Tag Archives: vintage names

Famous Name: Esme

21 Wednesday Sep 2016

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Famous Namesake
Last week it was the 122nd birthday of Esme Fink, born on September 15 1894, and known as “Molly” from her middle name, Mary. She was an attractive blue-eyed blonde with a charming, fun-loving personality, and came from a respectable Melbourne family who had fallen on hard times, so her mother was desperate for Esme to meet an eligible bachelor as soon as possible.

While staying in Sydney, Esme caught the eye of of a middle aged Indian rajah who was there for the races and had become part of Sydney’s elite. His name was Martanda Bhairava Tondaiman, and he was the ruler of the princely state of Pudukkottai in British India, today in southern India. Martanda was smitten with Esme, and after a few months proposed marriage.

The happy couple wed almost immediately, and after being sneered at in the Australian press, travelled to India. Right from the start the British authorities were hostile to Martanda’s choice of bride. They had already warned him that a “mixed marriage” would not be formally recognised, and King George V decided that Molly Fink was a dreadful name. The final straw came when Esme became pregnant, and a poisoning attempt was made on her.

Esme and Martanda returned to Australia, where their son Martanda Sydney was born; Martanda became known in racing circles, and Esme as a socialite. They left Australia for London in order to demand recognition of their marriage, but when it became obvious their son would never be acknowledged, Martanda abdicated in exchange for substantial financial compensation.

Esme and Martanda settled in Cannes, where Esme’s friends included the photographer Cecil Beaton, and hostess Elsa Maxwell. Esme loved fashion, and was the first person to ever buy a Schiaparelli evening dress; she known for her extravagance, and eccentricities such as taking a pet tortoise for walkies while dressed to kill.

After her husband’s unexpected death, the Aga Khan proposed marriage to her, but she turned him down in order to live the high life independently. When World War II broke out she travelled to New York with Cecil Beaton and Anita Loos, and with her money frozen because of the war, worked illegally in a department store to make ends meet, while raising funds for Australian and Canadian servicemen.

She was estranged from her son after he was imprisoned for jewel theft, and as her funds dwindled became something of a recluse, taking comfort in alcohol and her Pekingese dogs. She died in 1967, leaving her extensive wardrobe to the Fashion Museum in Bath.

Name Information
Esme is the Anglicised form of Esmé, derived from the Old French word esmer, meaning “esteem, respect, love”, and pronounced EZ-may. It was first given to Esmé Stewart 1st Duke of Lennox, a cousin of King James VII, born in 1542; his mother was French. The name was used for eldest sons in his family for a few generations (the chain was broken after one of the Esmés died young, after which the name wasn’t used again by the family).

Esmé as a boy’s name never really took off, even in Scotland, and by the 19th century Esme was becoming better known as an English name given to girls, although still in some use for boys by the aristocracy, especially those with ties to Scotland.

The reason for its gender switch could have been because it sounds like a cross between Esther and May, or perhaps it became conflated with Ismay, a medieval English girl’s name thought to be derived from the Germanic name Ismagin, meaning “iron strength”. It is better known as a surname (the owner of the doomed Titanic was J. Bruce Ismay), and the surname Esmay is a variant. Ismay and Esme both came into use around the same time in the modern era, and at one time Ismay was usually given to boys – both names became more commonly feminine in the 19th century.

Another possible blow to the name Esmé remaining masculine was the scandalous 1894 novel The Green Carnation, published anonymously but written by Robert Hichens. The lead characters in the novel were Esmé Amarinth and Lord Reginald Hastings, closely modelled on real life lovers Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas. An instant success in both Britain and the US, its readers were shocked and titillated, and a reviewer described it as “impudent … bold … delicious”.

The book had to be withdrawn because it depicted homosexuality, but the damage was done and the novel set the stage for Oscar Wilde’s public disgrace and downfall. The Green Carnation was one of the works used by the prosecution in the case against Oscar Wilde for gross indecency, which saw him sentenced to two years hard labour. Use of the name Esme for boys became extremely rare after the late 19th century, and I can’t help wondering if the book helped cement the idea that the name was not only feminine, but effeminate on a man.

The name Esme has been used several times in literature, quite apart from this scandalising roman-à-clef. J.D. Salinger wrote a short story called For Esmé – with Love and Squalor; Esmé is an orphaned English teenager who befriends an American soldier. The name is referenced in Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, which has a nasty piece of work named Esmé Squalor.

Another villainess is mutant Esme Cuckoo in Marvel’s X-Men series, while powerful witch Esmerelda “Esme” Weatherwax in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld  fantasy series is a force for good. In Saki’s darkly comic 1911 short story Esmé, the title character is an animal and the person who bestows the name does not know its sex, so chooses Esmé as suitable for either male or female. Knowing Saki, it’s hard not to wonder if The Green Carnation helped inspire the choice of name.

More recently the name has featured in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series, as Esme Cullen is the gentle, caring vampire den mother. Her name is half the basis for her granddaughter’s name, Renesmee.

Esme was #139 in the 1900s, and peaked in the 1910s at #120 – the same period Esme Fink was in the papers as a society beauty and putative rani. Esme left the charts in the 1950s. Since then it has made a mild come-back, and is around the 600s.

In the UK Esme did not make the Top 200 during the 19th century. However, it has been rising steadily since the late 1990s, and joined the Top 100 in 2008. It is currently #38 and still going strong. One influence on the name may be the British model, DJ and actress Esmé Bianco, who played Ros in Game of Thrones. The name is popular in Scotland, at #57.

Esme doesn’t have a strong history of use in the US, and only joined the Top 1000 in 2010, two years after the first Twilight movie. Numbers have risen, and it is currently #682.

For many years in Australia this name was associated with gossipy old Esme Watson from A Country Practice, but it has been given a new lease of life. It’s a vintage name that feels contemporary and stylish, and by now its masculine origins are long past, although not forgotten. It’s an artistic name with plenty of literary clout, and popular culture has brought it new admirers.

You can spell it Esmé if your state or territory birth registry will allow it (some won’t), but Esme looks neat and pretty, and by now I think nearly everyone knows how to pronounce the name without the aid of an accent. Adding an extra E to spell it Esmée in an attempt to feminise or Frenchify it is redundant, as by now the name already is feminine, and it’s not a French name but a British one.

POLL RESULTS
The name Esme received an approval rating of 82%. People saw the name Esme as intelligent and artistic (20%), pretty or beautiful (20%), classy and elegant (17%), and cute on a little girl but sophisticated on a grown woman (15%). However, 6% saw it as ugly and frumpy.

(Photo is of Esme “Molly” Fink, taken by Cecil Beaton)

Unique Boys Names from the 2015 Birth Notices

18 Sunday Sep 2016

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These are ten names given to boys which I saw only once in the birth announcements of last year. They are not all rare, but they are at least names you don’t see every day.

Aled
Welsh name, after the River Aled – a small river in Denbighshire in north Wales. Its meaning is not certain, although some have linked it with the Welsh root al-, meaning “wandering”, which suggests the winding flow of a river. Probably more importantly, in modern Welsh aled means “offspring”, making the name seem very suitable as a baby name. A historic namesake is the 15th century Welsh poet Tudur Aled, a nobleman from Denbighshire considered one of the finest poets of his time. Aled has been used as a boy’s name in Wales since perhaps the 18th century, and originated in Denbighshire. Its similarity to the name Allen must have been a help – it basically sounds like Allen with a D at the end instead of an N. A famous contemporary example is Welsh singer Aled Jones, who had a hugely successful career as a young boy, and is now a radio and television presenter. The name is still in use in the UK, although numbers have fallen. A pleasant Welsh heritage choice made familiar through a famous namesake.

Dashiell
English surname which is a corruption of the French surname de Chiel; its meaning is unknown. The de Chiel family were French Protestants who fled to Scotland escaping religious persecution in the 16th century. From here the surname morphed into Da Chiell, Da Shiell, Shiell, and Dashiell – the last seems to be first used in America, when the French-Scottish family migrated to Maryland in the 17th century. Dashiell has been used as a first name since the 19th century and was particularly associated with Maryland. The name has become famous because of the American crime novelist Dashiell Hammett, who wrote such classics as The Maltese Falcon and The Thin Man; he received his name because his mother was one of the Dashiell family of Maryland. The name has never been common even in its country of origin, but is now rather fashionable as well as having literary cachet. Actress Cate Blachett welcomed a son named Dashiell in 2001, so this is a celebrity baby name. Pronunciation is a slight issue – Dashiell Hammett said his name da-SHEEL, while these days the name is nearly always pronounced something like DASH-uhl. Said thus, it gives the obvious nickname Dash, as demonstrated by Dashiell “Dash” Parr in The Incredibles.

Eamon
Anglicised form of Éamonn, the Irish form of Edmund. The name became well known because of the American-born Irish statesman Éamon de Valera, who was a force in Irish politics for over half a century. He came to prominence as a leader during the Easter Rising of 1916 and eventually became the country’s president in 1959. Éamon didn’t retire until he was 90, making him the world’s oldest head of state. Éamon de Valera was originally named George, and later had his name changed to Edward, so Éamon was a conscious attempt to give himself an authentically Irish name. Éamon de Valera visited Australia in the 1940s, and had strong links of friendship with the Irish-Catholic community here, especially amongst the priesthood, so the name Éamon or Eamon was very well known here for many years. A famous Australian namesake is the former Olympic swimming champion Eamon Sullivan. An Irish heritage choice which is dated in Ireland, but won’t seem so here, especially as it fits in well with current naming trends.

Gilbert
Germanic name meaning “bright pledge, bright hostage”. The meaning of “hostage” makes some people uneasy, however in the past it was common for political treaties to be accompanied by the exchange of hostages, usually nobles or even royalty, as a guarantee of good faith. The name Gilbert was introduced to Britain by the Normans, and was popular in the Middle Ages. In Scotland Gilbert was sometimes used to Anglicise the Gaelic name Gille Brigte, meaning “follower of Saint Bridget”. There are a few saints with the name, including Gilbert of Sempringham, the son of a Norman lord from Lincolnshire who founded the only English religious order, the Gilbertines; they didn’t survive the Reformation in England. Gilbert was #123 in the 1900s, and left the charts in the 1990s. It returned in 2011, and is now around the 500s. This is a vintage charmer which L.M. Montgomery fans may connect with handsome Gilbert Blythe, the love interest of red-haired heroine Anne Shirley. Comes with the nicknames Gil, Gib, Bert, and Bertie.

Keanu
Hawaiian name literally meaning “the coolness”, and translated as “the cool breeze”. In Hawaii it has been given to both sexes, but mostly to boys. The name has become famous because of Hollywood star Keanu Reeves, who has some Hawaiian heritage through his American father. He’s made a name as a blockbuster action star through The Matrix series, Speed, and Point Break, but is forever famous for the cult Bill and Ted movies. He has a connection to Australia since he lived here as a baby. The Hawaiian pronunciation of the name is keh-ah-noo; Keanu Reeves says his name more like kay-ah-noo, while many seem to say it kee-ah-noo. The strong identification of the name Keanu with the actor may cause some parents to think of it as a “one person name”, although it’s attractive with a nice meaning. On one hand, the Hollywood connection makes the name familiar and easy to deal with; on the other, prepare for people to assume you are a huge fan of Keanu Reeves.

Leif
Scandinavian name from the Old Norse name Leifr, meaning “descendant, heir”. Depending on which part of Scandinavia a person is from, the name is pronounced either LAYF or LIFE. Leif has a very famous namesake, because Leif Erikson was a Viking chieftain from Greenland, the son of Erik the Red. He was described by contemporaries as a strong, striking-looking man who was wise and considerate, and regarded as lucky. Leif converted to Christianity on a voyage to Norway and preached his new-found religion to the Greenlanders. Leif Erikson is perhaps best known for voyaging to a country he called Vinland, somewhere in modern Canada, where he founded a few Nordic settlements around 1000 AD. Leif Erikson not only pushed back the date of European colonisation in North America, he helped give Scandinavian immigrants to the Unites States a special tie to their adopted country. In the United States, Leif Ericson Day is celebrated every October 9. Leif is a slightly dated name in Scandinavia, but feels fresh here. A famous Australian namesake is music industry graphic designer Leif Podhajsky.

Ptolemy
Anglicised form of the Greek name Ptolemaios, meaning “war-like”, pronounced TOL-uh-mee. The name is mentioned in Homer’s Iliad as one of the Greek warriors. Ptolemy was a common name amongst the aristocracy of Macedonia, and the name was traditional in a line of Macedonian rulers in Egypt descended from one of Alexander the Great’s generals. They were in power for nearly three centuries, and are collectively known as the Ptolemaic Dynasty; one of their most famous members is the ruler Cleopatra. The most famous namesake is Claudius Ptolemy, nearly always known as Ptolemy. He was a Greco-Egyptian Roman citizen who wrote several important scientific treatises on maths, astronomy, geography, and astrology. His work was essential to medieval knowledge, and Christopher Columbus used his work on geography as the map for his famous voyage. There is a Ptolemy mentioned in the New Testament, and two saints with the name. Ptolemy has been used as an English name since the 17th century; it sounds like the English name Tolomy, short for Bartholomew. A rare but very cool name – possibly even a little too cool.

Rayyan
Arabic name meaning “thirst quenching, well-watered, luxuriant”; in the Quran the word is used to mean “splendour”. In Islamic tradition Rayyan is the name of one of the four gates of Paradise, dedicated to those who have fasted often in their lives. A common name in Arabic-speaking countries and communities, this works well in English-speaking countries. Not only is it quite similar to popular Ryan, but the possibility of using familiar Ray as the nickname gives your son the option of complete assimilation in the future. It even sounds very slightly like the English word rain, which fits in with the Arabic meaning. A no-fuss Arabic heritage choice.

Solomon
Hebrew name meaning “peace”. In the Old Testament King Solomon was the son of King David, famed for his enormous political and military power, and fabulous wealth gained through trade partnerships. According to Jewish tradition Solomon used that wealth to build the First Temple in Jerusalem, and his reign was a Golden Age. The Bible tells us that Solomon once prayed for wisdom, and because he did not ask for something selfish, he was granted not only wisdom but many other gifts as well. Legend says he received magical powers, and the ability to control angels and demons! An enigmatic passage in the Bible describes a visit made by the Queen of Sheba to Solomon, and the Ethiopian monarchy claimed descent from Solomon. Solomon is credited with writing Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon – one of the most beautiful works of poetry in the Bible. A central figure in Judaism, Solomon is venerated as a prophet in Islam, and regarded as a saint in Eastern Christianity. Solomon has often been used by Jewish people, East Europeans, and Africans, but has been used as an English name since the Middle Ages in honour of the biblical figure. A wise and peaceful name that might remind people of the Solomon Islands.

Tyrion
A name mostly known through popular culture. Currently it is associated with Tyrion Lannister from A Game of Thrones, played by award-winning actor Peter Dinklage. Born into privilege, Tyrion is despised by his family, and must learn to live by his not-inconsiderable wits. The cynical, debauched, bitterly intelligent Tyrion is a fan favourite, and author George R.R. Martin’s own favourite character from the series. Before that, Tyrion was a High Elf in the the 1980s role-playing game Warhammer, and a wise dragon king in the 1990s German-Australian television series Tabaluga. Tyrion is a variant of the name Tyrian, meaning “of Tyre”. Tyre was a wealthy island-city in ancient Phoenicia whose name meant “rock” because of the formation it was built on; today it is in modern Lebanon. Tyre was famous for its production of expensive purple cloth, only affordable by royalty and aristocracy; the word tyrian can refer specifically to the colour purple, and has connotations of pomp and power. You could also connect the word Tyrian to Tyr, the Norse god of war. Despite these interesting associations, Tyrian and Tyrion have been used only very rarely as personal names; however they seem like fantasy names which can still work in the real world.

POLL RESULTS
People’s favourite names were Dashiell, Solomon and Eamon, and their least favourite were Rayyan, Aled and Tyrion.

(Picture shows Dashiell “Dash” Parr from The Incredibles)

Requested Names: Estelle and Estella

07 Wednesday Sep 2016

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Estelle is a French name. It became known because of Saint Estelle, a legendary 3rd century martyr from Gaul whose father was a Roman nobleman, and her mother descended from a long line of powerful Druids. After converting to Christianity, her own father condemned Estelle to death for her faith, making her another of those young girl saints with less than supportive dads.

The saint’s name was actually Eustelle, from the Greek for “beautifully adorned”. Over time, the spelling of the name seems to have been altered so that it looked as if it was derived from estela, the Occitan word for “star”. (Occitan is a dialect from southern France).

Although Estelle was apparently a popular saint in the Charente region of southern France, the name doesn’t seem to have received much use until the 18th century. In 1788 the French poet Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian published a pastoral romance called Estelle and Némorin, and although critics didn’t exactly give it rave reviews, it seemed to kick-start Estelle as a baby name.

An early namesake was Estelle Duboeuf, later Fornier, who was born in 1797. The Romantic composer Hector Berlioz met Estelle on a summer holiday in the French Alps and instantly became infatuated with her. He was already a fan of Estelle and Némorin, and perhaps there was some connect between the fictional and real Estelles. He was 12 and she was 18, so this wasn’t a relationship which was going anywhere, and Estelle married a lawyer and had six children.

For the rest his life Berlioz considered her to be his muse and called her his Stella montis (Latin for “mountain star”). One of Berlioz’s early compositions was based on a song in Florian’s Estelle and Némorin, full of despair at having to leave his “star” behind. Its melody wound itself into the violins in his Symphonie fantastique, and his longing for Estelle helped inspire his symphony Romeo and Juliet.

Much later in life Berlioz again encountered Madame Fornier, now an elderly widow, and asked her to marry him. She turned him down and never understood his obsession with her, but they remained friends and he left her an annuity in his will. She was his first love, his last love, and his sweetest love, and the fact that it was almost entirely in his imagination made it all the more powerful.

The name Estelle became a favourite choice in 19th century romance novels in both Britain and America. One of the most famous examples of the name in literature must be the the beautiful but pitifully frozen-hearted Estella Havisham in Charles Dickens’ 1860 novel Great Expectations.

Dickens may have chosen the name Estella because of its similarity to Stella, the unattainable beauty in Sir Philip Sidney’s poem Astrophel and Stella, so the name already signified painful, hopeless unrequited love to a woman far out of reach, cold and distant as a lovely star.

Estella is the Latinate form of Estelle, and it has also been in use since the 18th century. It was originally more popular in Italian and Spanish-speaking countries, although used in English-speaking ones as well.

Estelle was #228 in the 1900s, and peaked in the 1920s at #222, the era of American silent screen star Estelle Taylor, regarded as one of the most beautiful women of the silent era. The name fell in popularity after Estelle gave up acting to pursue a singing career, and had an unhappy marriage to boxing champ Jack Dempsey. By the time Estelle passed away in the 1950s, the name had left the charts.

It returned in the 1970s at #625, just after American actress Estelle Parsons won an Oscar for her role in Bonnie and Clyde. It went down in the 1980s, perhaps because Estelle Getty on sitcom The Golden Girls made it seem like an old lady name. Estelle began climbing in the 2000s. Its current position is probably around the 200s, but could be higher.

In the US, Estelle was in the 100s from the late 19th century until the end of the 1920s. It left the Top 1000 in 1964 and returned in 2012. This was the same year that the Swedish royal family welcomed Princess Estelle, daughter of Crown Princess Victoria; Estelle is second in line to the throne of Sweden. The name Estelle is currently #822 in the US.

Estelle has been less popular in the UK, and was only in the Top 500 for a few years in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It left the Top 1000 in 2011, but perhaps Princess Estelle brought it back, as it returned the following year. It’s currently #891 and seemingly falling again.

Estelle was a Top 100 name in France in the 1990s and early 2000s, but has been gradually falling in favour and is now #187. It’s still popular in Belgium.

Famous Australian Estelles include journalist Estelle Blackburn, naturalist and wildflower painter Estelle Thomson, and model/dancer Estelle Asmodelle, Australia’s first legally recognised transsexual, billed as “Australia’s first transsexual pin-up” in the 1980s.

In the US, Estella was in the 100s from the late 19th century until 1912, and left the charts in 1974. Like Estelle, it returned in 2012 and is now #873. Estella has never been in the Top 1000 in the UK; last year there were 16 baby girls given the name. Estella is a royal name as well, as Prince Edward of Kent’s daughter Lady Helena Taylor had a daughter named Estella in 2004.

Estelle and Estella are pretty vintage names with a fascinating literary and musical history which have recently gained royal glamour, and fit in with popular names like Isabelle and Stella. They also strike me as names which have great potential as multicultural crossovers – apart from the French connection, Estelle has sometimes been chosen by Jewish families as a spin on biblical Esther, while Estella may appeal to those from Romance language backgrounds such Italian and Portuguese.

Could one of these names be right for your little star?

Thank you to Patricia for requesting the names Estelle and Estella be featured on Waltzing More Than Matilda; Patricia is considering using one of these names.

POLL RESULTS

Estelle received an approval rating of 70%. 35% of people loved it, and only one person thought Estelle was a terrible name. Estella did less well, with an approval rating of 51%. 44% of people weren’t keen on it, although only 6% thought Estella was a terrible name.72% of people preferred the name Estelle to Estella for a baby girl.

Name Update: The Birthstone Baby

01 Friday Jul 2016

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Brooke and Ryan were expecting their third child in June. They had a few ideas in mind for a boy, and quite a few possibilities for girls – enough that it was hard to choose. Brooke wanted a traditional vintage-style that wasn’t too popular.

Brooke and Ryan welcomed their daughter late last month, and named her

PEARL FLORENCE,

a sister for big brothers Alexander and Charlie.

Pearl is the birth stone for June, while Florence is a family name. Brooke is very happy with the name they have chosen for their daughter, and absolutely loves it.

Congratulations to Brooke and Ryan on the birth of their daughter! What a beautiful meaningful name, and everything they hoped for.

Famous Name: Kip

27 Wednesday Apr 2016

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It was Anzac Day on Monday, a national day of remembrance. It is also closely connected with a form of gambling called two-up, a coin toss game where two coins are flipped on a flat wooden paddle by the “spinner”. Players bet on whether the coins land as two heads, two tails, or a head and a tail, called “odds”.

Two-up has become a part of the Australian identity, and is considered to be our national game. You can see games of two-up depicted in the films The Sundowners, Forty Thousand Horsemen, The Shiralee, and Wake in Fright, and it features in songs by AC/DC and Little River Band. The novel Come in Spinner by Dymphna Cusack takes its title from the call given by players to encourage the spinner at the start of play.

Although pitch and toss games were popular among the convicts and on the goldfields, it is thought that the game of two-up as we know it evolved among Australian soldiers during World War I. Not only does the art of war involve a lot of hanging about, but Australians were the best-paid soldiers in the First World War, with disposable income to burn. Gambling was therefore a popular pastime, and became a traditional game for Australian troops.

When returned soldiers came home to Australia, two-up was illegal, but a tactfully blind eye was turned by authorities when it was part of Anzac Day celebrations. It was only in the late 1980s and early 1990s that it became legal to play two-up on Anzac Day (you can also legally play it on Victory in the Pacific Day and on Remembrance Day after midday, although there are certain places, such as casinos, where you can play two-up on any day of the year).

The big catch under the Gaming Act is that you are not allowed to make a financial profit from two-up, and if you organise a game and end up making money, you are required to donate it all to charity. So this is a form of gambling you can play knowing that the money is going to a good cause. And if you end up giving away some of you hard-earned cash, that’s a small sacrifice to make compared to those who gave their lives for their country.

Name Information
The flat piece of wood which holds the coins in a game of two-up is called the kip. The origin of the slang term is not known for sure, but it may the same as the British slang kip, meaning “a short sleep”.

If so, the slang term kip comes from the Dutch kippe, meaning a cheap tavern or dosshouse, which by the 19th century had become a slang term for a brothel (cheap taverns and dosshouses having a tendency to be used in this way).

In either a tavern, dosshouse or brothel, although you might get a chance to doze off, you aren’t expecting it to be a place where you can regularly bed down – hence kip to suggest a short snooze. In Ireland, kip is still used to mean a dirty, messy place, in keeping with the meaning of an unsavoury inn.

The use of the word kip for the paddle used in two-up suggests that it was in such low dives that the game had its origins, or at least that it was a popular form of entertainment in such venues.

Kip is also used as a boy’s name, perhaps originating as a nickname for Christopher or Charles, but in practice often short for a surname such as Kipling, or a “true nickname” with no connection to the name at all.

Use of the name dates to at least the 19th century, although it isn’t possible to tell from records how often the name was given independently rather than as a nickname. The name is particularly associated with the United States, where it once had a bit of social cachet as an upper class nickname.

Kip was on the US Top 1000 from the end of World War II until the mid 1980s, peaking at #380 in 1965. In 2014, there were 50 baby boys named Kip in the US and 12 named Kipp (boys named Kipton, Kipper, and Kipling could well be called Kip for short). In the UK in the same year, there were 5 boys named Kip.

A famous Australian namesake is the amusingly named Kip Gamblin, a ballet dancer who has worked on several opera operas, both here and in America; his dance background has seen him chosen for the movie Moulin Rouge!, and for teen drama series Dance Academy. The name might also remind you of Kip McGrath Education Centres, the tutoring business founded by an Australian schoolteacher named Kip.

Former AFL footballer Brodie Holland and his wife, former model Sarita Stella, named their son Kip, twin brother to Bowie. The inspiration for Kip’s name was model/actor Kip Pardue, whose nickname came about because the initials of his name, Kevin Ian Pardue, spell KIP.

I have seen a few baby boys named Kip in recent years, and this looks like a short vintage-style nickname due for a comeback, in the style of Gus and Ned. Cute and fresh, Kip also manages to slyly reference an Australian tradition: it’s patriotic in a much more subtle way than Anzac and Digger. The name may be rare, but isn’t as much of a gamble as you might think.

POLL RESULTS
Kip received an approval rating of 69%. People saw the name Kip as fun and friendly (29%), and cute and charming (17%), but 21% thought it was only suitable as a nickname. Nobody thought the name Kip was dorky or nerdy.

(Picture shows a commemorative two-up set, complete with wooden kip; although this set has specially made coins, traditionally it is played with Edwardian era, or at least pre-decimal, coins)

Cyclone Names for Boys

06 Sunday Mar 2016

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Dominic
There was a Cyclone Dominic in 1982 and another in 2009; both were quite severe and did significant damage. Dominic is from the Latin name Dominicus, meaning “of the Lord”, and often translated as “belonging to God”. It began as a specifically Christian name, and there are several saints named Dominic. The most famous is the medieval Spanish priest who founded the Dominican Order; he was named after St Dominic of Silos, who answered the prayer of the second St Dominic’s mother that she might become pregnant. As part of that joking folk etymology that religion is so fond of, the Dominicans are said to be named from the Latin for “dog of God” (Domini canis), as a sign of St Dominic’s dogged faithfulness. Dominic has charted since the 1950s, when it debuted at #236. It reached the Top 100 in the 1990s, and has mostly stayed around the bottom quarter of the Top 100, or fallen just below it. Currently it is #88. This is a sleekly handsome modern classic that’s never been highly popular, and comes with the nicknames Dom, Nic, or Nico.

Iggy
Cyclone Iggy was off the coast of Western Australia in 2012: grave fears were held as its power intensified, but by the time it made landfall it had waned considerably. Iggy is traditionally used as a short form of Ignatius, but rocker Iggy Pop (born James Osterberg) took his stage name from his high school band, The Iguanas. Another musical Iggy is Australian rapper Iggy Azalea (born Amethyst Kelly): her stage name Iggy is from her childhood dog, possibly named after Mr Pop. In the Maximum Ride YA series by James Patterson, Iggy is an extremely handsome blind boy whose real name is James Griffiths. This name might feel like “nickname only” territory, but a few people have Iggy as their full legal name. While Ignatius is elegant, Iggy is in-your-face cyberpunk nuttiness, and will appeal to parents wanting something fun and different.

Marcus
Marcus is on the current list of cyclone names. Marcus is a Roman name believed to be derived from Mars, the Roman god of war, and was one of the most popular names in ancient Rome. Famous Romans with the name include the general Marcus Antonius, otherwise known as Mark Antony; the emperor Marcus Aurelius; Marcus Junius Brutus, usually known to us as Brutus, the assassin of Julius Caesar; and the philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero. Marcus has been used as an English name since the Middle Ages, but widely used on the Continent and in Latin America as well. It’s currently popular in Scandinavia, as well as Australia and New Zealand. Marcus is a classic name which has been almost continuously on the charts. It was #190 in the 1900s, and fell to nothing during the 1930s. After that it continued growing and made the Top 100 by the 1970s. Popularity dipped, but it was back again in the 1990s, and peaked at #51 in 2003. It is currently #82. A popular classic never higher than the bottom half of the Top 100, Marcus combines historical gravitas with European style.

Miles
Cyclone Miles was off the coast of Queensland in 1977. Miles is the English form of the Germanic name Milo, whose meaning is unclear. It may be from an ancient Germanic word meaning “mild”, but it has been argued that it is related to those Slavic names meaning “dear, gracious”, such as Mila and Milan. From early on, folk etymology connected it to the Latin word miles, meaning soldier – in Roman comedies, a foolish stock character was Miles Gloriosus, meaning “bragging soldier”. The name has been in use since the Middle Ages, introduced by the Normans, and is often thought of as rather aristocratic. A famous namesake is Miles Coverdale, who was the first person to translate the Bible into English in 1535. Miles has charted since the 1950s, when jazz legend Miles Davis gave the name an injection of cool; it debuted at #323. Since then, the name has increased in popularity, but never become popular, so this is an underused modern classic. It’s around the 100s currently. Rising in both the US and UK, this is a hip choice with a smooth sound.

Oswald
Cyclone Oswald hit Queensland and New South Wales in 2013, causing widespread storms and floods. A natural disaster was declared, and due to the severity of the cyclone, the name Oswald has now been retired. Oswald is an Old English name meaning “godly ruler, divine ruler”. There are two English saints named Oswald; Oswald of Northumbria was an Anglo-Saxon king, and the most powerful ruler in Britain during his time. The name Oswald became less common after the Middle Ages, but was revived in the 19th century as part of the Victorian fascination with ancient British names. Oswald was #75 in the 1900s and left the Top 100 in the 1920s. It left the charts in the 1940s and had unfortunate wartime namesakes – Nazi officer Oswald Pohl, who oversaw the concentration camps, and British Fascist, Sir Oswald Moseley, a friend of Adolf Hitler. In fiction, Oswalds are usually villains or comic characters, but Oswald Bastable from the Treasure Seeker series by E. Nesbit has been claimed as a revolutionary hero name in the Nomad of Time Streams works of Michael Moorcock, and the name is sometimes used in sci fi. A bold vintage choice with a steam punk vibe.

Paddy
Cyclone Paddy was near Cocos Island in May 1981, extremely late in the season. Paddy is an Irish nickname for the name Patrick, or its Irish forms Padraig and Padraic. It was once so commonly used that Paddy became a derogatory term for any Irishman. With such strong immigration from Ireland, the name has a long history in Australia with several famous namesakes, with Paddy either short for Patrick, their full name, or a nickname unrelated to their name. Some examples are: Paddy Hannan, the gold prospector who set off the gold rush in Kalgoorlie; Indigenous artist Paddy Bedford; colourful politician Paddy Crick; Aboriginal elder Paddy Roe; and pioneering bushwalker Paddy Pallin, who founded the chain of outdoor equipment stores. Paddy is also occasionally used as a girl’s name, a variant of Patty; an example is Australian author Paddy O’Reilly. Paddy is around the 500s in Australia, and fits in with the trend for nicknames as full name. Great Irish heritage choice with an Australian flavour.

Rusty
Cyclone Rusty hit the coast of northern Western Australia in 2013. Hurricane-force winds and heavy rain caused flooding and significant damage. Due to the severity of the cyclone, the name Rusty has now been retired. Rusty can be a nickname for either the first name or surname Russell, or a nickname given to someone with red or reddish-brown hair. It is not commonly given as a full name, but after Cyclone Rusty there was a reported increase in the number of baby boys named Rusty, so this is one cyclone at least which influenced local name trends. A rough-and-tumble boyish name in the style of Buster and Sunny: not recommended if your surname is Naylor, Bucket or Lidd.

Seth
Seth is on the current list of cyclone names. In the Old Testament, Seth was the third son of Adam and Eve, born after Abel was murdered by Cain. According to the Bible, Seth was the progenitor of the human race as it exists today, as only his descendants survived the Great Flood. The Bible is coy as to how Seth had children for us to be descended from, but the Apocrypha provides the obvious solution by having him marry his sister. Although the Bible tells us nothing more about Seth, according to tradition he was virtuous and wise; he is regarded as a saint in Christianity, and revered as a prophet in Islam. The name doesn’t seem to have been common for Jews, although in the New Testament the High Priest is said to be the son of a Seth. According to the Bible, the name Seth means “appointed”, to suggest that God appointed Seth as a replacement for Abel. Seth is also the Greek form of the Egyptian god Set, deity of storms and chaos, and murderer of his brother Osiris. The name has a strong New Age resonance due to the supposed chanelled messages of a being named Seth, highly influential to later writers. Seth has been used as an English name at least since the 16th century, and became more common during the 18th. Seth has charted since the 1970s, debuting at #539, and joined the Top 100 in the 2000s. It left the Top 100 in 2014, but cannot be far below it. An Old Testament name that women in particular seem to love as both soft and gentle, and dangerously sexy.

Vance
Cyclone Vance hit Western Australia in 1999, bringing gale-force winds and severe storms, and causing significant damage, particularly in Exmouth. Vance is an English surname that comes from the Old English for “fen”, describing someone who lived near a flat wetlands area or marsh. The surname has a particular association with Scotland, and the Scottish Vances believe their name is Norman, from Vaux in France, meaning “valley”. Vance has been used as a personal name since the 18th century, and was strongly connected with Scotland and Ireland. Vance Drummond was a New Zealand-born officer in the RAAF, much decorated for his gallantry in the Vietnam War. The famous writer Vance Palmer was born Edward, with Vance short for his middle name, Vivian. Not only a great contributor to Australian literature, he and his wife Nettie were part of the social movement that promoted Australian egalitarianism. The indie pop singer Vance Joy’s real name is James Keogh – he took his stage name from a minor character in Peter Carey’s novel Bliss. A vintage name ripe for revival with a strong connection to Australian culture.

Zane
Cyclone Zane was off the coast of Queensland in 2013, but by the time it made landfall it had dissipated to almost nothing. The name Zane was popularised by the American western novelist Zane Grey: he was born Pearl Grey (apparently in tribute to Queen Victoria’s mourning dress, which seems a strange way to name a child, especially a boy). Grey used his middle name Zane for his pen name; it was his mother’s maiden name. The Zanes were a famous American pioneering family, and Zane Grey himself was born in Zanesville, Ohio, named after his ancestor, Ebenezer Zane. The Zanes were descended from Devon Quakers, but the name’s origin is a mystery. It has been claimed that the family had either Danish or Italian ancestry, but neither theory has been proven. Sometimes presumed to be a form of John, as Zane is an unusual short form of Giovanni; it can also be a female name, short for Suzannah or Zuzannah. Zane has charted since the 1970s, debuting at #397 – Zane Grey was still a bestseller then, and another namesake for the era was bodybuilder Frank Zane, multiple Mr Olympia winner. It was in the Top 100 during the 2000s, peaking at #83 in 2005, and is probably around the 100s now. Not at all zany, Zane has become a modern standard conflated with the Arabic name Zain or Zayn, meaning “beauty, grace”.

POLL RESULTS

The public’s favourite names were Dominic, Miles and Seth, while their least favourites were Oswald, Paddy and Rusty.

(Photo is of Australian literary powerhouse, Vance Palmer)

Waltzing With … Sydney

07 Sunday Feb 2016

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Sydney-Circular-Quay-2012Famous City
On Australia Day, January 26, we celebrate the start of European settlement in Australia, when the First Fleet landed at Sydney Cove in 1788. Not much was actually done on this day – the ships landed, they ran up a flag, and drank a toast to the king. Few people went onshore, and convicts did not begin disembarking until the following day.

It was on February 7 1788, 228 years ago today, that the colony was proclaimed by Governor Arthur Phillip. Everyone gathered for a ceremony where possession was formally taken of the east coast of Australia by Britain – although the description of offshore territories was left sufficiently vague that it’s possible they also took New Zealand at the same time.

They did not acknowledge the Indigenous population as owners of the land, but Governor Phillip did intend to treat them humanely and kindly. Unfortunately these good intentions didn’t work out that well in the long term, mostly due to cultural ignorance and the fact they were about to unknowingly decimate the local population with a bunch of diseases.

People love to make myths about the founding of nations and cities, and in the case of Sydney, it has a strange and salacious foundation myth. It states that when the convict women were finally allowed off the boat on February 6, there was such a burst of pent-up sexual excitement that the day ended with a drunken orgy. How an orgy works when there are many more men than women is left to our imaginations.

Male historians and writers seemed to be especially fond of this urban legend, apparently loving the idea that Sydney was founded on a hotbed of drunken gang rape. They helped spread it even when they knew it wasn’t true, because there is barely a shred of evidence to support it. The soldiers’ wives were allowed off the ships not long after their husbands, and a few hand-picked convict women on February 5.

The next day, the rest of the convict women disembarked in small groups, surprising one commentator who found them cleaner and better-dressed than expected. There were no drunken convicts, because they weren’t given any alcohol. The big event was the weather, alarming to the British but entirely normal for a Sydney summer – a hot, muggy day ended with a spectacular thunderstorm, including a massive lightning strike which killed a handful of sheep. Thankfully the sheep have been left out of the orgy legend.

There was certainly plenty of sex in early Sydney, but probably most of it was between people who were already in partnerships, or at least knew each other previously. Instead of a mass orgy, there was a burst of weddings which took place in the new colony, as people settled down together and raised families – these came quickly, as everyone appeared to get pregnant easily in Sydney, even those considered barren, so that the land seemed healthy and fertile.

That was the start of Sydney as we know it – not the boozy party town you might have thought, but still a place of love and hope, new life and fresh beginnings, myths and legends, sunshine and storms, and minor miracles. Not to mention the occasional lightning-struck sheep: surely the progenitor of the traditional lamb chop on the barbie.

Name Information
Captain Arthur Phillip’s first idea for the city’s name was New Albion, a poetic way to refer to England. However, he soon changed his mind, and named it Sydney after Thomas Townshend, Baron Sydney, who was the Home Secretary. This wasn’t a first – Sydney in Nova Scotia had been named after Townshend three years earlier.

The choice of Sydney made a lot of sense, because Thomas Townshend was recognised as the originator of the plan to colonise New South Wales (at that time, the whole eastern seaboard of Australia).

He also gave the colony its first constitution and judicial system – a sign that he did not want New South Wales to be a mere penal settlement, but a colony of free citizens under English law. Although his ideals may not have always worked out in the reality of colonisation, his determination that slavery be illegal here was at least a promising start.

Townshend had originally wanted his title to be Baron Sidney, after his ancestor Sir Algernon Sidney, the famous republican, patriot and martyr, whose revolutionary ideas would help bring about the founding of the United States.

However, Townshend worried that other family members might stake a claim to it (even barons have to worry about name stealing!), so he thought about making his title Sydenham, the name of a village near his home in Kent which is now a suburb of London.

Sydnenham may mean “Cippa’s village”, which is sometimes translated as “drunkard’s village” (there are many places in England derived from Cippa, so that adds up to a lot of drunk Anglo-Saxons!). Others prefer the less controversial “market village”.

Eventually, Thomas Townshend managed to find a compromise with Sydney. To make it clear he wasn’t trying to steal Algernon Sidney off any relatives, he said it was in honour of his ancestor Sir Robert Sidney, 1st Earl of Leicester, the brother of the poet Sir Philip Sidney, who brought us the name Stella. Sir Robert was a poet as well, a diplomat and patron of the arts in Elizabethan and Jacobean times.

In the days when people were more relaxed about spelling, the Sidney family often spelled their name Sydney. The aristocratic surname Sidney is from a place name meaning “wide island” – in this case, island refers to a dry patch in a wetland. It can also be loosely translated as “at the watermeadow”. Folk etymology connects it with the suburb of St. Denis in Paris, named after the city’s patron saint. The surname originates from Kent, where the Sidney family had a seat at Tunbridge Wells.

Sydney has been used as a personal name since at least the 16th century, and was in use by the Townshend family. The name was originally given to both sexes fairly evenly, and then gradually became more common as a girl’s name, although still given to boys. By the 19th century, the situation reversed and it became much more common for boys – a variant of Sidney, rather than a feminised form of it.

Famous people named Sydney include Sydney Smirke, the architect who designed the famous Carlton Club in London; witty author Sydney Smith, whom Henry Tilney in Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey is said to be based; actor Sydney Greenstreet; Sydney Silverman, the British MP whose efforts helped bring about the abolition of the death penalty in that country; American astrologer Sydney Omarr; and Hollywood director and producer Sydney Pollack.

Two famous actors named one of their children Sydney. Comic genius Sir Charles “Charlie” Chaplin had a son named Sydney, named in honour of Chaplin’s brother, actor Sydney Chaplin. Distinguished Hollywood star Sir Sidney Poitier has a daughter named Sydney, apparently named after himself. Both Sidney Earle Chaplin and Sydney Poitier entered the acting profession.

The most famous Sydney in fiction is Sydney Carton, from A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. Although a flawed character, he redeems himself through an act of heroism, and Dickens gives him some farewell lines that are among the most quoted in English literature.

In Australia, Sydney charted as a unisex name from 1900 to the 1960s. It peaked in the 1910s at 222 births per year, but by the 1950s registered only 4 births per year. Although recent data is hard to come by, it would seem that Sydney is still given to both sexes, with perhaps more girls with the name overall. It is in steady but unobtrusive use.

In the UK, Sydney was a popular name for boys from the 19th century until the 1940s. Since the mid-1990s, it hasn’t been popular for either sex, and consistently charts higher for girls. Currently it is in the 300s for girls, and the 800s for boys. The name peaked for both sexes in 2001, the year after the Sydney Olympics, when it was #206 for girls and #805 for boys.

In the US Sydney charted for boys steadily from the 19th century until the 1950s, after which use became sporadic. It was last on the Top 1000 as a boy’s name in 1996, and has never charted higher than the 300s.

As a girl’s name, Sydney had a burst of use from the 1930s to the 1960s, but at lower levels of use than for boys named Sydney. After coming back in the early 1980s, the name was been consistently on the Top 1000 as a girl’s name, and was a Top 100 name from 1994 to 2013. it peaked in the early 2000s at #23 (around the time of the Sydney Olympics) and is currently just outside the Top 100.

It’s interesting that even though the name Sydney came well before the city of Sydney, the city inspired the name to peak at the time of the Summer Olympics in 2000.

Sydney may have passed its Olympian peak, but this is an appealing vintage unisex name that could honour someone named Sidney, or the city of Sydney. Despite being an “American-style” name, it will always have an undeniable Australian connection.

POLL RESULTS

As a girl’s name, Sydney received an approval rating of 78%, making it one of the top-rated names of 2016. 35% of people thought it was a good name, but 9% hated it. It was less valued as a boy’s name, although still gaining a reasonable approval rating of 67%. 26% of people thought it was a good name, and 12% hated it.

(Picture shows Circular Quay in Sydney, the area where the First Fleet landed at Sydney Cove in 1788)

What Would You Call a Brother for Daisy?

19 Saturday Dec 2015

Posted by in Naming Assistance

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Cassandra and Jason are expecting a baby brother for their daughter Daisy. When they first discovered Cassie was pregnant, they quickly settled on a name for a girl, but had nothing for boys. At their 20 week scan they discovered it was a boy this time, and they had no names chosen at all.

Cassie and Jason like the names Alfie and Lewis, but wonder if there is a boy’s name they can truly love, not just like. They would like a name that is old-fashioned but cool, and like surname names such as Harvey, and names that can be shortened to a nickname.

They would like something that isn’t too common (no Henry or Hugo or Charlie), but not too wacky either (Banjo has already been vetoed by Jason for this reason).

Cassie and Jason have a surname similar to Bloomer, and don’t want something with an OO sound in it, like Jude or Rupert, or something ending in an -er, like Sawyer. If it was not for this, Jude, Rupert, and Sawyer would all be considered as possibilities.

The middle name will either be Banks or Jack, both family names.

Cassie is looking for suggestions of boys’ names they might love with Daisy

* * * * * * * * * *

I like both Alfie and Harvey, and think they both sound great with your surname, and as a match with Daisy. Unfortunately Lewis breaks your rule against an OO sound

When you said you would love a name that was vintage and cool, and taking into account your name preferences, it struck me that you might like a boy’s name with a British vibe to it. Daisy is a popular name in England, so it seems as if a boy’s name that is doing well there too might be a nice match.

These are some vintage-style boys’ names that are all rising in England – some of them very steeply. That seemed to seal them as “cool”.

Albert (Alby, Bert, Bertie)
Alfred (Alfie, Freddie, Fred) – Alfred Banks is very dignified
August (Augie, Gus) – Daisy and Gus is very cute
Barnaby (Barney)
Frederick (Freddie, Fred) – I like this especially with your surname
Theodore (Theo, Ted, Teddy) – Daisy and Ted is adorable
Wilfred (Wilf, Will, Fred, Freddie)

You also said you liked the idea of a surname names. It’s harder to find vintage-style surnames like Harvey – Maxwell comes to mind, but shortens to Max which you might think is too common. However, these surname names are all rising in the UK, and some of them shorten to nicknames pretty easily.

Franklin (Frank)
Griffin (Griff, Finn) – I like this a lot with your surname
Marshall (Marsh)
Rafferty (Raff, Raffy) – I love Rafferty Jack!
Sullivan (Sully, Van)
Otis – I think Daisy and Otis sound really classy together
Wyatt

Out of these, my favourites would be

Albert Jack Bloomer (Daisy and Alby)
Alfred Banks Bloomer (Daisy and Alfie)
August Jack Bloomer (Daisy and Gus)
Frederick Jack Bloomer or Frederick Banks Bloomer (Daisy and Freddie)
Theodore Jack Bloomer or Theodore Banks Bloomer (Daisy and Ted or Daisy and Teddy)
Griffin Jack Bloomer or Griffin Banks Bloomer (Daisy and Griffin or Daisy and Griff)
Rafferty Jack Bloomer (Daisy and Rafferty, Daisy and Raffy)
Otis Jack Bloomer or Otis Banks Bloomer (Daisy and Otis)

I wonder if any of these might appeal to you? They seem like the kind of names that aren’t very common, but still familiar enough to fit in, and perhaps even gain admiration, in your circle.

UPDATE: The baby’s name is Lewis!

POLL RESULTS: The public’s top choices for the baby’s name were Theodore (27%) and Otis (26%).

 

Famous Name: Howard

10 Thursday Sep 2015

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Famous Namesakes
On September 24 it will be the 117th birthday of Howard Florey, the Australian scientist who was part of the team which developed penicillin for medical use. Although it was Sir Alexander Fleming who discovered the antibiotic properties of penicillin in 1928, it was Howard Florey and his research team who actually made penicillin into an effective medication.

While Professor of Pathology at Oxford, Howard and his team treated their first patient with penicillin in 1941. A police constable named Albert Alexander had been accidentally scratched with a rose thorn in his mouth, and was now suffering from severe infection, to such an extent that one of his eyes had to be removed. Within a day of receiving penicillin Albert began to recover, but due to the difficulties of making enough penicillin to continue treating him, he relapsed and died.

Let’s just take a moment to think about that. When did you ever hear of someone you knew who died from a scratch from a rose thorn? That was what the world was like before antibiotics – simple things like cuts, abrasions, and burns could kill you in prolonged, painful, and particularly nasty ways. If you somehow survived, you might be left chronically ill, crippled, or missing an eye or a limb.

It was too late to save Albert Alexander, but he hadn’t died in vain. Howard interested pharmaceutical companies in the United States in mass-producing quantities of penicillin, and the first patient was successfully treated for septicemia in 1942. By the end of World War II, penicillin had made a significant difference in saving the lives of wounded Allied forces, and Australia was the first country to make penicillin available for civilian use after the war.

In 1944 Howard was made a Knight Bachelor, and in 1945 shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine with his fellow researcher Sir Ernst Chain, and with Sir Alexander Fleming. That same year he received the Lister Medal for contributions to surgical science, and in 1948 the US awarded him the Medal of Merit. Elected to the Royal Society in 1941, he became its president in 1958. In 1962 he became provost of Queen’s College at Oxford, and the college’s residential Florey Building was named in his honour.

In 1965 he was appointed a life peer, and became Baron Florey, as well as being appointed a Member of the Order of Merit. From that year until his death three years later, he was Chancellor of the Australian National University, and after he died he was given a memorial service at Westminster Abbey. The one thing that his discoveries didn’t bring him was money – he never patented penicillin, being advised that it would be unethical.

The discoveries of Howard Florey, along with Alexander Fleming and Ernst Chain, are estimated to have saved more than 82 million lives. Long-serving Australian Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies said: In terms of world well-being, Florey was the most important man ever born in Australia.

I have particular reason to be grateful to Howard Florey, as one of that club with 82 million members. When I was a child, I contracted a serious lung infection, and only just pulled through, even with the assistance of modern antibiotics. Without them, I would have been toast. So if you enjoy reading this blog, give thanks to Howard Florey! It couldn’t exist without him.

Name Information
The English surname Howard could be derived from Huard or Heward: related to the name Hugh, it combines the Germanic elements hug, meaning “mind, heart, spirit” and hard, meaning “brave, tough”. It could thus be translated as “brave heart”. Another possibility is that it is from Haward, an English form of the Old Norse Hávarðr, meaning “high guardian, chief guardian”. The surname Howard is first found in Norfolk.

The Howards are an aristocratic family which have been in the English Peerage since the 15th century, and remain the Premier Dukes of the Realm. The Howard family holds the Dukedom of Norfolk, as well as numerous earldoms and baronies. They hold the title of Earl Marshal, the highest hereditary position in the United Kingdom outside the Royal Family, responsible for organising coronations, state funerals, and the State Opening of Parliament.

The family’s founder was John Howard, 1st Duke of Norfolk: on his father’s side he was descended from King John, and on his mother’s from King Edward I. John Howard was the great-grandfather of two English queens: Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, both married to King Henry VIII. Queen Elizabeth I was the first English monarch to be descended from John Howard, and Queen Elizabeth II the first British monarch to be one of his descendants.

After the English Reformation, many of the Howards remained in the Catholic faith, and they are still the highest profile Catholic family in England. Philip Howard, 20th Earl of Arundel, has been canonised as a saint and martyr: he was imprisoned for ten years by his second cousin Queen Elizabeth I, and died in the Tower of London. Philip’s grandson William Howard, 1st Viscount Stafford, was falsely implicated in a fictitious conspiracy to assassinate King Charles II, and executed: he has been beatified as a Catholic martyr.

The Howards dubiously claim descent from Hereward the Wake, a semi-legendary hero who led a resistance against the Normans after the Conquest. Hereward is an Old English name meaning “guardian of the army”. A possibly dodgy old pedigree says the Howards are descended from the Howarth family of Yorkshire – this surname means either “homestead on the hill” or “homestead with hawthorn hedges”. Howard has been used as a boy’s name since at least the 16th century, most likely due to the aristocratic family.

Famous namesakes include Howard Carter, the British archaeologist who discovered Tutankhamen’s tomb; classic film director Howard Hawks; and eccentric tycoon Howard Hughes. Fictional Howards tends to be dads (such as Howard Cunningham on Happy Days, Howard “Ward” Cleaver from Leave it to Beaver, and Howard Stark, the father of Iron Man superhero Tony Stark), or offbeat (like Howard the Duck, Howard Wolowitz from The Big Bang Theory, and Howard Moon from The Mighty Boosh).

In Australia, Howard was #122 in the 1900s, and peaked in the 1940s at #101; it hasn’t charted since the 1980s. In the UK, Howard was in the Top 100 from the late 19th century until the 1920s, but never got very high; in 2013 there were 16 babies named Howard born in England/Wales. The name has been much more popular in the United States: it was in the Top 100 from the late 19th century to 1958, peaked during World War I at #25, and has only been off the Top 1000 once, in 2013; it returned last year and is currently #986.

Howard is a dated name, although it has never been popular and might more properly be described as vintage. It sounds sturdy and dependable, has a good meaning, and can be shortened to either Howie or Ward. An issue in Australia is that it’s strongly associated with former conservative Prime Minister John Howard, whose term was from 1996 to 2007, often called the Howard Years or Howard Era; it may not be pure coincidence that the name disappeared from the charts in the 1980s when John Howard was Federal Treasurer.

POLL RESULTS
Howard received an approval rating of 51%. 18% of people thought the name Howard was too dated, while 16% were put off the name by former prime minister John Howard. However, 14% saw it as old-fashioned yet charming.

(Picture shows a scene from the 2009 film Breaking the Mould, with Dominic West as Howard Florey)

German Names for Girls

23 Sunday Aug 2015

Posted by in Name Themes and Lists

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Germans have lived in Australia since the beginning of European settlement in 1788, and at least 73 of the convicts were German. Many more came to Australia as free settlers during the 19th century, often fleeing revolution or increased militarism in their homeland. By 1900, Germans were the fourth largest ethnic group in Australia, behind English, Irish, and Scots. Today almost a million Australians classify themselves as having German ancestry, about 4.5% of the population. That’s only a little less than the number of Australians with Italian ancestry, yet it is far more common to see Italian names in birth notices than German ones. Two world wars didn’t help, and neither does the clunkiness of some traditional German names, which are out of date in their country of origin. Yet here clunky is beginning to be cool again, and there are many cute and spunky German short forms that are right on trend.

Amalia
Latinised form of the name Amala, a short form of names beginning with the German element amal, meaning “vigour, courage”, with connotations of hard work and fertility. It is thus an older or more obviously German variant of Amelia. The name was traditional among German aristocracy and royalty, and is still used by modern European royals: Prince Felix of Luxembourg had a daughter named Princess Amalia last year. Although a popular name in Continental Europe since the Middle Ages, Amalia only became commonly used in Britain in the 18th century once Amelia had been introduced by the Hanoverian rulers. Amalia is around the 300s and seems to be gaining more use; it’s not only an alternative to popular Amelia, but is boosted by the trend for names such as Mahli and Mahlia. Rising in the US, Amalia is only just outside the Top 100 in Germany, and feels as if it is going places. It’s said the same way in Germany as here: ah-MAH-lee-uh.

Anneliese
Combination of the names Anna and Liese, a short form of Elisabeth. It’s been in use since the 18th century in Germany, and came into common use in the English-speaking world in the 20th century. A famous Australian namesake is the model Anneliese Seubert, who was born in Germany and moved here as a child; Anneliese has been a celebrity mum on the blog. Anneliese doesn’t chart in Australia, with parents preferring Annalise, which is around the 300s – the same spelling as the Australian model Annalise Braakensiek. The name has numerous spelling variants, including the name of the famous wartime diarist Annelies “Anne” Frank. This name is very pretty, and would be a good alternative to popular names like Anna and Annabelle, while also suitable for honouring an Anne and an Elizabeth at the same time. Germans say this name ah-na-LEE-zuh, but Australians may prefer AN-uh-lees or AN-uh-leez.

Gretel
Pet form of Grete, short for Margarete, a German form of Margaret. It’s probably best known from the Grimm’s fairy tale Hansel and Gretel. In the story, Hansel and Gretel are brother and sister whose impoverished father and stepmother abandon them in the woods. The hungry children are caught by a witch once they start nibbling her yummy-looking gingerbread house, and Gretel rescues her brother from being eaten with cleverness and courage. There’s been a recent reboot in the horror movie Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, with Gemma Arteron as Gretel. A famous Australian namesake is heiress Gretel Packer, the sister of James Packer; Gretel is named after her grandmother, wife of media mogul Sir Frank Packer (Sir Frank entered yachts named Gretel in the America’s Cup in his wife’s honour). Another namesake is television presenter Gretel Killeen, who writes children’s books. Gretel seems like a cute yet sophisticated choice.

Leni
Short form of Helene or Magdalena. A famous namesake is the pioneering German film director Helene “Leni” Riefenstahl who made propaganda films for the Nazis during the 1930s. German supermodel Heidi Klum has a young daughter named Helene, who is called Leni. Leni is a popular name in Germany, and around the 300s here. It’s very much on trend, fitting in with cute short names like Evie, and L names like Layla. English-speakers tend to pronounce the name LAY-nee, which isn’t too different to how Germans say it: Laney and Lainey are variant spellings. It can be used as a nickname for names such as Eleni and Elena. Some parents pronounce it LEN-ee, and treat it as a feminine form of the male name Lenny.

Lulu
Pet form of Luise, the German form of Louise. It’s also an Arabic name meaning “pearls”, which may be written Lu’lu and is sometimes given as a nickname. Lulu is the main character in two plays by German playwright Frank Wedekind often combined into one called Lulu; they inspired the silent film Pandora’s Box with Louise Brooks as Lulu, the opera Lulu by Alban Berg, and was made into a film again in Germany in the 1960s. In the stories, Lulu is a prostitute and femme fatale. Lulu is often chosen as a stage name, such as the Scottish singer Lulu (born Marie Lawrie), or a nickname, such as Australian china painter Lucie “Lulu” Shorter. However, singer-songwriter Lulu Simon, daughter of Paul Simon, has Lulu as her full name. Lulu is around the 200s here – a cute, sexy, hip little name that gives Lola a run for its money. Can be used as a nickname for any name with a LU sound in it, from Lucinda to Eloise.

Mitzi
Pet form of Maria. Famous namesakes include Hollywood star Mitzi Gaynor (born Francesca Gerber), and child star Mitzi Green (born Elizabeth Keno), who was in the 1932 version of Little Orphan Annie. A famous Australian namesake is teenage actress Mitzi Ruhlmann from Home and Away and Dance Academy. Although in Germany Mitzi is more popular for cats and dogs than humans, itsy-bitsy Mitzi is a bright vintage charmer that will appeal to those wanting something a little different while still fitting in with current trends.

Ottilie
Modern form of the ancient Germanic name Odilia. This is often said to be a feminine form of Otto, but may actually be from the Germanic odal, meaning “fatherland”. There is a medieval Saint Odilia (one of those long-suffering young girl saints who are given a disturbingly hard time by their horrible fathers), and Ottilie was a traditional name among the German aristocracy during the Middle Ages. The name has been something of a favourite in fiction, being chosen by the authors Goethe, Truman Capote, John Wyndham, and Robert Louis Stevenson – in all these works, the woman named Ottilie is an object of desire in some way. You can say Ottilie in various ways, but OT-uh-lee and o-TILL-ee are probably the most common in Australia, and Tilly is a favoured nickname here. The German pronunciation is more like o-TEE-lee-uh.

Thea
Short form of Dorothea or Theodora. Famous German namesakes include Thea von Harbou, who wrote the screenplay for the silent film classic Metropolis, and Thea Rasche, Germany’s first female aerobatics pilot. Famous Australian namesakes include author Thea Astley, and artist Althea “Thea” Proctor, both distinguished in their respective fields. You might also know of Thea Slatyer, a retired footballer who played for the Matildas, and Dame Thea Muldoon, wife of New Zealand prime minister Sir Robert Muldoon. Simple yet substantial, Thea is gaining in popularity around the world. Just outside the Top 100 in Germany, Thea is popular in Scandinavia and New Zealand, and rising sharply elsewhere in the English-speaking world. It has been boosted here by a celebrity baby, daughter of model Kelly Landry. Usually said THEE-uh in Australia, but the German pronunciation is TEE-uh.

Wilhelmina
Feminine form of Wilhelm, the German equivalent of William. In the form Wilhelmine this was a traditional name amongst German royalty. A famous Australian namesake is Wilhelmina “Mina” Wylie, one of Australia’s first two female swimmers in the Olympics; she won silver in 1912, and received 115 swimming champion titles in all. Another is Wilhelmina “Mina” Rawson, who wrote books on cooking and household management, and was also the first swimming teacher in central Queensland. A great name for swimmers! For many years this name has been seen as too clunky, but popular Willow helps make it seem a lot more usable. Dignified yet quirky, Wilhelmina has a host of adorable nicknames, including Billie, Willa, Mina, Minnie, and Minka. This is a favourite name of Ebony from Babynameobsessed, and as she is a teenage name enthusiast, it bodes well for Wilhelmina’s future.

Zella
Short form of Marcella, a feminine form of the name Marcus. There are several famous musical namesakes from America: singer-songwriter Zella Day, country singer Zella Lehr, and gospel singer Zella Jackson Price. In the late 19th century, Zella fitted in with other names from that era, such as Zelda and Zelie; today it sounds like Zoe + Ella, or perhaps Zahli + Stella. A vintage name which now blends in seamlessly with current trends.

POLL RESULTS
People’s favourite names were Thea, Ottilie and Anneliese, and their least favourite were Gretel, Lulu and Mitzi.

(Picture shows an illustration from Hansel and Gretel by Felicitas Kuhn-Klapschy)