Famous Names: Barry and Gladys

07 Wednesday May 2014

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birth notices, British names, dated names, famous namesakes, fictional namesakes, Irish names, locational names, name history, name meaning, name popularity, names from comics, names from films, nicknames, Norman names, royal names, saints names, Scottish names, surname names, Welsh names

Last month, New South Wales Liberal Premier Barry O’Farrell resigned from his position during a NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption investigation into Australian Water Holdings. Barry denied receiving a $3000 bottle of Grange Hermitage from a AWH executive and failing to declare it, but a thank you note in his handwriting, even mentioning the 1959 vintage of wine (the year of Barry’s birth), was presented to ICAC as evidence.

Minister for Transport Gladys Berejiklian was Barry O’Farrell’s choice for his successor, but in the end she settled for Deputy to Premier Mike Baird, and was rewarded by being made Minister for the Hunter region.

New South Wales is not unaccustomed to these political scandals. The former Labor Premier resigned from his shadow ministry roles due to a personal affair, and a former Liberal Party leader resigned in tragic circumstances several years ago. The new Premier is now watching his ministry become engulfed in a cash-for favours scandal which has also damaged the NSW Labor Party, and is creating anxiety for the Federal government as well. Expect more scalps.

Barry can be seen as an Anglicised form of the Irish name Bairre, a short form of Finnbarr or Barrfind, meaning “fair hair”. It can also be an Anglicised form of the Irish name Berach, derived from a Gaelic word meaning “sharp”, and often glossed as “spear”.

There are five Irish saints named Finnbarr, with the best known being a 6th century monk who created a centre of learning in the city of Cork. Saint Barrfind (known by a confusing variety of spellings of his name) is a 6th century Irish saint who legend says was a disciple of Saint Columba, and said to have voyaged to North America, serving as an inspiration for Saint Brendan the Navigator. Saint Berach was a 6th century Irish saint who was a disciple of Saint Kevin.

The Barry surname can be derived from these names, such as O’Baire, meaning “son of the fair haired one”. But most Irish Barry families got their surname from the Normans, because de Barri was a knight who came over during the Norman Conquest of Ireland. The name comes from the village of LaBarre in Normandy, whose name may mean “gateway, barrier”.

However, the aristocratic de Barry family, Normans settled in Wales, received their name from ownership of Barry Island, whose name seems to come from the Welsh for “hill”, although it’s often said to be named after Saint Baroc, a British saint who had a chapel on the island. The Scottish Barrys take their name from a place name in Angus which also means “hill”.

Barry has been used as a first name in Ireland and England (and more rarely, Wales and Scotland) since at least the 18th century, and due to immigration from Ireland, became known in the Americas and Australia as well.

A famous Australian namesake is comedian Barry Humphries, who created the character of naively ocker Barry McKenzie for a Private Eye comic strip in the 1960s. In the 1970s films, Barry McKenzie is the nephew of Humphries creation Edna Everage, and played by Australian singer Barry Crocker. Perhaps due to this trio of Barrys, and Barry McKenzie’s rich Australian slang (mostly made up), Barry is often perceived as a very Aussie name. This does have some validity, because Barry peaked higher in popularity here than elsewhere.

Barry was #121 in the 1910s, and joined the Top 100 in the 1920s at #84. It peaked in the 1940s at #10, and left the Top 100 in the 1970s – perhaps the Barry Mackenzie films weren’t a help to it? Barry last ranked in the 1990s, but just two years ago I saw a birth notice for a baby Barry, so it is still in occasional use. Bazza or Baz are the traditional nicknames, although Baz Luhrman is not a Barry.

Gladys is a modern form of the medieval Welsh name Gwladus, traditionally identified as a Welsh form of Claudia, although it may come from the Old Welsh word for “country, nation, realm”, with connotations of sovereignty and rulership over the land.

The name Gwladus was used amongst royalty and nobility in medieval Wales, and Saint Gwladys (often called Saint Gladys) was the beautiful daughter of a legendary Welsh king who married another king, also a saint (somehow he managed to fit raiding and robbery onto his CV). The saintly couple had a number of children who were saints as well. According to legend, Gwladys and her family knew King Arthur, and lived in the woods as hermits, with a strict regimen of vegetarianism, cold baths, and chastity.

The name Gladys became well known outside Wales in the 19th century, when English author Ouida used it for a character in her novel Puck. In the book, Gladys is a farm girl who becomes a gifted actress; angelically beautiful, she manages to be both pure and passionate. Apart from this attractive namesake, the nickname Glad seems cheerful, and Gladys may have reminded some parents of gladiolus flowers (the familiar “gladdies” so beloved of Dame Edna Everage).

Gladys was #8 in the 1900s, left the Top 100 in the 1940s, and hasn’t ranked since the 1950s. There was a very famous Australian singer named Gladys Moncrieff, an absolute superstar for decades, known as “Australia’s Queen of Song”, and “Our Glad”. She started her career as “Gladys the Wonder Child” in the 1900s, and was still holding farewell concerts in the 1960s, laden with awards and honours on every side. The name Gladys disappeared from the charts around the same time she retired, but must have remained in some use, for Gladys Berejiklian was born in 1970.

Gladys was very popular once – as popular as Ava is now. In its day it was fashionable, and must have been seen as fresh, pretty, and charming. It is now generally viewed as an “ugly old lady name”, and often cited as an example of a name that can never be brought back, like an unlovely corpse with DO NOT REVIVE scrawled across its chest.

I think most of us are realistic enough to know that our daughters’ names – so popular, fashionable, fresh, pretty, and charming at present – will probably become “old lady names”, given enough time. We know there will be wrinkled Madisons, widows-humped Khaleesis, Willows with hip replacements, and Arias doting over their great-grandchildren, and their names’ image will change to match their senior status.

But names like Gladys are a looming spectre – what if our daughters’ names don’t just become old lady names, but ugly old lady names? Names that people hate, shudder with horror to think they were ever used, and vow will never be used again? And what popular names of today will be the “ugly old lady names” of the next century, I wonder?

POLL RESULT
Barry received an approval rating of 17%, making it the lowest-rated boys’ name of 2014, and the lowest-rated name overall. 45% of people thought that Barry was a terrible name, and only one person loved it. Gladys did slightly better, with an approval rating of 25%, but 46% of people hated the name.

(Photo of Barry O’Farrell and Gladys Berejiklian from The Sydney Morning Herald)

Names of Australian Birds for Boys

06 Sunday Apr 2014

Posted by A.O. in Name Themes and Lists

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

animal names, astronomical names, Biblical names, bird names, colour names, english names, fictional namesakes, German names, Greek names, historical records, Irish names, Latin names, modern classics, mythological names, name history, name meaning, name popularity, names of rivers, nature names, nicknames, Roman names, saints names, scientific names, Scottish names, surname names, unisex names

Aquil
Aquila is the scientific name for eagles; large, powerful raptors found all over the world which are often used as symbols of kingship and empire. The eagle was the bird sacred to Zeus, and it is recognised as a Christian symbol of strong, enduring spirituality. Australia’s best known eagle is the Wedge-tailed Eagle, one of the largest birds of prey in the world. Easily recognised by its size and diamond-shaped tail, Wedge-tails can weigh up to almost 13 kg (28 lb), and wingspans have measured more than 250 cm (over 9 feet). Fierce defenders of their territory, Wedge-tails have been known to attack small aircraft. The Wedge-tail Eagle is an emblem of the Northern Territory Parks and Wildlife Service, the New South Wales Police Force, the Northern Territory Correctional Services, La Trobe University, and the Royal Australian Air Force. Aquila is a Latin name meaning “eagle”; it was fairly common amongst the Romans, and was also the name of the Roman military standard. Aquila is mentioned as one of the early Christians in the New Testament, and he is regarded as a saint. I have seen Aquil a few times as a boy’s name, perhaps because Aquila might be misunderstood as feminine, and it can be said uh-KWIL or uh-KEEL. It’s a strong, masculine name after a noble bird.

Callum
Columba is the scientific name for pigeons and doves; the word comes from the Greek for “dive, swim”, because pigeons make a swimming motion in the air as they fly. Australia has many native pigeons, but only one of them belongs to the Columba genus, and that is the White-Headed Pigeon. There are several saints named Columba, most notably the Irish missionary credited with spreading Christianity in Scotland. Columba is a Latinisation of his Irish name Colm Cille, meaning “dove of the church”. In Scotland, his name became Calum, and the variant Callum is a common name. Callum first charted in Australia in the 1960s, and first ranked in the 1970s at #467. It soared to make the Top 100 in the 1990s and peaked in the early 2000s at #56; it has just left the Top 100. However, it is a handsome modern classic with a lovely meaning, and is one of the softer boy’s names.

Cygnus
Cygnus is the scientific name for swans; large, graceful water birds which often feature in myth and legend. Helen of Troy was born from a swan’s egg after her mother was seduced by Zeus in the disguise of a swan, while the sun god Apollo drove a chariot drawn by swans. Irish and Australian Aboriginal legends both tell of people transformed into swans, and Hans Christian Anderson wrote about an “ugly duckling” who discovered he was really a beautiful swan. Swans are seen as holy in Norse mythology, and in Hinduism are revered as sacred. It was a belief in classical literature that the swan would sing beautifully upon death (hence the phrase “swan song” to mean a final performance), and the poet Juvenal sarcastically said that a good woman was as rare as a black swan. Of course, in Australia, black swans are not rare at all, although that doesn’t mean good women are more common here. The black swan is the state emblem of Western Australia, and Perth’s river is named the Swan in its honour. There are several characters from Greek mythology named Cygnus, many of which were turned into swans: one was a musician who was placed among the stars as the constellation Cygnus. This is an unusual bird name that sounds a little like Sidney and Silas, and as swans are symbols of love and fidelity, has attractive associations.

Finch
There are many small Australian birds named finches, although they are unrelated to the finches of the northern hemisphere. One of the most common is the Zebra Finch, found across the continent in drier areas; they live in large flocks, mostly in grasslands. Zebra Finches are grey with black and white stripes, hence their name, and males can be distinguished by a chestnut patch on their cheek. Male Zebra Finches are loud, boisterous singers, with each male having a unique song, which he learns from his father, and then gives it his own variation, so that there are recognisable similarities between the songs of bloodlines. Their singing is used as part of courtship, and the uniqueness of their songs has made them a popular subject for scientific research. Their singing also makes Zebra Finches popular as pets. Finch has been used as a boy’s name since the 16th century, and the surname has probably been of significant help. Current use may be inspired by Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird, a worthy namesake.

Jaeger
The Skuas are a group of sea birds resembling large, dark gulls. They are strong, agile fliers, and aggressive in defending their nests. The American term for the three smaller species of Skua is Jaeger, which is a German word meaning “hunter”. In Australia, we seem to use the American term rather than the British Skua. Jaegers hail from the Arctic and tundra, but come to the southern hemisphere during the northern winter, when their homelands are covered in snow and ice. It’s quite exciting to see one, if only because they have travelled such a vast distance to be here. The Jaeger is pronounced YAY-ger in English, although the German word is said more like YEH-ger. However, Jaeger is a common surname too, and many people pronounce it JAY-ger (quite a few people say the bird the same way). Not only is the English form of Jaeger, Hunter, a popular name for boys, but when said JAY-ger, it doesn’t sound too different from Jagger. Although deciding on pronunciation could be an issue, this is an interesting choice that isn’t as unusual as it might first appear.

Kestrel
The Kestrel is a small, slender bird of prey which is found in many parts of the world. The Australian Kestrel, also called the Nankeen Kestrel, is amongst the smallest of the falcons, and one of the rare raptors which can hover over its prey. Kestrels are found all over Australia, and are in the top ten of the most common Australian birds; its adaptability to a wide variety of environments is the key to its continued success. Kestrel has been used as a personal name since the 19th century, and the earliest record I can find for it is from Australia, used as a man’s middle name. It has been used fairly equally for both sexes, and because kestrels are quite dainty falcons, seems just as good for a girl as for a boy.

Peregrine
The Peregrine Falcon is a bird of prey found all over the world; it is the most widespread raptor, and one of the most widely found bird species. It is faster than any other creature on the planet when it is diving towards its prey, reaching speeds of over 320 km (200 miles) per hour. Peregrines have been used as hunting birds for thousands of years, and during the Middle Ages, was considered the bird most appropriate for a prince to hunt with. The Peregrine Falcon can be found all over Australia, although it isn’t common, and it often nests on cliffs – it will even nest on high buildings in cities. The name Peregrine comes from the Latin for “to wander, to travel”, perhaps because Peregrines can travel widely, or because their nests are difficult to find. Peregrine is also the English form of the Latin name Peregrinus, meaning “wanderer, traveller”. There have been several saints named Peregrine, who no doubt chose the name because it can be understood as “pilgrim”. This is an aristocratic boy’s name that has the charming Perry as its short form.

Philemon
Philemon is the scientific name for the Friarbirds, which are native to Australasia. The most conspicuous of them is the Noisy Friarbird, which as its name suggests, can kick up a heck of a racket. Noisy Friarbirds are not considered beautiful, being dull brownish-grey with a bald black head, a little horn on its bill, and bright red eyes. They are often considered to be pests because of their constant cackling, and voracious love of fruit. Yet I love their comical ugliness and gregarious chatter. I even enjoy sharing our fruit with them, because they prefer the old fruit rotting on the ground, on which they become hilariously tipsy: it’s always a party with the Friarbirds. Philemon is a Greek name which means “loving, affectionate”, and in a fable by the Roman poet Ovid, Philemon was a old man of Ancient Greece. He and his wife Baucis showed great hospitality to the gods, despite their poverty, and as reward, were granted their dearest wish, which was to die together. When they did, they were transformed into two trees, which intertwined in a show of affection. There are two saints named Philemon, one of whom was a church leader in the New Testament. With Philomena and Phillipa hip names for girls, why not Philemon for a boy?

Robin
Australasian Robins look slightly similar to, but are not closely related to the European Robin, or to the American Robin (which is a thrush). Some Robins have a red or pink breast, like their northern hemisphere namesakes, while others are yellow, grey, or white-breasted. They are fairly common in suburbia, and charming because of their small size and bright colouring. Many are inquisitive and confident around humans, and will become quite tame. Robin was originally used as a pet form of Robert, and given to boys: it is well known because of the English folk hero Robin Hood, Batman’s sidekick, Robin the Boy Wonder, and Winnie-the-Pooh’s friend, Christopher Robin. It can be given to both sexes after the bird. Robin charted as a unisex name in Australia from the 1920s to the 1970s without reaching the Top 100 for either sex, but was markedly more popular for boys. It peaked for both sexes in the 1950s. Although it stopped charting for girls in the 1980s, it only left the charts for boys in the late 2000s. I have seen a few baby boys named Robin in recent birth notices, and this is a traditional, yet somewhat whimsical, name.

Teal
Teal are ducks found in several different areas in the world. There are two species of Teal native to Australia, and they can be found in wetlands, freshwater lakes, and marshes. Teal is also a blue-green colour, named after the Eurasian Teal which has this greenish colour around its eyes. Teal has been used as a personal name since the 18th century, and has been used for males and females in almost equal numbers. It was originally much more common for boys (I noted an Australian named Teal Wang on the blog, but don’t know whether it was a man or a woman). Ducks are charming and lovable birds, and teal is a beautiful colour – I think this is a nice, simple name for either sex.

POLL RESULTS
The public’s favourite names were Callum, Peregrine and Robin, and their least favourite were Aquil, Cygnus and Philemon.

(Photo shows a Wedge-tail Eagle in flight)

Famous Name: Adam

29 Wednesday Jan 2014

Posted by A.O. in Famous Names

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Akkadian names, Arabic names, Assyrian names, Babylonian names, Biblical names, hebrew names, Irish names, modern classics, name history, name meaning, name popularity, popular names, royal names, Scottish names, Semitic names

On Australia Day, the Australian of the Year for 2014 was announced, and it was AFL footballer Adam Goodes, who plays for the Sydney Swans.

Adam is a distinguished player who has experienced a great deal of success in his field, and is very active in the Sydney Indigenous community, providing leadership and guidance to troubled Indigenous youth, including those in youth detention. He has also started an Indigenous football academy, and he and his cousin Michael O’Loughlin founded the Goodes O’Loughlin Foundation which focuses on education, employment and healthy life choices. Adam plans to use his profile as Australian of the Year to help raise awareness of the push for constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians.

Adam is well known to almost everyone, even those with no religious background, as the first human mentioned in the Bible. He was created by God out of earth, and placed in the paradisical Garden of Eden with his companion Eve. However, they were expelled from the Garden after disobeying God’s commands, and went on to become founders of the human race. Adam is also seen as the first human in Islam, which regards Adam as a prophet, and the first Muslim.

In Hebrew, āḏām is the word for “human”, and the creation story in Genesis uses this word for “mankind”, “humanity”, “a man”, and the person named Adam, in an ambiguous and complex play of meaning. The word comes from a Semitic root meaning “red, fair, handsome”, and is also the masculine form of the Hebrew word adamah, meaning “ground, earth”, related both to the word for “red”, and the word for “blood”. In Arabic, Adam means “made from the earth”.

Putting this all together, the impression one gets from the name is that Adam is a signifier for all men, and all humans, a handsome man created from the red earth, the colour suggesting that of life-giving blood (the clay become flesh), and perhaps even implying that his skin tone was meant to be a coppery, reddish-brown – which seems reasonable given the story’s Middle Eastern origins.

Genesis emphasises Adam’s connection to the earth, for God set Adam to work on the land, to get his hands dirty, scratched by thorns in order to eat and survive. God’s curse was From dust you were made and to dust you will return, meaning that humans were condemned to mortality (still echoed in the funeral service, ashes to ashes, dust to dust). Adam is separated from nature by his humanity, yet inextricably part of nature and still tied to the earth and his earthy instincts – a succinct précis of the human condition.

The first historical person named Adam we know of is an Assyrian king named Adamu, who lived more than 4000 years ago (it is probably worth mentioning that the Babylonian creation story, many centuries older than Genesis, has the same main features, and there the first man is named Lullu, meaning “man, human being”; when the Assyrians copied the story, they called the first man Adami, possibly from the Akkadian for “to make”).

The name Adam came into common use in Britain in the Middle Ages, and became more popular after the Protestant Reformation. It has particularly strong ties to Scotland, perhaps because it was used to Anglicise the Irish name Áedán (an older form of Aidan), traditional amongst the royal houses and nobility of medieval Scotland.

Although in rare use early in the twentieth century, Adam only began charting in Australia in the 1940s. It raced up the charts during the 1950s to make #51 for the 1960s. It peaked in the 1980s at #10, and is still in the Top 100. It is #66 nationally, #55 in New South Wales, #57 in Victoria, #99 in Queensland, #44 in Western Australia, #84 in Tasmania, and #60 in the Australian Capital Territory.

Adam is a modern classic, yet it is an ancient name – the oldest name in the Book! Brief, strong and primal, it is earth and blood, flesh and bone, birth and death, innocence and guilt: the most human of all names, with its hands buried in the soil and its soul yearning for paradise. Adam is all man and all men; we are all Adam and the children of Adam; and yet Adam is still too archetypal to ever become an Everyman name.

It will always remind us of the first man in one of the oldest stories we know. A man whose descendants have continued to live and die and toil and survive – and remember paradise.

POLL RESULT
Adam received an approval rating of 64%. 30% of people saw it as strong and handsome, but 14% thought it was too common.

Famous Names: Mitchell and Mervyn

08 Wednesday Jan 2014

Posted by A.O. in Famous Names

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

english names, famous namesakes, historical records, Irish names, locational names, modern classic names, name history, name meaning, name popularity, nicknames, popular names, Scottish names, surname names, Welsh names

It is a glorious summer: beautiful weather, cloudless blue skies, golden sunshine, and best of all – victory in that ancient international cricketing rivalry, the Ashes. Having lost to England during the northern summer of 2013, Australia was itching to get revenge back on home soil, and we did.

For whatever reason, England failed to perform in Australia and had already lost the Ashes 3-0 by Christmas. The series finished 5-0 to Australia, only the third time in history such a whitewash has been achieved, and England lost all 10 wickets in every innings of the Test series – the first time either side has forfeited 100 wickets in Ashes history. Little wonder we celebrated wildly at the Fan Day at the Opera House yesterday, having taken down the team which was ranked #1 in the world and were favourites to win.

Mitchell Johnson was awarded Man of the Series, the fast bowler having taken 37 wickets – the most in an Ashes series in Australia since the late 1970s. Even more remarkably, this was a comeback with a vengeance, because not so long ago, Mitchell was battling injury, his self-confidence destroyed by the jeering of England’s fan base, the Barmy Army (a jingle about Mitchell Johnson is still their most popular song, and I use the word “song” extremely loosely).

Quite apart from his Barmy Army-silencing performance (and I use the word “silencing” with great poetic licence), Mitchell’s value during the Ashes was as a psychological weapon, because he seemed to strike fear into the English batsman. His secret? Maybe it was his training, the confidence brought about by fatherhood, or a pep talk by a war hero, but nearly everyone was convinced it was his moustache. No, seriously.

Mitchell grew a moustache for Movember to raise money for men’s health, but was urged not to shave it off at the end of the month by selector Mervyn “Merv” Hughes, who sports an impressive moustache himself. A public campaign and $10 000 donation from Gillette convinced Mitchell to keep the mo, and it seemed to work.

I was following the Ashes on the BBC, and was interested to see how much that moustache affected the English: it was the “menacing mo”, “the terrifying tash”, “the malicious moustache”, “the fearsome face-fuzz”, or the “horrid horseshoe”, and Mitchell became the “pantomime villain”. Add one moustache, and suddenly this shy, quiet man had become a bowling nightmare to the English.

Unfortunately, Mitchell says the magic mo must go for now, but confirms he will be growing it back when we take on South Africa later in the summer. I just hope it hasn’t lost its mystique by then.

Mitchell is an English surname of several origins. It is said that the first people with this surname came from Mitcham in Surrey (now in the outer suburbs of London), with Mitcham meaning “big town, large settlement”. Mitchell can also be derived from the male name Michel, a Middle English nickname for a large person, meaning “big”. The Normans had the name Michel, but in their case it was a form of the name Michael.

The surname Mitchell must have moved north during the medieval period, as it became particularly associated with Scotland. The Gaelic form of the name is based on the name Michael. In Ireland, Mitchell is used to Anglicise the Irish surname Ó Maoilmhichil, from the clan name Uí Mhaoilmhichil, meaning “devotees of the Archangel Michael”.

The surname Mitchell is one very well known in Australia, for Sir Thomas Livingstone Mitchell was a 19^th explorer of Australia. Originally from Scotland, he joined the British army, where he distinguished himself during the Napoleonic Wars, then became a surveyor in New South Wales. He explored New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland, and published two books which included close and sympathetic observations of the Aboriginal people he encountered.

He is also remembered for the invention of the boomerang propeller, and being the last man in Australia to challenge anyone to a duel (both marksmen missed, so nobody was hurt). Many things are named after him, including the town of Mitchell and the Mitchell River in Queensland, the Mitchell Highway between Queensland and New South Wales, and Major Mitchell’s Cockatoo, a very beautiful bird with soft pink and grey markings, much admired by Sir Thomas Mitchell.

Mitchell has been used as a boys name since at least the 16^th century, and turns up early in Scotland. There are many men named Mitchell in Australian records, and lots of them emigrated from Scotland or have Scottish surnames.

The name Mitchell has charted in Australia since the 1940s. It climbed gently until the 1980s (the decade when Mitchell Johnson was born), when it suddenly shot into the Top 25 from virtually nowhere. It peaked in the 1990s at #12, and is still stable in the Top 100. Currently it is #45 nationally, #77 in New South Wales, #53 in Victoria, #51 in Queensland, #41 in South Australia, #37 in Western Australia, and #91 in Tasmania.

Australia is the only country in the world where the name Mitchell is still in the Top 100, and with the success of Mitchell Johnson, I don’t see it going anywhere soon. It’s an Australian modern classic with a lot of history, and a name we hold dear.

Mervyn is derived from the Welsh name Merfyn, of uncertain meaning. It is sometimes said to be a variation of the Welsh name Myrddin (“sea fortress”), from whence we get Merlin, but it may mean “big”, and is often translated as meaning something along the lines of “famous to the marrow”. There was a medieval Welsh king named Merfyn.

The name Mervyn was #66 in Australia in the 1900s, and peaked in the 1920s at #44 before declining and leaving the Top 100 in the 1950s. It hasn’t charted since the 1970s. It may be dated, but it is a uniquely Australian name, because in no other country (not even Wales) did it ever become popular.

Two names more Australian than you might have thought – but which one do you prefer?

POLL RESULTS
Mitchell received a respectable approval rating of 68%, while people were less enthusiastic about Mervyn, with an approval rating of 22% – not one person loved the name Mervyn.

Urgent Name Help Needed: Their New Baby Has No Name

16 Monday Dec 2013

Posted by A.O. in Naming Assistance

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

birth registries, choosing baby names, honouring, name popularity, nicknames, Scottish names, sibsets

Nina and Hamish welcomed a daughter six weeks ago. They love her dearly, and she is a constant delight to them. However, they still haven’t chosen a name for her, and the registration date is getting alarmingly close.

Nina picked out four names she liked for the baby – Annie, Meg, Peggy, and Georgie. She assumed that when the time came, Hamish would choose one of these names from her list, and that would be the baby’s name. However, while they were actually at the hospital, Hamish brought up for the first time that he would like the baby to be called Sarah after his mother (who always goes by Sally). Nina isn’t keen on the name Sarah.

They have been too busy with a new baby to have the time to sit down together and properly discuss the name, and because it is taking so long to decide, friends and relatives are weighing in with their own opinions, which is slowing the process down further.

Nina and Hamish already have a daughter named Edie, whose name was chosen by Hamish, and a son named Alistair, called “Mac” – Nina chose his name, but Hamish chose the nickname which they use every day.

Nina’s Requirements in a Girl’s Name

Cannot be a unisex name, because their surname is a popular name for boys
Must be obviously a girl’s name – sometimes Edie’s name is mistakenly read as Eddie
Must be short
Must be spelled in a conventional way
Must be easy to pronounce – especially in regard to the letter R, so no Audrey or Flora for example
The name on the birth certificate should be the name that they call her – Nina doesn’t want another Alistair-but-called-Mac situation
No name that will be an easy target for teasing

Hamish’s Requirements in a Girl’s Name

Would prefer that it be a Scottish name
Doesn’t want a name that is highly common or popular
Can’t start with the letter E as he doesn’t want two daughters with the same initials
Prefers a name that can be shortened into a nickname, for shouting on the sporting field

Names They Have Already Considered

Isla – Hamish doesn’t like the silent S, and it doesn’t have a nickname
Anna – Doesn’t pass the “shout from the sidelines” test
Elizabeth nn Betsy
Emma
Margaret nn Meg/Peg/Pegs/Peggy – Hamish said he would call her Maggie, but Nina doesn’t want a Mac and a Maggie
Rose
Tilly
Daisy (family name)
Martha (family name) – Nina doesn’t like the nickname Marty
Helen (family name) – Nina likes the nickname Nell/Nellie, but a friend called Kelly told her to avoid anything rhyming with “smelly”, “belly”, or “jelly” because of the teasing
Lydia nn Liddy/Diddy – Nina went off this after she learned Saint Lydia is the patron saint of sexually transmitted diseases; the name also rhymes with chlamydia
Annabel
Billie – too unisex
Kate (family name)
Jane (family name)
Nancy (family name) – Nina’s mother said this is a word to describe an effeminate man, but it doesn’t put Nina off
Kenzy – Hamish absolutely loves this name, but Nina thinks Mac and Kenzy are ridiculous as siblings (just discussing why this name couldn’t be used took up two weeks!)

Nina is rather enjoying the protracted name-choosing experience, but no matter how many names she considers, she keeps coming back to just one name she loves – Annie. She now feels that when Hamish eventually agrees to a name, she will be very disappointed unless he agrees to Annie.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

It sounds as if you’ve been having a lot of fun naming your third child, but registration is due very soon, and although you can get extensions, they’re intended for people who’ve been trapped by floodwater or in a coma. Unless you come up with a name quickly, you will have to pay a fine, and possibly face some annoying extra bureaucratic paperwork.

I think it’s time to put away the name books and name lists, and politely let friends and relatives know that they’ve been great, but their assistance is no longer required. In short, it’s time to stop faffing about and actually pick a name.

The good news is, it sounds as if you’ve already chosen a name – Annie. This appears to be the name you love above all others, fits all your requirements, and in fact, any other name would be a disappointment to you. It sounds as if you went with something else, you would experience serious name regret, and possibly even have to change the name later.

Hamish has already got to choose the names Edie and Mac for your first two children, so I really think it is time that you got your turn picking out a name you really love.

Luckily, Annie fits most of Hamish’s requirements too:

Annie is commonly used in Scotland, and there is even a famous Scottish ballad called Annie Laurie
Annie isn’t common; it’s only #203 in your state (25 babies named Annie last year)
It doesn’t start with E
It doesn’t shorten particularly well, but I think Hamish would be able to cope

I think that you need to stop having, “What will we name the baby?” discussions, and start a “I want to name our daughter Annie” conversation. You need to find time so you and Hamish can talk, and explain to him that this may be the last daughter you will ever have, and you really have your heart set on the name Annie. It may not have occurred to Hamish that he’s got to pick all the childrens’ names so far, and that it really would be fair for you to have your turn (yes, you picked Alistair, but that hardly counts when Hamish’s choice of name is what you actually call him).

If you love the name Annie, I would be prepared to dig in and fight for it. I think if you are persistent, and keep explaining how well Annie works for your family (Edie, Mac and Annie sound great together), how much you love it, and how miserable you will be if another name is chosen, Hamish is quite likely to eventually agree with your choice. He hasn’t really come up with a viable alternative to Annie, and there’s nothing about it that he has objected to. Then it’s just a matter of getting to the registration office and putting it down on the dotted line.

Nina, I have never been more interested to know what a couple will decide to name their baby. We absolutely must know what your choice is, whether you end up picking Annie, Sarah, or something else entirely – and whether you get to the registration office in time!

Readers, have you ever persuaded a reluctant partner to accept your favourite baby name? Have you got any tips for Nina?

NAME UPDATE: The baby’s name was Anne!

Brisbane Suburbs That Could Be Used as Boys Names

13 Sunday Oct 2013

Posted by A.O. in Name Themes and Lists

≈ 7 Comments

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aristocratic names, Biblical names, english names, famous namesakes, fictional namesakes, French names, Gaelic names, hebrew names, Irish names, Latin names, locational names, middle names, name history, name meaning, name popularity, names from films, names from television, nicknames, Old English names, Old Norse names, popular names, rare names, Roman names, saints names, Scottish names, surname names, unisex names, US name popularity, Welsh names

Augustine

Augustine Heights is a new suburb of Ipswich, and gained its name from St Augustine’s Catholic Church and College. The name Augustine is from the Roman name Augustinus, derived from Augustus, meaning “great, venerable”. Its most famous namesake is the theologian Saint Augustine of Hippo, considered one of the most important Church Fathers. He describes his conversion to Christianity in his Confessions, which has become a classic of Christian literature. The name became popular in England in the Middle Ages because of Saint Augustine of Canterbury, a 6^th century founder of the English church known as the Apostle to the English. It is probably because of him that there is an English form of Augustine – the popular Austin. In France, Augustine is a girls name, the feminine form of Augustinus.

Bowen

Bowen Hills is an inner-city suburb of Brisbane. It is named after Sir George Bowen, an Irishman who was the first Governor of Queensland. Tactful and democratic, with a great love of the outdoors, he made himself popular enough to be invited to serve two more years when his term had expired. There are a few places in Queensland named after Sir Bowen, including Bowen Park, a pleasure garden in Bowen Hills. The surname Bowen can be Welsh, meaning “son of Owen“, or it can be Irish, in which case it is an Anglicised form of the Gaelic O’Buadhachain, meaning “son of Buadhach”. The name Buadhach means “victory, triumph”. This name reminds me of the Bowen Technique, an alternative massage treatment developed by Australian Tom Bowen, although Bowen is a knight and dragon-slayer in the movie Dragonheart. Rarely seen here, Bowen is in the Top 1000 and rising for boys in the US. It gives the unisex nickname Bo, and for some reason I see this as a girls name just as much as a boys.

Chandler

Chandler is a semi-rural outer suburb of Brisbane. It is named after Sir John Beals Chandler, a successful businessman with a chain of electrical goods stores, and who owned several radio stations. He was elected to the Queensland Parliament in the 1940s, and Lord Mayor of Brisbane in the 1940s and early ’50s. Chandler is an English occupational surname, which denoted someone who made and sold candles, or someone who was responsible for the wax, soap, candles and lighting in a medieval great house. This name will remind many of Chandler Bing, from popular sit-com, Friends.

Crosby

Mount Crosby is an outer suburb of Brisbane adjoining the state forest. It is named after its dominant natural feature, Mount Crosby. The first settlers to this area were from the village of Crosby-on-Eden, near the Scottish border, and it seems likely that they named their new home after their original one. The surname Crosby is after the place name, a common one in northern England and southern Scotland. The name is of Old Norse origin, and means “settlement by the cross”; as we learned from Cruz, these stone crosses were often used as markers. Famous Crosbys include entertainer Bing Crosby and musician David Crosby. The name has recently begun charting in the US, after drama series Parenthood was shown on television there. The show has a character called Crosby Braverman, played by Dax Shephard, and the name must have resonated, because it went up 69 places last year. Crosby is rare in Australia (I’ve only seen it on a child once), but maybe Parenthood will have an effect here too.

Ebenezer

Ebenezer is a suburb of Ipswich. It had been a preaching place on the Methodist Church circuit since 1863, and by 1882 a church had been built named the Wesleyan Ebenezer Church. It is from this church that the suburb gets its name. In the Old Testament, Eben-Ezer is a place mentioned as the scene of battles between the Israelites and the Philistines; its modern day location is not known, but it is probably in Palestine or Arabic Israel. Eben-Ezer is from the Hebrew for “stone of help”, and it is theorised that a stone dedicated to Yahweh may have been located here to give it its name. Its most famous namesake must be Ebenezer Scrooge from Charles Dicken’s A Christmas Carol, the cold-hearted miser redeemed by three spirits of Christmas. I think the name Ebenezer sounds pretty hip now, and an Old Testament boys name which has been overlooked for too long. Eben and Ben would make good nicknames.

Hamilton

Hamilton is a hilly inner-city suburb of Brisbane on the Brisbane River which was built by convict labour. It soon became known for its upper-class country houses and estates, ornamental shade trees, picturesque location and fine views of the city. Hamilton is associated with “old money”, and has the highest mean income of any suburb in Queensland. It is named after the Hamilton Hotel, built in 1865 by Gustav Hamilton, a wealthy solicitor who owned most of the land in the area. It soon became known as a meeting place for the horse racing world, as the Turf Club is nearby, and is still popular today. Hamilton is an English and Scottish surname after the village of Hamilton in Leicestershire; its name means “crooked hill” in Old English. The aristocratic Hamilton family gained lands in Lanarkshire, Scotland, and gave their name to the town of Hamilton there. The Hamiltons married into the Scottish royal family, and the Duke of Hamilton and Brandon is the highest peer in Scotland. A famous person with the name is Hamilton Hume, an early Australian explorer of New South Wales who was a top-notch bushman and formed friendly relationship with Aboriginal peoples. This is a name with an impressive pedigree.

Logan

The city of Logan is halfway between Brisbane and the Gold Coast. It began as a penal settlement, and farming soon followed; it was developed for housing in the 1960s due to its laissez-faire planning laws. Logan is named after Captain Patrick Logan, the Scottish commandant of the original penal settlement, who had a reputation for being strict to the point of cruelty. He was a great explorer and was killed on one of his expeditions, most likely by Aborigines who had repeatedly told him to get off their land. News of his death was met with wild joy from the convicts. Logan is a Scottish surname; the Clan Logan comes from the “lands of Logan” in Ayrshire, which may be from the Gaelic for “hollow”, or even of Norman origin. In Ireland, it is considered to come from the Gaelic O’Leoghain, meaning “grandson of the warrior”. This name has many namesakes from popular culture, including the dystopian sci-fi film Logan’s Run, where Logan is played by Michael Yorke, and Logan aka Wolverine from the X-Men films, played by Hugh Jackman. Logan has charted since the 1970s (when Logan’s Run first screened), and ranked in the 1980s at #344. It climbed steeply through the 1990s and made the Top 100 by the 2000s. It is currently #38 nationally, #36 in New South Wales, #33 in Victoria, #65 in Queensland, #46 in South Australia, #28 in Western Australia, #17 in Tasmania, and #50 in the Australian Capital Territory.

Sherwood

Sherwood is a suburb on Oxley Creek. Its name comes from a farm which was named after Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire, England. A Royal Forest, and remnant of an older and much larger royal hunting forest, it is one of England’s most ancient, having survived since the end of the last Ice Age. It is famous for its association with legendary folk hero Robin Hood, who is supposed to have lived in Sherwood, according to some sources. Sherwood in Brisbane even made its own Sherwood Forest Park, which is now, less romantically, the Sherwood Arboretum. The name Sherwood means “shire wood”. A famous person with the name is American author Sherwood Anderson.

Tennyson

Tennyson is a riverside suburb named in honour of Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Tennyson was Poet Laureate of Great Britain and Ireland during Queen Victoria’s reign, and has the record for length of tenure as a Laureate at 42 years. Revered in his own time, he remains one of the popular English poets. One of his much-loved works is the Idylls of the King, a cycle of blank verse poems inspired by the legends of King Arthur; many of the streets in Tennyson have Arthurian names in compliment of the Idylls. For those amused by these coincidences, the Queensland Tennis Centre is located in Tennyson, and was once the Tennyson Tennis Centre. The English surname Tennyson means “son of Tenney”, with Tenney a pet form of the name Denis. Actor Russell Crowe has a son named Tennyson, after his favourite poet. This is a handsome and unusual name, with a great namesake, and would make an excellent middle name too.

Windsor

Windsor is an inner-city suburb of Brisbane, with many old homes, and containing several heritage-listed sites. It was named Windsor in 1887, most likely after Windsor Castle in Berkshire, England, as it was Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee Year. Windsor Castle was built by William the Conqueror, and was originally a fortification to protect the outskirts of London, with strategic views of the River Thames and access to the royal hunting forest of Windsor. Since the rule of Henry I, William’s son, it has been a royal residence, and is the largest inhabited castle and longest-occupied palace in Europe. Today it is a royal palace and weekend retreat for Elizabeth II, and state banquets and official entertainments are often held there – it is also a major tourist attraction. The castle is named after the nearby village of Windsor, once the site of a palace for the Saxon kings. Its name means “winding shores, winch shores” in Old English, because boats were pulled by windlass up the river. Famously, Windsor is the surname of the British royal family: the name was changed from Saxe-Coburg and Gotha by George V in 1917, due to anti-German sentiment during World War I. The final straw was when Germany used the Gotha G. IV aircraft to bomb London – just four months later, the Saxe-Coburg-Gothas had become the Windsors, the name taken from the royal palace. A famous person named Windsor is British actor Windsor Davies, best known as the sergeant on It Ain’t Half Hot Mum. Royal names are all the rage, and you can’t get any more royal than Windsor.

POLL RESULT: People’s favourite names were Tennyson, Augustine, and Windsor, and their least favourite were Sherwood, Hamilton, and Ebenezer.

(Photo shows the suburb of Hamilton)

Brisbane Suburbs That Could be Used as Girls Names

06 Sunday Oct 2013

Posted by A.O. in Name Themes and Lists

≈ 9 Comments

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animal names, Aramaic names, Australian Aboriginal names, Biblical names, birth notices, english names, fabric names, famous namesakes, fictional namesakes, Gaelic names, Gaulish names, German names, Greek names, historical records, Latin names, locational names, name history, name meaning, name popularity, names of farms, names of ships, names of spices, nicknames, Norman-French names, saints names, Sanskrit names, Scottish names, surname names, unisex names, virtue names, vocabulary names

Amity

Amity Point is a small town on North Stradbroke Island, 30 km south-east of Brisbane. The town is named after the Amity, a brig which carried the first European settlers to Queensland in 1824. The Amity was later wrecked near Tasmania, and today you can visit a full-size replica of the brig in Albany, because the Amity also took colonists to Western Australia. Amity is an English word which means “friendship”; it comes from the same Latin root as names such as Amy and Amabel, and has been used as a girls name since the 17^th century. Amity is #551 in Victoria, and I often see it in birth notices: I think this pretty virtue name is gaining in popularity, and may become a replacement for Amy.

Bethania

Bethania is in Logan City, halfway between Brisbane and the Gold Coast. The suburb was founded by Germans in the 19^th century, and has a large hobby farm area. The name Bethania comes from Bethanien, the German name for the town of Bethany near Jerusalem. In the New Testament, Bethany is mentioned as the home of siblings Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, and is said to be near the place where Lazarus was raised from the dead. The Biblical Bethany may be the same place as the city of al-Eizariya in Palestine – its name means “place of Lazarus”, although others say that the original village of Bethany was slightly higher up on the Mount of Olives, and that al-Eizariya sprung up around the traditional site of Lazarus’ resurrection. The meaning of Bethany has been much debated, but it is thought the most likely derivation is from the Aramaic beth anya, meaning “house of affliction, house of suffering”, with the conclusion being that it was a place for care of the sick and destitute. Although Bethania doesn’t have any connection to Elizabeth or Anne, it might seem like a way to connect these two names, and does give both Beth and Anya as nicknames.

Cashmere

Cashmere is an outer suburb of Brisbane in the foothills of a mountain range surrounded by dense forest, with a nearby lake. Cashmere is named after an early settler, James Cash, famous for his hospitality to passing travellers. Although Cash was not wealthy and lived in a simple shanty, no tramp ever passed his door without receiving a meal or a pot of tea. Because mere means “lake”, and James Cash’s farm was near Lake Samsonvale, the suburb’s name can be understood as “Cash’s land by the lake”. Cashmere is also a fine, high quality fibre taken from Cashmere goats. The name is after the Kashmir region of India, which has been making cashmere shawls for thousands of years. Kashmir’s name comes from the great sage Kashyapa, a legendary wise man whose name is from the Sanskrit for “tortoise”. With Cash a fashionable choice for boys, luxurious Cashmere seems like a way for girls to get the nickname Cash as well. In Australian records, both men and women named Cashmere can be found.

Corinda

Corinda is an older suburb of Brisbane, first settled in the 1860s as a farming community, and with many of its homes dating back to the colonial period. The name Corinda is believed to come from a local cattle station, which was named after a pastoral station in outback Queensland. The name is of Aboriginal origin, but its meaning is not known. Corinda has been used as an English girls name since the 18^th century – perhaps based on the Greek name Kore, meaning “maiden”, with an elaborated ending common in 18^th century poetic names like Melinda and Dorinda. This name seems elegant and literary, and not so different from familiar names such as Lucinda.

Inala

Inala is a suburb of Brisbane near the industrial estates. It was built in the post-war period to help with the housing shortage that followed World War II, and was one of the earliest and biggest Housing Commission projects in Queensland. Young architects such as Robin Boyd helped design the housing, which features simplicity and lack of ornamentation. In other words, it isn’t pretty, but cheap and efficient to install and maintain. It has an ethnically diverse community, with many migrants from Vietnam, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands, amongst other places, settling there. The name Inala is believed to come from an Aboriginal expression meaning “peaceful place, happy place”, but it’s possible it actually means “place of the wind”. I saw a baby girl named Inala in a birth notice early this year, and ever since have been itching to cover this as a name – said ih-NAHL-ah, it fits in with names such as Ayla, Nyla, and even Isla.

Karalee

Karalee is a suburb of Ipswich; originally dairy and farm country, it began to be developed for residential purposes in the 1970s. It is thought that Karalee comes from an Aboriginal expressing meaning “grass around a waterhole”, although the City of Ipswich prefers the translation, “pretty hill beside the water”. This looks like a portmanteau of Kara and Lee, but has its own integrity, and is said KAR-a-lee, like an elaboration of Carol.

Lacey

Laceys Creek is a rural area in the outer suburbs of Brisbane, and was first settled as timber country, soon followed by dairy farming, pineapples, bananas, and bee-keeping. Lacey is an English surname of Norman-French origin. It comes from the village of Lassy in Normandy, which means “Lascius’ place”. The meaning of the Gaulish name Lascius is of unknown meaning. The de Laci family came to England with William the Conqueror, and one of their descendants was amongst the barons who forced King John to sign the Magna Carta. Lacey has been used as a girls name since the 17^th century, and part of its feminine charm is that it sounds like the word lacy. Lacey is #234 in Victoria, and I believe this is another pretty girls name which is growing in popularity.

Lucia

St Lucia is an exclusive green and leafy inner-city suburb of Brisbane. It is focused around the University of Queensland, with the university itself, and residential colleges for students, taking up a large proportion of the suburb. There are many wealthy people living in St Lucia, with riverfront houses here costing in the millions. The area was first settled in the 1860s as sugar plantations, and was given its name by William Wilson, who bought and developed one of the plantations for housing in the 1880s. Wilson was born in St Lucia in the West Indies, and he named the housing estate St Lucia because the sugar plantations reminded him of his birthplace. The island of St Lucia is in the Caribbean, part of the Lesser Antilles group. It was named in honour of Saint Lucy by the French, who were the first European settlers to the region. Saint Lucy was a 4^th century martyr, and she has become a popular saint, partly because her feast day of December 13 is near Christmas and originally coincided with the (northern hemisphere) Winter Solstice. Her name’s meaning of “light”, from the Latin lux, became a very appropriate one for a Festival of Light, heralding the Light of the World. Lucia has charted since the 1940s and had a minor peak in the 1960s at #283 before dropping to #808 in the 1990s. Since then it has climbed steeply, and peaked in 2010 at #115. Currently it is #122 in New South Wales and #177 in Victoria. This is an alternative to Lucy that has never become popular, although on the charts since the end of World War II.

Ripley

Ripley is a suburb of Ipswich, which currently has only 1000 residents. However, big things are planned for Ripley’s future, and once fully developed it is expected to be a city of 120 000 – one of the country’s largest pre-planned communities. It is named after the Ripley Valley where it is located; I am not sure if this is after someone named Ripley, or one of the towns named Ripley in England. The surname Ripley is from Ripley in Yorkshire – the town’s name means “farm whose land cuts a strip through the forest”, with the forest in question being the forest of Knaresborough. One of the most famous Ripleys must be Robert Ripley, who created Ripleys Believe It or Not! trivia series for newspapers, radio and television. The name may also remind you of tough Lieutenant Ellen Ripley from the Alien film series, played by Sigourney Weaver, or suave con artist Tom Ripley, from the crime novels, turned into a film, The Talented Mr. Ripley, played by Matt Damon. I have seen this name on both sexes.

Sinnamon

Sinnamon Park is an older suburb with some heritage-listed sites; the suburb is named for the pioneering Sinnamon family who settled in the district. Sinnamon is a Scottish surname; the Clan originated in Fife, and their name comes from their seat at Kinnimonth, which was granted to them by King William of Scotland. The name Kinnimonth comes from the Gaelic for “head of the hill”. Sinnamon sounds like the sweet spice Cinnamon, but has its own meaning and history – although the Sin- at the start may be problematic for some. I did find someone named Sinnamon from Queensland in the records, but can’t be sure whether they were male or female.

POLL RESULT: People’s favourite names were Amity, Lucia, and Bethania, and their least favourite were Inala, Sinnamon, and Karalee. Not one person liked the name Karalee.

(Photo shows the University of Queensland in St Lucia)

Rare Royal Names for Boys

08 Sunday Sep 2013

Posted by A.O. in Name Themes and Lists

≈ 11 Comments

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alphanumeric names, anagram names, Anglo-Saxon names, Arthurian names, Biblical names, birth notices, classic names, Danish names, english names, famous namesakes, fictional namesakes, German names, germanic names, Greek names, hebrew names, Latin names, middle names, mythological names, name history, name meaning, name popularity, names of months, nicknames, Old English names, popular names, rare names, Roman names, royal names, saints names, Scottish names, stage names, surname names, unisex names

Alastair

Alastair Windsor was a great-grandson of Queen Victoria through his father, and a great-great-grandson of Victoria through his mother. Although born a prince, he was stripped of his royal titles while still a toddler, after the regulations were tightened up. Alastair went into the army, and died during World War II on active service, in unconventional circumstances. He had been sent to Canada as aide-de-camp to the Governor General, who was a relation of his. Both his regiment and the Governor General had rejected him as incompetent, and he fell out of a window while drunk. It can get very cold in Canada, and Alastair succumbed to hypothermia overnight. Alastair is the Anglicised form of Alasdair, a Scottish form of Alexander. Alasdair Mòr Mac Dòmhnaill is the ancestor of the Clan MacAlister. I think Alastair very handsome, and in a country where Lachlan and Hamish are common, it doesn’t seem out of place. If the alas at the start bothers you, it can also be spelled the more common Alistair.

Athelstan

Although there had been many English kings before him, Athelstan the Glorious was the first ruler of all England, and the first who can be called king of the English. He was the grandson of Alfred the Great, and like his grandfather, had a reputation as a man of great intelligence and justice. His household was a centre for learning, he created the most centralised government England had yet had, maintained social order, encouraged literature, was an unbeaten military leader, and a key player in international affairs. He gets rave reviews from medieval historians, and even foreign writers of his time were eager to sing his praises. He is a king worthy of admiration, yet while the name Alfred was successfully revived and is still used now, Athelstan went out of use after the Norman Conquest, and remains extremely rare. Just doesn’t seem fair, does it? Athelstan is the modern form of the Anglo-Saxon name Æþelstan, meaning “noble stone”; it was very common amongst Anglo-Saxon royalty and nobility, and there are quite a few other kings with the name. I admit it does seem a little unwieldy, but it comes with the nickname Stan.

August

August was the second name of Prince Ernst August, a great-great grandson of George III and cousin of George V. As a member of the Hanoverian family, he was born a prince of Britain and Ireland, but during World War I, anti-German sentiment convinced the British royal family to strip the titles from their German relatives. However, the Hanoverians didn’t consider themselves bound by British rules, and continued to call themselves princes and princesses. To this day, the Hanoverians ask the British monarch for permission to marry, like other royals. It’s a bit of an odd situation. Prince Ernst was the last reigning monarch of the House of Hanover, and his marriage to Princess Victoria of Prussia the last large gathering of European royals before World War I broke out – he was very much the end of an era. August is the German form of Augustus, a traditional middle name in the Hanoverian royal family which continues to be handed down. You can also see August as after the month, in which case it can be given to both sexes.

Axel

Axel was the final middle name of Prince Georg Wilhelm Ernst August Friedrich Axel, the son of Prince Ernst August. He married Princess Sophie of Greece and Denmark, who was Prince Philip’s sister. The name Axel is the medieval Danish form of the Hebrew name Absalom. In the Old Testament, Absalom was a son of King David, staggeringly handsome and extremely charming. He rebelled against his father; it’s a pretty awful story involving incest, rape and murder, and not one of the most uplifting parts of the Bible. Absalom was killed when he got his head stuck in a tree, which is meant to be very ironic for some reason. To me the ironic part is his name means “my father is peace”, and he went to war against his father. Axel is not a popular name in Australia, but I feel as if it will be in a few years, based on how frequently I see it in birth notices – it is #164 in Victoria. Its use seems to be influenced by singer Axl Rose, whose stage name is famously an anagram.

Edmund

Edmund the Magnificent was half-brother to Athelstan the Glorious, and his successor to the throne. He only ruled for a few years before he was murdered, but in that short time he had important military victories in the north, established peace with Scotland, began reviving the monasteries and helped restore Louis IV to the throne of France. His great-grandson Edmund Ironsides fought valiantly against the Danes, and although ultimately defeated by King Canute, was a skilled and inspiring leader. Edmund is an Old English name meaning “rich protector”, and it was common amongst Anglo-Saxon royalty and nobility. Saint Edmund the Martyr was a King of East Anglia killed by the Danes, and was the patron saint of England until Saint George got the gig – there is a movement in East Anglia to reinstate him. Unlike many other Anglo-Saxon names, Edmund remained in use after the Conquest (probably because of the saint), and was even used in the royal family. It’s surprising how rare this name is compared to classic, popular Edward, but it’s a very handsome and noble one. Narnia fans will know it as the name of the treacherous Pevensie brother, who redeems himself and becomes a king of Narnia. Edmund “Ted” Gyngell is a recent celebrity baby, sometimes called Edmund the Magnificent after his namesake.

Emmanuel

Emmanuel was the final middle name of Francis Albert Augustus Charles Emmanuel of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, otherwise known as Prince Albert. He married his cousin Victoria, who was the heir to the British throne at the time. Victoria had the choice of two cousins to wed, and chose Albert as the most handsome and charming. Queen Victoria was devoted to Albert, and he was a great support to her, holding quite a bit of power behind the throne. A progressive and liberal thinker, he helped bring in many reforms, set the example that monarchy must be above politics, and made a huge success of the Great Exhibition of 1851. He died while only in his early 40s, and Queen Victoria was devastated. She wore mourning for the rest of her days and withdrew from public life. Emmanuel is a Hebrew name meaning “God is with us”; the Old Testament gives the name in a prophecy, and the New Testament attached it to Jesus Christ as the Messiah. The name was common amongst European royalty, but less often used in Britain. In Australia it’s possibly best known as a surname, from guitarist Tommy Emmanuel.

Eustace

Eustace was the eldest son of King Stephen, and a great-grandson of William the Conqueror. Stephen had become king of England in a rather controversial way. After the heir to the throne had drowned in a disastrous shipwreck, Stephen had himself declared king by popular acclaim and was speedily crowned before anyone knew what was happening. The Empress Matilda had been next in line, but she was only a woman, and Stephen thought he should rule instead. Matilda didn’t agree, and their subsequent battle for power threw England into a state of anarchy for nearly two decades. Stephen had Eustace declared his co-king, but the church refused to ratify this, and nearly everyone was greatly relieved when the teenaged Eustace unexpectedly died. Generally perceived as rather a blot, his welcome demise allowed peace negotiations to go ahead. Even more conveniently, Stephen died the following year leaving Matilda’s son, Henry II, as ruler. Eustace is the English form of Greek Eustachios, meaning “rich crop”, a name chosen for himself by a 2^nd century Roman general and martyr who had been born Placidus, and is known as Saint Eustace; because of him, the name was common during the Middle Ages. This is another name from The Narnia Chronicles, because Eustace Scrubb was a rather annoying character who, like the saint, was converted from his previous beliefs. Hardly anybody seems to like the name Eustace, and even C.S. Lewis made fun of Eustace Scrubb’s name.

Leopold

Prince Leopold was a son of Queen Victoria, named after his great-uncle, Leopold I of Belgium, who had helped arrange the marriage of Victoria and Albert. Leopold’s birth is famous because his mother used chloroform during labour, giving the royal seal of approval for women to seek pain relief during childbirth. Prince Leopold inherited the family condition of haemophilia and also had mild epilepsy; he became a patron of the arts, literature and chess. He knew Alice Liddell, famous as the inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s Alice books (one of which revolves around chess), and some believe he considered marrying her, although others say it was her older sister Edith who was his intended wife. Queen Victoria arranged for him to marry Princess Helena of Waldeck and Pyrmont, a distant cousin. Leopold’s marriage was happy, and he and Helena had a daughter named Alice, but he died as a result of haemophilia after only a few years. He passed away just before his son Charles was born. Alice inherited the haemophilia gene, and passed it on to her son Rupert, who also died young. Leopold is a Germanic name meaning “bold people”; it was common amongst German royalty. This rather grandiose name has popular Leo as the nickname.

Magnus

Magnus was a son of King Harold II and Edith the Fair, or Edith the Gentle Swan, sometimes (wrongly) called Edith Swan-neck. Harold and Edith were married in a traditional manner known as handfasting, and although Edith was regarded as Harold’s wife by regular people, and their children as princes and princesses, the clergy saw her only as his mistress because they hadn’t wed in a Christian ceremony. Harold did have another wife, also called Edith, but this was a marriage of political convenience, and not a love match as it was with Edith the Fair. According to legend, after Harold was killed at the Battle of Hastings, only Edith the Fair could identify his body by markings she knew, so Harold was able to have a Christian burial. Magnus is a Latin name meaning “great”; Magnus Maximus was a 4^th century Western Roman Emperor who became important in British folklore and Welsh legend, and is part of the mythology of King Arthur. There are several saints named Magnus, and it was a traditional name in the royal families of Norway and Sweden. The name is often thought of as Scottish, and one of the Saints Magnus was from Scotland. This is a great name, rich in history and legend, strong and interesting, and a good alternative to Max.

Octavius

Prince Octavius was the thirteenth child of King George III, and doted upon by his adoring parents. At the age of four, he was inoculated against the smallpox virus, and as vaccination was still in its experimental stages, became ill and died, the last member of the British royal family to suffer from smallpox. The sudden death of the tiny prince caused his family immense grief, and during his later bouts of madness, King George even had hallucinations about Octavius. What made it harder for them was they had lost Octavius’ younger brother Alfred in exactly the same way six months previously. Octavius is a Roman name coming from the Latin for “eight”; Octavius was the eighth son of King George III. Octavius seems very hip – fresher than Atticus and Orlando, with a distinct feel of its own. It would be a good choice for an eighth child or grandchild, or someone born in August (the 8^th month) or October.

POLL RESULT: People’s favourite names were August, Magnus, and Alastair, and their least favourite were Octavius, Athelstan and Eustace.

(Picture shows a portrait of Prince Albert and his royal family by Franz Xaver Winterhalter)

Upper Class Baby Names

18 Sunday Aug 2013

Posted by A.O. in Your Questions Answered

≈ 17 Comments

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Anglo-Saxon names, birth registries, classic names, dog names, famous namesakes, fictional namesakes, flower names, Google, Greek names, hyphenated names, Latin names, Latinate names, middle names, name image, nature names, nicknames, popular names, rare names, retro names, royal baby names, royal names, Scottish names, surname names, underused classics, unisex names, vintage names

Class, baby names, and judgement thereof seems to be a topic under discussion everywhere at the moment. BRW magazine told us how to name our babies like a rich person, Wendy Harmer set high, perhaps unattainable standards for baby names, an American blogger told us how names are done in Old Blighty’s class system, and a random Devonian reality television contestant decided nobody’s baby names were good enough, not even hers. Perhaps the royal baby is the catalyst for all this reflection – he didn’t escape the scrutiny either; the reality TV contestant decided he had a “dog name”.

And then I checked my search engine stats this week, and found that someone had Googled what baby names do upper class australians use.

Strictly speaking, Australia doesn’t have an upper class, because we don’t have a hereditary aristocracy. It’s usual to consider the richest people of a country the de facto upper class, but when we talk of someone being “upper class”, it has connotations of more than mere possession of a large disposable income. Some of the richest families in Australia are from traditionally working class or middle class backgrounds – they’re just regular people with vast fortunes.

While Australia does have a class system, it’s a flattened-out one, with fewer social divisions, and a large middle ground. Class is more fluid and less structured here than some other places. Of course, that doesn’t mean we are free of all status markers and snobbery – including name snobbery.

So if we don’t have an upper class, do we have upper class baby names? I don’t think so, because any particular name is used by a wider variety of people than you might suppose. Although in our imaginations, poor people have children named Jaidyn and Tayylah, and rich people send Agatha and Lucius off to St Barnaby’s or the Kindergarten of Higher Consciousness, in real life it is a lot less stereotypical.

When you register your baby name, the registry doesn’t ask for your family tree or your bank balance. They won’t ever say, Look, I think Peregrine is out of your price range. Might I suggest something more affordable, like Cooper? All names are equal, because they cost the same amount to register. No matter how humble your circumstances, you can give your baby any name you want – elegant, serious, trendy, sassy, bold, or eye-raising.

And because all names are equal, they won’t make any difference to your own social position, or to your child’s. A poverty-stricken family won’t receive an invitation to join the Yacht Club just because their daughter is named Agatha, and a Jaidyn born into wealth will have just as privileged a life as if his name had been Lucius, and will be just as welcome at St Barnaby’s.

Although some people fret that their baby’s name needs to sound like a doctor, a judge, a professor, or a prime minister for them to succeed, in real life surgeons are named Kellee, chief justices are named Wayne, academics are named Tiffany and Brandy, and prime ministers are named Kevin. Not only does your name not indicate where you came from, it doesn’t indicate where you are going either.

However, it’s fair to say that some names have an upper class image. I don’t think Australia is significantly different from other English-speaking countries when it comes to what names may be perceived as upper class.

Names Which May Be Seen as Upper Class

Please note: This is by no means an exhaustive list, just a few ideas as to what I think sounds “upper class”, what others may perceive as upper class, or that I have noticed upper-middle class people choosing. I am not recommending these styles of name, or suggesting you use them.

Classic English-style names eg Thomas and Lucy
Anglo-Saxon type names eg Alfred and Edith
Names from European royalty eg Leopold and Adelaide
Latin and Latinate names eg Rufus and Aurelia; Hugo and Miranda
Classical names eg Leander and Hermione
Retro names eg Arthur and Florence
So old-fashioned that they’re hip eg Reginald and Gertrude
Vintage-style nicknames as full names eg Monty and Lottie
Names that have remained in use while never becoming popular eg Theodore and Susannah
Uncommon Scottish-style names for boys eg Cormac and Fergus
Uncommon flower names for girls eg Dahlia and Saffron
Historical surname names for boys eg Forbes and Monash
Whimsical names eg Huckleberry and Tuppence (while putting the whimsical name in the middle is the prudently middle class thing to do)
Fashionable “arty” names eg Ziggy and Coco (strike me as more aspirational middle class for some reason)
Literary names eg Caspian and Evangeline (these definitely seem middle class, as the middle class is keenest on reading)

How Middle to Upper-Middle Class Australian People Tend to Judge Names

Please note: I am not suggesting you follow any of this advice. It is for information only.

They like names that are spelled the more commonly accepted way. People are really fussy about this for some reason, and even slight changes to a name can bring on eye-rolling.
Any name that looks or sounds recently “made up” is frowned upon (although it’s fine if it was created a long time ago and therefore has a history behind it).
If a name has several variations, the simpler one is usually considered more upper class than the more elaborate eg Isabel rather than Isabella, Alice rather than Alicia, Sophie rather than Sophia.
Classic and retro names are usually considered more upper class than modern classics. However, Sophia is a classic name and Sophie is a modern classic, yet Sophie is more upper class than Sophia – so this does have exceptions, or can be overwritten by another rule.
Hyphenated names for girls, like Emma-Rose or Ruby-Lee, are often viewed with suspicion. This could be because “double” names are elaborations by their very nature.
Masculine or unisex names on girls are generally considered downmarket, while a unisex or feminine-sounding name on a boy often has quite a bit of cachet. So Mackenzie on a girl = thumbs down, Mackenzie on a boy = thumbs up.
It is fashionable to show pride in your cultural heritage, so Lorenzo, Agnieszka, Tevita, Silka and Johannes can be more stylish than Laurence, Agnes, David, Cecilia and John.
Conversely, many people seem to think that using names from a culture that you don’t have any immediate tie to looks distasteful. I think it’s silly, but it seems to be a widespread idea.
One or two middle names are fine, but once you reach three or more middle names (and you’re not royalty), you are considered to have gone beyond the bounds of good taste. It’s a little arbitrary, but it does seem to be the rule.

Names Not Obviously One Class or Another

Many names that have been highly popular for a length of time – by their nature, popular names are “of the people”; it’s easier for a name to remain very popular if many groups of people use them. Names like Charlotte, William, Chloe and Lachlan could belong to almost anyone, and do.
Hickster names – those that are fashionable-sounding yet slightly countrified, like Mayella and Elroy. Even after reading the birth notices carefully, looking for clues as to which kind of families choose these names, I still don’t know.
Uncommon nature names – names like Leaf or Snow are hard to place, I think. I have seen these names on children from absolutely everywhere on the social spectrum.
Extremely rare or obscure but genuine names – due to the fact they are almost never heard of, they don’t have any social context to put them into. You may only meet one Harmon in your whole life – so how can you generalise about the name?

What names do you think have an upper class image? And do you think there is any such thing as an upper class name?

Names Spotted at Home and Abroad (Autum Edition)

27 Thursday Jun 2013

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

≈ 7 Comments

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Arabic names, Arthurian names, Biblical names, Cornish names, english names, hebrew names, Japanese names, locational names, Maori names, name meaning, names from movies, names from television, portmanteau names, rare names, Scottish names, Slavic names, Spanish names, stage names, surname names, terms of endearment, unisex names, vocabulary names, Welsh names

Names of Babies and Children

The winners of the 2013 Bonds Baby Search were announced during the autumn, and some of the interesting names I saw amongst them were Ramsey, Cielo and Azriel. Ramsey is a Scottish surname from an English town meaning “wild garlic island” – at last, it’s an anti-vampire name! Cielo means “sky”, in Spanish, but it’s also a term of affection, meaning “my heaven”. Azriel is a Hebrew Biblical name which means “help of God”. Although male in the Bible, its similarity to Azaria and Ariel probably makes it seem unisex, or even female.

A baby girl born rather suddenly in a hospital car park in Adelaide was named Lowenek, a Cornish name said to mean “joyfulness”. South Australia has a strong Cornish heritage, and I wonder if little Lowenek was named with this in mind?

A poor little baby had a rather awful time in hospital. Her name is Venice, which I think is really pretty. We just saw a Verona in a birth announcement, and I saw a Vienna at For Real Baby Names – Valencia must be just around the corner.

This story on a mum who went all out to lose her baby weight, getting super fit in the process, says that she has a toddler son named Jatticus, and a baby daughter named Atlantis. I’ve seen people use Jatticus as a user name online, but never seen it on a baby before, and Atlantis is pretty wow.

A story on a Sydney family with a dozen children did not give all their names, but did mention one boy named Taiawhio, which is a Maori name meaning “go around, encircle”.

An article on baby naming laws in Australia from Lifehacker mentioned a few rare baby names that were registered last year – Hurricane, J’Adore, Couture, Excel, Burger, Google, Tron, Hippo. Are these unique baby names? Nope, they were each registered more than once. Remember, no matter how unusual you think your baby name is, someone else has probably thought of it.

Names of Adults

A story on a baby’s difficult birth mentioned the midwife as being named Oki Rose. Oki is a Japanese name which means “offing” – the offing is the distant sea which is still visible from the shoreline. It’s a surname in Japan, as well as a place name, the Oki Islands. It’s a name which strangely appeals to me, and as parents sometimes call their babies after the midwife in gratitude, I wonder if there are any little Okis in her area?

There was a profile on a novelist named Honey Brown. People always ask her if it’s a pen name, but it’s the name she was given at birth. Her dad was driving down a country road when he saw a sign advertising honey painted on a roadside shed, and he went home and told his pregnant wife that if they had a girl, her name had to be Honey. If that isn’t sweet enough, for her 40^th birthday, Honey’s sister tracked down the original sign and took a photo of it. I love a name with a story behind it.

Another writer, this time a teenage fashion blogger from Perth named Willabelle Ong. She’s been blogging since she was 15, has more than 60 000 subscribers, racks up over 115 000 views a month, and has been featured in Teen Vogue and the New York Times. I’m not usually a fan of portmanteau names, but Willabelle is really quirky and charming.

There was a story on a young rapper whose stage name is Iggy Azalea, which is pretty cool. Her real name is Amethyst Kelly, which is cool too. Would you prefer to be called Iggy or Amethyst?

A story on new Australian citizens in Queensland mentioned one with the intriguing name of Ginny Lovelady. It puts an interesting picture in your mind. Other names of new Australians were Craig, Manjula, Marriette, Brigette, Albert, Melissa and Almari.

While watching RPA, I saw a young man, still in his teens, having a tumour removed from his leg. Luckily, his limb was able to be saved. He had the romantically Arthurian name Galahad, which some interpret as being from the Welsh for “hawk of summer”. Galahad is the only knight who is pure enough to find the Holy Grail, and some see him as a Christ-figure. Guinevere is becoming accepted as a “normal” name now, so how about Galahad for the guys?

On the news, there was a brief interview with the father of an unsuccessful criminal who was foiled by a quick-thinking young lady. The dad’s name was Trampas, which seemed to me very unusual (okay, utterly bizarre). Turns out the name had quite a vogue in its day, because Trampas was one of the main characters in the 1960s TV cowboy series, The Virginian. It’s from a place name meaning “traps” in Spanish, and there’s some famous Americans with this name, who were born while the TV show was on. There’s also several Australians with the name in historical records. Perhaps in 50 years a name blogger will exclaim over a stout middle-aged lady named Katniss, and wonder where on earth she got her “weird” name from.

Speaking of names from books, a friend complained that she couldn’t finish the novel she’d started because of the heroine’s name – Ava. She found it ridiculous that a grown woman should have a “little girl” name – sooo unbelievable. The funny thing is, I know an Ava who’s 32, not to mention a Ruby who’s 28 , a Keeley who’s 29, and an Oliver and a Tyson in their mid-forties. These popular baby names had to start out somewhere! The grown-up Ava I know has a toddler named Jessica – I wonder how many people get their names confused?

Interesting Names Spotted in Real Life

Akira – a Japanese name meaning “bright, clear”. It can be unisex, but I saw it on a boy.

Ebenezer – I was so rapt to see this on a little boy! It really doesn’t seem any different to Biblical names like Ethan, Elijah, Ezra etc.

Malik – an Arabic name meaning “chieftain, king”. Does it remind you of Slumdog Millionaire or One Direction?

Riven – a girl’s name from the online game, League of Legends. Literally it means “split asunder” in English, which kind of freaks me out, but I can see it sounds a lot like River and Rivendell. Maybe her parents think riven means “full of rivers”?

Zora – a Slavic name meaning “dawn”. A nice alternative to popular Zara.

Names of Babies Born to People I Know or Know Of:

Girls: Autumn, Mabel, Xanthe

Boys: Calvin, Lennon, Theo, Wyatt

(Picture shows the original sign which inspired Honey Brown’s name)

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

Waltzing More Than Matilda

~ Names with an Australian Bias of Democratic Temper

Tag Archives: Scottish names

Famous Names: Barry and Gladys

Names of Australian Birds for Boys

Famous Name: Adam

Famous Names: Mitchell and Mervyn

Urgent Name Help Needed: Their New Baby Has No Name

Brisbane Suburbs That Could Be Used as Boys Names

Brisbane Suburbs That Could be Used as Girls Names

Rare Royal Names for Boys

Upper Class Baby Names

Names Spotted at Home and Abroad (Autum Edition)