It seems like it’s been a little while since I’ve done one of these posts, and I apologise for that.
The other day I found myself sitting on the bus next to a lady with two young sons. Of course, these being mischievous tykes, I caught their mother saying their names a few times: Jamie and Jacob ‘Jakey’; whether or not Jamie was short for James I do not know.
Either way, as many of you may know, Jacob and James are pretty much the same as, say, John and Jack in that the both derive from the same source.
Finally, a picture of one of the many joys of my life:
I haven’t actually checked to see if this claim is true, but it’s a wonderful little fact if it is.
It always upsets me to see a name given grief by others, and the name Caprice is one which more often than not I find negative comments about, as opposed to positive ones.
The thing is, maybe with Caprice it’s a case of because I happen to know a girl with the name (who happens to be one of the nicest people going), I feel somewhat obliged to defend her name.
It’s also because I can relate with the name, as I’m quite an impulsive person by nature, and Caprice happens to mean impulse/whim.
Much of the negative commentary on the name is on the meaning, and it got me thinking, especially since I don’t particularly see my own impulsiveness as a really bad thing, more something that is a relatively positive part of personality as long as it’s not a continuous thing.
Is it bad that the name Caprice is closely linked to the characteristic of impulsiveness?
We can’t ignore the fact that there are plenty of word names out there which allude to potentially worse personality traits, and even some ‘proper’ names, such as the wonderful twosome of Jacob and James, who both mean supplanter.
Too much impulsiveness is certainly a bad thing, but having too much hope can lead to big disappointment, yet 313 girls were given the name Hope in England&Wales in 2011, as opposed to the 8 who were given the name Caprice.
One drawback many seem to have is the name’s association with the model Caprice, but it seems like a trivial tidbit when you think that you’re stopping yourself potentially using a name you like because someone else also has the name.
Then again, we have to narrow down the long list somehow, don’t we?
I picked up a copy of Le Monde recently, which is a French newspaper that for some reason is stocked by my local off licence. Flicking through it I came across several wonderful names that I just had to share with you all:
Did you see who won Eurovision? It was Sweden’s entry, a young lass named Loreen. Now, here’s what I found fascinating: Loreen is her stage name, whilst her real name is Lorine. I’m guessing she altered the spelling to avoid potential pronunciation issues, much like Mika was originally Mica. You know the other thing that had me humming? Euphoria, the title of her winning song. What with Euphemia and co. getting interest, I can’t help but think that Euphoria would make for a quirky middle name.
Aside from Eurovision, I went to see Men in Black 3 on Saturday night. The thing to note? There’s a character in the new film called Griffin, often referred to in the film as Griff. I really liked the character, and my sister, naturally, hated him.
Going back to Eurovision ever so briefly (I’m currently mapping out other Eurovision-related posts as we speak so expect even more on this subject), I just couldn’t NOT mention this guy, of whom those who either couldn’t bear to watch the frankly corrupt voting, or had simply gone to bed may have missed in the festivities:
He was the spokesperson for Finland’s results, and he won Eurovision himself in 2006. Known mostly by his stage name Mr. Lordi, his actual name is Tomi Petteri. All of a sudden, the name Tommy no longer seems infantile…
So, I went to the cinemas on Wednesday to watch one of the craziest films I’ve seen in a long time. It’s premise? Nazis who, after being defeated in 1945, fled to the Moon and now they’re back to conquer Earth. It’s a shame that it was only open for the one day here in the UK, although I’ve been told by my father that it’s run has been extended due to demand.
It’s a joint Finnish-German-Australian film, so the names associated with the film are a mixed bag, but it’s a good kind of mix:
Aila – a Hebrew name meaning oak tree.
Götz – the German nickname for Gottfried, which is the German form of Godfrey, a name that means peace of God.
Klaus – the German short form of Nicholas, which means victory of the people.
Peta – the female form of the name Peter, which means rock.
Renate – the German feminine form of Renatus, which means born again.
Samuli – the Finnish form of Samuel, which means God has heard.
Tero – short form of Antero, the Finnish version of Andrew.
Udo – variation of Odo, which itself comes from Otto, which means wealth.
Vivian – derives from the Latin vivus, which means life.
So today, I’m partaking in a little experimentation, because it’s always fun to change around formats and try new ones, this is an example of the latter. A word of warning: it was a mostly spur of the moment decision to record this video.
Some more about the names covered:
Dolores – 2010 E&W ranking: #3156
A Spanish name taken from the title of the Virgin Mary, it means sorrows. Has been widely used in the English speaking world since the 19th century.
Ralph – 2010 E&W ranking: #258
Of Old Norse origins meaning wolf counsel.
I did check up on this, ‘ralf’ is the American pronunciations, whilst ‘rayf’ is the traditional way to say it in England, although nowadays the name is usually said ‘ralf’.
Imogen – 2010 E&W ranking: #26
A name created by William Shakespeare for his play, Cymbeline, although the name was originally meant to be Innogen. Likely to derive from the Old Irish ingen, which means daughter, girl, maiden.
Bernard – 2010 E&W ranking: #1082
Of Old English origins, meaning hardy bear.
Anthony – 2010 E&W ranking: #148
From the Latin name Antonius, which is likely to be connected to the Latin word ante, which means before. The spelling with the h was likely to be influenced by the Greek word anthos, which means a flower.
Molly – 2010 E&W ranking: #42
An old nickname of Mary, which has evolved to become a name in its own right.
Marley – 2010 E&W ranking: #593
Originally an English surname, meaning pleasent wood, although I have seen it linked to the meaning of weasel.
Harry – 2010 E&W ranking: #3
An old nickname of Henry, which has evolved to become a name in its own right.
Irene
Of Greek origins, meaning peace.
I also looked this one up; this name was originally said with three syllables, but has since adopted a two syllable pronunciation used by most.
Alice – 2010 E&W ranking: #43
From the Old German name Adelheidis, meaning noble.
Lucy – 2010 E&W ranking: #21
Derives from the Latin, lux, meaning light.
Douxy – 2010 E&W ranking: n/a
Most likely from the French word doux, which means sweet.
Gabriel – 2010 E&W ranking: #78
From Hebrew, meaning strong man of God.
Benjamin – 2010 E&W ranking: #22
From Hebrew, meaning son of the south.
Oh, and the film review I mentioned about half way through can be found here.
I feel like I say this a lot, but I’m off on holiday for the next week or so. I fly to France tomorrow and have been hastily trying to sort out posts for the time lapsed in between.
Good news. Bad news.
The good news is that I’ve scheduled several wonderful posts for you all, including several posts revitalised from the drafts graveyard, the bad news is that I ran out of time and thus both Weekend Post and Names of the Week are cancelled for this weekend. It’s a shame too, I came up with a great idea for a name to pair with Sora. Feel free to guess it, I’m immensely proud of that particular brainwave
This weeks names are inspired by two shows mentioned by my sister the other day during her rant on how awful the TV shows of today are. Ebba is the sentimental kind of person who hates change, so this rant was nothing out of the blue.
The first show she mentioned was comedy series Father Ted, featuring a priest called – you guessed it – Father Ted. It first hit the screens of Britain in 1995 and was set in the remote Craggy Island off Ireland’s west coast. The two other main priests were Father Dougal and Father Jack. All three priests answer to Bishop Len Brennan, who banished them all to Craggy Island as a punishment for different incidents in their past:
Ted for alleged financial impropriety (apparently involving some money ‘resting’ in his account and a child being deprived a visit to Lourdes so that Ted could go to Las Vegas)
Dougal for something only referred to as the “Blackrock Incident” (resulting in many “lives irreparably damaged”)
Jack for his alcoholism and womanising.
It was a hit series with the masses, and ranked at #11 in the Britain’s Best Sitcom poll conducted by the BBC in 2004 – making it the highest ranking for a Channel 4 show as the Top 10 were all BBC productions.
Ted is most usually seen as a nickname for Theodore – either him, Theo or Teddie are the usual suspects. If you’re desperate for more short forms of Theodore, here ya go:
Eddy
Teo
Tory/Tori
Otto
Terry
And for Theodora’s there are plenty more feminine ones to go around:
Dotty
Dory/Dora
Téa, or simply Tea/Tee
Heddy
The mention of the name Dotty is apt, since her usual long form of Dorothy has a vague connection to Theodore. Dorothy comes from the name Dorothea, which shares the same origins as Theodore – they both derive from the same Greek elements:
theos, meaning God
doron, meaning gift
If you’re looking to give boy/girl twins names with some sort of link, feel free to consider naming them Theodore and Dorothy;Teddie and Dotty. Yes, they are slightly similar in sound, but that’s what comes with sharing the same backstory. As for the rankings of the Theodore band of names, they are as follows:
Theo: #50
Theodore: #137
Teddy: #197
Ted: #278
Teddie: #668
But now, we come to the name Lil. She’s the name of one of the twins in Rugrats – sister of Phil. Her full name is Lillian Marie, which Phil calls her on occasion which is usually when they’re arguing with one another. Aside from Lillian, there are plenty of Lil- names inside the Top 500 right now (we’re discounting all the variant spellings of Lily which would simply take over this list):
Lily: #4
Lilia: #266
Lila: #267
Liliana: #330
Lillian: #337
Lilian: #463
There’s also the name Delilah which ranks at #451 and could also shorten to Lil. Philippa, too, could shrink down to Lil if you don’t want her to become yet another Pippa.
The name Lillian comes as either an elaboration of Lily, of which the Latin word for Lily is lillium. Of course, this is especially true nowadays when I see parents opting to use Lillian with the intention of shortening it to Lily – but wanting their child to not actually ‘be’ a Lily. Lillian could also be a diminuative of the name Elizabeth, which means my God is my oath.
The delightfully witty Sue Perkins was born Susan Elizabeth, from thesun.co.uk
It’s been awhile since we’ve done one of these posts, and I’m itching to do another one. This time ’round, we’re focusing on a personal favourite of mine: Susie. I’m not sure when I first began to really like the name, but I do know that the first association I have with the name is Susie Carmichael, who was Angelica’s friend on Rugrats.
But let’s start with Susan. What do I mean when I say Susan et al. ? This:
Susanna(h)/Susana(h)
Zuzanna/Zuzana
Suzanna/Suzana
Suzanne/Suzane
Zuzanne/Zuzane
Zusanna/Zusana
Zusanne/Zuzane
Shoshannah
Sanne
Sue
I’m sure there are countless other variations of the name I failed to mention on the above list, so let’s just say Susan’s got friends. Many of which one could opt to use if they want the nickname Susie, but don’t want to use Susan. I could’ve easily picked three of Susan’s posse for this group, but that would be easy and I never do anything the easy way. Either way, Susan comes from the Hebrew and means lily.
Let’s consider some stats: Susan was the #1 name in England&Wales in 1954 and 1964, by 1974 she’d fallen to #20, and even lower to #82 by 1984. In 2010? #1257 with only 25 born. It’s a rather sad fall from grace. The same can’t be said for Susie, who has been relatively stable in the past few years, with a notable, yet slight increase of late:
2003
2004
2005
2006
Rank
1722
1715
1406
1983
Births
11
12
14
11
2007
2008
2009
2010
Rank
1741
2487
1909
1653
Births
14
9
13
17
1. Sophia (#27, with 2031 births)
A relatively popular name to kick off the list, but she has her potential. Sophie and Susie are startlingly similar in sound, so if you don’t want your little Sophia to become a Sophie, Susie makes for an interesting alternative.
Sophia comes from the Greek word sophos, which means wisdom. You may or may not have caught my recent tweet about the name, which mentioned that although my sister is called Sophie, she’s mostly known as Dopey (although there’s been a shift towards using Dippy/Dips of late), after one of the seven dwarfs.
And this is how Sophia has been doin’ in the past few years, which she’s spent clawing her way to the top of the pile:
2003
2004
2005
2006
Rank
74
63
60
49
Births
709
879
940
1137
2007
2008
2009
2010
Rank
37
39
35
27
Births
1398
1510
1693
2031
2. Lotus (#5707, with 3 births)
Dipping our toes into less-popular waters with this name, which has bags of potential. One of the current teams in F1 (2011 season) is called Team Lotus, and entered F1 in 2010 as Lotus Racing. The Malaysian media refer to the team as 1Malaysia, as they’re owned by a Malaysian company, but have their base in good ol’ Norfolk. Much like how 2010/2011 Constructors Champions Red Bull Racing is an Austrian team, own by an Austrian company, but are based in the wonderful city of Milton Keynes.
In terms of her popularity, well, she only entered the charts in 2008, and looks poised to fall off in 2011 given that she’s fallen each consecutive year to the bare minimum of 3 births needed to rank:
2003
2004
2005
2006
Rank
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
Births
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
2007
2008
2009
2010
Rank
n/a
2721
3422
5707
Births
n/a
8
6
3
3. Saskia (#372, with 122 births)
Universally loved by many a baby-name-enthusiast, but seldom seen in the real world – although she is higher up the popularity chart than one may initially believe, as she actually entered the Top 200 fleetingly in 2004. I first came across the name when organising Dips’ bookshelf, and came across Saskia the Salsa Fairy.
2003
2004
2005
2006
Rank
238
199
261
316
Births
188
232
172
139
2007
2008
2009
2010
Rank
311
309
444
372
Births
148
152
94
122
The name is generally given to mean dagger/knife/short-pointy thing used to maim, coming from the Germanic element sachs, which means she shares origins with the name Saxon.
Icon of my childhood, the teletubbie sun, from postimage.org
Both Sawyer and Sunday are names which are growing on me, so it seems apt to cover them collectively for this weekend’s edition of Names of the Week. There’s also another link which connects them, as, whilst we’re covering Sawyer as a male name, it should be noted that there’s been use for him on the female side of things. Same could be said for Sunday, since I flicked through a Metro paper a few months ago to come face to face with a male Sunday. He may just be an unique anomaly, however.
Either way, let’s not get bogged down with any sorts of maths just yet. Say the name Sawyer, and most people will reply or respond Tom. The character Tom Sawyer first appeared in 1876 and was the work of Mark Twain. He’s a classic character, sitting alongside the likes of Jo March, Huckleberry Finn, Jane Eyre and Harry Potter. This market of names is an interesting place to spot unusual new names, but also to kickstart a new naming trend.
The name itself started out life as an occupational surname for those who sawed wood, and he sits nicely amongst the currently popular -er names here in England&Wales right now [2010], which are a mixture of maintstain favourites and surnames: Oliver; Alexander; Tyler; Dexter; Christopher; Peter; Jasper; Xavier; Spencer; Kacper; Fraser.
But, back to the gender dispute, as I can think of three occasions when a celeb has named their child Sawyer, and two of those children are female:
Sawyer Jane (Sara Gilbert. sib:Levi Hank)
Sawyer Lucia (Diane Farr. sib: Beckett Mancuso and Coco Trinity)
Sawyer Steven (Erica Hill. sib:Weston Robert)
What does this indicate for the future? I guess it depends where you live, since this name could trundle the same path as Riley, Taylor or even ‘do an Ashley’, because whilst Sawyer has ranked for the lads, the name hasn’t ranked on the female list at all in the past eight years in England&Wales:
2003
2004
2005
2006
Rank
n/a
n/a
3208
1545
Births
n/a
n/a
4
12
2007
2008
2009
2010
Rank
1361
1511
1649
1483
Births
16
14
13
16
Right now, the name appears to have stalled somewhat of late, although he has picked up for the 2010 data. I do find it fascinating that not even 3 girls were named Sawyer last year, which is the amount of births needed for a name to be assigned a rank in the data. Of course, in the States, Sawyer ranks at #173 for the lads, and at #784 for the girls, so it’s a name to watch in the coming years.
As for Sunday, according to most strands of Christian tradition, Sunday is the Sabbath Day, which we should keep holy as the Ten Commandments require. Not that many do nowadays. According to a recent BBC News report, there are more people attending Church in China than in the whole of Europe. I’ll admit, I’m one of those shameful people who never go to Church, but I do abstain on principle rather than laziness (my former parish priest was bullied out of the priesthood*). Does this mean Sunday is only limited to the religious? It’s a fine line to walk. She’s no Mohammed or Trinity, since using Sunday doesn’t immediately identify a religion, but could be used to anyway.
Whilst Sunday has fared better than Sawyer in the female arena, she still hasn’t made much of an impact as she’s only ranked in two non-consecutive years out of the last eight years:
2003
2004
2005
2006
Rank
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
Births
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
2007
2008
2009
2010
Rank
4294
n/a
5556
n/a
Births
4
n/a
3
n/a
It is surprising to note that Nicole Kidman’s daughter, Sunday, came along in mid-2008 so she wasn’t responsible for the sudden peak of popularity in 2007.
The origins of Sunday are quite simple, since it literally means sun’s day, which corresponds with many other Germanic languages words for it, such as the German word sonntag.
I actually quite like the name Sunday, since she shortens down to one of my favourite nicknames: Sunny. I think that can help her appeal somewhat, and does a Poppy/Sunday sibset not sound even slightly plausible? Both are cutesy word names, and indeed would be fitting names for twins born on Remembrance Sunday. It’s a thought to consider.
RT @MarvinHumes: This morning we welcomed our baby girl Alaia-Mai Humes..Mum is doing great & baby is amazing! We are both overjoyed! Thank… 7 hours ago
Just seen the name Floury on the credits for a cookery show. 1 month ago
Mary Portas welcomed a son named Horatio last year. 1 month ago
Great quote from the linked article: '...Jack is thought to be luckier than other men, while Lucy is thought the luckiest name for a woman' 1 month ago
