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Waltzing More Than Matilda

~ Names with an Australian Bias of Democratic Temper

Waltzing More Than Matilda

Tag Archives: New Zealand name popularity

Popular Here and There: Comparing the Shared Top 100 Names of Australia and New Zealand

12 Thursday Sep 2013

Posted by A.O. in Name Data

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

name popularity, New Zealand name popularity, popular names

GIRLS

Similar Level of Popularity (within 10 places of each other)

Abigail, Addison, Alexis, Alice, Amelia, Anna, Annabelle, Ava, Charlotte, Chloe, Elizabeth, Ella, Ellie, Emily, Emma, Eva, Grace, Hannah, Hayley, Isabel, Isabella, Isabelle, Isla, Jessica, Lauren, Lily, Lucy, Madison, Mia, Mikayla, Mila, Olivia, Poppy, Ruby, Sarah, Scarlett, Sofia, Sophia, Sophie, Willow, Zara, Zoe

More Popular in Australia (11-40 places higher)

Alexandra, Alyssa, Amy, Evelyn, Ivy, Kayla, Layla, Lilly, Lola, Mackenzie, Maddison, Phoebe, Piper, Rose, Sienna, Summer, Violet

Much More Popular in Australia (more than 40 places higher)

Evie, Matilda, Maya

More Popular in New Zealand (11-40 places higher)

Aaliyah, Amber, Bella, Eden, Georgia, Holly, Jade, Jasmine, Molly, Olive, Paige, Samantha, Stella

Much More Popular in New Zealand (more than 40 places higher)

Aria, Leah

Not on New Zealand Girls Top 100

Amelie, Angelina, Audrey, Caitlin, Charlie, Chelsea, Claire, Ebony, Eliza, Elise, Eloise, Eve, Gabriella, Heidi, Imogen, Indiana, Josephine, Lacey, Lara, Lillian, Madeleine, Mariam, Milla, Savannah, Skye, Tahlia, Victoria

Not on Australian Girls Top 100

Ashley, Ayla, Brooklyn, Daisy, Faith, Hazel, Indie, Kate, Keira, Khloe, Lucia, Maia, Maria, Millie, Nevaeh, Nina, Peyton, Pippa, Riley, Skyla, Taylor

BOYS

Similar Level of Popularity (within 10 places of each other)

Alexander, Angus, Ashton, Benjamin, Braxton, Charlie, Christopher, Cooper, Dominic, Dylan, Edward, Eli, Ethan, Harry, Hugo, Hunter, Isaac, Jack, Jackson, Jacob, James, Jasper, Jordan, Joshua, Levi, Liam, Logan, Lucas, Mason, Max, Michael, Noah, Oliver, Oscar, Ryan, Samuel, Tyler, William, Zac, Zachary

More Popular in Australia (11-40 places higher)

Adam, Aidan, Aiden, Archie, Beau, Flynn, Harrison, Hayden, Henry, Jake, Jaxon, Lachlan, Lincoln, Marcus, Riley, Thomas, Xavier

Much More Popular in Australia (more than 40 places higher)

Nate, Patrick, Sebastian

More Popular in New Zealand (11-40 places higher)

Alex, Austin, Blake, Caleb, Cameron, Charles, Connor, Daniel, David, Finn, Jayden, Joseph, Leo, Luca, Matthew, Nathan, Ryder, Toby

Much More Popular in New Zealand (more than 40 places higher)

George, John

Not on New Zealand Boys Top 100

Ali, Andrew, Anthony, Archer, Bailey, Callum, Chase, Christian, Darcy, Declan, Gabriel, Hamish, Hudson, Jesse, Jonathan, Kai, Luke, Mitchell, Muhammad, Nicholas, Owen

Not on Australian Boys Top 100

Aaron, Asher, Carter, Felix, Fletcher, Israel, Joel, Kayden, Kingston, Leon, Louis, Nathaniel, Phoenix, Quinn, Robert, Sam, Tyson, Zion

Australia shares 77 Top 100 girls name with New Zealand, with 42 of them at a similar level of popularity, and 80 Top 100 boys names, with 40 at a similar level of popularity. That is very close – close enough that I think it would be fair to talk about Trans-Tasman name trends.

However, even with this harmony between us and our Antipodean cousins, it’s interesting to see that we each have our own particular likes and dislikes of certain names. We have hung stubbornly on to names that New Zealand has tired of, and vice versa, and they have their favourite names which are rare here, and vice versa, but in general I would say that New Zealand is slightly ahead of the trends – probably due to their much smaller population size.

Discussion of New Zealand names often seems to focus on “wacky” names, and name laws, so I think there could be closer examination of their popular names.

Waltzing With … Archer

04 Sunday Nov 2012

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

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Australian idioms, english names, famous namesakes, fictional namesakes, horse names, name combinations, name history, name meaning, New Zealand name popularity, nicknames, popular names, surname names, UK name popularity, US name popularity, vocabulary names

This article was first posted on November 4 2012, and revised and re-published on June 16 2016.

Famous Namesake
On Tuesday it is Melbourne Cup Day, which, more than any other day on the calendar, holds Australia in thrall. On the second Tuesday in November, at 3 pm, the nation collectively holds its breath while its most famous horse race, the Melbourne Cup, is run at Flemington in Melbourne.

It’s known as “the race that stops a nation”, because at 3 pm you are expected to drop whatever you’re doing to tune in and watch the Melbourne Cup. Workplaces and schools may take the afternoon off to hold Melbourne Cup lunches, or at the very least switch a TV on just before 3 pm. It’s a day when almost everyone will place a bet on the race – even if it’s just putting a dollar on the favourite, or taking part in the office sweep. In Melbourne, the day of the race is a public holiday.

American author Mark Twain went to the 1895 Melbourne Cup and commented, Nowhere in the world have I encountered a festival of people that has such a magnificent appeal to the whole nation. The Cup astonishes me. More than 110 000 people attend the race, and it’s a huge fashion-fest, with ladies frocking up, and gentlemen wearing formal suits. Others relish the opportunity to dress in outrageous costumes. It’s a day to eat, drink, gamble and be merry – a big, bright, boozy, and rather garish carnival.

The Melbourne Cup itself is the jewel in the crown of the Spring Racing Carnival, and is said to be the richest and most prestigious “two mile” handicap in the world. The prize money is over $6 million, and the trophy itself is a hand-crafted golden cup worth $125 000. It’s the biggest prize in any Australian sporting event.

The first Melbourne Cup was run in 1861, and the winner that year was a horse named Archer. Race horses are often named quite logically, and Archer’s sire was William Tell. Born near Braidwood, in country New South Wales, he was trained near Nowra. Archer was a large horse, standing over 16 hands high with a powerful body. He ran badly in his first two races, and was rated poorly, until he won seven races in 1861, and was entered in the Melbourne Cup.

The first Melbourne Cup was action-packed. Three horses fell during the race (two of them died), two jockeys suffered broken bones, and one horse bolted off the course entirely, but the race gamely continued, and Archer won by six lengths in a time of 3 minutes and 52 seconds – the slowest in which a horse has ever won the Melbourne Cup.

He set another record the following year by winning the Melbourne Cup again; until the 1930s, he was the only horse to have won back-to-back Melbourne Cups. He was meant to enter in 1863 as well, but unfortunately there was a mix-up with telegrams and he didn’t manage to make the deadline in time.

Many legends have sprung up around Archer, such as that he had to walk all the way from Sydney to Melbourne in order to take part in the race, and that his jockey, Johnny Cutts, was an Aborigine from the Nowra area. Neither of these stories is true – Archer travelled to the race by steamship and rail, and Johnny Cutts wasn’t Aboriginal, and was from Sydney. The phrase since Archer won the Cup has entered our language, to refer to a long time distant.

Name Information
Archer is an English occupational surname referring to someone who uses a bow and arrows. The surname was introduced to Britain by the Normans, and by the end of the Middle Ages the Norman-French word archer had replaced the English bowman.

People have been hunting and fighting with bow and arrows since the Stone Age, and there are many famous archers in world mythology. During the Middle Ages, professional archers were rare, and most archers during war were recruited from the peasantry so archery was often seen as a lower-class pursuit. However, by the 14th century archers were used effectively in battle, making it a more attractive option. The use of firearms made archers obsolete, and the last recorded use of them in battle in England was in 1642.

The last known person to die from a British archer in battle was in 1940, when a German was killed during the retreat from Dunkirk by a delightfully eccentric officer named Jack Churchill, who insisted on fighting throughout World War II with bow, arrows and a sword; he also played the bagpipes while setting off grenades, to add to the effect. Incredibly brave and highly decorated, Churchill, known as Mad Jack, was later a military instructor in Australia, where he became an enthusiastic surfer. A shame we didn’t manage to keep him, as this man is now my personal hero!

Archer has been used as a personal name since the 17th century, and an early namesake was the British MP Sir Archer Croft, 2nd Baronet – Archer was his mother’s maiden name. Another who had Archer as a family name was the 18th century American politician Archer Mathews, a founder of Lewisburg in Virginia. In the 19th century, escaped slave Archer Alexander served as the model for the Emancipation Memorial in Lincoln Park, built by T.S. Eliot’s grandfather.

Archer joined the Australian Top 100 in 2012, and since then has continued rising. Currently it is #39 nationally, #49 in New South Wales, #27 in Victoria, #33 in Queensland, #29 in South Australia, #51 in Tasmania, and #38 in the Australian Capital Territory. It was one of the fastest rising names in Victoria last year.

Archer was a Top 1000 name in the US in the late 19th century, but spent many years off the charts until it returned in 2009. It has risen steeply since then, and is now #289. In the UK Archer has been in the Top 500 since 2012 and is currently #359. Archer is Top 100 in New Zealand – the only other country besides Australia where Archer is popular, although its popularity is highest in Australia.

No wonder this handsome name is so popular – it feels both vintage and contemporary, and fits in with the trend for names with an AR sound, and names connected with hunting and weaponry. One of its attractions is that it provides a way to get the popular nickname Archie without using Archibald, although Arch is another possibility.

Archer is a name from Australian history which celebrates the biggest sporting event of the year – one that almost everyone will participate in. It’s a name from the hunt and battlefield, but also referencing daring archers, from Robin Hood to the Hunger Games, and perhaps even comedy super-spy Sterling Archer from the animated show.

Could Archer follow its equine namesake and gallop to the #1 position on the charts? The odds are against it, but chances are it will continue cantering along the home stretch.

POLL RESULT
Archer received an outstanding approval rating of 93%, making it one of the most popular names of 2012. 36% of people loved the name Archer, and nobody hated it.

Waltzing With … Olivia

22 Sunday Jul 2012

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

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Picture shows old olive trees in Albania).

Waltzing With … Florence

29 Sunday May 2011

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

≈ 15 Comments

Tags

celebrity sibsets, english names, famous namesakes, French names, Latin names, locational names, name history, name meaning, name popularity, New Zealand name popularity, nicknames, retro names, saints names, UK name popularity, unisex names, US name popularity

This blog post was first published on May 29 2011, and almost completely rewritten on May 28 2015.

Famous Namesake
Autumn is the traditional time of year for farm produce fairs, and on the last Sunday in May is held the Goomeri Pumpkin Festival. Goomeri is a small country town in southern Queensland; quiet and pleasant, it is known for its gourmet food industries.

The highlight of the Goomeri calendar is its Pumpkin Festival, in which they do almost everything to pumpkins, including eat them. There is the pumpkin shot-put, a pumpkin beer brewing competition, pumpkin judging contests, and the Great Australian Pumpkin Roll, in which up to 1000 pumpkins are rolled down Policeman’s Hill. There will of course be cooking demonstrations, food stalls, and all kinds of pumpkin-related culinary delights, including that old favourite, pumpkin scones.

Wen you see “pumpkin scones” and “Queensland” in the same paragraph, the name of only one person can come to mind – Florence Bjelke-Petersen. The widow of Queensland’s longest-serving Premier, Lady Florence Bjelke-Petersen has been a force in conservative politics, a part of Queensland history, and an Australian icon.

Florence was the wife of peanut farmer and Country Party member Johannes “Joh” Bjelke-Petersen, and after Joh became Premier of Queensland in 1968, Florence began to take on a bigger public role. The Queensland National Party increasingly promoted a Bjelke-Petersen “personality cult”, and Florence was a vital part of that.

Her down-to-earth sayings and common-sense attitudes became widely quoted by the media, and she published a cookbook which contained a recipe for her famous pumpkin scones. She was a Senator from 1981-1993; she worked for issues that affected Queensland and was popular with both sides of politics. When Joh Bjelke-Petersen was knighted in 1984, she became Lady Bjelke-Petersen – affectionately known as Lady Flo.

Lady Bjelke-Petersen is now in her nineties and still going strong. Although she no longer makes pumpkin scones, she reads the newspapers every day and has strong opinions on politics, as well as attending church every Sunday, and playing the organ each week for a local nursing home. In her youth, she always vowed she would be known by her full name, Florence, as she hated the short name Flo, but history intervened, and as often happens, she didn’t get much say in it.

Name Information
Florence began as the medieval English form of the Latin name Florentius, from florens, “flowering, flourishing, prospering”. There are several saints named Florentius, with the earliest being a 3rd century Roman soldier who was martyred in Italy. Florence could also be used as a French form of the female name Florentia; St Florentia was a 4th century hermit who was martyred in France.

In the Middle Ages, Florence was used as a name for both males and females, but by the 16th century had become overwhelmingly feminine in usage. Its connection with “flowering”, and similarity to the female name Flora were probably responsible.

Although the name Florence was already in reasonable use, it received a huge boost in the mid nineteenth century because of Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing. Florence Nightingale came to prominence during the Crimean War of 1853-56, when she was hailed as a ministering angel, and called The Lady with the Lamp. It is notable that during the 1850s, the name Florence, which was steadily increasing in popularity at the time, suddenly skyrocketed, and continued rising for the rest of the century.

Florence Nightingale was born in the city of Florence, in Italy, and named after her birthplace. It was something of a family pattern, because her older sister, Frances Parthenope, was similarly named after the place of her birth, Parthenopolis, now part of Naples.

The city of Florence was established by the Romans, and originally named Fluentia, meaning “flowing” in Latin, because it was situated between two rivers – the Arno and the Greve. Later its name was corrupted to Florentia, meaning, as we already know, “flowering, flourishing”. Its new name suited it, because the city did indeed flourish and prosper, and by the 15th century was one of the largest and wealthiest cities of Europe. It is considered to be the birthplace of the Renaissance, and called “The Athens of the Middle Ages”; a beautiful city rich in history and culture, famous for its Renaissance art and architecture.

The name Florence was #5 in the 1900s, and fell until it left the Top 100 in the 1940s. It disappeared from the charts in the 1960s, making a minor comeback in the 1990s at #800, before dropping off the charts again in the early 2000s. In the late 2000s, Florence returned at #528 – this was the time that British indie band Florence + the Machine began its career, headed by flame-haired lead vocalist Florence Welch (Florence’s mother is a Professor of Renaissance Studies, so perhaps she was named with the Italian city in mind).

Since then, Florence has continued to rise, and is now in the 100s, almost certainly headed for the Top 100; it joined the New Zealand Top 100 in 2013. In the UK, Florence is even more popular, rising steadily through the 1990s to join the Top 100 in 2008, and is currently #29 and still rising. In the US, Florence hasn’t charted since the early 1980s; however the name is steadily rising, and last year 182 baby girls were given the name Florence.

Fashionable Florence is rising under the influence of British trends, and making friends everywhere – even people who profess to detest place names on people will forgivingly make an exception for Florence. As lovely as a Renaissance statue and as wholesome as pumpkin scones fresh from the oven, this retro name makes a stylish choice, and little wonder parents are eagerly snapping it up while it’s still hot.

POLL RESULTS
Florence received an approval rating of 80% from the public, making it one of the highest-rated names of the year. 40% of people loved the name Florence, while only 6% hated it.

(Photo of pumpkin scones from The Daily Telegraph)

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