It’s been a long time since I’ve done one of these posts, isn’t it? Nevermind, but today’s mother is a former Eurovision competitor turned TV presenter.

As part of group Precious, Jenny Frost represented the UK in Eurovision in 1999, where they placed a respectable 12th place. Following this and the group’s later split, she went on to join Atomic Kitten following the departure of Kerry Katona in 2001. Atomic Kitten went on to split in 2004, following the release of their third studio album. However, Atomic Kitten did reform in 2005, and again in 2008.

The group then reformed once more in 2012 to take part in the ITV show The Big Reunion, joined by several other chart-topping acts from the late-90s and early-00s. However, Jenny Frost did not join the line up due to being pregnant and thus Kerry Katona took her place.

Jenny Frost has three children, a son born when she was with former fiancé Dominic Thrupp, followed by a set of twins this year with current husband Vicente Juan Spiteri.

Their names?

Casper (2007)

Nico (2013)

Blake (2013)

A decent enough group of names, you might think, but the catch is that the set of twins are fraternal girls, something that caused quite a bit of commentary back in January 2013 when their names were announced. It’s following in the footsteps of the likes of Jessica Simpson when it comes to using established male names on girls, and rather reminds me of Lisa Marie Presley who welcomed twin girls with the names Harper and Finley back in 2008 (noting that one of Finley’s middle names is Aaron).

Of course, this isn’t the first use of Nico as a female name by a celebrity, given that Thandie Newton notably has a daughter with the name, born in 2004 – with her sister born in 2000 being called Ripley.

This rather does pose the question, if you were told the above sibset consisted of two girls and one lad, who would you think is the lad? I’d most certainly be tempted to say Blake, as opposed to Casper.

from hants.gov.uk

For the American readers, this name may initially seem a tad amusing, but for the British one, it’s borderline vulgar, but thousands of French girls to this day answer to the name Fanny.

As a young girl, and to this day my grandmother uses the phrase ‘ stop being such a Fanny Adams‘ when we (that is, her delightful grandchildren) are being particularly difficult, although the more common phrase you’ll hear people using is ‘Sweet Fanny Adams‘,  which means something completely different:  ’nothing at all’.

I have a naturally curious mind, any yet it was only last year that it occurred to me to look up who exactly Fanny Adams was.

It’s not a pretty, bedtime-esque story, harking back to August 1867, when a girl named Fanny Adams was rather brutally murdered, causing a wave of horror in the small village of Alton, Hampshire not used to bearing witness to such crimes.

Fanny was with her younger sister Lizzie and friend Minnie at the time when they were approached by a man who offered three halfpence to Lizzie and Minnie to go spend, whilst he offered Fanny a halfpenny on the condition that she would accompany him down a road which lead to the nearby village of Shalden. The link to my Grandmother’s phrase is likely Fanny’s reaction to the offer of money: she took the halfpenny, but refused to accompany the man. However, he picked her up and carried her off anyways.

The second phrase comes courtesy of the rather dark sense of humour of British Sailors, who came to claim that the tinned mutton served to them onboard must surely be the remains of ‘Sweet Fanny Adams‘, a reference to her dismembered remains and this has since passed into common usage, with the meaning later changing to the one we know.

Which leads us ultimately to discussing the name Fanny itself, which as you may have guess from above did originally derive as a nickname from Frances.

Referencing back to the tale of Fanny Adams, one might dabble with the idea of the three girls being called Frances, Elizabeth and Wilhelmina, however, I’m hesitant to accept this given that both her tombstone and the record of her death both give her name as Fanny.

The name Frances comes from the Latin franciscus, which means frenchman. However, french name website gives the meaning of Fanny to be free. I have an inkling about where this interpretation could’ve derived from as you see, in 1999 the fine country of France decided to give up it’s old currency and take on the Euro.

It’s old currency was known as the French franc, and the origin of the name of the currency lies in the origin of the currency itself.

The first French franc came into play in 1360, and was used to pay the ransom of King John II of France which gained the king’s freedom. Since the coin showed the King atop a horse, the coin came to be named franc à cheval, which in French means free on horse. These days a Frenchman is more inclined to use the word libre to mean free.

Of course, that’s all just pure speculation.

Another reason that the the new currency came to be known as the franc comes from the Latin title of the King: Francorum Rex (King of the Francs).

Going back to Fanny, the name is of relative popularity in France as I’ve already mentioned above, and continues to be so despite the English connotations. It’s also worth noting that Fanny is popular as a stand alone name in France, rather than being popular as a nickname for Frances (which is nowhere near as popular).

The days if you’re looking for a nickname for little Frances, your best bet is probably popular Frankie, or even Frannie, as opposed to Fanny.

This week, another celebrity welcomed a daughter named Florence – this time it was Mr. Jake Humphrey, who gave up his job as BBC’s F1 guy when his wife fell pregnant with their first child. Her full name is Florence Aurelia Alice, and you only need to take a quick glance at Jake’s twitter feed to see how smitten he is with his new bundle of joy.

The name Florence is experiencing somewhat of a boom at the moment here in England, which the tabloids are only too eager to attribute to one Miss. Florence Welch of Florence + the Machine fame. Their first album, Lungs, hit the shelves in 2009, the year that Florence climbed 14 places to #80, however it was the year before that Florence entered the Top 100 in England&Wales, suggesting the name was on the way up before Florence Welch truly arrived on the scene.

That doesn’t mean that she didn’t inspire any parents to use the name, as since 2009 the name Florence has only risen further up the charts. In 2011 – the most recent year we have data for – she rose a further 11 places to #43. It will be interesting to see where her meteoric rise will have her peak in the charts, although at the moment I’m not entirely convinced that she’ll go all the way to #1.

The name Florence originates from the Latin word florens, which means flourishing. The word florens itself comes from the word florere, which means to bloom, giving Florence a strained botanical link.

Variants include Florentia and Florentina, both used circa the Roman times, and there are plenty of saints to prove that point.

A small fact I appear to have neglected to mention is the simple fact that I often answer to a common nickname for Florence in my family household, as opposed to either Lucy or Lou, that nickname being Flossie. It”s never really been explained to me where the nickname came from, my father being just as delightfully random as me.

That said, the books surrounding the Bobbsey Twins are more than likely to be the source.

But whilst I’m particularly fond of the nickname Flossie, I’ve mostly found myself indifferent to Florence. True, she’s the name of what I’m told is a marvellous Italian city, and of course the world famous namesake of Florence Nightingale owes her name to the city.

No doubt many people regard Florence Nightingale as a fantastic lady, although my sister seriously contends that Mary Seacole did finer work. The Nightingale/Seacole debate is a curious one, with arguments including the fact that Seacole is promoted in favour of Nightingale as an attempt to promote multiculturalism, given that Seacole was a Jamaican lady. Personally, I don’t think that it can be ignored that Florence Nightingale was an amazing pioneer when it came to public health and nursing.

Still, that doesn’t seem to bother the 1400 or so parents who welcomed a daughter named Florence in 2011, nor parents of a Florence born in previous years.

If you all might remember, I moved from the Midlands to the south of England last year and with every big move, I found myself having to introduce myself to a mass of new people.

I’d thought it would be of vague interest for you all if I share with a few insights I’ve had from the constant introductions which followed my big move.

For those new here (ayup!), now would be a good time to mention that whilst Lucy is my so-called ‘real’ name, I’ve gone by Lou for awhile now purely because back then I thought I was way too clumsy and much too into playing football to pull off a girly name like Lucy, so opted for the more androgynous Lou.

Curiously, whilst my obsession with football remains, I’ve definitely shifted towards a much more girly attitude in recent months, namely, insisting on wearing dresses despite the frozen conditions.

1. What Is Lou Short For?

Quite a cause for debate, since I introduced myself as Lou and neglected to mention what Lou was actually short for. This is intriguing in the fact that they automatically assumed Lou to be a nickname, plus it was fascinating to learn that the frontrunner they’d come up with amongst themselves for my ‘real’ name was Louise/Louisa. What’s more interesting for me is that Lucy apparently wasn’t even considered, despite the wild popularity of the name for the past two decades (constant Top 100 presence in England&Wales).

The mystery was eventually solved when I unwittingly wore an old exchange trip hoodie with the name Lucy emblazoned down the arm.

2. Why Do I Call Both Myself And The WC, Lou/Loo?

This one I’d never really picked up on myself doing until much recently, when a friend pointed it out to me. It certainly flies in the face of the classic ‘pick a name without negative connotations’ naming advice.

Then again, I met a lovely lady named Dimple over the summer, but most people I know think dimples are a cute facial feature rather than a negative one.

4. That Friend Who Doesn’t Use Lou

One of my closest friends I’ve met in my new area calls me Lucy these days, despite the fact that I introduced myself to him as Lou, as I did for everyone else. It’s curious, because he did initially call me Lou before suddenly switching to using Lucy at around Christmas time with no real reason.

If I’m completely honest, I’ve never really cared all that much whether people call me Lucy or Lou, preferring to let people stick to their own personal preferences because I’m way too nice for my own good sometimes. I do recognise that not everyone is like this – my pregnant friend recently uttered the classic ‘I like Madison, but don’t want to be the mother that always insists that it’s Madison not Maddie’ line when discussing names for her unborn daughter.

2. Is James A Girl’s Name?

Not so much to do with introducing myself, more to do with a bizarre misunderstanding that lead someone to believe that my name was James. You see, he’d seen me write a friend’s name down on a piece of paper, and seemingly assumed that I was writing my own name down, and not that of a friend.

You laugh it off, but it’s interesting how accepting this person was of a girl wearing the name James.

I’m still not sure what to make of it, but hey ho, I like to reckon that I’d wear the name James well, but I likely think this for all names, so I’m not really making much of a point.

Manu Tuilagi in action in Saturday’s game against France, from bbc.co.uk

All of my rugby-loving friends share a great deal of affection for player Manu Tuilagi. Internationally he plays for the England side, a team which  beat France in a Six Nations game 23-13 over the weekend, with a try from Tuilagi helping to seal the win for the England side.

You can see what inspired this post right away, since I’m quite the sports lover. I spent some time a few days ago trying to explain the scoring system to a friend of mine who is basically clueless about sport in general. In return, he’s teaching me the basics of Skyrim.

A good deal, I think.

Going back to Manu, at a club level, he plays for Leicester Tigers, as did several of his elder brothers. You see, Manu is the youngest of seven brothers, of which at least 4 other brothers have at some point played for Leicester.

All the brothers are Samoan in origin, with Manu being the only one of the rugby-players to represent England rather than his home country of Samoa, and he has explained preference as being because of the length of time he’s spent playing in England.

The names of this sporty family? See below:

Fereti ‘Freddie’

Olotuli

Enele ‘Henry’

Alesana

Anitelea ‘Andy’

Sanele Vavae

Manu Samoa

But what is a benzene ring I hear you cry. Well, they look like this:

My super dooper drawing of benzene

The one on the right is how benzene is usually notated for the sake of simplicity. It also happens to be known as the Kekulé structure, since it was suggested by August Kekulé all the way back in 1865 after he had a little nap by the fireside and dreamt of snakes which inspired the ring shape of the molecule (it had previously been somewhat of a conundrum as to how to arrange six carbons and six hydrogens without breaking any key chemistry rules, e.g. carbon usually forms four bonds at a time).

As you can see, Kekulé came up with a structure which consists of a ring of carbon atoms with alternating single and double bonds.

Whilst a benzene ring itself is not particularly reactive due in part to it’s ring nature, it forms a part of many chemical compounds, e.g. TNT (the explosive):

Trinitrotoluene (TNT), from about.com

Exciting, huh? But where does the name Benzene actually come from?

It derives from gum benzoin, an aromatic resin from southeast Asia and known to European pharmacists and perfumers since around the 15th century. The benzoin part itself is a corruption of the Arabic expression, lubān jāwī, or frankincense of Java. You see, those crazy Catalan traders who bought this gum benzoin (curiously sometimes also known as gum benjamin) dropped the lu part and changed the a to an e giving you the word benjawi. The Italians decided this wasn’t enough, so further altered the word to benjuì, and in Latin it ultimately came to be known as benzoë, making it look like a rather perplexing Benjamin and Zoë smoosh name.

That’s not the end of the story though, because benzene wasn’t originally called benzene – it was called bicarburet of hydrogen. This name was dreamt up by Michael Faraday (he of Faraday constant fame) when he first isolated and identified benzene in 1825. In 1833 a chap by Eilhard Mitscherlich came along and distilled benzoic acid (which comes from gum benzoin) and lime together to get benzene and he decided to name the compound benzin, and this eventually morphed in to the word benzene we know today.

Pope Benedict XVI, from themoderatevoice.com

Yesterday the current Pope, Benedict XV, announced his resignation in a move that shocked many. Why so? Because he’s the first pope in about 600 years to make such a move: saying that he no longer has the ‘strength of mind and body’ needed to carry on his duties (he was the oldest man to become pope since Clement XII in the 18th century).

It’s fun to note that Benedict XVI is currently 85, being born in April 1927, whilst the Queen happens to be almost a year older than him, being born in the previous April.

But that’s an aside, because what I really want to talk about is papal names. You see, Benedict XVI wasn’t always called Benedict – indeed, he’s only gone by the name Benedict for just under 8 years, being previously known by the name Josef.

The reason? Upon accession to the papacy it has become a custom to take a papal name, with every pope since the 16th century doing so.

It hasn’t always been that way, though. Back in the early days of the Church, the bishops of Rome simply continued to use their birth names after their election. The custom of changing one’s name came circa 500 AD with the election of Pope John II, who was born with the name Mercurius. He deemed that being named after the Roman god Mercury would be a tad bit inappropriate, thus he took the name John as his papal name.

To this day, the last pope to use his birth name as pope was Marcellus II back in the 16th century.

What guides the choice of papal name is purely down to the new pope himself, and in times gone by popes have chosen names inspired by predecessors, mentors or even family members.

A notable example of this is John Paul II, who took the name of his two most immediate predecessors (John XXIII and Paul VI, respectively) as his papal name. His successor, John Paul II, chose his papal name for him, as he wished to continue the work of his predecessor who died only 33 days into his papacy.

John Paul I is also notable for being the first to be known by a double name, and he also has the distinction of being the first pope to use a ‘new’ name not previously used before since Pope Lando back in the 10th century.

So that’s the tale behind the papal names, but which names are most popularly used? It’s an interesting Top 10:

1. John

2. Gregory

3. Benedict

4. Clement

5. Innocent

6. Leo

7. Pius

8. Stephen

9. Boniface

10. Urban

Sophie Ellise-Bextor and Richard Jones, from digitalspy.co.uk

This has to be one of my favourite celebrity sibsets, almost certainly. I’m not sure why it is that this particular one has always stood out to me, but you can imagine how excited I was when I found out early last year that a third child was to be added to the clan. And I was right to be so, with another handsomely named son welcomed in April 2012.

The parents are both in the music industry: Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Richard Jones.

The former is a favourite artist of my fathers, and perhaps her best known track being Murder on the Dancefloor which reached the #2 spot in the UK Singles chart back when it was released in 2001 (scarily for me, that’s over 10 years ago now and before my youngest sibling was even born). As for Richard Jones, he’s the bassist for British band The Feeling, and for the international readers it’s worth noting he made an appearance in the music mash-up that was the closing ceremony for the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Their family of five include three sons:

Sonny (b. 2004)

Kit Valentine (b. 2009)

Ray Holiday (b. 2012)

Ugh.

In other news, my pregnant friend lamented on facebook this week about picking a name for her Spring baby. She knows she’s expecting a girl, and mentions in the post that the frontrunner is Eva. However, other names suggested to them by people’s comments included:

• Amelia (already know a little girl by the name)
• Madison (didn’t want to be the mum that insists it’s Madison, not Maddie)
• Survanna (commenter possibly meant Savannah)
• Lexy (mentioned twice  by two separate people, and both used this spelling)
• Lola (liked, but thought it was too close to Layla, an they already know someone with that name)
• Phoebe
• Grace, Scarlett (lady suggesting these said after that you could tell that she’s old)
• Sophia
• Erin

I found it somewhat fascinating that all of the above names were in the Top 100 in England&Wales in 2011, aside from Savannah (and technically that spelling of Lexy).

And for this week’s picture, it comes courtesy of a French friend:

What names people use when bowling is a mini-fascinating for me, and true to form, in the picture above three of the four are using nicknames on the scorecard as opposed to their actual names. As for the other three, care to guess what names they’re short for?

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.