Tag Archives: name history

Famous Name: Kevin

29 Wednesday Feb 2012

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Boys Names of Australian Aboriginal Origin

26 Sunday Feb 2012

Posted by in Name Themes and Lists

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This follows on from last week’s list, Girls Names of Aboriginal Origin. It was more challenging to find boys’ names, because many, if not most, Aboriginal words end in a vowel, and easily conform to we think of a “feminine sounding” name. They are similar to names in Hebrew, Arabic, and in the Indian languages in that regard, and even now you will find people who insist that Ezra must be a female name, because it ends in -a.

These are not traditional or tribal Aboriginal names for men, but rather words from Aboriginal languages that I thought could be used as names by people from any culture. Some of them coincide with words or names from other languages, as I thought people may be interested to know that a word from their own heritage has a distinct Australian meaning as well.

Dural

Dural is a pleasant semi-rural suburb of Sydney, and its meaning has been in some dispute. It is said that dural was a word from the Dharug language, meaning “gully, valley”, and this information came from a traditional owner of the land in the 19th century. It was also said to mean “burning logs”, from the word dooral dooral, but this belief only dates from the 1940s, and is taken from the Wiradjuri language. As the Wiradjuri people are from central New South Wales, the local meaning is claimed to be the correct one. Translations of this name as “hollow tree” or “burned out tree” in baby name books can be safely discarded as invention. I think Dural seems very usable as a personal name, and I considered it for Sydney Suburbs That Could Be Used as Boy’s Names. It sounds like familiar names such as Darrell, and sturdily similar to the word endure.

Jarli

This word means “barn owl” in the Jiwarli language of northern Western Australia. As in many other societies, several Australian Aboriginal cultures saw owls as symbols of wisdom, mystery, secrets and sacred knowledge; messengers from one world to another, and companions of the medicine men. The owl features in several myths and legends, and is sometimes depicted in Aboriginal art. This name seems familiar to us, because Jarli is also a Scandinavian boy’s name based on the word for “earl”, and I have seen one or two boys with this name. I like the sound and the meaning of this name, and it is similar to another Jiwarli word: jali, meaning “friend”.

Kaiya

This word from a Queensland language refers to a spear with two barbs, and is pronounced KY-uh. It has been used in the Latin name for a species of caddisfly – Chimarra kaiya – who is so called because of its distinctive barb-like projections. In the Kaurna language of South Australia, the similar sounding kaya means “spear”, although in Nyungar it means “hello; yes”. This is always listed as a girl’s name in baby name books, but the name Kai makes this name look masculine to me. I don’t see how the sound of it is any more “girly” than, say, Hezekiah. The meaning does not seem feminine either. I would say it is a unisex name, and suitable for a boy.

Kuparr

This means “red earth, burnt earth” in the Ngiyampaa language of New South Wales. It refers to the ochre used for making body paint for the Coroborees; the sacred ceremonies of Indigenous Australians involving ritual, dance and music. Red ochre is also used in other Aboriginal forms. Kuparr was the basis for the name of the mining town Cobar, and because copper was mined there, it has also been suggested that it may have been the local way of translating the word copper. Most likely the similarity between the words is a coincidence though. The attraction of this name is that it sounds a bit like Cooper. If you like the sound of Cooper but think it seems a bit boring or surnamey, Kuparr might be for you.

Miro

Miro (MEE-roh) is a Nyungar word for a type of spear thrower which propels the aim of the gidgee; a fearsome qaurtz-tipped spear about 8 feet long. Miro exists as a name or word in several other languages. It’s a Slavic name which is short for Miroslav, meaning “glorious peace”. In Japanese, it’s short for Miroku, a Japanese form of Maitreya, the fifth (future) incarnation of the Buddha. In New Zealand, it’s the name for a species of conifer tree. In Korea, it means “maze”. It’s also the surname of Spanish artist, Joan Miró i Ferrà (Joan was a man) – his surname was short for Ramiro, the Spanish form of a Germanic name meaning “famous counsel”. It’s very multicultural, and none of the meanings that I’ve seen are negative. I think it’s attractive. We had a baby boy in a recent birth announcement named Finn Joseph Miro, so it’s considered usable in Australia.

Monti

This is one of the Aboriginal names for the Black-necked Stork, which is found across the tropical north of Australia, and is the only stork species native to Australia. I have not been able to track down which language it is from, except that it’s not from the Northern Territory, where this bird is called a jabiru. It’s therefore either from Queensland or northern New South Wales, as the only other places where this bird exists. It’s listed as one of the Indigenous names by museums, so I feel fairly confident it’s authentic. The stork is mentioned in several Aboriginal legends, one of them an extremely touching love story. The attraction of this name is that it sounds exactly like the fashionable name Monty, but has its own significance.

Tarka

This means “eggshell” in the Kaurna language of South Australia. I thought of it because I have seen the name Tarka used in the birth announcements from the London Telegraph. It has a number of meanings in other contexts. There is a well-loved English children’s book called Tarka the Otter, so famous that it has given its name to a railway line and a bike path in the West Country. It was made into a film in the 1970s. In the book, Tarka’s name was meant to suggest the barking sound that an otter makes. In India, tarka is a word for seasoning added to a meal, and in Quechuan, a tarka is a type of flute played by the Indigenous people of the Andes. Tarka Cordell was a British musician who died in tragic circumstances a few years ago; I’m not sure where his name was taken from, or whether he is the inspiration for British children having Tarka as one of their names. This is the second name with the meaning of “eggshells” I have suggested; the other was Keid. Because eggshells appear so fragile, and yet are surprisingly strong under compression, I find this meaning very evocative.

Tau

Means “evening, dusk, twilight” in the Kaurna language of South Australia, and is said to rhyme with the word cow. In Maori, it can mean a number of different things, including “sweetheart”, “song, chant”, “string”, or “ridge”. In one of the Indigenous languages of Indonesia, it means “man”. In Samoan, it can mean “anchor” or “war”. It’s known to many people in the context of the Tau Cross, a symbol of life which was used by the Egyptians, and became important in a number of different religions and spiritual paths, including Christianity. I have met men named Tau, but I’m not sure which meaning was associated with their names. I think Tau fits in very well with other popular names for boys, such as Ty, Tai and Taj, and would be readily accepted.

Warragul

Warragul, pronounced WOHR-uh-guhl, is a town in the West Gippsland region of rural Victoria, the birthplace of legendary Aboriginal boxer Lionel Rose. Its name is said to come from a local word, warrigal, meaning either “wild” or “wild dog”, referring to the dingo. The dingo is Australia’s largest predator on land, and its ancestor is thought to have been introduced to Australia by seafarers from south east Asia thousands of years ago, when dogs were less domesticated and more closely related to wolves. Dingoes play a major role in Aboriginal myths and legends; in stories they are often guardians of humans who can warn them of the supernatural or evil spirits. There are also myths of dingo-people shapeshifters, or “were-dingoes”, and often the dingo in legends is a rebel or trickster figure. In everyday life, dingoes were tamed and kept in Aboriginal camps as guard dogs. They were treated with great affection, given names, slept with their human companions, and were even breastfed. At least sometimes they were buried alongside humans. I saw someone in a parenting forum say they had already used Warragul as a baby name.

Warrin

Warrin meant “winter, cold and frosty season” in one the language spoken around the Sydney region when Europeans first arrived. However, there are a number of similar words used throughout Indigenous languages. Warran or Warrung was the original name for the place we call Sydney Cove, and by extension, Sydney itself; it is said to mean “the other side [of the harbour]”. In the Brisbane area, Warun was a place name in the suburb now called Redcliffe; it may have meant “neck”. There are historical records of a man from south-west Queensland named Warun, so it was used as a personal name. In the Melbourne area, warun meant “eel” in the local language, a fish prized as a valuable food source; there is a suburb of Geelong named Warun Ponds. I have also seen the word warun translated to mean “diving ducks” in the Northern Territory. Baby name books translate Warun as meaning “sky”, but I don’t know which language they are deriving it from. From this I deduce that the English name Warren is the most “indigenous sounding” of our names, and perhaps it deserves a closer look.

(The photo is of young actor Brandon Walters, who starred in Baz Luhrman’s film, Australia).

Girls Names of Australian Aboriginal Origin

19 Sunday Feb 2012

Posted by in Name Themes and Lists

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It is not difficult to find little lists of Aboriginal words that can be used as personal names, accompanied by their purported meanings; what is harder is to ascertain their origins. Even reliable baby name books are content to say that such-and-such a name comes from “an Aboriginal language”, without specifying which one. Often it seems that no-one knows: as languages became extinct, certain words and phrases were recorded for posterity, without any knowledge of which peoples the words were spoken by, and perhaps even without an understanding that there were different Indigenous peoples.

Historian Watkin Tench, a British officer who arrived on the First Fleet, noted that many Aboriginal names and words sounded pleasing and even familiar to the ears of English speakers, and recorded that the chaplain’s wife was so taken with the name of an Aboriginal woman she met named Milba that she christened her own baby, born in the new colony, Milba Maria Johnson.

It’s therefore not a new phenomenon for non-indigenous people to use words from Aboriginal languages as personal names, although some people may find the idea inappropriate or disrespectful. I’ve chosen names very conservatively, tending to pick out ones that are already in common use as personal names, as place names, or as business and organisation names.

You should also be aware that a word from one language may mean something completely different in another part of the country, so you may believe your child’s name means “desert flower”, but someone who speaks a different language may tell you that it means “swamp” or “elbow”. Hopefully it won’t be anything worse than those.

Names from Aboriginal languages tend to be easy for us to spell and pronounce. Because Aboriginal languages were not written down, they are now spelled exactly as they sound. The emphasis is placed very much as it is in familiar names, so that Kalinda is kuh-LIN-da, just like Amanda or Samantha. That could very well be due to European influence; I’m not sure.

This is my first Name List done under my resolution to rely on failed Google searches for blog entry ideas. “Aboriginal baby names” has been Googled many times to get to my blog, but I never felt that I knew enough about the subject to devote a blog entry to it. I still don’t know enough, but I now realise that waiting until I do know enough may mean never doing it at all.

Allira

This name is a corruption of the word allirea meaning “clear crystal quartz” and comes from the languages from around the Melbourne area of Victoria. There are extensive quartz supplies in the area around Melbourne, and Aborigines would have mined them for spear and knife edges. Quartz crystal was also used in rain-making ceremonies, and was both practical and spiritual in nature. However, in the language of the Arrernte people from Alice Springs, Allira means “niece”, and there is a character from legend with this name. Allira is not infrequently used as a brand name, which may be one reason why so many spelling variants exist for it: Alira, Allyra, Aleera, Aleerah, and so on. Another is probably to make the pronunciation clearer – uh-LEER-uh. Allira is commonly used as a girl’s name in Australia. Prominent people called Allira include glamour model Allira Cohrs, and surf Ironwoman Allira Richardson.

Bindi

Bindi is said to mean “little girl” in an Aboriginal dialect, and that is how it seems to be understood by Indigenous people, although I cannot discover what dialect it is from. Famous people with the name include Bindi Irwin, the daughter of conservationist Steve Irwin, and Aboriginal artist Bindi Cole. In the Nyungar language from the area around Perth in Western Australia, bindi bindi means “butterfly”, and I can imagine using just one of the bindis to make a name. There was a West Australian Aboriginal activist in the early twentieth century called Daisy Bindi, and her surname was taken from a nickname given to her by her husband. Something that usually crops up in relation to this name is that bindi, or bindii, is also the name of different types of noxious weed. These have nasty prickles that get stuck in your feet, and I presume it means “horrible spiky things” in some Indigenous language. These are an introduced species though, so the name of the plant only dates to the mid 19th century. Bindi isn’t an unusual name for girls to have in Australia.

Lowanna

In the Gumbaynggir language from mid-north New South Wales, this means “girl”. There is a village near Coffs Harbour called Lowanna. In one of the dialects from Tasmania, it meant “woman”. I have seen Indigenous people translate it as “beauty” or “beautiful woman”, but do not know which languages they are drawing upon. There was a school story for girls from the 1920s about a rich, worldly girl called Lowanna Laurenson who ends up working in films in America, and this may have brought the name to people’s attention. It’s a popular name for businesses and organisations, and is also a type of strawberry. A prominent person with this name is Lowanna Gibson, a figure skater from an Indigenous background, but I’ve seen quite a few Aboriginal girls and women with this name.

Kalinda

According to Australian Aboriginal Words and Place Names and Their Meanings by Sydney J. Endacott (1955), this word means, “See!”, as if someone is exclaiming at something they have espied and wish to draw other’s attention to it. Endacott’s little book is a pamphlet which lists all the words and their meanings, but doesn’t give any further information about them or their origins. Baby name books gloss it as “a lookout”, and some add with a touch of imagination, “a lookout over the sea”. It’s commonly used as a place name and organisation name, and is popular as a name for houses which have a nice view. A prominent person with this name is Kalinda Griffiths, who last year won the Northern Territory Young Australian of the Year Award. Kalinda is of part-Aboriginal heritage, and is carrying out research in Indigenous health. There’s also a left-wing writer called Kalinda Ashton.

Kirra

Kirra Beach is the name of a seaside suburb on the Gold Coast in Queensland, and kirra is said to mean either “leaf” or “boomerang” in a local language. According to The Australian Race by Edward M. Curr, kirra means “white cockatoo”; this is another book which gives lists of words and meanings, with no indication of which language or origin they are from. In the Murri language of southern Queensland, kirra means “to live”. This is a well used name in Australia, because it fits in so well with popular name such as Keira; Kirra-Lee is a common double name, and you can see how this fits in with Kirrily. Prominent people named Kirra include artist Kirra Jamison, and photographer Kirra Prendergast (both are from Byron Bay).

Maya

Maya (MY-uh) means “house, home” in the Jiwarli language of Western Australia’s Kimberley region. However, there are a number of similar words in other languages to denote some kind of hut or shelter, including maya or mia in Nyungar, and mya, mai, and mimi amongst the peoples of Victoria around Melbourne (often duplicated into maya-maya, mia-mia etc). It may help to explain why the names Maya and Mia are so popular in Australia – they have a native sound to our ears.

Merindah

This word means “beautiful”, and seems to be from one of the languages around the Sydney area, although I’m not sure which one. Apart from being used as a girl’s name, it is often used as a place name or name for businesses and houses as well. It sounds very similar to the name Miranda. It’s common to spell it Mirinda; however in the Kaurna language from the Adelaide area of South Australia, mirinda means “leech”. Prominent people named Merindah include Merindah Donnelly, who was nominated for NSW Young Australian of the Year for her work promoting social justice for Indigenous people, and photographer Merindah Bernoth.

Merri

Merri Creek is in southern Victoria and joins the Yarra River, which flows through the city of Melbourne. The point where the creek and river meet was traditionally an important meeting place for the Wurundjeri people, and it is thought to be where an important treaty between Indigenous Australians and Europeans took place. Unfortunately, this creek was very badly treated, and became heavily polluted, but efforts are now being made to turn things around, with some promising results. Its name comes from the local phrase merri merri, “very rocky”; the doubling of a word is usually an intensifier in Indigenous languages. Although the meaning is not particularly feminine, it sounds similar to the name Mary, and of course exactly like the English word merry. If you like the sound of Merry, but worry it seems too light and frivolous, Merri gives it a little more oomph. The pollution aspect I admit is not appealing, but things are changing, and it is a testament to the resilience of nature. Merri is a surprisingly tough little name.

Rianna

This means “small caterpillar” in a Tasmanian dialect. Caterpillars are important in the mythology of some Aboriginal cultures, because they are the precursor to the butterfly, which is seen as a soul of the departed. I haven’t been able to find out if they were especially important to the Tasmanians, but they may very well have been used as a food source. I haven’t seen anyone use Rianna in this way, but it seems to me an attractive name with a rather sweet meaning that isn’t too cutesy or pretty-pretty.

Tarni

Tarni-warra is an onomatopoeic word to describe the sound of the surf in the Kaurna language of South Australia. Tarni is therefore taken to mean “surf, wave, breaker”, and is often assumed to be one of the influences upon the name Tahnee. I can’t confirm that, but Tarni Warra is a common name for houses on or near the beach, and Tarni is used as a place and business name as well as a personal name. Prominent people named Tarni include ice hockey player Tarni Loreggian, and Tarni Carter who sings with rock band Radio Flyer, but it’s not difficult to find Australian women and girls with this name. It does not seem to be heavily used by Indigenous people.

Famous Name: Magda

15 Wednesday Feb 2012

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Yesterday was Saint Valentine’s Day, a day for thinking about love and marriage, and for declaring your true feelings. It was the day that film and TV star Magda Szubanski chose to come out on national television and identify herself as “absolutely gay” to Channel 10’s The Project.

Although her family, friends and colleagues have known this for a long time, it has never before been made public knowledge. It was obviously something important that would make her decide to share this aspect of her life with the public after so many years, and in a statement to newspapers yesterday in support of Australians for Marriage Equality, Magda made an impassioned plea for gay marriage to be legalised.

“The law means that you could be a serial killer and have killed all of your spouses and yet you would still be considered fit to marry,” she said. “But if you are gay, then you are not worthy of these same rights.”

Her “coming out” comes a day after two separate bills to legalise same-sex marriage were introduced in federal parliament. Magda made it clear that she is currently single, and not expecting to get married any time soon.

Now aged fifty, Magda has been delighting audiences since her university days. A gifted comedienne, she created a number of memorable characters for television sketch shows such as ditzy sports reporter Pixie-Anne Wheatley, heavily made-up infomercial saleswoman Chenille, penny-pinching whiskey-swilling Scot, Mary Macgregor, and vile mother Lynne Postlethwaite.

On the popular sit-com Kath and Kim, Magda played netball nerd, Sharon Strzelecki, who was often the butt of her friend Kim’s jibes. As well as hosting several of her own shows, Magda has had roles in Hollywood films such as Babe, Happy Feet and The Golden Compass, and sci-fi TV show Farscape. The public have voted her Most Popular Comedy Personality three times at the Logie Awards, and she has won an AFI Award for her role on Kath and Kim.

In 2003 and 2004 she was voted the most recognisable Australian personality, which helped her become spokesperson for a number of companies, most recently, weight-loss company Jenny Craig, through which she lost 36 kg. Despite being overweight, she has always been a strong and energetic person who enjoys being active.

The Australian public love her for her quick wit, sense of fun, and lively personality, her enormous smile that lights up her face and her big loud infectious laugh. We love her most when she is unselfconsciously being herself, and Magda has been overwhelmed by the public support she has received since coming out yesterday.

Magda’s name is short for her full name Magdalene, which is the title of Saint Mary Magdalene. Mary Magdalene was a very important disciple of Jesus in the New Testament, and the only person privileged to first see the arisen Christ. The Catholic church places her on a short list of saints declared to be “equal to the Apostles”.

Traditionally, her name is said to mean that Mary came from the village of Magdala, which means “tower, fortress” in Hebrew. However, in Aramaic magdala means “high, great, magnificent”, so it’s possible her name was supposed to be “Mary the Great”. I have also seen the suggestion that the name was meant to denote that physically Mary Magdalene was taller than average.

Magda is a pet name commonly used in central and eastern Europe, and although she was born in England and her mum is Scottish, Magda’s father is from Poland, and was in the Polish Resistance during World War II.

Magda is a strong and beautiful name which has cultural ties to Europe, and honours one of the most prominent early Christian women. It also has the familiar nicknames Maddie and Maggie. However, like Edna and Ita, Magda Szubanski is very famous and has such a distinctive name that we would know her from her first name alone. Does her fame overpower the name, I wonder?

Short news report on Magda’s announcement:

Famous Names: Michael and Jane

04 Saturday Feb 2012

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It’s been a satisfying summer of test cricket for Australia, as we convincingly trounced India in all four matches. One nice thing is that we played on January 26, which is not only Australia Day, but also Independence Day in India, so we shared our national days.

One of the highlights was team captain Michael Clarke scoring a triple hundred, modestly declaring on 329, just a few runs shy of Don Bradman’s top score of 334. It was the 100th test match to be played at the Sydney Cricket Ground, and Clarke’s score was both the highest ever in an Australia vs India test series, and the highest ever at the SCG. He followed up the triple century with a double century in Adelaide.

The name Michael is from Hebrew, and is translated as “who is like God?” – a rhetorical question with the obvious answer of “No-one is like God”. It is therefore a symbol of humility. In the Bible, Michael is an archangel, and very important in both Jewish and Christian traditions. In the Old Testament, he is said to be the protector of Israel, and in the New Testament Michael is the leader of the angelic hosts who defeat Satan in a war in Heaven. Michael is also mentioned in the Koran.

Michael is venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox faiths; he is a patron of the military and also the sick and suffering. Some Protestant denominations believe he is identical with either Jesus or Adam. He has made a number of apparitions, including, according to legend, at St Michael’s Mount in Cornwall, and Mont Saint Michel in Normandy.

Michael has long been popular in Ireland (it’s currently #12 there), and considered to be a typically Catholic name – so much so that Mick is disparaging slang for a Roman Catholic of Irish descent.  We also say taking the Mickey or taking the mick, which is Cockney rhyming slang from “Mickey Bliss” ie “taking the piss” (to tease or mock).

Michael is a classic name which has never been out of the Top 100. It was #44 in the 1900s, reached its lowest point in the 1920s at #66, peaked in the 1970s at #1, and is currently #38.

Unbelievably, as Michael Clarke hit his record-breaking triple century, he had no sponsorship on his bat, having just been dumped by a cash-strapped Dunlop Slazenger. The only markings on his bat were promotional stickers for Jane McGrath Day, or Pink Stumps Day.

Jane McGrath was the first wife of former cricket player Glenn McGrath; an English air hostess prior to marriage, she became an Australian citizen on Australia Day 2002. That was the same year she and Glenn founded the McGrath Foundation to raise money for breast cancer. She died in 2008 after battling breast cancer for more than a decade; she was 42 years old.

The McGrath Foundation has raised more than $12 million, and the third day of the first test match at the SCG each year is Jane McGrath Day. The stands are filled with tens of thousands of fans wearing pink to show their support, many guys sporting Real Men Wear Pink signs, and over a million dollars is expected to be raised by cricket clubs.

Jane is a feminine form of John, an Anglicisation of Old French Jehanne. Although in use since the Middle Ages, it only became the standard form in the 17th century after being taken up by the aristocracy; until then, Joan was the more common name. Plain Jane is 20th century slang for an average or ordinary looking woman, which must have irritated many a Jane over the years.

Jane peaked in the 1960s at #33, was out of the Top 100 by the 1990s, and quite recently dropped off the rankings altogether. Its real success is probably as a middle name.

Note: Michael Clarke later gained sponsorship by a little-known sporting goods company from Wollongong named Spartan.

Waltzing with … Skyler

29 Sunday Jan 2012

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This post was first published on January 29 2012, and heavily revised on February 10 2016.

Tomorrow school goes back in three different states and territories (Queensland has already been back a week), which means that the summer holidays are drawing to a close. I chose this name as suitable for the start of term, thanks to its educational meaning.

Name Information
Skyler is a variant of Schuyler; a Dutch surname of German origin meaning “scholar”, said SKIE-luh. This name was brought to what is now the United States by Dutch colonists, who settled in the east during the 17th century.

The Schuylers were a prominent New York family. Pieter Schuyler was the first mayor of Albany in New York, and a commander of the British forces at the Battle of La Prairie, near Montreal. His descendants were numerous and distinguished, including his grand-nephew Philip Schuyler, who was a general in the American Revolution and Senator for the state of New York. It is said that the first use of the names Schuyler and Skyler was in honour of this family.

Schuyler has only appeared on the US Top 1000 a smattering of times. It shows up first at the beginning of the twentieth century, and then again between the mid 1980s and mid 1990s, only charting as a male name, and never getting higher than the bottom of the Top 1000. Currently Schuyler is almost equally given to both sexes in the US – 17 girls and 15 boys last year.

Famous people with the name include Schuyler Colefax, the 17th US Vice-President, who was a distant cousin of Philip Schuyler, and Schuyler Wheeler, inventor of the electric fan. Schuyler has been chosen as a baby name by actors Michael J. Fox and Sissy Spacek – both times for daughters. The name is barely used outside the United States, and pronunciation would be a puzzle to most.

During the 1940s and 1950s there was a popular American radio and television series called Sky King, about an Arizona rancher and pilot called Schuyler “Sky” King. During the 1950s, the spelling variant Skyler begins showing up in the data. It’s tempting to imagine that people tuned into the show, and began spelling the name as it sounded, or in such a way as to make the nickname Sky more obvious.

Skyler joined the US Top 1000 in 1981 for boys, and for girls in 1990 – it began showing up in data as a girls name in the late 1970s, so it had a brisk rise as a girls name. Skyler peaked for boys in 1996 at #217, and is currently #351. For girls, it peaked in 2000 at #250, and is currently #302.

Famous Skylers include Skyler Green, a footballer who played for the Dallas Cowboys in the NFL, and actress Skyler Samuels, who played Gigi on Wizards of Waverley Place. A fictional Skyler is Skyler White from the TV series Breaking Bad, played by Anna Gunn. Fashion stylist Rachel Zoe has a son named Skyler.

In the UK, Skyler has charted for boys and girls since the late 1990s. Currently it is #406 for girls, while in 2014, there were 13 boys named Skyler. It is rising rapidly for both sexes.

Rising alongside Skyler is the variant Skylar. While it has never been higher for boys in the US than the 300s, and is currently #635, it is Top 100 for girls, being #48 and rising. A famous namesake is American singer and songwriter Skylar Grey, born Holly Hafermann – her stage name a reference to mysterious “grey skies”.

In the UK, Skylar is #212 for girls and rising steeply. It is occasionally used for boys, and in 2014 there were 5 baby boys named Skylar.

There are also spelling variants of Skyler/Skylar which are specifically feminine. Skyla is #531 in the US, #156 and rising in the UK, and in 2012 made the Top 100 in New Zealand. It is much more popular than Skylah, but that is rising rapidly as well.

Skyla and Skylah are much more common in Australia than any other spellings of Skyler, and the numbers in the UK and New Zealand suggest that this spelling makes the most sense for someone with a British/Commonwealth accent. I estimate that if Skyla and Skylah were added together, the name would be in the Australian Top 100 by now, or very close to it, while other spelling variants are extremely rare for either sex.

You can see that if all the different spellings of Skyler were added up, it would be an extremely common name in the English speaking world. So Skyla or Skylah may not be an original choice for girl, but a boy named Skyler would stand out in Australia. Some of the other spelling variants would be worth considering, although I think Schuyler will cause more problems than it is worth.

By now this name has become almost completely divorced from its true meaning, and we now connect it with such things as clear or cloudy skies, free-wheeling flight, and the wild blue yonder. The obvious nicknames are Sky and Skye, and it fits in with names like Shyla, Myla, Kayla, Kai, and Tyler. Its sound is at least part of the reason for its success.

POLL RESULTS
As a girl’s name Skyler received an approval rating of 52%. 38% of people thought it seemed okay, although only 5% of people actually loved it.

Skyler had a lower approval rating as a boy’s name, at 46%. 28% disliked Skyler on a boy, and only 4% loved it.

The favoured spelling of the name was Skyler, with 37% of the vote, although Schuyler was not far behind on 33%. The least popular was Skyla, which only one person voted for.

(Photo is of the NSW Schoolhouse Museum of Education in Sydney)

Famous Name: Edna

28 Saturday Jan 2012

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Famous Name: Australia

26 Thursday Jan 2012

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FAMOUS PLACE
Today is Australia Day, which commemorates the landing of the First Fleet in Sydney Cove on January 26 1788. The date was first celebrated by emancipated convicts and their families, who had grown to love their new land, and identified themselves as Australian rather than British. It was the popular Governor Lachlan Macquarie who first declared it an official holiday in New South Wales.

When you think about it, it’s a funny date to choose for our national public holiday, because the landing of the First Fleet wasn’t the foundation of Australia, or even the foundation of Sydney or New South Wales (which took place on February 7 1788). It would be more logical to celebrate Federation Day, the day in 1901 when all the colonies were united, and we were given the right to self-govern – our Independence Day, in fact.

Unfortunately, the worthy bureaucrats who helped forge us into one nation chose the most bureaucratically sensible day to begin our independence – January 1. Apparently they never thought we might have something else to celebrate on that date: a little thing called New Year’s Day.

Despite other days being suggested, in the end we stuck with January 26, and by 1935, it had been called Australia Day. It wasn’t until 1994 that it was accepted by all state and been made a national public holiday.

It’s the biggest celebration in Australia, but is also a controversial one, as it is a celebration of European arrival in Australia – a narrative which ignores our Indigenous history and culture. Let’s hope we can find a way to make Australia Day a holiday to bring us all together and include all Australians.

NAME INFORMATION
Even before anyone knew Australia existed, there was Terra Australis Incognita (Latin for “unknown southern land”). The ancients hypothesised that there must be a land mass in the south to balance all the land in the north.

This idea persisted into the Renaissance, and it began showing up on maps as Terra Australis or Australia, even though it was fictitious. Travellers’ tales of actually reaching this land, or at least seeing it in the distance or hearing about it down the pub, resulted in the British government ordering Captain James Cook to investigate.

It was discovered that this mammoth land-mass, envisaged as stretching from South America and including Antarctica, just didn’t exist. There were lots of small countries and islands, and there was Australia, which is biggish, but by no means a great super-continent covering most of the southern hemisphere. Being the biggest thing they managed to find, it was decided the place we live now must be Terra Australis, or at least be given the name of that legendary land.

It was explorer Matthew Flinders who pushed for the name Australia as early as 1804, and in his charts, notes that the sound of Australia “is more agreeable to the ear”. The term gradually caught on, and once again the enlightened Lachlan Macquarie stepped in, and recommended that the name be formally adopted, which the British Admiralty agreed to in 1824. (You can see why the name Lachlan has prospered).

Australia has been occasionally used as a personal name since the 19th century, and has been nearly always given to girls – as a middle name it is more gender-flexible. It is very rarely given to babies today, even in the middle.

In Australia the name would have been bestowed for patriotic reasons, while in other nations it is not possible to be certain that the name had anything to do with the country at all. In Latin America, for example, the name could have been given simply from the Spanish or Portuguese for “southern”, while in the US it could have at least sometimes been from the Latin for “south”.

Australia is probably the most patriotic name you could choose, and it certainly makes a statement. It’s a part of history – not just our history, but world history and ancient history. It was chosen by Lachlan Macquarie and judged aurally pleasing by Matthew Flinders. It has classical etymology, and it’s a name for a nation that rose out of legend.

Names of Convicts on the Second Fleet

22 Sunday Jan 2012

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

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

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

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

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

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

WOMEN

Dorcas (Talbot)

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

Isabella (Manson, aka Isabella Smith)

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

Phoebe (Williams)

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

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

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

Violetta (Atkins)

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

MEN

Ephraim (Lindsay)

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

Janus (Everard)

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

Ormond (Burcham)

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

Traverse (Spileye)

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

Uriel (Barrah, aka Uziel Baruch)

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

Names of Convicts on the First Fleet

15 Sunday Jan 2012

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

WOMEN

Deborah (Elam/Ellam/Elias)

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

Dorothy (Handland aka Dorothy Gray)

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

Flora (Lara/Larah, aka Laura Zarah)

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

Lydia (Munro, aka Letitia Munro)

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

Rachel (Earley/Early/HurleyHarley/Arrly)

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

MEN

Barnaby (Denison/Dennison/Deneson)

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

Cooper (Handy/Handley/Henley)

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

Ferdinand (Dowland/Dowlan/Doolan)

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

Ishmael (Colman)

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

Job (Hollister)

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

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