Famous Name: Elvis

14 Saturday Jan 2012

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Famous Names: Tully and Yasi

07 Saturday Jan 2012

Posted by A.O. in Famous Names

≈ 8 Comments

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Australian name trends, created names, cyclone names, famous namesakes, Fijian names, Game of Thrones names, Irish names, locational names, name history, name meaning, names of rivers, nature names, pen names, rare names, Roman names, surname names, tree names, UK name popularity, unisex names, US name popularity

This blog entry was first posted on January 7 2012, and revised and republished on August 31 2016.

TULLY
On January 3, the town of Tully in Queensland celebrated the upgrade of its famous Golden Gumboot, which was damaged by Cyclone Yasi nearly a year ago. The tourist attraction is a 7.9 metre (26 feet) high gumboot, painted gold, built to commemorate the town’s 1950 highest recorded annual rainfall level of 7.9 metres (310 inches), earning Tully the distinction of being Australia’s wettest town.

When the Golden Gumboot was re-opened, it had received a fresh coat of paint and a new viewing platform. Fittingly, it rained heavily throughout the ceremony.

The town of Tully is named after the nearby Tully River, which received its name from Surveyor-General William Alcock Tully. William Tully was originally from Dublin, and arrived in Hobart as religious instructor on a convict ship in 1850 before embarking on a career of conscientious public service.

Tully is an Anglicised form of an Irish surname, originally MacTully, and having a host of variants, which is often derived from tuile, the Gaelic word for “flood”. Another theory is that it has been mistranslated from toile, meaning “will” (as in the will to keep going). However, some Tullys are so convinced of the first interpretation that they have hyper-Anglicised their surname to Flood.

The meaning of “flood” is very appropriate for the name of a river, and a town famous for its sogginess. In Game of Thrones, the Tully family is one of the Great Houses and as it is the principal house in the Riverlands and their ancestral home is Riverrun, perhaps George R.R. Martin also had the Irish surname and meaning in mind.

Tully has been used as a personal name since the late 18th century. Although the name can be found in early records from Ireland, it seems to have been more frequently used in the United States.

One inspiration for it may have been the Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, who wrote patriotic pamphlets under the pen name Tully – in his case, a reference to the Roman philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero, whose name was occasionally Anglicised to Tully. The Tullia took their surname from the legendary Roman king Servius Tullius; the name is so ancient we do not know its meaning.

Tully has never been a common name. Last year in the US there were 8 boys named Tully with no girls listed with the name since 2013. In the UK the name has been in sporadic use, and in 2014 there were 4 baby boys named Tully. No girls are listed as having been given the name since 2009.

In Australia I have seen a roughly equal number of boys and girls with this name, and the name may be more evenly unisex here than elsewhere. One boost to the name for girls is women’s basketball champion Tully Bevilaqua, and after the attractive but controversial Tully Smyth competed on Big Brother in 2013, I heard many Australian parents refer to Tully as a “girl’s name”. Perhaps more importantly, it fits with the Australian trend for female names with a T-L pattern, such as Talia, Tilly, and Tallina.

YASI
The town of Tully was one of the worst affected by Cyclone Yasi, which hit the coast of northern Queensland early in the morning on February 3 2011. The town suffered extensive damage to its main street, and the area’s banana crops were completely flattened. Because Cyclone Yasi originated in Fiji, it was a Fijian cyclone forecaster called Misaeli Funaki who chose its name.

If you think naming a baby is difficult, spare a thought for the meteorologists who name cyclones. The cyclone had to start with Y, and nobody could think of an appropriate name for either gender.

So Mr Funaki suggested Yasi, which is the Fijian word for “sandalwood”. It didn’t have a history as a personal name in Fiji, but with no other candidates, his nomination was accepted by the ruling UN body. And so a new name was created.

Sandalwood is a tree with fragrant wood native to Asia and the Pacific. Australia has a sandalwood industry; the tree’s oil is used to make incense, soaps and cosmetics. Its antibacterial properties make it excellent as a skin cleanser, and Australian Aborigines eat its fruit as a bush food. Sandalwood is also used in the rituals of several eastern religions.

Yasi is neither used for boys or girls in Fiji. The cyclone forecasters were looking for a male name when they chose it, but they often resort to unisex names, and probably meant Yasi to be one. It’s commonly said to rhyme with Darcy, but seems to be more correctly pronounced YAH-zee.

During Cyclone Yasi, one doctor was apparently very keen for all babies born during the cyclone to be named Yasi, but there is no record of anyone following his advice. However you can find people around the world with the name Yasi, mostly female – perhaps a short form of names such Yasmin.

These are two short unisex names important to Australia’s history, especially connected with Queensland, rain, and storms. Tully is uncommon, but not unheard of, while Yasi is a true rarity, but not unusable.

POLL RESULTS
Tully received a very good approval rating of 70%. 46% of people thought it was a good name, while not one person hated it. Yasi was far less popular, with an approval rating of 22%. 53% of people weren’t keen on the name, and only one person loved it.

(Photo shows the Golden Gumboot in Tully, Queensland)

Waltzing with … Sunniva

25 Sunday Dec 2011

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

≈ 13 Comments

Tags

Anglo-Saxon names, Christmas names, name history, name meaning, name popularity, nicknames, saints names, scandinavian names

This blog post was originally published on December 25 2011, and revised and re-posted on December 23 2015.

From the very start I knew that I would have a name profile due on Christmas Day, and began thinking of suitable names for girls. Because Christmas is just after the Summer Solstice in Australia, and because Christmas is on a Sunday this year, I kept coming back to one name: Sunniva.

This lovely name is the Scandinavian form of the Anglo-Saxon Sunngifu, which means “gift of the sun”. As Christmas is a time for sharing gifts, and Australian Christmases can often be hot and sunny, and Christmas 2011 is on the Sun’s own day, it seemed perfect.

The story of Sunniva is one fraught with drama and high adventure. According to legend, there was once a 10th century Irish princess called Sunngifu, a virgin and very devout Christian. When her land was invaded by a pagan king who wished to marry her, she made a brave and rather desperate decision to escape. Along with a group of loyal companions, amongst them her brother Alban, she fled in a ship without oars or sails, trusting their destination to God.

After a few hairy encounters with Vikings, the pious company settled on the island of Selje, off the coast of Norway. They moved into an empty cave, and supported themselves with fishing and gathering wild foods, living a life of austerity and holiness. If you live in a comfortable house with a supermarket just down the road, this might sound a bit eccentric or at least cold and dismal, but Irish saints had a long and rich tradition of taking themselves off to remote windswept islands to worship in peace, so Sunniva and her crew were pretty normal by the standards of their time and place.

Unfortunately, the locals on the mainland believed these peaceful cave-dwellers were rustling their sheep and chowing down on ill-gotten roast mutton rather than the simple viands of nature. They came after them, intending to murder them as payback. Sunngifu and her company prayed to God to save them from the angry Norsemen. When the armed band arrived on the island, they found nobody there, and the cave sealed by a landslide. None of the exiles were ever seen alive again.

(This story may remind Australian readers both of Waltzing Matilda, with the accused sheep-thief preferring death to punishment by the authorities, and Picnic at Hanging Rock, which also ends with a mysterious disappearance in a cave which seals itself.)

Many years later, after reports of an unearthly light and heavenly fragrance in the area, King Olaf Tryggvason ordered that the cave be opened. Sunngifu’s body was found unharmed by the landslide and incorrupted, and as this was a clear sign of sainthood, King Olaf had a church built in her honour. Her relics were moved to Bergen Cathedral, where they performed another miracle by halting a fire (these useful relics disappeared at some point, unfortunately).

She became known in Scandinavia as Saint Sunniva, and is Norway’s first female saint. Saint Sunniva is the patron of Bergen, and the west coast of Norway. Her feast day is July 8 – appropriately enough, at the height of the northern hemisphere summer. The island of Selje is a place of pilgrimage, and you may see there the ruins of a Benedictine monastery dedicated to the saint, called Selje Abbey.

Sunniva has been well used as a girl’s name in Scandinavia, and is currently #68 in Norway, although falling in popularity, as it peaked at #32 in 2000.

Sunniva is pronounced SOON-ee-vah, but some people prefer to say it SUN-ee-va. Other popular pronunciations are soon-EE-va and sun-EE-va. You could also pronounce it soon-IE-va or sun-IE-va.

Sunniva has a happy meaning, well suited to summer and a land of sunshine. It provides good ties with our English, Irish and Norwegian heritages (we have several popular celebrities of Norwegian ancestry, and bush poet Henry Lawson’s father was from Norway). It’s an unusual name in Australia, but doesn’t sound particularly strange, and isn’t hard to spell or pronounce, once you work out which pronunciation you’d like.

Attractive nicknames for Sunniva include Sue, Susie, Sunny, Eve, Eva, Evie, Neva, Neve, and Zuzu.

POLL RESULT
Sunniva received an approval rating of 81%, making it one of the highest-rated names of 2011. 30% of people loved the name Sunniva, while only one person hated it.

(Picture is from the cover of Emma’s Secret by Steena Holmes)

Boys Names from Stars and Constellations

18 Sunday Dec 2011

Posted by A.O. in Name Themes and Lists

≈ 21 Comments

Tags

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

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

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

Altair

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

Asterion

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

Atlas

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

Garnet

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

Keid

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

Kio

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

Leo

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

Nash

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

Orion

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

Perseus

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

Phoenix

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

Sirius

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

Girls Names From Stars and Constellations

11 Sunday Dec 2011

Posted by A.O. in Name Themes and Lists

≈ 32 Comments

Tags

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

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

Alya

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

Andromeda

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

Capella

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

Carina

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

Gemma

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

Lucy

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

Lyra

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

Maia

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

Mimosa

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

Mira

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

Talitha

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

Vega

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

Famous Name: Douglas

03 Saturday Dec 2011

Posted by A.O. in Famous Names

≈ 22 Comments

Tags

aristocratic surnames, famous namesakes, locational names, name history, name meaning, name popularity, name trends, names of rivers, nicknames, Scottish names, surname names, UK name popularity, unisex names, US name popularity

This blog post was first published on December 3 2011, and substantially revised and reposted on December 10 2015.

Famous Namesake
Yesterday marked one hundred years since the Australasian Antarctic Expedition set sail from Hobart in the SY Aurora on December 2, 1911. It arrived at an unexplored region of Antarctica on January 8, 1912, and set up base camp. The site proved to be unrelentingly windy, with constant blizzards that made things hellish for the intrepid explorers.

Douglas Mawson was one of the leaders on the expedition. A geologist and lecturer from the University of Adelaide, he had been asked to join Robert Scott’s British expedition to find the South Pole (Scott was famously beaten to the punch by Norwegian Roald Amundsen). Mawson turned him down, as he thought it would be better to take his own team, and lead an expedition to the unexplored bits of Antarctica, which was most of it.

Douglas was part of a three-man sledging team called the Far-Eastern Party, which included Belgrave Ninnis, the son of a British arctic explorer, and Swiss mountaineer Xavier Mertz.

The group was making excellent progress when Ninnis fell into a snow-covered crevasse that the other two men crossed without incident; he took with him six huskies, a tent, most of the food and other essential supplies, and was never seen again. The glacier they were traversing is now called Ninnis Glacier in his honour.

Mawson and Mertz continued their frozen nightmare, forced to eat their huskies to supplement their scant rations. Although both men were unwell, Mertz became seriously ill and died in less than a week. It is thought that he may have died of an overdose of Vitamin A from eating husky liver, which Mawson solicitously fed him, in the fond belief that he was giving Mertz the best of the provisions.

Other theories are that Mertz died from hypothermia, from the shock of eating meat after being a vegetarian, or from the psychological stresses of the journey – especially the death of Ninnis, as the two men had been exceptionally good friends.

In the days before he died, Mertz became weak, exhausted, dizzy and delirious, even biting off the tip of one of his own fingers. He had dysentery, nausea, and stomach pain; his skin peeled away and his hair fell out – not surprisingly, another of his symptoms was depression. Whatever he died from, his demise caused him terrible suffering.

Douglas Mawson sledged the last 100 miles alone, falling into a crevasse on the way and having to climb out using the harness, only to see the boat he was to have returned on disappearing over the horizon. He had to spend another year in Antarctica.

Douglas was knighted in 1914 and The American Geographical Society awarded him a medal in 1916. The work he did was ground-breaking, and led to Australia getting its own portion of Antarctica, from where we still do important research.

For decades Sir Douglas Mawson was regarded unquestioningly as a hero, and his image is on the snow-white Australian $100 note. More recently his part in the expedition has been scrutinised, and attracted criticism. However there is no doubting his strength, courage, and determination to survive against all odds. He is remembered as an enthusiastic and kind man who never boasted of his remarkable exploits.

Name Information
Douglas is an Anglicisation of Scottish surname Dubhghlas meaning “dark river”. It originally belonged to the Douglas Water, which is a river in South Lanarkshire in southern Scotland. On its shores is a village named Douglas after the river, and the Douglas family took the village’s name as their surname when they moved here in the 12th century.

The Clan Douglas was one of the most powerful families of Scotland in the Middle Ages, often holding the real power behind the throne. The heads of the House of Douglas held the titles of the Earl of Douglas and the Earl of Angus, sometimes known as the Black Douglas and the Red Douglas. Their family estate was Castle Douglas, which Sir Walter Scott fictionalised as Castle Dangerous in his novel of the same name.

The Douglases are said to be descended from a Flemish knight, and fought with William Wallace and Rober the Bruce in the Wars of Independence. Sir James Douglas was the first to be labelled the Black Douglas by the English for what they considered his dark deeds: it was a title taken up with pride. The Douglases intermarried with the House of Stuart, gaining a royal connection.

The Douglases became so powerful they were seen as a threat. In 1440 the teenaged William Douglas, the 16th Earl of Douglas, and his younger brother were invited to dine with the ten-year-old King James I of Scotland. While they ate, a black bull’s head – symbol of death – was placed before the young earl. The Douglas boys were then dragged outside, given a mock trial and beheaded, so Clan Douglas lay siege to Edinburgh Castle. Called the Black Dinner, it is the inspiration for the Red Wedding in Game of Thrones.

Douglas has been used as a personal name at least since the 16th century, and seemingly originates in England rather than Scotland. It was originally a unisex name, given equally to boys and girls, and by the 17th century was primarily a female name. A famous example is Douglas Sheffield, Baroness Sheffield, who had an affair with Robert Dudley, the favourite of Queen Elizabeth I, and had a son by him. In the 18th century Douglas became more common for males than females, so this is an example of a name that went from the girls to the boys.

The name is a traditional one in the Hamilton family, which married into the Douglases in the 17th century; although the Hamiltons’ surname is now Hamilton-Douglas, they are actually Douglases by descent. The head of Clan Douglas today is the Duke of Hamilton, Alexander Douglas Douglas-Hamilton.

Douglas was #59 in the 1900s, and peaked in the 1920s at #28, during the career peak of actor Douglas Fairbanks, known as The King of Hollywood in that era. It remained on the Top 100 until the 1970s, and disappeared from the charts in 2010, although returning the following year. It is apparently now in rare use.

In the US Douglas has always been on the Top 1000. It was on the Top 100 from the end of the 1920s to the end of the 1980s. It peaked in 1942 at #23 – two wartime namesakes are General Douglas Macarthur, and Douglas Fairbanks son, Douglas Fairbanks Jr, who became a highly decorated naval officer. It is currently #598 and falling.

In the UK, Douglas was on the Top 100 from the 1880s to the 1970s, peaking in the 1920s. Although it got as low as 508 in 2008, it has been climbing ever since, and is now #276. A current famous namesake is the handsome British actor Douglas Booth.

Douglas is a strong and rugged sounding classic name that is no longer in fashion, but still in use. British trends suggest that it is due for a comeback, and thanks to Douglas Booth, perhaps we can once again see Douglas as a romantic, dashing name, as it was in the 1920s because of Douglas Fairbanks. The nickname Doug seems very dated, but Dougie is cute, and even Gus seems possible.

POLL RESULTS
Douglas received an approval rating of 49%. 22% of people thought it wasn’t ready for a comeback, and 15% saw it as dorky and nerdy, although 17% saw it as strong and rugged. In contrast, 10% of people thought it was ready for a comeback, and saw it as a hip choice most parents weren’t clued into yet.

Famous Names: Barack

19 Saturday Nov 2011

Posted by A.O. in Famous Names

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

African names, Arabic names, Australian Aboriginal names, famous namesakes, hebrew names, name history, name meaning, name popularity, names of horses, rare names, surname names, Swahili names, UK name popularity, US name popularity

This blog post was first published on November 19 2011, and substantially rewritten and re-posted on November 19 2015.

Famous Namesake
This year is the sixtieth anniversary of the ANZUS Treaty, the military alliance which binds Australia to the United States. Partly to commemorate this occasion, the President of the United States, Mr Barack Obama, made a brief two-day stopover trip to Australia on his way to Bali. He is the fifth American president to visit Australia since Lyndon Johnson arrived in 1966.

Spending two days in Canberra and Darwin, capital cities of our two Territories, he made an address to Parliament, laid a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and paid his respects to the 89 US sailors who perished aboard the USS Peary after being bombed by the Japanese in Darwin Harbour in 1942. It was also announced that a US military base would be stationed in Darwin.

Handsome and charismatic, with a constant friendly smile, the President could not help but make himself popular. Mr Obama has the charm and good manners that we tend to think of as very American, and he made lots of pleasant jokes about Australian slang and the Australian accent, while expressing his fondness for the nation and its people (and no fondness at all for Vegemite, which is an acquired taste).

While in Canberra, he made a visit to a high school and hugged an excited young girl. “He’s so kind … and warm,” she exclaimed. That’s how Barack Obama came across – kind, warm, genuine, funny, and very charming.

Note: President Obama made another visit to Australia in 2014, when he attended the G-20 summit in Brisbane. He gave a speech to students at the University of Queensland, which received thunderous applause from a young audience unused to hearing political leaders talk about climate change and gender equality.

Name Information
Barack is a Swahili variant of the Arabic word barak meaning “blessed”. The name comes from a Semitic root meaning “to kneel down”, with connotations of someone receiving a benediction while on bended knee. In Islam, the related term barakah (“blessing”) means a continuous spiritual presence and revelation providing a flow of blessings and grace to those close to God, such as saints and holy people.

The name is sometimes confused with the Hebrew name Barak, meaning “shining, lightning”. In the Old Testament, Barak was a military commander. In Arabic the equivalent word for “lightning” is buraq – you can see it in the name Al-Buraq, the mystical horse who took the prophet Muhammad on his Night Journey to the heavens on a journey between Jerusalem and Mecca and back.

The Hebrew equivalent of Barack is Baruch, meaning “blessed”. It is related to the Hebrew word berakhah, meaning “benediction, blessing”. In Judaism, berakhah is a blessing or thanksgiving given before enjoying or performing certain acts; for example, before eating: it acknowledges God as the source of all blessings. Baruch can be Latinised as the name Benedict, which is why the Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza, who was Jewish, is often known to us as Benedict Spinoza.

As both Arabic and Hebrew are Semitic languages, it is easy to see how such confusion arises over similar or even identical-looking names.

By coincidence, Barak is also an Australian name. The famous Aboriginal spokesman William Barak (sometimes known as King Billy) took his surname from his tribal name of Beruk, meaning “white grub in gum tree”.

President Obama was named after his father, Barack Obama Sr, who was a senior economist in the Kenyan government during the 1960s. Mr Obama Sr was raised in a Muslim family, but was converted to Christianity at the age of six while attending a missionary school.

Apparently his original name was Baraka (from the Islamic term for spiritual blessings and grace), but he changed his name to Barack to avoid the overtly religious connotations of his name. I’m not sure how valid a conversion is in such a young child (it sounds almost coerced), but in any case it didn’t take, and Mr Obama became an atheist. His son did become a Christian, however.

The name Barack has never charted in the United States. Last year 11 babies were named Barack, a number which has decreased since 69 being born in 2009 – the year that Barack Obama Jr became President of the United States. In the year before President Obama’s presidential campaign, just 5 babies were named Barack.

Barack can only be found in British data between 2008 and 2010, peaking in 2009 at 17 births. I haven’t found any Baracks in Australian data, but based on international trends, it may have had a small spike in 2009.

Barack must be the most interesting of the American presidents’ names, and has at least busted the myth that you need a “presidential-style” name to become president of the United States (something like Ulysses or Grover, I presume).

One of its biggest issues as a baby name must be that it is so closely tied to the current US president, and may feel like a “one person name” – especially considering the name’s unique family history.

It could also be confused with similar names, and the pronunciation is something of an issue: although I understand it as buh-RAHK, I have heard it said it in a variety of ways by overseas commentators, including Burrock and Barrack. However, this is a strong handsome name with a nice meaning that will certainly stand out from the crowd.

NAME POLL RESULTS: Barack received an approval rating of 60%. 25% of people thought it was too closely tied to the American president, making it a one person name. However, 14% saw it as strong and commanding, and a further 14% thought it was a name unusual enough to stand out from the crowd. Only one person thought it was too rare, while 3% of people were put off the name because of President Obama.

(Picture shows President Obama arriving in Canberra in 2011; photo from the ABC)

Names of Australian Fashion Designers

13 Sunday Nov 2011

Posted by A.O. in Name Themes and Lists

≈ 19 Comments

Tags

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

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

Arabella (Ramsay)

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

Camilla (Franks)

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

Collette (Dinnigan)

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

Clea (Garrick)

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

Elke (Kramer)

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

Jolet (Ucchino)

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

Kirrily (Johnston)

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

Lorna (Clarkson)

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

Thulie (Ellis)

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

Yeojin (Bae)

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

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

Names of Australian Models

06 Sunday Nov 2011

Posted by A.O. in Name Themes and Lists

≈ 27 Comments

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

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

Bambi (Northwood-Blyth)

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

Cheyenne (Tozzi)

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

Demelza (Reveley)

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

Elle (Macpherson)

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

Miranda (Kerr)

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

Myfanwy (Shepherd)

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

Pania (Rose)

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

Tabrett (Bethell)

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

Tahnee (Atkinson)

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

Valli (Kemp)

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

Waltzing With … Daisy

16 Sunday Oct 2011

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

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Aboriginal names, english names, famous namesakes, floral names, name history, name meaning, name popularity, names from songs, nature names, nicknames, plant names, retro names, UK name popularity, US name popularity

This blog post was first published on October 16 2011, and completely rewritten on October 15 2015.

Famous Namesake
Today it is the 152nd birthday of ethnographer Daisy Bates, who was born October 16 1859. Daisy migrated to Australia from Ireland as a young woman, and like many other immigrants, took the opportunity to reinvent herself. Her story was that she was born as Daisy O’Dwyer into a wealthy Irish Protestant family, and after being orphaned, was brought up to be a “lady” by her grandmother. Adopted by an aristocratic family, she seemed destined to lead a life of leisure, until a brush with TB sent her to Australia in order to recover her health.

In fact she was Margaret Dwyer, born into a poor Irish Catholic family, and brought up in an orphanage, where she was educated to be a governess. It may have been a sexual scandal that sent her across the world to Australia, and she seems to have been keen to seek a husband. Good looking with lovely dark eyes, a lively manner, and the gift of the gab, Daisy had little trouble attracting men, and she married three of them in rapid succession, including “Breaker” Morant (she didn’t bother getting divorced, so she was a serial bigamist). She took the surname of her second husband, Bates.

An unplanned pregnancy resulted in her son, and the process was so traumatic that she ever after had only distant relations with her husband and child. Her husband became even more estranged from her when she developed what was considered a bizarre interest in Aboriginal culture, and she finally left him to take up what was to be her life’s work.

Daisy spent forty years studying Aboriginal language, history, rituals, beliefs, and customs, and for much of that time lived in isolated areas, apparently always dressed in heavy dark Edwardian clothing. The usefulness (and even truthfulness) of her anthropological work has been much debated, but she was a pioneer in the field, being one of the first to live among the people she was studying and observe them at first hand, without trying to “educate” them or convert them to her own beliefs.

Although she was never sentimental or high-minded in any way about it (she was brutally frank that her interest in Aboriginal culture was a sport more than anything else), she did work towards Aboriginal welfare. She wrote with great feeling of their suffering at the hands of Europeans, and was able to identify that much of their misery was compounded by a lack of cultural awareness towards them.

She helped pave the way for greater attention to Indigenous health, and was prepared to defend Aboriginal women from sexual exploitation by white males, with a gun if necessary. She could be kind and generous towards Aboriginal people, paying for their needs from her own limited funds. Most importantly, her work has been an invaluable resource for those seeking Native Title claims.

In her lifetime, Daisy Bates was famous, but also seen as a stubborn, publicity-seeking eccentric, and remains a deeply controversial figure to this day. Many of her ideas about Indigenous Australians were paternalistic – one of her books is titled My Natives and I. She also saw Aborigines as a doomed race, and had an appalling hatred of people with mixed black and white ancestry, believing them to be completely worthless.

A staunch monarchist and imperialist, and a social-climbing, gossipy old snob, she loathed feminists, socialists, Catholics, and Germans – her views, not abnormal for her time, are now so out of fashion that they have alienated many, and this has helped lead to her neglect.

An interesting question is what the Aboriginal people themselves thought of her. She claimed that they called her Kabbarli, a word that can be translated as “grandmother”, to suggest a relationship that was both affectionate and respectful. It can also be translated as “crazy old bat”.

Name Information
Daisies are members of the aster family which grows widely over the world – everywhere except the polar regions. The word daisy comes from the Old English for “day’s eye”, as the English Daisy (Bellis perennis) opens when the sun rises, and closes in the evening. An English saying is that spring has not arrived until you can set your foot on a dozen daisies, while a Celtic tradition says that daisies are formed whenever a child dies so that they might comfort their grieving parents.

A well known divination is to discover if someone truly loves you by plucking daisy petals: he loves me, he loves me not, he loves me! Daisies were the flower of the love goddesses Freya and Venus, and it may not be a coincidence that daisies and daisy chains have long been gifts between sweethearts. In Roman legend, the wood nymph Belides transformed herself into a daisy to escape the attentions of Vertumnus, the god of seasons and plants, so that daisies are associated with chastity.

A Christian legend says daisies sprung from the tears wept by Mary Magdalene when she was forgiven of her sins. In Christian iconography, daisies symbolise the Virgin Mary; they were a favourite in medieval paintings and tapestries of the Virgin. Later they were used to symbolise the Christ Child. The purity of the Virgin Mary and the passion of Venus often seem to combine in medieval literature, so that daisies were used to symbolise the “good woman” who was equally sweet and sensual.

Daisy has been used as an independent girl’s name since at least the 17th century, and became popular in the 19th, along with other floral names. It is also used as a nickname for Margaret, because the French name for the Ox-eye Daisy is the marguerite. Because of this, it was used as a royal device by Marguerite de Navarre, the sister of Francis I of France, Margaret of Anjou, the wife of Henry VI, and Margaret Beaufort, the mother of Henry VII. King Louis IX of France wore a daisy engraved on his ring as a tribute to his wife, Marguerite of Provence.

Daisy was quite a popular nickname among the upper classes during the Edwardian era, as evidenced by Princess Margaret “Daisy” of Connaught, who became the queen of Sweden; society beauty Mary “Daisy”, Princess of Pless; fashion icon and heiress Marguerite “Daisy” Fellowes; and Frances “Daisy” Greville, the mistress of the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII), whose love for the bicycle craze of the 1890s is popularly believed to have inspired the music hall song about Daisy with a bicycle built for two.

Literary Daisys include Daisy Buchanan who arouses a life-long obsession in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, and the enigmatic Annie “Daisy” Miller, from Henry James’ novella. Sweet Meg from Little Women is sometimes called Daisy, and when she has a daughter named Margaret, she is known as Daisy to differentiate her from her mother. All these fictional Daisys are American, and two more American sweethearts are Disney’s Daisy Duck and sassy Southern belle Daisy Duke, from the Dukes of Hazzard.

The name Daisy was #58 in the 1900s, and left the Top 100 in the 1920s. It dropped from the charts in the 1940s, made a minor come-back in the 1950s, then dropped out again the following decade. Daisy returned to the charts in the 1980s at #646, and climbed fairly steadily. It rejoined the Top 100 in 2013 at #90, making it one of the fastest-rising names of that year. Last year it left the national Top 100, although it still made the Top 100 in Queensland and Tasmania.

Daisy is most popular in the UK. It was in the Top 100 there from 1880 until the 1930s, then made a comeback in the 1990s, peaking in 2010 at #15. Currently it is #24. In the US, Daisy has never left the Top 1000. It was in the Top 100 from 1880 to 1908, and reached its lowest point in 1972 at #629. It is currently #180. Australia’s Daisy popularity may be closer to New Zealand, where Daisy has made the bottom of the Top 100 a few times without any signs of climbing.

Daisy is a wholesome retro name which manages to sound both pure and innocent, and cute and spunky. There is something demure about little Daisy, but also rather sexy: Venus has given her a certain sweetness that blows like a fresh spring breeze across the fields. Daisies may be common flowers, but the name Daisy is not overused, and shows no signs of shooting up in popularity. You may use Daisy as a nickname, but it is just fine as a name in its own right.

POLL RESULT
Daisy received an approval rating of 88%, making it one of the highest-rated names of 2011. 37% of people loved the name Daisy, and only one person hated it.

(Painting is Daisy Bates at Ooldea, by Sidney Nolan, 1950)

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