20 February, 2012
Lou @ Mer de noms
Sibset of the Week
Alberic, Allegra, Atalanta, Beauregard, Cheyenne, George, Hero, Hubert, Isabella, Jacob, Jini, Joseph, Magnus, Maria, Mark, Martha, Maya, Melanie, Mercy, Nathaniel, Ralph, Shanti, Sophie, Teale, Titan, Victoria, Willow
The child that inspired this post, Hero, from poptower.com
I could only cover one family this week – I almost posted this on Friday after finding out about some of the names but held back a few days, I even resisted the temptation to post some of the names on Twitter.
Mark Fiennes was an English photographer and illustrator. He is a cousin of the noted explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes. He met and married a lady named Jennifer Lash in the 1960s. As an aside, his wife was more often known as Jini, and was a noted artist and novelist. Sadly, these days neither are still with us, but together they welcomed no less than seven children:
Martha Maria
Ralph Nathaniel
Joseph Alberic (twin of Jacob)
Jacob Mark (twin of Joseph)
Sophie Victoria
Magnus Hubert
We could stop here, but if you dig a little deeper, there are plenty more wonderful names to discover. Let’s start with Jacob, who is married to a lady named Melanie. Together they have two children, born in the early 2000s:
Teale Isabella
Nathaniel
Whilst both Isabella and Nathaniel are relatively heard of, the choice of Teale as the name for their eldest child is certainly unexpected. Nathaniel could simply be a family name, given that young Nathaniel shares his name with Uncle Ralph, for whom the name is a middle name and with one of his cousins whom I shall mention shortly.
I also wanted to mention the children of Magnus, with his wife Maya, born in the late 1990s:
Cheyenne Allegra
Shanti Atalanta
The name Shanti was recently championed over at Name Fancy, and I certainly was surprised to see it used on a child so soon after reading the post. But alas, it is the last sibset which really inspired this post. It was inspired by a rather humourous email from a friend asking whether I was aware the the actor who played a young Lord Voldemort was called Hero. How ironic, I remember thinking.
Martha is married to George Tiffin, and together they have three children:
Titan Nathaniel
Hero Beauregard (m)
Mercy Jini Willow
Some scoff at using Hero as a girls name, despite the historical usage, so I kindly present them with a male Hero, born in the late 1990s. It’s worth noting that Hero’s uncle, Ralph Fiennes, plays Voldemort in the films.
30 December, 2011
Lou @ Mer de noms
Boy Names, Girl Names
Asa, Ato, Émile, Bennett, Chandler, Charles, Concetta, Del, Dorothea, Doug, Douglas, Eldrick, Frances, Francois, Janko, Jason, Jay, Jean, Josée, Joseph, June, Kenyon, Leon, Louis, Mary, Meredith, Rachid, Rosalind, Rudyard, Skeeter, Sylvester, Sylvie, Tiger
Mowgli, from The Jungle Book, from comicvine.com
Today’s my birthday, so to celebrate I’ve been through a list of all the famed people also born on the 30th December in search of some interesting names to provide inspiration on one of the best days of the year 
Asa Griggs Candler
Ato Boldon
Bennett Miller
Chandler Burr
Concetta Tomei
Del Shannon (Charles Westover)
Dorothea Lieven
Douglas Alder ‘Doug‘
Eldrick Woods ‘Tiger‘
Émile Loubet
Janko Prunk
Jay Kay (Jason Cheetham)
Josée Verner
June Anderson
Kenyon Martin
Leon Jackson
Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée
Meredith Vieira
Rachid Karami
Rosalind Hurley
Joseph Rudyard Kipling
Skeeter Davis (Mary Frances Penick)
Sylvester Jordan
Sylvie Moreau
I would happily use many of these names – especially Asa and Sylvie. This is also the first time I’ve come across a triple-barreled first name, aside from the ones which occasionally turn up over at Eponymia.
14 November, 2011
Lou @ Mer de noms
Sibset of the Week
Coco, Jael, Joseph, Lulu, Otis, Pearl, Sian
Shaun Ryder, from mirror.co.uk
I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here started up again last night, so it seems right to post this edition of Sibset of the Week now, given that the father took part in last year series and came second. His name brings me onto a discussion about Irish name, since I have a floating opinion when it comes to Irish names and what spelling to use. Now may a good time to shout about my Irish credentials: My Nana is from Roscommon, which I’ve visited once. I very rarely mention the fact about me being Irish because it doesn’t really play a part in my life, and that most people take it as a given when they see my hair colour. That said, my other grandmother has exactly the same hair colour as me (she’s basically a slightly older version of me in everyway), but hasn’t a drop of Irish blood, only a tad of Welsh.
Why am I harping on about the Irish? Well, it sets up my next statement: I’ve always had my doubts on using Shaun instead of Sean, and don’t even get me started on the female American gymnast Shawn Machel Johnson. It seems odd for me to say this, when I was bleeting on about using traditionally male nicknames for girls on Saturday, but I grew up with Wallace&Gromit, hence Shaun the Sheep. It’s one of those forever associations you just can’t quite shake.
Now that I’ve got that over with, let’s talk about Shaun Ryder, who is a British musician, playing in Happy Mondays and Black Grape before becoming a journalist/television personality. In 1991 he welcomed his first daughter with Trish:
Jael Otis
Followed by a second daughter with Oriole in 1994:
Coco Sian
And then a son in 2002 with Felicia:
Joseph
Finally, he welcomed two more daughters with Joanne in 2008 and 2009, respectively:
Pearl
Lulu
He has also adopted Joanne’s son Oliver, who came along in 1993. Taken together, they’re an eclectic list to say the least, but there are some intriguing picks, such as Otis for a lass, which could easily have been chosen for family reasons. Pearl and Lulu are adorable together, too, even with big sister Coco.
8 January, 2011
Lou @ Mer de noms
Real Babies
Aidan, Aiden, Alexa, Alexander, Alexandra, Alice, Alicia, Alisdair, Alistair, Amy, Ana, Andrew, Anne, Ashley, Beatrice, Beatrix, Ben, Benjamin, Bryn, Cara, Caroline, Catherine, Chloe, Christopher, Clara, Clare, Connor, Conor, David, Eleanor, Eliza, Elizabeth, Ellen, Emily, Emma, Esme, Esther, Eugenie, Finn, Frances, Freddie, Frederick, Hannah, Hayley, Helen, Helena, Hugh, Hugo, Huw, Jack, Jacob, Jakub, James, Jennifer, Jessica, Joanne, Joe, John, Jonathan, Joseph, Joshua, Karolina, Kathryn, Katie, Laura, Lauren, Leanne, Liam, Lila, Lilia, Lillian, Lily, Lucy, Maria, Marie, Matteaus, Matthew, Michael, Mollie, Molly, Natasha, Olivia, Rhian, Roxanne, Ryan, Sara, Sarah, Sasha, Sophie, Theo, Theodore, Thomas, Vanessa, William
Let’s number-crunch. Courtesy of my sister, I got my hands on the class lists for her year (grade) at school. The names totalled around 150, and when we factor in the sixth form class list, who are two years older, we have a reasonably sized data covering popular baby names for catholics (catholic school) in England in the early 1990s:
British Babies Born Circa 1990-1994
BOYS – ALPHABETICALLY
Aidan +Aiden
Alexander x3 +Alistair +Alisdair
Andrew x2
Ashley x2
Benjamin x2 +Ben
Bryn +Finn
Christopher x2
Connor +Conor
David x4
Hugo +Hugh +Huw
Jack x5
Jacob +Jakub
James x7
John +Jonathan
Joseph x7 +Joe
Joshua x2
Frederick + Freddie
Matthew x2 +Matteaus
Michael x4
Ryan x2
Theodore +Theo
Thomas x7
William x2 +Liam x2
BOYS – NUMERICALLY (3 or more)
Joseph et al = 8
James = 7
Thomas = 7
Daniel = 6
Alexander et al = 5
Jack = 5
Michael = 4
William et al = 4
Benjamin et al = 3
Hugo et al = 3
Matthew et al = 3
GIRLS – ALPHABETICALLY
Alexandra x2 +Alexa
Alice x2 +Alicia
Amy x2
Ana + Anne +Joanne +Leanne +Rhian +Roxanne
Beatrice +Beatrix x2
Cara +Clare +Clara
Caroline +Karolina
Chloe x3
Eleanor x3 +Ellen x2 +Helen x2 +Helena
Elizabeth +Eliza
Emma x2 +Emily
Esther +Esme
Eugenie x2
Frances x2
Hannah x2
Hayley x2
Jennifer x3
Jessica x3
Kathryn +Catherine +Katie x2
Laura x5 +Lauren
Lucy x4
Lily x2 +Lila +Lillian +Lilia
Maria x2 +Marie
Molly +Mollie
Natasha +Sasha x2
Olivia x3
Sarah +Sara
Sophie x3
Vanessa x2
GIRLS – NUMERICALLY (3 or more)
Eleanor et al = 8
Ana et al = 6
Lily et al =5
Kathryn et al = 4
Lucy = 4
Alexandra et al = 3
Beatrice et al = 3
Cara et al = 3
Chloe = 3
Emma et al = 3
Jennifer = 3
Jessica = 3
Natasha et al = 3
Olivia = 3
Philippa = 3
Sophie = 3
MALE/FEMALE
Daniel x6 +Danielle
George x2 +Georgina
Harry +Hattie +Harriet
Phillip +Philippa x3
Valentino +Valentina
THE IRISH GANG
Sean x2 +Shaun +Sian
Sinead +Seamus +Roisin +Bronagh +Lorcan +Ciara x2 +Niall
Patrick x2
THE NOTABLES
The prevalence of Irish names is not taken as uncommon in a catholic school.
Jack was outnumbered by several names: Joseph, James and Thomas. He began his stay at the top of the UK Top 100 list at the end of the decade. Two of the Jacks had the same surname.
Both of the Ashley’s, born when America embraced the name as a female one, were male.
The Eugenie’s were born just after Princess Eugenie, and the Beatrice/trixes born after Princess Eugenie’s sister: Princess Beatrice.
Non of the Lucy’s were a Lucille, Lucienne etc. They were all just Lucy.
The Emma’s outnumbered the Emily.
From personal knowledge:
-None of the Philippa’s in the list shortens their name to Pippa.
-All of the Eleanor’s were nicknamed Ellie.
* In the interests of not boring you all to death with an endless list of data, any name on the class lists which appeared once, without a similar name has been omitted from the data. This accounts for around 30 names out of the roughly estimated 240 names.
Chatty Boxes