned out to be sociable, relaxed, and flatteringly enchanted by Canada’s natural beauty. The district of Lorne in Scotland may have gained its name from Loarn mac Eirc, a Dark Ages ruler of a kingdom in Argyllshire. The Celtic name Loarn is said to mean “fox”, a clan totem animal. Lorne is a name comparatively well-used in Canada, which has close ties to the Marquess, and probably best known for many years as the screen name of Canadian actor, Lorne Greene. Others may remember it as Andy Hallett’s character’s name on the TV series, Angel – the joke is that his demonic face is green.

Lucky

Lucky Bay is in Cape Le Grand National Park, not far from Esperance on the Southern Ocean coast of Western Australia. Australia has more than its fair share of beautiful beaches, but Lucky Bay must be one of the most magnificent – over five kilometres long, it is a perfect crescent of white sand lapped by clear, sparkling turquoise water. Surrounded by bushland inhabited by pygmy possums and bandicoots, you may have to share the beach with kangaroos, who enjoy lazing on the sands. Lucky Bay received its name from the navigator Matthew Flinders, who discovered it in 1802. He had been sailing in the hazardous Archipelago of the Recherche, the place where Australia’s only pirate operated from, in the 1830s. Although Flinders didn’t have to negotiate wth pirates, he had trouble enough to deal with. Sailing through the labyrinth of islets and rocks, and with night falling, Flinders took the risky step of sailing straight to the coast, in the hope that he could find safe anchorage on a beach. All was well, and he dubbed his welcome haven Lucky Bay. Most explorers in Australia haven’t been as fortunate, and therefore it is littered with forbidding place names such as Mount Disappointment, Misery Creek, Mount Hopeless, Miserable Island, Starvation Lake, Point Torment, Dismal Swamp, and Mount Destruction. Lucky Bay is unusually upbeat for an Australian place name chosen by an explorer. Lucky is a rare unisex name, and a very happy one – well suited to a baby whose birth circumstances seem particularly auspicious.

Preston

Preston Beach is a hamlet in the south of Western Australia, between Mandurah and Bunbury. It was developed in the late 1950s as a private estate, and its beach is known locally for being a good fishing spot. It was named after nearby Lake Preston, in Yalgorup National Park; the lake is named after Lieutenant William Preston, who discovered it in 1829. The surname Preston is from a very common place name in England, and means “priest town”. It may have either denoted a village which had its own priest, or one which belonged to the Church. Preston is well-known in Ireland as an aristocratic surname, and it is fairly common in Australian records from the 19th and early 20th centuries. It strikes me as a rather sleek, understated surname name for boys, in a similar mould to Parker and Spencer.

Tallow

Tallow Beach is near Byron Bay in northern New South Wales. Once a hard-working and rather environment-destroying centre for logging, sand-mining, dairying, slaughtering, fishing and whaling, in the 1960s Byron began attracting surfers to its beaches. This began its new life as a tourist destination, and in the early 1970s the counter-culture Aquarius Festival was held in nearby Nimbin. From then on, it was known as a hippy, alternative town. Today in Byron, barely a weekend goes by when they are not holding a yoga or meditation retreat, pagan gathering, music festival, film festival, writers festival, surf festival, triathlon, underwater photo festival or art fair. Tallow Beach, in Bouddi National Park is a long stretch of wild, windswept shoreline with huge waves. It got its name when the Volunteer was wrecked there in 1864, and 120 casks of tallow were washed ashore. Tallow is rendered meat fat, once used to make candles, and still used today for biodiesel, soap and skincare products. I have occasionally seen Tallow used as a unisex name – it has the fashionable -oh sound ending with homespun appeal, and is  similar to names such as Talon, Tallis, Talia and Tully. Because Tallow was used for candles, it seems like another name with an association of “light”.

Trigg

Trigg is a northern suburb of Perth in Western Australia, and Trigg Beach one of the city’s most popular beaches for surfing and bodyboarding. The suburb is named after Henry Trigg, who was the Superintendent of Public Works in the 1830-1850s. A wealthy builder, Henry was able to emigrate to Australia and take up a large land grant. His son, also named Henry, was his partner in the building trade, and an architect who designed many of the buildings in Perth city. The surname Trigg is from the Old Norse surname Triggr, meaning “trustworthy, faithful, true”, and the personal name Trig has been used in England since medieval times. The American politician Sarah Palin has a son named Trig, which brought this very old name to new public attention. It has an attractive meaning, and is part of Western Australian history. I think it might appeal to people who like short, unusual names for boys, such as Kip, Dex or Zed.

(Picture shows kangaroo relaxing on the beach at Lucky Bay)

Australian Beaches That Could be Used as Girls Names

30 Sunday Dec 2012

Posted by in Name Themes and Lists

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morningtideYou may have noticed that all the names that have been featured on the blog since the weather got warmer have had some connection with water or the sea. With summer holidays upon us, it is only fitting that the last Name List for the year is one of Australian beach names.

Airlie

The town of Airlie Beach in the Whitsunday region of north Queensland is a popular tourist destination and one of the departure points for the Great Barrier Reef. Because James Cook thought he arrived here on Whitsunday, every year there is a Blessing of the Fleet on Whitsunday (Pentecost) – although Cook almost certainly got the day wrong and it was really Whitmonday. The town’s beach is quite small, and infested by sea wasps, the most lethal jellyfish in the world. For the convenience of those wishing to avoid a painful death, a swimming lagoon has been built on the foreshore. The town is named after Airlie in Scotland, the seat of the Earl of Airlie. Airlie Castle is referenced in the ballad, The Bonnie House o’ Airlie, and mentioned in Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel, Kidnapped. The meaning is not known, although it’s possibly from the Gaelic for “edge of a ridge”. Airlie is a name reasonably well-known in Australia, although rare elsewhere; there’s ABC presenter Airlie Ward, hockey player Airlie Ogilvie, policy analyst Dr Airlie Worrall, and actress Airlie Dodds. This is a modern name with ties to Scottish history, and would be a great choice if Airlie Beach is meaningful to you.

Bondi

Bondi Beach is extremely popular with locals and tourists alike, one of Sydney’s iconic destinations, and heritage listed. In the fashionable eastern suburbs, it’s a place to see and be seen, lined with hotels, cafes and restaurants from where you can view the beach and beachgoers. Bondi has always had a reputation for showing a lot of flesh, and in stricter times the American actress Jean Parker was booted off it for wearing a bikini. These days topless bathing is common on Bondi. If almost-naked humans aren’t your thing, there is always the chance of seeing dolphins, fairy penguins, and in season, whales. Bondi Beach has many cultural events, including the annual City to Surf charity run, and it stars in TV shows such as Bondi Rescue and Bondi Vet. The name Bondi (said BON-dye) is said to be from boondi, a local Aboriginal word meaning “sound of water breaking over rocks”. The rare use of this name in records may be from the Italian surname Bondi (said bon-DEE), meaning “good day”. I saw a baby girl named Bondi in this year’s Bonds Baby Search. This is an unusual choice, but rather patriotic, and seems ideal for beach-loving Sydneysiders.

Etty

Etty Bay is a picturesque little bay in far north Queensland; the nearest town is Innisfail. Enclosed by rainforest filled with wildlife, it attracts bushwalkers, birdwatchers and picnickers, and is known as one of the best places to see endangered cassowary birds in the wild – cassowaries are large flightless birds around six feet tall. Etty Beach is considered safe for swimming, as long as you avoid saltwater crocodiles and deadly jellyfish. Etty is a pet form of names such as Esther, Ethel, Henrietta and Harriet, and was most common in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. With Etta tipped as the next retro-chic name, and Arrietty from The Borrowers receiving notice, Etty seems not only cute and usable, but positively stylish. It fits in with other vintage nicknames such as Elsie, Hattie and Millie.

Miami

Miami is a suburb of the Gold Coast which was first developed in the 1920s to entice tourists, and is still a popular place for people to visit. Its clean sandy surf beach make it a favourite destination for family holidays. It is named after Miami in Florida, as being somewhere else that’s hot, humid and beachy – during the 1920s, Miami enjoyed such prosperity and growth that it was dubbed “The Magic City”. This success the Queensland developers no doubt hoped to emulate. The city of Miami was named after the Miami River, and this in turn was named for the Native American people called the Maiyami. They took their name from the lake they lived by (later known as Lake Okeechobee); the name simply means “big water”. Miami is a name I see sometimes on little girls, and its not only an American place name, but an Australian one as well. It fits in with popular names such as Mia, Maya and Amy.

Pippi

The town of Yamba in northern New South Wales lies at the mouth of the Clarence River, and boasts eleven beaches, including Pippi. It’s primarily known for surfing, and the Pippi Beach Classic is a surfing event held here each January. At one end of the beach is the enticingly-named Lovers Point, and from here is an easy walk up to a rock shelf which gives magnificent views of the sea. Dolphins are plentiful, and whales can be seen during winter and early spring. Pippi Beach is named after the pippis or pipis which can be found here – small edible clams which are often used for fish bait. You may recall that John Sutton, co-captain of the South Sydney Rabbitohs team in the NRL, welcomed a daughter named Pippi last year. As John is a keen surfer, I wondered if Pippi Sutton may have been named after this popular surf beach. You probably also know the name from the Pippi Longstocking books by Astrid Lindgren – the character’s name was invented by Mrs Lindgren’s nine-year-old daughter, Karin. You can see Pippi as short for Phillipa, and if Pippa or Piper delight you, yet seem too common, then sprightly Pippi may fit the bill.

Rainbow

Rainbow Beach is a small town in southern Queensland which was once a centre for sand-mining, but is now a popular tourist destination with an attractive beach and many bushwalking tracks. The town get its name from the brilliant coloured sand dunes which surround it. According to a local Aboriginal legend, the dunes received their colours when the spirit of the rainbow plunged into the cliffs after coming off second-best in battle. More prosaically, the colours stem from the sand’s rich mineral content. The evanescent beauty of rainbows have made them part of mythology for many thousands of years. Both Greek and Norse myth saw the rainbow as a path between heaven and earth; in Irish folklore there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow; and in the familiar story of Noah and the Ark from the Old Testament, the rainbow is a sign of God’s promise to never destroy the earth again. In Australian Aboriginal mythology, the rainbow serpent is of great significance and power, creating and marking the earth’s territories, and controlling its water resources. The subject of artists, singers and poets, the stuff of hopes and dreams, the rainbow has long been used as a symbol of social change. The striking name Rainbow is not that rare in old records, and used for both sexes, but is most common as a middle name.

Trinity

Trinity Beach is a suburb of Cairns in far north Queensland; the city lies on Trinity Bay, which is where the suburb gets its name. Captain James Cook named it on his 1770 voyage, as he arrived there on Trinity Sunday, which is the first Sunday after Pentecost (hopefully he had his dates sorted out by this stage). It is a festival to celebrate the Holy Trinity of the three Persons of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Although the Holy Trinity is a Christian concept, the idea of a triple deity is found in several religions. The name Trinity was used from the 17th century, and was given to both sexes, in honour of the Holy Trinity. In recent years, it has gained a sci-fi image, for there has not only been a cult science-fiction film called Trinity, but Trinity is the love interest in The Matrix movie series, and Trinity Wells a newsreader in Doctor Who, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures. More ominously, the Trinity Test was the code name for the first detonation of a nuclear bomb in 1945, heralding the start of the Atomic Age.

Vera

Vera View Beach is just north of famous Cottlesloe Beach, in Perth, Western Australia. It isn’t one you will see promoted as a major tourist destination; not the most stunning beach in the world, it nonetheless makes a pleasant walk from the main beach, and is near the main cafe strip. It is also a good place to go snorkelling, as there a small reef nearby teeming with sea life. The beach’s name comes from the fact that it is near Vera View Parade in Cottlesloe. Vera is a Russian name which means “faith”; we tend to be struck by its similarity to the Latin for “truth”, while Albanians notice that it sounds like their word for “spring”. Vera was #15 in the 1900s, and by the 1940s was out of the Top 100. It ceased to chart in the 1980s, but has very recently made a comeback, and was #626 in 2011. Its image was severely dented by the sour-faced prison guard, Vera “Vinegar Tits” Bennett, in the 1970s-80s TV series, Prisoner (no wonder it disappeared from the charts then). However, with simple old names firmly back in fashion, and the V sound becoming increasingly popular, retro Vera could do very well.

Vivonne

Vivonne Bay is on Kangaroo Island in South Australia; the island is off the coast of Cape Jervis. The pristine beach at Vivonne Bay is several kilometres long, and popular for surfing and fishing. There is a tiny town of Vivonne beside the bay. Vivonne Bay was named by the French explorer Nicolas Baudin, who came here in 1803. He was the first to map the western and southern coasts of Australia, and his expedition was a great success, discovering more than 2500 new species and meeting the Indigenous people of Australia. Apparently his expedition harboured a spy – one of his men prepared a report for Napoleon on how to invade and capture the British colony in Sydney Cove, but recommended not to. Baudin died of TB in Mauritius on the way home. He named Vivonne Bay after the French town of Vivonne, near Poitiers (or the aristocratic surname which comes from the town – the town’s name comes from the nearby river Vonne). Readers of Marcel Proust will remember he used the name Vivonne for the river in Swann’s Way. I think this name is pretty, and seems like a cross between Vivienne and Yvonne. It’s different, but not too different.

Wanda

Wanda Beach lies on Bate Bay in the suburb of Cronulla; this is in Sutherland shire, in the southern districts of Sydney. Wanda has a dark past, because there were two murders here in 1965. Two teenage girls, Marianne Schmidt and Christine Sharrock, best friends and neighbours, disappeared at Wanda Beach while on a picnic, and their bodies, partially covered in sand, were found the next day. The murder is still unsolved. Wanda Beach gets its name from an Aboriginal word, wanda, said to mean “beach” or “sand dunes”. Wanda is also a Polish name; there is a medieval Polish legend about a Princess Wanda, and the name was popularised in the English-speaking world by English author Ouida’s 1883 novel, Wanda. The name may come from the West Slavic people known as the Wends; their name possibly means “tribe, kinship, alliance”, ultimately from an ancient word for “love, desire”, and related to the name Venus.

(Photo shows the morning tide coming in at Etty Bay)

Famous Names: Neptune and Taylor

12 Wednesday Dec 2012

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seals on neptuneAt the end of November, the Premier of South Australia announced that the Neptune Islands Group Marine Park would be renamed the Neptune Islands Group (Ron and Valerie Taylor) Marine Park. This is no mere change of name, for a network of 19 marine parks has taken effect in order to protect the seas from over-fishing. The premier noted that the southern oceans had more diversity than the Great Barrier Reef, and contained many plants and animals that cannot be found anywhere else.

The marine park has been named in honour of Ron and Valerie Taylor; divers, film-makers, shark experts, and conservationists who were ardent proponents of preserving marine habitats. Their skills in underwater filming were used on such films as Jaws and The Blue Lagoon, but more importantly, they wrote books and made documentaries to highlight the beauty and fragility of marine ecology. They won many awards for both photography and conservation. Ron passed away this year, and Valerie continues to be an advocate for marine protection.

The Neptune Islands, near Port Lincoln, were named by the navigator and cartographer Matthew Flinders in 1802. Rugged and remote, they seemed to him inaccessible, as if they would would always belong to King Neptune.

Neptune is the English form of Neptunus, the Roman god of fresh water springs, lakes, rivers, and the sea; he is the Roman equivalent of the Greek god Poisedon. He was worshipped in a festival that fell at the height of summer, when rainfall was at its lowest, and water most needed and valuable. As you know, his name has been given to the eighth planet from the Sun.

The meaning and origin of his name is obscure, with etymologists in disagreement over which language/s Neptune might be derived from. The general view is that it means something like “moistness”, “damp, wet”, “clouds, fog”, or “to water, irrigate”.

Another theory is that it is from the Italian town of Nepi, north of Rome, which was anciently known as Nepet or Nepete. This town is famous for its mineral springs, and traditionally connected to the god Neptune, who would presumably have approved of its watery wonders.

The town’s name is Etruscan, from the Etruscan name for Neptune, which was Nethuns. This may be related to the Irish god Nechtan, who had a sacred well, and thus another liquid connection. In fact there are several Indo-European deities with similar names and aqueous roles, and it is speculated that their names may go back to an ancient word meaning “nephew, grandson”.

One of the ships of the Second Fleet was called Neptune, and unfortunately it had the worst reputation of all for its appalling mistreatment of convicts.

Neptune sounds as if it should be ultra rare in Australian name records, but there are quite a few from the 19th century – at least quite a few more than I expected to find. It was mostly used in the middle, such as Cecil Neptune, and Samuel Caesar Neptune, but you can also find men named Neptune Persse and Neptune Frederick. Two of them rejoiced in the full names of Neptune Love and Neptune Blood; I believe the name Neptune is traditional in the Blood family.

Neptune would be very unusual as a baby name today, and I can’t quite imagine what you would use as a nickname – Neppy sounds too much like “nappy” to me. At the very least, please not Tuna.

A complete change of pace brings us to the name Taylor, a very common English surname referring to someone who made clothes as their occupation; the word tailor is ultimately from the Latin talea, meaning “a cutting”. In the Middle Ages, tailoring was a high-status craft, as only the wealthy could afford to have their clothing professionally made, and tailors could command good fees. Both men and women were employed as tailors.

There are many folk tales and fairy stories about tailors, and nearly always the tailor is depicted as being extremely clever, and confidently able to outwit others. Tailors having to be so precise and painstaking in their work, and no doubt with plenty of diplomatic skill to handle their rich clients, they must have gained a reputation for being as sharp as pins and as smooth-talking as silk.

The earliest Taylor-as-a-first-name I can find in the records is from the 16th century, and it was on a female. This may be an error in transcription, as subsequent early Taylors seem to be male (with plenty of girls who had Taylor as a middle name). In the United States, Taylor has always charted as a boy’s name, and only charts for girls from the late 1970s onwards, but is currently Top 100 for girls, and in the 300s for boys. In the UK, it only charts for boys, where it is barely on the Top 100 and falling.

In Australia, Taylor has charted for both boys and girls since the 1980s, when it was #383 for boys and #785 for girls. It peaked for both sexes in the 1990s, when it was #38 for girls and #130 for boys. At the moment, Taylor is only just outside the Top 100 for girls at #108, is #251 for boys, and falling for both sexes.

So that’s a quick survey of Taylor popularity around the world: Top 100 for girls in the US, Top 100 for boys in the UK, and not on the Top 100 at all in Australia.

Here are two very different names which evoke the sea and honour its protectors, as well as having a strong connection to the history of South Australia.

(Picture shows seals on Neptune Island; photo from Flickr)

Reader Name Story: Kirri, the Girl in the Whirlwind

11 Tuesday Dec 2012

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A495955_3__TN600A blog reader named Tina has written in to share a story she remembers, an Aboriginal legend from the Western Desert region of central Australia.

(For the benefit of overseas readers, I should explain that the whirlwind or mini-tornado that is elsewhere called a dust devil, is in Australia a willy-willy, a word thought to come from the Yinjibarndi language of north Western Australia. Sometimes it’s called a whirly-whirly, in imitation of the Aboriginal word, influenced by the English word whirl.)

The legend goes that there was once a stunning beauty named Kirri, who fell in love with a young warrior, and he with her. However, she had already been promised to one of the Elders of her people, and the two young lovers ran away together.

The Elder chased after them, and did battle with the young warrior while Kirri kept running as fast as she could. The Elder killed the young warrior, and then chased after Kirri, determined to kill her as well, in punishment for the shame she had brought upon him.

Because Kirri was young and fleet of foot, she was able to stay ahead of him, but she grew more and more tired, and knew that it was only a matter of time before he caught her. She asked the Ancestors for help, beseeching them not to let her her die at the hands of the Elder.

The Ancestors took pity on pretty Kirri, and turned her into a willy-willy, so that she could keep running from the Elder without ever being caught – for now she was just a swirl of dust which whirled across the desert at lightning speed.

The Elder was angered by this interference, and begged the Ancestors to reconsider: he had been shamed, and had the right to justice. The Ancestors decided that although they had given Kirri her life and freedom, and this couldn’t be reversed, the Elder also had the right to continue the chase.

They therefore turned the Elder into a willy-willy too, but because they had already promised to spare Kirri’s life, the Elder could never quite catch up to her and kill her. The two of them were thus cursed to run for evermore, always in pursuit or being hunted down, yet never able to capture or be caught.

So when you see a twin willy-willy, where two whirlwinds seem to twirl together, you know it is the spirits of Kirri and the Elder, forever running until the end of time.

Tina thinks that the name Kirri means “fast” or “very fast”, but she has been unable to find the original story to confirm this.

If you like the names Ceri, Kairi, Kirra, Kira, Keira or Kiara, then you may like Kirri too, and it’s possible to see it as one of the sources for the name Kirrily.

Thank you Tina for sharing this story, and providing more information on the name Kirri.

Waltzing With … Meira

09 Sunday Dec 2012

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menorah

This post was first published on December 9 2012 and revised and re-posted on June 29 2016.

Today is the first day of the eight-day Jewish holiday of Hanukkah (with the day beginning at sunset yesterday, according to the Jewish calendar). It celebrates the re-dedication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in the 2nd century BC, and Hanukkah literally means “dedication” or “establishing”.

According to tradition, there was only a single container of ritual olive oil to use, enough for one day, yet miraculously the oil lasted for eight days – in the meantime they got some more oil ready. Because of this, Hanukkah traditions are to light candles each day in a menorah, a candelabra which which holds eight candles for each day of the festival (and an extra one to provide available light). It is also traditional to eat foods cooked in oil, such as doughnuts, and potato pancakes, called latkes.

The first Jews to arrive in Australia were convicts with at least 15 on the First Fleet, and by the early 19th century, immigration from Britain and Germany meant that organised communities could exist in Sydney and Melbourne. The first synagogue was built in Sydney in 1844, with others soon following in other metropolitan centres. The gold rush rush of the mid-19th century attracted more Jewish immigrants, and numbers were swelled by refugees from the 1890s pogroms of Russia and Poland.

During the 1930s, 8000 Jews took up the Australian government’s offer of a visa for “victims of oppression” so they could escape Nazi Germany, and after the Second World War there was further European immigration from displaced person’s camps. Since then, more immigrants have arrived from Egypt, Iraq, South Africa and the former Soviet Union. At the last census, more than 97 000 people identified themselves as Jewish, with 80% of them living in Sydney or Melbourne.

Australia is the only country in the world, besides Israel, whose founding members included Jews. This meant that Jewish people were treated as equal citizens from the beginning, and were free to contribute in and help develop our scientific, economic and cultural life.

One of the first theatres in Australia was founded by Barnett Levey, whose mansion Waverley gave its name to the suburb. The composer Isaac Nathan was the first well-known European musician to settle in Australia, and the first to attempt a serious study of Aboriginal music. Sir Isaac Isaacs was the first Australian-born Governor-General in 1931, and during World War I, Sir John Monash led Australian troops in Gallipoli and on the Western Front. Both Isaacs and Monash have Canberra suburbs named in their honour, and Monash’s face is on the $100 bill.

Name Information
Meira is the feminine form of the Hebrew name Meir, meaning “(one who) illuminates”. Because Hanukkah is also known as The Festival of Lights, names that mean light, or which refer to light, clarity or brightness, are considered traditional choices for babies born during Hanukkah, or near that time.

The Israeli pronunciation of the name is something like meh-EER-ah, but it can be Anglicised to the simpler MEER-ah. If you wish to highlight this as a specifically Jewish name and don’t want it to be confused with other names, then I would go with the former pronunciation. However, if you prefer a name which blends in easily, then the second one would work very well.

The name is not a common one: last year there were 53 baby girls in the US named Meira, and in 2014 there were 5 babies given the name the name in the UK. Neither is it common in Israel for babies, being rather out of fashion.

But although Meira is not a stylish choice in Israel, it is right on trend in Australia, fitting in perfectly with Milla, Mila, Mira, Miranda and Almira, which are all rising in popularity. The name sounds similar to ones that are English, Latinate, Indian, Spanish, Arabic, Slavic, and Scandinavian, giving it a very multicultural feel.

Not only do we need light to exist, but in almost every culture light stands as a symbol for goodness, and most religions see it as a gift from, or an expression of, Divinity. As we get closer each day to the Summer Solstice, when the sun’s light reaches its peak, it’s easy to appreciate the blessings light brings us.

Names whose meanings and associations are connected to light nearly always seem beautiful, encouraging the bearer to let their own light shine the brighter.

POLL RESULTS
Meira received an excellent approval rating of 87%, making it one of the highest-rated names of 2012. 35% of people thought the name was okay, and only one person hated it.