Waltzing With … Olivia

22 Sunday Jul 2012

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anagram names, created names, english names, European name popularity, famous namesakes, fictional namesakes, Latin names, locational names, name combinations, name history, name meaning, name popularity, New Zealand name popularity, popular names, saints names, Shakespearean names, sibsets, tree names, UK name popularity, US name popularity

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Picture shows old olive trees in Albania).

Melbourne Suburbs That Could Be Used as Boy’s Names

15 Sunday Jul 2012

Posted by A.O. in Name Themes and Lists

≈ 1 Comment

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Ancient Celtic names, Anglo-Saxon names, Appellation Mountain, Australian Aboriginal names, birth announcements, birth records, British Baby Names, celebrity baby names, Celtic names, english names, fictional namesakes, Gaelic names, Gypsy names, Harry Potter names, Irish names, K.M. Sheard, locational names, mythological names, name history, name meaning, nicknames, Norman names, Norse names, Old English names, popular culture, Scottish names, sibsets, surname names, unisex names, Upswing Baby Names, Victorian name trends, virtue names, vocabulary names

Albion

Albion is right next to the suburb of Sunshine, and was developed by H.V. McKay as part of his Sunshine Estate. His own house was in Albion, showing that he was not too proud to live alongside his workers. Albion is the oldest known name for the island of Great Britain. The meaning, which comes from Ancient Celtic, may either mean “white”, perhaps referring to the white cliffs of the southern shores, or “hill”. According to K.M. Sheard, it should be interpreted as “white upper world”, to distinguish it from the dark Underworld (and thus similar to the Midgard of Norse mythology, which became the Middle Earth of Tolkien’s fantasy world). It’s related to a Welsh word which simply means “earth, world”. The Ancient Greeks and Romans knew of Albion, and even in their time, it was considered a name of great antiquity. Today Albion is often used as a poetic term for Britain, such as in our national anthem – “when gallant Cook from Albion sail’d”. In British mythology, Albion was a giant who ruled Britain and gave his name to the island. It’s an imposing heritage choice, very suitable for a baby born in a Jubilee year.

Baxter

Baxter is a rural locality on the Mornington Peninsula, and received its name because it was founded by pastoralist Benjamin Baxter, who came here as a member of the 50^th Regiment. The property he owned, and the cottage he and his wife Martha lived in, are both still in existence today. The township developed in the late 19^th century once the railway arrived. Baxter is an occupational surname from the English word bakester, originally referring to a female baker, as opposed to the male baker, but very soon accepted as meaning both men and women, and then as masculine only. The surname is most common in Scotland, and the northern counties of England, especially Yorkshire. There are several famous Australians with the surname Baxter, including the explorer John Baxter, who was killed on the expedition across the Nullarbor Plain. With its fashionable X and nickname Bax fitting in with Max and Jax, this now seems a pretty cool option as a boy’s name. This was chosen as a celebrity baby name last year by radio host Kate Dimond.

Brighton

Brighton is a beachside suburb named after the English seaside town. Brighton is from the Old English, meaning “Beorhthelm’s farmstead” (Beorhthelm is a man’s name meaning “bright helmet”). The suburb was bought by an Englishman named Henry Dendy in 1840, who got it for 1 pound an acre, sight unseen. He chose the name Brighton, hoping this would also become a fashionable seaside resort. Unfortunately, there was a depression at the time and Dendy was forced to sell the land to his agent. Dendy died a pauper, but his dream did come true, because very soon Brighton began attracting wealthy residents, and it remains a very exclusive address, full of luxury mansions. One of its most notable sights is the 82 colourful bathing boxes, which have been on Dendy Street Beach since the 19^th century. These can only be owned by rate-paying residents, and will set you back at least a couple of hundred thousand dollars. Brighton is the home of many of the rich and famous, including former athlete Catherine Freeman. I’ve been seeing this bright, right-on name quite a bit lately in birth announcements for boys, and the suburb does give it a swanky air.

Elwood

Elwood did not have the most glamorous beginning. A piece of swampland, the first settlers came here because of fever. It was Victoria’s first quarantine station, and the area’s first cemetery. Elwood became a working class suburb with such lovely features as an abattoir, a very smelly canal, and, before sewage, a dumping ground for human waste. However, today the Art Deco houses, pleasant beach, leafy streets, and busy cafe strip make it a very upmarket suburb. It’s thought to have been named after the Quaker poet Thomas Ellwood, because Governor La Trobe, who named it, had a thing for Quakers. The surname can be after Ellwood in Gloucestershire, which means “elder wood”, or derived from the Anglo-Saxon man’s name Aelfweald, meaning “elf ruler”. As elder trees play a big part in folklore, and The Harry Potter books feature the Elder Wand, it’s a very magical sort of name. I saw this at Mer de Noms and in a birth announcement, then it was covered by Upswing Baby Names, and then at Appellation Mountain. Perhaps because of the Blues Brothers, this name is seemingly now very hip. Please do not match it with a brother named Joliet or Jake though.

Fingal

Fingal is a rural suburb that may be named after the Irish county of Fingal; the county’s name means “foreign territory”, because the Vikings settled in the area. However, Fingal is also the Anglicised form of the Gaelic name Fionnghall, meaning “white stranger”. This also refers to the blonde Viking settlers, and Fingal mac Gofraid, a ruler in the Scottish Hebrides, was part of this same Norse dynasty. The name has a distinct literary air, as Fingal is the hero of James McPherson’s epic poem Fingal, and Irish author Oscar Wilde had Fingal as one of his middle names (Oscar is another name from McPherson’s poetry). McPherson claimed to have based Fingal on the legends of Irish folk hero, Fionn mac Cumhaill – Fionn’s name simply means “white”, and was a nickname; his real name was Deimne (meaning “sureness, certainty”). Fingal’s Cave in the Hebrides is named for the epic hero, and the sea echoes there so melodiously that it inspired a piece by composer Felix Mendelssohn. Irish names starting with Fin- are very fashionable right now, but I haven’t really seen Fingal in use. It seems poetic, musical, and quite fairytale to me.

Gilderoy

Gilderoy is a rural locality in the outer suburbs; it’s a rare variant of the Irish surname Gilroy, an Anglication of two possible Gaelic names which either mean “son of the red haired servant” or “son of the king’s servant”. As a first name, Gilderoy was used by British Gypsies, and a man who rejoiced in the name Gilderoy Scamp was King of the Kentish Gypsies in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Of course, this name will remind many of Gilderoy Lockhart, the vain and boastful fraud from the Harry Potter books. J.K. Rowling apparently named him after the handsome Scottish highwayman, Patrick Macgregor, whose nickname was Gilderoy (from the Gaelic Gillie Roy – “red-haired lad”). Both Lockhart and Macgregor had reputations for winning women’s hearts undeservedly, and one of Macgregor’s smitten female fans is supposed to have written the song Gilderoy about him. Perhaps Rowling was also thinking the name sounds like the English word gild, meaning to give a thin veneer of gold (to cheaper materials). I don’t know if anyone will actually use this name, but it’s a pretty fabulous one, with some very colourful namesakes.

Harkaway

Harkaway was settled by German immigrants, and is now an attractive suburb with large distinguished houses and extensive parkland. I first saw this name given to a minor character in Stella Gibbons’ hilarious novel, Cold Comfort Farm, and found it fascinating. Another famous literary Harkaway was Jack Harkway, from the Victorian era “penny dreadfuls” – a schoolboy who ran away to sea and had a life of adventure. There is also the novelist Nick Harkaway, although it’s a pseudonym; he’s a son of writer John Le Carre, and his real name is Nicholas Cornwell. Hark away! is a cry traditionally used in hunting to encourage the hounds; to hark means “to hear, heed, listen”. It’s a genuine, although rare, surname, and I presume an occupational one to denote someone who worked with fox hounds. I have seen this used as a man’s name in old records from the United States; I’ve only seen it used as a middle name in Australia. This is a really unusual vocabulary name which, with its meaning of “to listen”, almost qualifies as a virtue name as well. It isn’t much like any name on the Top 100, but it continues to fascinate me.

Ivanhoe

Ivanhoe is a suburb with many old homes and an Art Deco town hall, famous for the extravagant Christmas lights display it puts on each year. It was named by a Scottish settler after Sir Walter Scott’s 1819 novel, Ivanhoe. The book is a romance about one of the few remaining Saxon noble families at a time when the English nobility were almost all Norman. The protagonist is the Saxon Wilfred of Ivanhoe, who has sworn allegiance to King Richard I, and amongst the many characters are Robin Hood and his merry men. The novel is credited for starting the medieval revival of the 19^th century – hence the number of Victorian babies named Alfred or Edith. Although the book is set in Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire, the English village of Ivinghoe is in Buckinghamshire. The village’s name is Anglo-Saxon, and means “Ifa’s hill spur”. The Anglo-Saxon Ifa later merged with the Norman Ivo, both names meaning “yew bow”. It’s dashing and looks like Ivan with a fashionable OH sound, but will the -hoe at the end prove problematic? If you are stuck for sibling ideas, Elea at British Baby Names has many suggestions!

Skye

Skye is named after the Isle of Skye in Scotland, the largest island in the Inner Hebrides. It was at one time ruled by Vikings, and even the Gaelic clans who were chieftains here have Norse ancestry. The island’s name is an etymological tangle of several languages. However, the Norse referred to it as skuyö – “the isle of cloud” – and this looks a lot like the English name for the island. The ruggedly beautiful Isle of Skye has spectacular Highland scenery and abounds in wildlife such as red deer and golden eagles; a popular tourist destination, it was recently voted the fourth best island in the world. It is known for its castles, including Dunvegan, which has an ancient flag supposedly gifted by the fairies, and is the oldest Scottish castle continuously occupied by a single family (since the 13^th century). The island features in the lovely Skye Boat Song, which tells of the Jacobite heroine Flora McDonald helping Bonnie Prince Charlie escape “over the sea to Skye”, after the defeat of the Jacobite rising. This attractive unisex name is more often given to girls, but to me it seems equally suitable for boys.

Yannathan

Yannathan is a rural area in the Shire of Cardinia, and its name, from a local Aboriginal language, is translated as “to walk about, wander, travel, journey, roam”. Walkabout is a term from Indigenous culture which is understood to mean a journey undertaken as a rite of passage; a deeply meaningful spiritual quest which involves connecting with the traditional land and understanding cultural obligations. Australians of British descent also use the term loosely and colloquially to mean anything from going on holiday to escaping your customary obligations to disappearing without apparent cause (as in “the scissors seem to have gone walkabout”). I am not sure if yannathan was meant in any other way than just to take a walk or go on a journey, but it’s a word which may resonate with many Australians. Pronounced YAN-a-thun, it sounds like a variant of Jonathan, and seems very usable. It’s yet another name you could get the popular nickname Nate from.

(Photo shows the iconic bathing boxes in Brighton)

Melbourne Suburbs That Could Be Used as Girl’s Names

08 Sunday Jul 2012

Posted by A.O. in Name Themes and Lists

≈ 12 Comments

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astronomical names, Australian Aboriginal names, bird names, Brazilian names, Bunurong names, created names, english names, famous namesakes, Gaelic names, gemstone names, germanic names, Greek names, Irish names, Latin names, literary namesakes, locational names, mythological names, name history, name meaning, name popularity, nature names, Old Norse names, Palawa names, plant names flower names, popular culture, Portuguese names, Scottish names, Spanish names, tree names, unisex names, Visigothic names, vocabulary names

Cardinia

Cardinia is an outer suburb of Melbourne, in the shire of the same name. The name Cardinia is taken from the local Bunurong phrase Kar Din Yarr, meaning “to look towards the rising sun”. I’ve always thought this would make a great girl’s name, with an interesting sound and an inspiring meaning. To me it sounds like a cross between Caroline and Gardenia, and is a native alternative to Dawn and Aurora.

Clematis

Clematis is another outer suburb in the Shire of Cardinia, leading into the Dandenong Ranges. It’s a tiny village dating to the turn of the century, with a few basic amenities. Its fire brigade formed in 1936, takes about 100 emergency calls per year, and has fought many major blazes in Victoria and New South Wales. The suburb is named after the climbing plant, which looks wonderful in the garden and has large, beautiful flowers. The plant’s name is Ancient Greek, and probably referred originally to the periwinkle (the plant we call clematis is from Asia, and related to the buttercup). Clematis is an elegant name filled with Edwardian charm; it’s more unexpected and alluring than Clementine.

Doreen

The name Doreen looks like an elaboration of the name Dora, perhaps influenced by Kathleen, and is said to have been invented by English author Edna Lyall, who published a novel called Doreen in 1894. The Doreen in her story was an Irish singer, and possibly Lyall had heard of the Irish name Dáiríne, which is pronounced daw-REEN-uh, and means “fertile”. Although this outer suburb of Melbourne had been settled since 1844, it was renamed Doreen in 1895, just a year after Lyall’s novel. Perhaps someone was a big fan of the book? Doreen plays a role in Australian literature too, for poet C.J. Dennis wrote a famous verse-novel called Songs of a Sentimental Bloke (1915), in which larrikin Bill meets, courts and marries his sweetheart. This is a girl who works in a pickle factory called Doreen, and she turns Bill from a Melbourne gang-member into a contented husband and father. It’s been made into two movies, a musical, a TV show and a ballet. Doreen was #83 in the 1900s, and peaked in the 1920s at #21, no doubt influenced by the rhymes of C.J. Dennis. It hasn’t charted since the 1970s.

Emerald

Emerald is a town and semi-rural area in the Shire of Cardinia, and its post office first opened in 1899. It’s a popular tourist destination, because it has the Puffing Billy steam train railway which opened in 1900, and enjoyed its heyday in the 1920s. The town also holds a number of festivals through the year. Emeralds have been mined on a small scale in New South Wales and Western Australia; there is a town in Queensland named Emerald; and David Williamson’s play Emerald City is a classic of modern theatre – the title a reference to The Wizard of Oz. Emerald is a name that I’ve seen in occasional use, and the popularity of Ruby is almost certainly making other gemstone names for girls seem more usable. It also has a connection to Ireland, because this country is known as The Emerald Isle. The name is ultimately from the Greek, meaning “green gem”. Perhaps the town got its name because it is set in the forest like a green jewel – although Gembrook is just up the road.

Iona

Iona is a rural area in the Shire of Cardinia; its post office opened in 1898, and it received its current name in 1905. It is named after an island in the Hebrides, off the coast of Scotland. According to tradition, Saint Columba founded a monastery there in the 6^th century, and it played a vital role in converting the Picts of Scotland and the Anglo-Saxons of northern England to Celtic Christianity. A renowned centre of learning for four hundred years, Viking raiders plundered it, and the monastery was abandoned. Today it has an ecumenical Christian community, active since the 1930s; they worship in the restored medieval Iona Abbey. The island’s name is thought to come from the Gaelic for “place of yew trees”, but may also be from the Old Norse for “island of the bear cave, island of the animal den”. It is still a popular name in Scotland, and seems like a good alternative to the popular Isla with the fashionable OH sound in it (it’s said ie-OH-na).

Jacana

The suburb of Jacana was originally farmland owned by Duncan Kennedy in the 1840s, and its streets were laid out in 1923 after the land was sold. During the 1950s to 1970s, the land was developed by the government Housing Commission, who built most of the houses. They also re-named some of the early streets, which had been given jocular names such as Emu Parade and Sunset Boulevard. Being developed as a Housing Commission suburb, it is a lower-middle and working-class area with good amenities. The suburb is apparently named after Jacana Avenue, which is in the next suburb of Broadmeadows; other streets nearby also have bird names, such as Ortolan and Dacelo. Jacanas are tropical birds that live on lily lakes in wetlands and found world-wide; in Australia we have the Comb-Crested Jacana. Its name is Brazilian-Portuguese, and pronunciation is very diverse around the globe. The Australian way to pronounce it is juh-KAH-nuh, although the original is more like ZHAH-suh-NUH. I think this is a pretty and unusual bird name that sounds similar to Jacqueline, Jana and Jacinta, but with its own “feel”.

Kallista

Kallista is in the outer suburbs, and the first European inhabitants were loggers in the 1850s; gradually farmers began settling in the area as the forest was cleared. From early on, the government preserved a section of it as state forest, and once the roads were completed, Melburnians began using it for weekenders and holiday homes. During the Depression, many people could not afford the luxury of a second home for holidays, and they were bought up cheaply by those hoping to support themselves by living off the land. The suburb gained its name in 1925, from the Ancient Greek Kalliste, meaning “most beautiful”. In Greek mythology, Callisto or Kallisto was one of the nymphs of Artemis, although Kalliste was one of the epithets of the goddess herself, and the stories of the nymph were probably originally about Artemis. Callisto was seduced by Zeus, and gave birth to a son named Arcas, who became the king of Arcadia. Jealous Hera turned Callisto into a bear, and when a teenaged Arcas was hunting in the woods, he almost shot his own bear-mother. Zeus placed them in the sky as the constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor to protect them. A very pretty “star” name.

Olinda

The outer suburb of Olinda began as a logging settlement, but began growing in the early 1900s as land became available for market gardening. It is famous as the home of artist Sir Arthur Streeton, and today is an artsy-craftsy sort of suburb, studded with antique shops and galleries. Olinda is named after Olinda Creek, which has its source in the suburb, and the creek was named after Alice Olinda Hodgkinson, the daughter of Victoria’s acting surveyor-general in 1859. Her unusual middle name is something of a mystery to me – I have seen it defined as a German name meaning “defender of the land”, which became used in Spain thanks to the Visigoths. However in English, this name is said to be derived from the place Olynthus in Greece, meaning “fruit of the wild fig tree”. Olinda’s Adventures was the first novel of a precocious teenage writer in the 17^th century called Catherine Trotter. It fits in with other literary names of that period, such as Orinda and Belinda. It sounds like retro Linda, dressed up with the fashionable OH sound, and still seems exotic and poetic.

Sassafras

Sassafras is in the outer suburbs, and lies between Olinda and Kallista. It was opened to farming in the 1890s, and a small township developed. Around the turn of the 20^th century, it began to attract tourists, and still caters for them, with boutique stores, cafes serving Devonshire teas, and garden nurseries. Sassafras has very fertile volcanic soil, which makes it ideal for growing plants. Aptly enough, it is named after the sassafras tree, found growing there in profusion. These are not true sassafras, which are native to North America and Asia, but Southern Sassafras, an ancient tree from the southern hemisphere, with several species native to Australia. The one in Victoria is Atherosperma moschatum, and it grows in cool temperate rainforest. An evergreen, it flowers in winter with white petals, and its springy timber is in demand for speciality woodwork. The word sassafras is thought to be a corruption of saxifrage, an unrelated genus of tough alpine plants; their name is from the Latin for “stone breaker”. I have seen this once in a birth notice for a baby girl; it’s an unusual plant name which gives the nicknames Sass and Sassy.

Sunshine

This inner-city suburb has been a township since the late 19^th century, and is an important part of our industrial history, because the Sunshine Harvester Works were moved here in 1906 by H.V. McKay, and became the largest manufacturing plant in Australia. It was after this that the suburb was given its present name; it is believed that McKay chose Sunshine for the name of his business after hearing a sermon by visiting American evangelist Rev. Thomas de Witt Talmage. The word sunshine seems to have been frequently used in Talmage’s writings, as a symbol of happiness and God’s blessings. McKay planned Sunshine on Garden City principles, and workers flocked there to live. The manufacturing plant was demolished in the early 1990s, but there is still plenty of industry, and it has attracted many migrants, especially from Malta and Vietnam. Skier Lydia Lassila grew up here, as did singer Bon Scott; Prince Philip lived here briefly. This cheerful, friendly name isn’t just from nature – it’s one connected to our manufacturing history, and also has idealistic Christian roots. Although unisex, the film Little Miss Sunshine helps give it a feminine edge. Sunny makes a cute nickname.

Truganina

This suburb is named after Truganini, considered to be the last “full blood” Palawa (Tasmanian Aborigine). Truganini was a chieftain’s daughter born in 1812 on Bruny Island, described as a vivacious and intelligent woman by contemporary sources. Her mother was killed by whalers, her two sisters were abducted and taken as slaves, her fiance died saving her from being abducted herself. Efforts at conciliation meant that Truganini and the last surviving Palawa people were moved around, including a short time in Melbourne, which is how the suburb received its name. By 1873, Truganini was the last Palawa left, and she died three years later. Her final request, that her ashes be scattered in the D’Entrecasteaux Channel near her island home, was ignored; she was buried in a convict workhouse in Hobart. Two years later, her skeleton was exhumed, and put on display by the Royal Society of Tasmania. In 1976, a century after her death, her last wish was finally fulfilled. Her name is the Palawa word for the tough plant we call grey saltbush (Atriplex cinerea), and can be spelled a number of ways. This could make an interesting heritage choice, although its namesake is a tragic symbol of Indigenous genocide. The correct pronunciation is not known, but Truganina could be said to give the nicknames True and Nina.

(Picture shows the Puffing Billy steam railway in Emerald)

Famous Name: King

04 Wednesday Jul 2012

Posted by A.O. in Famous Names

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

english names, famous namesakes, Gaelic names, illegal names, Irish names, name history, name meaning, surname names, title names, US name popularity, vocabulary names

It’s a big week in North America, because Canada Day was on July 1, and today is Independence Day in the United States. I thought we’d look at the name of someone from our history who hailed from the North American continent, and is one of the most colourful and mysterious characters in Australian politics – King O’Malley.

According to his own account, King O’Malley was brought up by an uncle and aunt in New York, and began working in their bank. He then became an insurance salesman, and according to him, was an extremely successful one who worked his way across the United States. In Texas, he founded his own church, with the extravagant title of the Waterlily Rockbound Church – the Redskin Church of the Cayuse Nation. The story he told was that he performed many miracles, and married a beautiful young devotee, who unfortunately soon died of tuberculosis.

O’Malley was told he had contracted the disease himself, and had six months to live. Apparently, going to Australia was #1 on his bucket list, and he arrived here around 1888, being perhaps thirty years old (there is no birth certificate to verify his age). Far from dying, he established himself (once again?) as a successful and well-known insurance agent. His interest in politics grew, and in 1896 he announced he would be running for the South Australian state parliament.

This was a bit awkward, because he had told everyone he was an American, which made him ineligible as a candidate. He changed his story, and said that, now he thought of it, he had actually been born in Quebec, Canada, making him a British citizen. He had merely been raised in the United States. It seems nobody asked to see any paperwork, and he was duly elected as an Independent.

Soon after the election, a man who had known him in the US claimed that O’Malley was an American citizen who had fled the country on embezzlement charges. O’Malley sued, but refused to allow himself to be cross-examined. He won his case, but people surely had to be a little suspicious that financial scandal was the cause of his migration to Australia. This might be why he had trouble getting re-elected.

Nothing daunted, he moved to Tasmania and joined the Australian Labor Party, where he began to make his mark, being elected to Australia’s first national parliament in 1901. In fact, one of his lasting legacies is that the ALP spells Labour the American way. He convinced them it looked more modern, and differentiated the party from the labour movement. He was also a leading proponent of the need for a national bank, and the government founded the Commonwealth Bank in 1911.

Made responsible for the planning of the national capital, he at first said that Canberra was so dry a crow on vacation would need to bring its own water bottle, but then became an enthusiastic supporter. He approved the designs for the city by fellow American, Walter Burley Griffin.

Today a suburb of Canberra, O’Malley, is named after him, and there is also an Irish pub in the capital named King O’Malley’s which sports a picture of him on its signboard. This is something of an inside joke, as O’Malley was a member of the temperance movement, and introduced prohibition to the city of Canberra – something which made him extremely unpopular.

His political career ended after World War I, at least partly because of his pacifist views. Although only 59, he retired, and spent the rest of his life building up and embellishing his own legend, telling tall stories of his feats that were eagerly believed by his trusting supporters. He died in 1953, which would make him ninety-five by his own reckoning – it’s hard not to wonder if he put his age up a bit in order to fit in more years in which his exploits could have occurred. He was honoured with a state funeral.

O’Malley was an arresting character with a mischievous, mocking personality that many people found almost instantly annoying. His politics were considered radical to the point of charlatanism, and his oratorical style was a cross between P.T. Barnum and a revivalist preacher, with a rich range of original expressions, such as calling alcohol stagger-juice, and pubs drunkeries.

The secret to his success was that he was a massive hit with the ladies, and had no trouble at all getting the female vote. Tall, fashionably-dressed, flamboyant and loquacious, women went slightly ga-ga around him. He also had a number of policies which appealed to women, such as trying to pass a law that barmaids couldn’t be too attractive.

His commitment to women’s interests was probably genuine. When he married, he bought his wife several cottages so that she could be financially independent and have her own career, and after his death, he left in his will a trust fund for scholarships for female students of Home Economics.

O’Malley told so many stories about himself that I’m not sure the truth about him can be found now; I don’t think we even know who he really was. He had the hubris to give himself American Independence Day, July 4, as his birthday, although at other times it seemed to be July 2. It is now believed that he was from Kansas, that place about which another American story-teller would create a dream of a magical land with a fraudulent ruler in its Emerald City. King O’Malley was our Wizard of Oz – a mountebank, but a harmless one. He was a bounder, a fraud, a rapscallion, and a politician. But I repeat myself.

The name King is usually taken from the surname, which comes directly from the English word king, originally meaning a tribal chieftain. It’s very unlikely the ancestors of people named King were actually royal – the name may have denoted people who worked in the king’s household as his servants, or given as a nickname to someone who acted in a regal and perhaps arrogant manner.

In America, the surname King was often given to Irish immigrants to Anglicise an Irish name, such as Conroy (although the –roy in Conroy sounds like the French roi, meaning “king”, the name means “son of the keeper of hounds” or “servant of the keeper of hounds” in Gaelic). This seems significant in light of King O’Malley’s Irish surname.

King O’Malley claimed to be the son of Irish immigrant William O’Malley and Ellen King, with the implication that he had received his mother’s maiden name as his first name. This cannot be verified, as no such people can be found in the US census of the time. King may have been his middle name, or he may have made it up. Soon after his arrival in Australia, he styled himself as the Arizona Kicker King – the Arizona Kicker was a newspaper that O’Malley purported to have worked for.

It may sound fantastically over-the-top to us, but the name King was on the US Top 1000 from 1880 until the mid-1960s, and recently made a comeback in 2006. Since then use has steadily increased, and it is currently #389 (just one position behind Phoenix).

Although King Vidor was a famous Hollywood director, I wonder whether use of the name might be inspired by iconic civil rights leader, Martin Luther King. Jesus Christ is also known as The King of Kings in Christianity, which might give it a religious connotation.

King is one of those names that are not permitted to be registered in Australia, as King is an official title as well as a word. It might be possible to use it as a middle name though, and if King is a name in your family, that could give you a personal connection to it.

(Picture of King O’Malley from the ACT Museum and Art Gallery)

Famous Name: Ascot

27 Wednesday Jun 2012

Posted by A.O. in Famous Names

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english names, locational names, middle names, name combinations, name history, name meaning, Nameberry, Saxon names, Stupid Kid Names, The Beauty of Names, vocabulary words

We began the Famous Names of June with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and that’s how we shall end it, for last week was Royal Ascot in Britain. This famous race meeting is one of the high points of the British social calendar, and is attended by Queen Elizabeth and other members of the royal family, who arrive each day in a horse-drawn carriage.

This year there was a record crowd of around 10 000 Aussies at Royal Ascot; so many descended on the racecourse that several bookies were taking bets in Australian dollars. They were there to see Australia’s favourite mare, Black Caviar – one of the racing world’s greatest sprinters, who has won a record number of races in her career. She had already won 21 consecutive races from 21 starts – could she make it 22? Could she win internationally? And could she win at Ascot?

It turned out she could – by just a whisker. It was a nail-biting photo finish to the Diamond Jubilee Stakes on June 23 which left the Australian fans jubilating. Black Caviar won her owners more than $6 million and she got to meet the Queen, who patted her nose. Unfortunately, the mare sustained injuries during the race, so it may be the last one of her career.

Ascot is an upmarket village in Berkshire, its name from the Saxon for “eastern cottage”; probably referring to it being to the east of the royal estate of Easthamstead, where Edward III had a royal hunting lodge in Windsor Forest. For most its history, Ascot was a large and dangerous heathland, frequented by highwayman and other rogues. You seemed to be allowed to shoot them on sight, like other vermin.

It was Queen Anne who discovered what a wonderful place this empty heath made for galloping around on one’s hunting horse. It was conveniently located just five miles from Windsor Castle, and presumably she had bodyguards to shoot the highwayman so they didn’t bother her as she bolted around the heath on her plunging steed.

As it had proved such a superb place for horses to gallop, Queen Anne founded Ascot Racecourse in 1711; the first race was three heats of four miles long, so it was an endurance test more than anything else. Not only is the Racecourse a vital part of the village, but Queen’s Anne’s “Her Majesty’s Plate” became Royal Ascot Week.

The Royal Enclosure at Ascot (an innovation of King George III) is a pinnacle of sartorial elegance with a very strict dress code. (Fun fact: 400 Australians are admitted to the Royal Enclosure each year on a ballot system). Not surprisingly, Ascot has given its name to at least two items of men’s fashion.

The ascot tie, a type of cravat, dates from the early 19^th century, although by the Edwardian era it was no longer correct dress for Ascot, and had become casual wear for playing sport in. If you are having trouble picturing an ascot, an orange one is worn by Freddie in the Scooby-Doo cartoons, as ascots had a revival during the psychedelic days of the 1960s and ’70s. The ascot cap is a hard flat cap that was popular in the early 20^th century, and presumably was considered suitable for wearing to Ascot, although information on its history is pretty thin.

There are several suburbs in Australia named Ascot after the one in Britain; the one in Perth even has its own racecourse. Although lacking in royal history, it’s over a century old and still an excellent racecourse; the finest in Western Australia.

Ascot is occasionally used as a boy’s name, although apparently it’s listed on a website called Stupid Kid Names (kind of mean, and not written in very good English as you can probably tell from the title alone – I can’t link to it as it’s chock-full of foul language, but I’m sure you can find it if you want to). However, this website also censures such perfectly normal names as Aidan, Asher and Declan (I couldn’t be bothered reading past D in the index), so I wouldn’t pay any attention to that.

I was happy to see that our own Bree from The Beauty of Names stuck up for several of these unfairly vilified names at Nameberry, and if you happen to find your own name on this site, don’t sweat it. Some people have psychological issues and a limited vocabulary, and although you may wish they would get counselling and buy a thesaurus before starting a website, they are at perfect liberty to do otherwise under our democratic system.

Ascot is a place name with an interesting history, and connections to royalty, fashion and the sporting world. It may appeal to you if you are looking for an unusual name which is both modern and somewhat distinguished, and it sounds a bit similar to Astor and Aston. I think it would work well in the middle position, as it is a good match with so many different names. George Ascot, Dean Ascot, Mason Ascot, James Ascot, Barney Ascot, Monty Ascot, William Ascot … see what I mean?

Famous Name: Azaria

20 Wednesday Jun 2012

Posted by A.O. in Famous Names

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1001 Unusual Baby Names, baby name books, Biblical names, hebrew names, honouring, name history, name meaning, The Complete Book of Names, unisex names, US name popularity

On June 12 this year, a very long legal case finally came to an end, when coroner Elizabeth Morris ruled that Azaria Chantel Loren Chamberlain had been taken by a dingo on August 17 1980. Azaria was nine weeks old when she died, and June 12 was the day after what would have been Azaria’s thirty-second birthday, had she lived.

The disappearance and death of baby Azaria in the Northern Territory was a case which generated mass hysteria, divided the nation, and led to a cruel media-driven witch hunt against Azaria’s grieving parents, Lindy and Michael. It remains an ugly stain on our national psyche, and a lesson in not being too ready to believe the worst about the latest media “villain”. A lesson we unfortunately never seem to learn.

The Chamberlains had been on a camping holiday at Uluru (Ayers Rock) with their three young children when Lindy screamed that a dingo had taken her baby from their tent. Witnesses at the time believed her implicitly; there were warning signs everywhere about the dangers of dingoes, and six weeks earlier, a three year old named Amanda Cranwell had been dragged from her parents’ car by a dingo and had to be driven off. Azaria’s brother Aidan said that he heard a dingo in the tent with them, and Aboriginal trackers reported that she had been dragged by an animal.

A coronial inquest found that Azaria had been taken by a dingo, but her missing body disposed of by unknown human means. That should have been the end of this family’s tragedy, but instead it had just begun. For reasons unclear to me, the Northern Territory police refused to accept the findings, and charged the Chamberlains with murder.

Michael was a pastor in the Seventh Day Adventist Church. People didn’t know much about this minority religion, and mistrusted the Chamberlains as somehow “different”. Lindy maintained the calm dignity of someone who knew she was innocent and believed that God was on her side. This was taken as unnatural – why didn’t she shriek and cry hysterically like a proper woman? Why did she never squeeze out at least a few tears? Why did she seem so assured when she was only a housewife?

Wild rumours began to circulate, and the media gleefully reported each one. One was that the Chamberlains’ religion demanded a child sacrifice, and they had gone into the outback with the express purpose of murdering their baby daughter. Another was that they weren’t Christians at all – they were Satanists, devil worshippers or into black magic; being religious was just a front. Another notion was that perhaps their religion forbade medical assistance (it doesn’t), and that they had killed a terminally ill Azaria rather than let her suffer a slow death. One of the sickest was that Azaria’s brothers Aidan and Reagan, then aged six and four, had killed her and her parents covered it up.

It is shocking and heartbreaking that people in modern times could be so ignorant, gullible and superstitious; it beggars belief that anyone could think a mother would kill her daughter in front her other children, and have the audacity to do so in broad daylight surrounded by witnesses, washing off all blood and disposing of all evidence within ten minutes. However, so convincing was this view of the evil, unnatural Lindy that she was found guilty and sentenced to prison in 1982. Four years later, some of Azaria’s missing clothing was found in a dingo’s lair, and Lindy was released.

The Chamberlains’ marriage did not survive and both remarried. The fate of Azaria was still listed as “unknown”, and her story became urban legend; she was part of the horrors of the outback, she was our nightmare and our collective guilt. She was a meme, a joke, a rumour, a punchline, a subject of gossip, a tee-shirt slogan, an industry which brought out books, tea towels, movies, TV shows and even an opera.

Last week Azaria’s extraordinary story ended, and she was at last declared officially dead and given a death certificate. The coroner offered her heartfelt sympathies to the Chamberlains for the loss of their daughter and sister, however the Northern Territory government refuses to apologise for the events which followed that loss.

Azaria is a variant of the Hebrew name Azariah, which means “Yahweh has helped”; however Azariah is pronounced az-uh-RY-uh, and most people say Azaria a-ZAHR-ree-uh. Despite Azariah being a male name in the Old Testament, Azaria is more commonly used as a girl’s name.

During the hysteria surrounding the Chamberlain case, it was falsely claimed that the name Azaria meant “sacrifice in the wilderness”, with the obvious conclusion that the Chamberlains had marked their daughter from birth for ritual infanticide. (I would have thought that if you actually were planning to do that to your baby, you’d choose a name that drew less attention to your nefarious scheme).

The original coroner made a finding that Azaria did not in fact mean “sacrifice in the wilderness”, making it one of the few times in legal history when a court has made a ruling on the meaning of a name. Lindy found the name in 1001 Unusual Baby Names, where it was identified with standard baby name book laxness as the feminine form of Azariah, meaning “blessed by God”. The current edition of the book is called The Complete Book of Baby Names, now boasts over 100 000 entries, and has updated Azaria to mean “helped by God”.

Azaria’s name was an unusual name when she was born, and it is still uncommon. I have seen the name a few times in birth announcements, using both the Azaria and Azariah spellings, and given to both girls and boys. Azaria has been on the US Top 1000 since the mid-2000s, suggesting that the name is on the rise internationally rather than being an Australian phenomenon.

The first time I saw the name given to a new baby I gave an unconscious start of shock, but then rationality kicked in and I could see that the name deserves to be used again, and it would be ridiculous to avoid it. Until I saw Azaria with the middle name Chamberlain. Maybe it was a family name, maybe it was honouring an unfortunate victim, but even 32 years later, for me it was too soon.

Waltzing With … Lawson

17 Sunday Jun 2012

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

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english names, famous namesakes, locational names, name history, name meaning, names of bands, nicknames, Norwegian names, surname names, UK name popularity, US name popularity

This blog entry was first posted on June 17 2012, and revised and re-published on April 6 2012.

Today is the birthday of the Australian poet Henry Lawson, who was born June 17 1867. Public celebrations to mark this event were held last weekend, to coincide with the Queen’s Birthday long weekend.

There are two festivals in his honour in the Western Plains region of New South Wales. The town of Grenfell has one because that’s where Henry Lawson was born, and so does the town of Gulgong because Henry’s parents moved there when he was just six weeks old, and spent his first five or six years there.

Willoughby council in Sydney holds a bush poetry reading every two years at Henry Lawson’s Cave, and this year it fell on Henry Lawson’s actual birthday. Henry Lawson’s Cave is a small cavern which the author used as an occasional refuge, and perhaps wrote some of his work there. Another site for Lawson-lovers to visit in Sydney is the statue of Henry Lawson near the Domain, an area that Lawson enjoyed walking in, and perhaps sometimes slept out in.

Henry Lawson is said to one of our three national poets, the other two being Banjo Paterson and C.J. Dennis, yet it is as a writer of short fiction that he really shone. His style is quite modern, being spare and unflinching, with plot being less important than powerful imagery. He has sometimes been compared to Hemingway and Chekhov in terms of a lean, raw writing style. His mother was the feminist Louisa Lawson, and the political bent of his work was greatly influenced by her and her radical friends.

His importance as an Australian bush writer is that he wrote of the realities of the Australian bush, rather than the romanticised version you get from Banjo Paterson. Henry Lawson was born to a struggling family on the goldfields, and his parents’ marriage broke up; as a man who greatly admired his mother, he had a deep appreciation of how hard bush life could be for women, and how strong they needed to be just to survive, let alone thrive. The outback frequently appalled Lawson, and he saw it as a place of suffering.

Yet his perceptions of the bush have helped to shape our identity, and he had a gift for capturing and evoking the national character in just a few words. He stressed the egalitarianism and mateship of the Australian psyche, and championed the underdog and the urban poor. He understood the laconic Australian sense of humour, with its sharp sense of irony.

Lawson’s life was a sad one; he was bullied as a child and never felt that he fit in, his little sister died, his parents split up, he went deaf early in life which increased his sense of isolation, he struggled to gain recognition and find steady work, his marriage was unhappy and mirrored his parents’ by ending in separation, and he drank to ease his sadness which made things worse. He spent time in gaols, convalescent homes, and mental asylums.

It’s tempting to think that he inherited a strain of Nordic gloom from his Scandinavian father, and that depression was at the back of many of his misfortunes. Because of this, last year two men did the Henry Lawson Walk, which re-enacted a walk Lawson took with a friend from Bourke in outback New South Wales to Hungerford in outback Queensland – a trip of around 450 km (280 miles).

They did it to raise awareness and funds for Beyond Blue, the national depression initiative. Beyond Blue has programs which focus on men’s health, alcoholism, and those facing isolation in rural areas – in fact many of the problems suffered by Lawson in the late 19th and early 20th centuries are still being battled today. He is truly one of the moderns, both in life and art.

Name Information
Lawson is an English surname meaning “son of Law”, with Law a popular medieval nickname for the name Lawrence. The name was especially associated with Yorkshire, as the Lawson family was prominent during the War of the Roses. Lawson has been used as a personal name since the 17th century, with use concentrated in the north of England – an apparent legacy of its Yorkshire origins.

It should be noted that Henry Lawson’s father Anglicised his surname from the Norwegian form of the name, Larsen. There is a suburb of Canberra named after Henry Lawson – not to be confused with the town of Lawson in the Blue Mountains. Although Henry Lawson did live in the Blue Mountains at one point, the town is named after the explorer, William Lawson.

In the US, Lawson was especially associated with the southern states: John Lawson explored North Carolina in the 18th century, and Gaines Lawson was a Confederate captain in the American Civil War. Alfred Lawson was a popular philosopher in the Midwest, promoting vegetarianism, the end of banking, and racially integrated baseball; an aviation pioneer, he is cited as the inventor of the airliner, although it immediately crashed.

The name Lawson charted in the US Top 1000 from the late 19th century until World War II, then had a long break from 1950 to 2000. Since then, the name has been steadily going up the charts and is now #485 – the highest the name has been since the early 20th century.

In the UK, the name Lawson has been in the Top 1000 since 2003, and has been climbing since 2010, when the British band Lawson formed. Since their first album came out in 2012, the name has gone up even more steeply, and is now #409.

In Australia, Lawson is in steady use, and perhaps also around the 400s here. It’s a name which pays tribute to the first Australian writer to be given a state funeral, and is less popular and more modern-sounding than his first name, Henry, and fits in with popular names such as Lincoln and Logan.

Historian Manning Clark wrote that Australia was “Lawson writ large”, and this patriotic name honours the man who who been called “the people’s poet”, “our poet-prophet”, and “the real voice of Australia”. It’s a voice that is not always comfortable to hear, but this is a great name for anyone who loves the real Australia, and not an idyllic vision of it.

POLL RESULTS
Lawson received an approval rating of 89%, making it one of the highest rated names of 2012. 39% of people loved the name Lawson, and nobody hated it.

Less Commonly Used Boys Names

10 Sunday Jun 2012

Posted by A.O. in Name Themes and Lists

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Anglo-Norman names, Apache names, Australian vocabulary words, celebrity baby names, english names, fabric names, famous namesakes, fictional namesakes, germanic names, Hindi names, Indian names, Italian names, Latin names, locational names, mythological names, name data, name history, name meaning, name popularity, Native American names, nicknames, popular culture, Roman names, saints names, slang terms, surname names, unisex names, US name popularity, vocabulary names, Welsh names, Yorkshire dialect names

This follows on from Less Commonly Used Girls Names. The names are from the bottom of the popularity charts in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania, and in each case, the name was used less than ten times in 2011.

There seems to be a lot of musical references in this entry, so I’ve linked relevant names to YouTube videos of the person performing.

Atticus

This Roman name means “man from Attica” – Attica being the area of Greece surrounding the city of Athens. This name wasn’t uncommon in the ancient world; there is a Platonist philosopher called Atticus, and there is also a Saint Atticus, a soldier who died a martyr by being burned at the stake. However, today it is most associated with Atticus Finch, the principled lawyer and loving single father in Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. Atticus Finch, who defends a black man on a rape charge in a small Southern town during the 1930s, is considered a folk hero in legal circles. In the 1962 film adaptation, Atticus is played by Gregory Peck, who was a civil rights activist; Peck won an Academy Award for his performance, and in 2003 the American Film Institute voted his character the greatest hero in American film. It is that decent, understated heroism of Atticus Finch that makes him such a beloved character in literature and film. The character has inspired the names of both a clothing line run by musicians and an alternative rock band. It’s a hip choice which has been burning up the US popularity charts since 2004.

Bryn

Bryn is a modern Welsh name which means “hill”; as well as being a man’s name, it is also a common place name in Wales and England. A famous person with this name is Welsh opera star Bryn Terfel, a bass-baritone best known for his roles in the works of Mozart and Wagner. Apparently he applied to study music in Cardiff, but was so annoyed when they assumed he was a woman that he ended up studying in London instead. Bryn Terfel, whose first language is Welsh, is a patron of Welsh language and culture, and hopefully by now everyone in Wales recognises his name as male. Even though Bryn isn’t a common name in Australia, I don’t think it would seem too out of place either, as there are several boy’s name beginning with Br-, such as Brent and Brody. It looks rather like a cooler version of Irish Brian, which may have a similar meaning.

Corbin

Corbin is an English surname which started as a nickname based on the Anglo-Norman word for “raven”. It may have been given to someone who had raven-black hair, although less flattering possibilities also come to mind. Corbinus, the Latinised form, is found as a first name in the Domesday Book, so it has a long history of use. Despite being an old English name, this tends to be thought of as a modern American one, because it’s been solidly Top 500 in the US since the late 1980s. This may be because of television actor Corbin Bernsen, who began playing lawyer Arnold Becker on LA Law in 1986 and remained on the show until it finished in 1994. Another famous namesake is Corbin Harney, an elder and shaman of the West Shoshone people. He devoted his life to spreading a message about the dangers of nuclear energy, and the environmental issues facing the world. You may also know the name from Corbin Bleu, who was in High School Musical. This name is apparently so unusual in Australia that the article the information came from described it as a “bizarre” choice, although it seems a perfectly nice, normal name to me.

Denim

The fabric denim was originally called serge de Nîmes, after the French city where the tough cotton material was originally made by the Andre family. This was eventually shortened to denim. Denim is inextricably linked with jeans, which began life as sturdy clothing for workers, and then became fashion icons which symbolised teen rebellion. Today they are worn by pretty well everybody. Denim is an interesting name choice; it’s not really a “bad boy baby name” like Axe or Vandal, because while denim is worn by rebel icons like rock stars and bikers, it’s also worn by suburban mums and little kids. Also fabrics are usually thought of as girls names, like Velvet and Paisley, but denim is tough and hard-wearing. It’s definitely an ambiguous sort of name – one that, like the fabric, may grow with the person better than you’d expect. It’s also a soundalike with the surname and place name Denham.

Jagger

This English surname originated in Yorkshire, and means “hawker, carrier”, the word jagger being Yorkshire dialect for someone who carries a pack or load. It is claimed that most people with this surname are descended from a single family who came from Staniland, near Halifax. There was a high concentration of people named Jagger in Yorkshire, compared to the rest of England. The most famous person with this surname is undoubtedly Sir Michael “Mick” Jagger from The Rolling Stones, whose mother was born in Australia. I don’t know if this is correct, but Mick Jagger is said to be distantly related to Joseph Jagger, the 19^th century British engineer famous for being “the man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo”. Joseph Jagger was indeed from Halifax in Yorkshire. The name Jagger is almost always given in relation to The Rolling Stones frontman, and may have been given a boost in 2011 from the Maroon 5 song, Moves Like Jagger, which is a tribute to Sir Mick. The number of baby boys named Jagger went from 5 to 8 in Queensland last year.

Naiche

Naiche was the last hereditary chief of the Chiricahua band of Apache Native Americans. He was an ally, protege and relative by marriage of Geronimo, the famous Apache leader and war chief. Naiche and Geronimo successfully went to war together in the 1880s, but Naiche ended up being imprisoned. Although he had resisted the process of being moved onto an “Indian Reservation”, eventually he was forced to give in, and ended his days on an Apache reservation in New Mexico. He lived only six years after moving there, and his descendants are still on the reservation. The name Naiche means “meddlesome one, mischief-maker” and it can apparently be pronounced NAY-chee, but I’m not sure if that’s the correct Apache pronunciation, or even whether it depends on which Apache accent you’re using. Naiche is for sure a very unusual name in Australia, but it has a fascinating namesake, and actually sounds slightly like Nate and Nathan. Pronunciation and spelling seem like they would be an issue.

Occy

Occy is the nickname of Australian surfer Marco “Mark” Occhilupo. Occy is short for his Italian surname, which means “eyes of the wolf”. At the same time, it is a play on the Australian word occy straps, short for octopus straps – those stretchy cords which are used by surfers to tie their surfboards onto their car’s roof rack. Mark Occhilupo was a precocious teenage surf god of the 1980s who lost his way for several years as his life spiralled out of control. In the mid-1990s, he made a comeback, and stunned everyone when he won a world title in 1999 at the age of 33. He considered retiring in 2005, but realised he still had a lot left in him. Now aged 45, he only competes part-time, but this year he made it into the final four of the Telstra Drug Aware Pro semi-finals, defeating top-ranked surfers to do so. Mark, also dubbed The Raging Bull, is an inspirational sporting icon who teaches us that mature experience can be more important than youthful talent, and that things are never over until you give up. Although Occy is a nickname and a slang term, it means so much more.

Pax

Pax is the Latin word for “peace”, and the Romans recognised a goddess of this name who symbolised peace, and was associated with the spring. The word pax also means “treaty, accord”, and the Pax Romana is the name given to the two-century period (approximately 27 BC to 180 AD) of stability and minimal military expansion in the Roman Empire. For the Romans, peace wasn’t about everyone holding hands and singing Imagine together in a field of daisies – it described that period during war when all your opponents had been thoroughly beaten and were no longer able to resist. It denoted ultimate military victory, rather than co-operation and unity. Today we see peace rather differently, and the name is probably given with the modern concept in mind rather than the ancient Roman one. In 2007, Angelina Jolie adopted a son from Vietnam and named him Pax Thien. Pax may be the name of a goddess, but this one has very much gone to the boys, as it fits so well with popular male names such as Max and Jax.

Veer

Veer is an Indian name meaning “bravest of the brave” in Hindi. Veer (“valour”) is one of the nine rasas of ancient Hindu philosophy. These emotional states are repositories of energy drawn from our life force, and by learning to master these energies, we gain emotional balance. The rasa of Veer stops us from running away from our problems, and instead face them head on; it also gives us the courage to not allow adversity to defeat us, but to get up after a fall, and continue on. It also allows us to have the healthy confidence and self-esteem needed to achieve in life. Veer Teja Ji is an Indian folk hero and saint, and the highly successful 2004 Bollywood film Veer-Zaara is about the star-crossed romance between Indian Air Force Squadron Leader, Veer Pratap Singh, and a wealthy Pakistani woman, Zaara Haayat Khan. Veer has a very positive meaning, and looks the same as the English word veer, meaning “to swerve”. It’s also a homonym of the English name Vere, so both sound and spelling are familiar to English-speakers, and it seems a very usable heritage choice.

Ziggy

Ziggy is a nickname for Germanic names such as Sigmund, but in practice is used for a variety of names starting with Z. It is famous as the name of pop star David Bowie’s alter ego, Ziggy Stardust. Bowie based the name on a London tailor’s shop called Ziggy’s that he saw from a train one day. The surname Stardust was taken from American country and western singer Norman Carol Odom, a weird novelty act billed as The Legendary Stardust Cowboy. Norman appealed to Bowie because he had a crazy band of misfits who barely understood music, and was unconsciously hilarious. The character of Ziggy was based on pioneering English rocker Vince Taylor, who modelled himself on Elvis Presley. Like so many after him, drugs proved his downfall, and he ended up believing he was the son of God, and existing solely on eggs. Bowie got to know him, and was impressed by his magnificent repertoire of dottiness. So Ziggy Stardust was a mixture of fashion, madness, outsider art, and rock and roll excess. Ziggy is also the nickname of Bob Marley’s son David, although in his case it was a drug reference. Cute name, with a solid musical background.

(Photo shows David Bowie’s final performance as Ziggy Stardust at the Hammersmith Odeon in London, 1973)

Famous Name: Diamond

06 Wednesday Jun 2012

Posted by A.O. in Famous Names

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

British Baby Names, english names, famous namesakes, fictional namesakes, gemstone names, Greek names, honouring, Mer de Noms, name history, name meaning, nature names, surname names, US name popularity, vocabulary names

Queen Elizabeth II is only the second monarch since Queen Victoria to reign for sixty years. Last weekend, it was the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebration, where the British enjoyed four days of triumphant pageantry, horse-drawn carriages, royal barges, processions, church services, street parties, luncheons, concerts, festivities and general revelry. Naturally the Brits didn’t allow a bit of very British rain to stop the fun.

We also celebrated here, in a more humble and low-key sort of way, and even managed to have wet weather, in a meteorological show of sympathy. We sent a detachment of the New South Wales Mounted Police to represent us at the pageant, and Indigenous performer Gurrumul came on stage for Sing, a song written especially for the Jubilee featuring 200 artists from the Commonwealth; Kylie Minogue and Rolf Harris also performed at the concert (not together).

Australia has another connection to the Queen’s Jubilee: earlier this year, the largest pink diamond ever mined in Australia was found at Rio Tinto’s Argyle mine in the north-west of Western Australia (which is the source of most of the world’s supply of pink diamonds). The diamond is 12.76 carat, and, in honour of the Diamond Jubilee, has been dubbed the Argyle Pink Jubilee diamond. It was cut and polished in Perth, and will be sold later this year; pink diamonds cost about 20 times more than equivalent white diamonds.

The name Diamond is ultimately from the Greek adamas, meaning “unbreakable, invincible” (although the Greeks probably used the word to refer to other gemstones). It is from this that we get the words adamant, meaning “determined, unyielding”, and adamantine, meaning “as hard as diamond”. Diamonds are famous for their hardness, as well as their clarity and fiery white lustre.

It is thought that diamonds were first recognised and mined in India, where they have been used in Hindu religious icons for thousands of years. India remained the only source of diamonds until the 18^th century, when they were discovered in Brazil, and today most of the world’s diamonds are cut and polished in India.

Diamonds have been used for jewellery since ancient times, and one of the most famous of their uses is for engagement rings. Medieval Italians called the diamond the “stone of reconciliation”, saying that it would maintain harmony between husband and wife. Diamonds were therefore recommended for betrothal rings, although they could only be afforded by royalty and aristocracy. It was the marketing campaign of De Beers begun in 1938 that sold us the idea that everyone needed to have a diamond engagement ring; such a campaign was necessary because of the large quantities of diamonds being brought in, especially from South Africa.

Mention of Africa brings up a grim factor of the diamond industry: the blood diamonds. In politically unstable countries of central and west Africa, revolutionary groups have taken over control of diamond mines, using the proceeds to fund their operations. Processes are in place to prevent blood diamonds from entering the mainstream market, and although they aren’t perfect, your chance of actually buying a “blood diamond” from a reputable jeweller is probably fairly remote.

However, the ethics of diamond mining are still pretty murky in many areas. Mines in India and South Africa not infrequently use child labour, working conditions can be cruel, and miners and gemstone cutters earn a pittance in relation to the value of the stones they help produce. De Beers have built mines in areas where they have forcefully displaced the indigenous people of the region, so even an “ethical diamond” may not be as ethical as you hoped.

For some reason, the name Diamond seems to get more negative reactions than other gemstone names, like Ruby or Pearl. The very hardness and sparkle which makes real diamonds so valuable, somehow makes the name Diamond appear “cheap” or “rough”. When diamonds symbolise so many positive things – strength, beauty, eternal love – that seems a foolish distinction to make.

Diamond is a gemstone name that works equally well for boys. For a start, the English surname Diamond is specifically masculine, and comes from an Anglo-Saxon personal name Dayman, meaning “man who takes care of livestock”. In Ireland, the surname is based on the personal male name Dermot, while the surname taken directly from the gemstone was adopted by some Jewish families from Eastern and Central Europe.

George McDonald’s enchanting fairy tale At the Back of the North Wind has a little boy named Diamond as its hero, and the movie I Am Sam has Dakota Fanning playing a girl named Lucy Diamond Dawson, her name a direct reference to the Beatle’s song, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.

Another connection with diamonds and royalty is a little girl named Diamond Ann Marshall, who was chosen to meet Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge on the royal tour of Canada. Diamond wrote the duchess a nice letter, and when she met her, gave her a big hug. Diamond was a cancer patient at the time, but is now in remission. Diamond’s name was given to her in honour of Princess Diana – I’m guessing Diamond Ann sounded like the name Diana to her parents.

Diamond as a girl’s name has been on the US Top 1000 since 1986, and peaked at #150 in 1999. It’s currently #760 and falling. It may be on the wane in America, but I hope that the Jubilee year inspires a spike of baby Diamonds in Commonwealth countries.

Looking for some more baby names for the Diamond Jubilee? Go check out these blogs from Elea at British baby Names, and Lou at Mer de Noms.

Interesting Names Spotted in Print, on Radio and on TV – Autumn Edition

05 Tuesday Jun 2012

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

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animal names, astronomical names, Australian Aboriginal names, Chinese names, Cornish names, created names, english names, famous namesakes, Fijian names, Greek names, honouring, Indian names, Latin names, literary namesakes, locational names, mythological names, name history, name meaning, nature names, popular culture, Scottish names, sibsets, unisex names, vocabulary names, Welsh names

This celebrates the fourth birthday of a little boy who was the first baby born at Saltwater in New South Wales in over a century. The beachside area is the traditional place of the Worimi-Biripi people, and is now in a national park. Dawn Morcombe gained special permission to give birth at this spiritually significant location, and she named her son Yarramundi John Michael Hollis. Yarramundi was a famous Indigenous leader of the colonial era; his son was Colebee, who was featured on the blog last year. His name is said to mean “deep water”. Fantastic story, namesake, and meaning, especially for a baby born at Saltwater!

Debbie Bell from South Australia has had a rough life and been through more than her fair share of heartache. However, after a great deal of physical and emotional suffering, she and her husband Ian were at last able to have a baby through a donated embryo, and named their son Derlerean. I think Debbie and Ian may have created this name themselves. It reminds me of the car, the Delorean.

Victorian couple Charlotte Gernandt and Dale Hynes called their first baby Tinkabell Darling [pictured]. Now this sounds like a name straight out of Peter Pan, but Charlotte and Dale say she is not named after the fairy. Um, okay … must be inspired by some other Tinkerbell … She’s called Tinka for short.

Emma Preston was so crippled by endometriosis that she was confined to a wheelchair, and had little hope of ever having a baby. But then Sydney fertility specialist Dr Geoff Reid not only got her out of her wheelchair, he helped her to conceive through embryo transfer. Emma was so grateful, she named her baby after him. No, the baby’s not called Geoff; her name is Reid Louise. Nice gesture and name story.

It’s not often a baby ends up in the paper just because of his name, but this one is quite striking. Kate Anderson and Lance Walshe, from the Yarra Ranges just outside Melbourne, named their son Viper. His name was inspired by Lance’s love of snakes, and the couple wanted an original name that nobody else had. They considered Wolfgang, but rejected it because they thought it might lead to teasing. Viper Walshe doesn’t have a middle name, and if he’d been a girl, his name would have been Ruby Joanne. Kate says his name has met with mixed reactions.

A story from Port Macquarie on the ever-rising prices on electricity bills featured a struggling single mum named Bek Latimore. Bek’s baby girl is named Arizona; although I generally don’t go for American-states-as-names, this one always puts a smile on my face. I’m not sure I can ever imagine using it myself though. Arizona’s older brother is named Nick, which made me think – could Nick be short for Phoenix? Hmm?

This story about a midwifery programme at Canterbury Hospital in Sydney showed a mother with an elegant name: Eglantine Jalicot. Eglantine’s son has an equally stylish name – Lysander. His ancient Greek name means “release of a man”, and belonged to a famous military general of ancient Sparta. Eglantine is another name for the sweetbriar, and is first found as a personal name in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.

Two interesting and pretty girls’ names from a story on sleep and babies: Luna and Reya. Luna is of course Latin for “the moon”, and Reya is an Indian name which means (I think) “wealth”.

A story on a new breech birth clinic at Westmead Hospital in Sydney showed mum Mallissa Tulfua with her son Tevita. His name is the Fijian form of David.

A Brisbane columnist covers a naming dilemma from real life when two of her friends cannot agree what to name their baby. Readers are invited to help name their sprog, but as we’re not told what names they’ve come up with already, it seemed a rather futile exercise (although apparently the mother had rejected Luke as “not masculine”, which seemed odd). The columnist notes some of the baby names from her own extended family are Echo, Theo, Roarke, Ziad, Ingrid and Rudi.

Alana Mahadik had a very difficult childbirth with her first son, Avighna. With her second, she opted for hypnobirthing at Caboolture Hospital in Queensland on Anzac Day, and found the whole experience very quick and stress-free. Her new baby son’s name is Rudra, which is an Indian name meaning, aptly enough, “remover of pain”. Avighna’s name means “remover of obstacles”.

A rather adorable little baby girl was sadly abandoned at Canterbury Hospital early this year. The baby has been named Li-Ye, which means “beautiful child” in Chinese. Only a few babies have been abandoned this way in New South Wales in recent years: two others were named Adam and Sunday April. All of these babies were eventually adopted after their birth mothers failed to come forward.

Interesting Names of Adults

An ABC radio podcast on parenting featured a Melbourne child psychologist named Angharad Candlin. This Welsh name meaning “greatly loved” is one I have admired since childhood, yet never before seen on a real person (although I didn’t actually see her, as it was radio).

This travel writer, enjoying the Sicilian sun, has the name Dugald Jellie. There’s quite a few Australians with this Scottish form of Douglas as their name, but Dugald Jellie seemed just a bit more interesting and storybook-character somehow.

The junk mail of one April morning produced a community newsletter about a new medical centre opening in the area. One of the doctors was named Demelza – a Cornish place name from the Poldark books and TV series. I briefly thought about changing doctors just to have a GP named Demelza, but couldn’t face all the paperwork.

I read One Way or Another: The Story of a Girl Who Loved Rock Gods, the memoirs of Gold Coast rock star groupie Nikki McWatters. Eventually she sees the error of her ways, and settles down by sensibly marrying a schoolteacher. Her husband’s name? The very rockstar-sounding Zeus. As well as teaching school, Zeus is a trained opera singer, so she obviously never lost her thing for male vocalists.

Channel 7 have resurrected The Price is Right, which I find keeps the troops quietly occupied while I make dinner. As I stir and chop, I keep an ear out for names: so far I have seen a pair of sisters named Jalila and Janita (late teens to early twenties), a woman named Feda, pronounced like “feeder” (twenties), and a grandmother named Dixie (around sixtyish).

	waltzingmorethanmati… on Zarah Zaynab and Wolfgang…
	Madelyn on Zarah Zaynab and Wolfgang…
	drperegrine on Can Phoebe Complete This …
	waltzingmorethanmati… on Rua and Rhoa
	redrover23 on Rua and Rhoa

Waltzing More Than Matilda

~ Names with an Australian Bias of Democratic Temper

Tag Archives: name history

Waltzing With … Olivia

Melbourne Suburbs That Could Be Used as Boy’s Names

Melbourne Suburbs That Could Be Used as Girl’s Names

Famous Name: King

Famous Name: Ascot

Famous Name: Azaria

Waltzing With … Lawson

Less Commonly Used Boys Names

Famous Name: Diamond

Interesting Names Spotted in Print, on Radio and on TV – Autumn Edition