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Waltzing More Than Matilda

~ Names with an Australian Bias of Democratic Temper

Waltzing More Than Matilda

Tag Archives: planet names

Questions About Names

14 Sunday Jul 2013

Posted by A.O. in Your Questions Answered

≈ 5 Comments

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Australian Aboriginal names, banned names, celebrity baby names, Dutch names, famous namesakes, Google, Japanese names, locational names, middle names, modern classics, name days, names from songs, names of gangs, nicknames, planet names, popular names, rare names, royal baby names, royal names, Russian names, unisex names, varieties of flower

survey-2

This is a sample of the many random questions about names which get searched to reach the blog. I do try to answer them in posts if I can, but these are ones which I can’t see any way of subtly working into blog posts at this time.

Is it illegal to call your daughter Talula?

This gets Googled several times a month. I guess it’s because of the little girl from New Zealand called Talula Does the Hula From Hawaii whose name was changed by the courts. The Talula part wasn’t the problem, and it’s perfectly legal as a name.

Are girls named Georgia successful?

I’m sure any successful Georgia would be insulted by the suggestion that their name was entirely responsible for their achievements.

Are there any queens named Nyree?

Not any that rule as monarchs in an official capacity.

Why hasn’t there been an English king named after Alfred the Great?

Maybe because he was a king of Wessex, and not of England. Or because they didn’t want the obvious comparison to be made, in case the other King Alfred was nicknamed Not-So-Great.

What is the queen’s second name?

Ooh, I bet you were doing some royal baby name sleuthing. It’s Alexandra.

Ned Kelly‘s middle name?

He didn’t have one – he was just Edward Kelly.

What does Ballarat mean in Aboriginal language?

It’s thought to come from the local Wathaurong name for the area, balla arat, translated as “resting place”.

What other names were considered instead of Victoria for [the state of] Victoria in Australia?

I don’t think any other names were considered – it was named in honour of Queen Victoria because it was she who signed the Act of Parliament separating it from New South Wales in 1850.

What was the first name for South Australia?

The first Europeans to give it a name were the Dutch in 1627; they called it Pieter Nuyts Land after the chief explorer on their expedition.

What other things is Antarctica called?

The Antarctic, The South Pole (informal), The White Continent (poetic), The Ice (slang).

What is the name of the last [known] planet [in our solar system]?

Neptune, and if you count dwarf plants, Eris.

What was [notorious bank robber] Darcy Dugan’s gang’s name?

They sarcastically called themselves The Lavender Hill Mob or The Lavenders, after the 1951 movie starring Alec Guiness.

Abby, Abbie or Abbey – which is the correct spelling?

As far as I know, there isn’t a “correct” spelling, and these are all accepted short forms of Abigail.

What is the Australian spelling of the name Milly?

There isn’t a specifically Australian spelling, but Millie is more common here, as elsewhere.

How do you pronounce Mila in Australia?

MEE-lah or MEE-luh.

How do you pronounce the name Atticus?

AT-ih-kus.

How is Sadie a nickname for Sarah?

It doesn’t really make sense to me, either!

What name is more modern – Poppy, Sienna or Darcy?

Sienna.

Is Riley a classic name or a modern name?

As a boy’s name, it’s a modern classic.

What’s a girl name that starts with Fin-?

Finola.

Is there a flower named Maude?

There’s a variety of wisteria named Aunt Maude; it’s from the American south.

Is there a rose named Imogen?

Rosa indica v. Imogen was one of the first Australian-bred China tea roses, dating from the 1840s and created by John Bidwill, a friend of John Macarthur’s who was the first person to breed different varieties of plants in Australia. The “Imogen” rose was pure white, with clustered blooms. It doesn’t seem to exist any more.

Baby names that rhyme with Archie

Chachi, and the Japanese name Hachi – but it’s not an exact rhyme, because the stress is on the second syllable, not the first.

Will the name Beatrix become popular because of Fifi Box?

Probably not, but it’s so rare it would be significant if it even began charting.

Will Isabella become dated?

Chances are that it will, eventually. It’s never been this popular before, so I couldn’t put a timeline on it.

What is the name day for Azaria?

December 16.

Is the christening name commonly used in Australia?

If you mean, do most people who are christened in Australia use the name they were christened by as their everyday name, then I’m pretty sure the answer is yes. But if you mean, are most Australian babies christened, and therefore have a christening name to use, then I’m not sure. It’s certainly normal to be christened here, but also normal not to be.

Songs [for the] name Sophie

One is Song for Sophie by the Danish singer Aura Dione, who has spent some time in Australia.

Is the name Reginald used in Russia?

Not usually, but they have their own version of the name, Rengold.

Why do so many boys names become girls names?

I don’t think it’s the case that many boys names become used for girls (I can really only think of a handful of cases where that’s happened). However, unisex names do seem to become more often used by girls than by boys, and that’s because parents of boys have a tendency to stop using them once they become “too girly”. Having said that, there are several formerly unisex names that have become almost entirely masculine, such as Clarence and Elvis, so parents of girls must also sometimes decide that a name has become “too boyish” to use.

Do boys dislike having a unisex name?

I know quite a few boys under 15 that have a unisex name (including one of my nephews), and they are all fine with it. To be fair though, their names are ones which are mostly male, although considered acceptable to give to girls (eg Darcy), almost equally male and female (eg Remy), or so rare that they aren’t strongly associated with any particular gender (eg Bay).

Names of everyone who died in World War I

More than 37 million people (including civilians) died as a result of World War I – that’s a lot of names! I suggest you start at the Australian War Memorial, which has a roll of honour for all Australians killed in service, then ask the staff for help in accessing international war records.

Was there anyone named Mikayla on the First Fleet?

No.

Famous Name: Venus

13 Wednesday Jun 2012

Posted by A.O. in Famous Names

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

astronomical names, Australian Aboriginal names, Babylonian names, english names, Greek names, Latin names, locational names, mythological names, Norman-French names, Phoenician names, planet names, popular culture, Roman names, ship names, surname names

Last Wednesday was the transit of Venus, the planet taking about six and a half hours to cross the face of the Sun. Most of Australia was in a prime position to view this astronomical event (with special protective glasses, or else streamed live on the Internet so as not to damage our eyes).

Transits of Venus occur in pairs 8 years apart, separated by gaps of 121.5 years and 105.5 years. So the one before this one was in June 2004, and the next one will be in December 2117. I don’t want to be a pessimist, but if you missed this last one, I think you’ve lost your chance to see another.

The transit of Venus is not only a rare and lovely astronomical event, it is also an essential part of Australian history. It was in 1766 that the Royal Society sent Captain James Cook to observe the transit of Venus from the Pacific region. The reason scientists were so keen to get accurate observations was because astronomer Edmond Halley (of Halley’s Comet fame) had suggested that if you measured one of the transits, you could then use the data to figure out the distance from the Earth to the Sun, and thence to work out the distances to all the other bodies in the solar system.

For a variety of reasons, nearly all the scientists sent around the world ran into technical problems, and it was up to Captain Cook to take the observations, which he did in Tahiti in 1769. He then opened his sealed orders from the British Admiralty to find he had been sent on a secret mission to discover the mythical Terra Australis. There was no such place, and discovering New Zealand was a massive disappointment, as it was nowhere near the size the expedition had been hoping for.

Now some men would have gone home, feeling that observing the transit of Venus and discovering New Zealand was enough for one trip. But Captain Cook was made of sterner stuff, and he took it upon himself to become the first European to explore the east coast of Australia, and also to claim it as British territory. His reward was to be given a promotion, and sent back again to look just a bit harder for Terra Australis.

By sailing around diligently discovering places and claiming them for Britain, he was at last able to establish that Terra Australis didn’t exist, although Britain now owned a reasonable sized country it could send convicts to. The maps Cook made in the process were so good that they were still being used in the twentieth century, and the observations he took of the transit of Venus were used to calculate the distance between the Earth and the Sun with reasonable accuracy.

The planet Venus has an ancient connection to Australia as well, because the Yolngu people of Arnhem Land believe she is an important creator spirit called Banumbirr. Through dawn ceremonies performed with beautifully decorated Morning Star poles, they communicate with their dead ancestors through a rope of light which Banumbirr trails behind her. The ceremony means the ancient Yolngu people must have had enough astronomical knowledge to track the complex motion of Venus, as it rises before dawn only at certain times of the year.

I love stars, and although Venus is a planet, I, like almost everyone else, know it as both the Morning Star and the Evening Star. The brightest object in the night sky after the Moon, Venus is the first light to appear at dusk, and the last to disappear at dawn. In fact, I have often wished on Venus, with that little rhyme which begins, Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight …. Sometimes my wishes came true, sometimes they didn’t! Fickle Venus.

The Babylonians may have been the first to understand that the morning and evening stars were the same object, and called it Ishtar, after their goddess of love, sex, fertility and war. Other cultures followed the tradition, and to the Romans she was Venus; her morning aspect was called Lucifer (“light-bringer”), and her evening one Vesper.

Venus was a Roman goddess of love, beauty, sex, fertility, luck and war; her name is from the Latin word venus, meaning “sexual love, sexual desire”. The word is closely related to venenum, meaning “poison, venom”, which probably demonstrates a certain ambivalence towards passionate love we share today. The word venenum also meant charm, as in a love potion. Falling madly in love with someone can feel as if we have been given some sort of magic potion, and if it all goes wrong, we do indeed feel as awful as if we had swallowed poison instead!

The Romans said that Venus was the mother of Aeneas, the Trojan ancestor of Rome’s founder, Romulus, and therefore the mythological ancestor of the Roman people. The month of April was sacred to her, and she was associated with springtime flowering and the fecundity of nature. Her earliest festivals were ones that celebrated gardens and wine-drinking, and many of her attributes seem to be taken from more ancient goddesses of water and purity. Later on, Venus was identified with the Greek goddess Aphrodite and the Phoenician goddess Astarte.

The beauty of Venus has made her a popular subject in art, especially as it was acceptable (and practically mandatory) to show her nude or semi-nude. Two of the most famous are probably the classical statue, the Venus de Milo, which has the arms missing, and Bottichelli’s painting, The Birth of Venus. To call a woman “a Venus” means that she is beautiful and desirable in a very erotic way.

As well as being a female first name, Venus can be an English surname. It’s not related to the goddess, but is from the Norman-French place name of Venoix, near the city of Caen.

Venus is also a place name; there are two towns in Australia called Venus Bay – one in South Australia and the other in Victoria. Both these fishing villages are named after ships called Venus, which brings us to another intriguing Australian connection to Venus.

It is said that the drinking song, The Good Ship Venus, may have been influenced by actual events, when convicts travelling on the brigantine Venus mutinied and took the ship to New Zealand, becoming Australia’s first pirates. Two of the convicts were female, and there were reports of great immorality aboard ship – a possible inspiration for the song’s bawdy lyrics.

Venus is a rarely used name, but one which evokes both feminine beauty and the twinkle of a lovely “star” which can grant wishes …. sometimes. It’s one which has several connections with Australia, and is deeply woven into our nation’s history and culture. That makes Venus a surprisingly patriotic name choice, although I do feel on this one, we have waltzed far, far beyond Matilda!

(Photo of the transit of Venus from NASA)

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