The Wacky World of Emilie Autumn: Aprella and Contessa

Emilie Autumn, from lapdogterror.com

I’ve recently started to listen to this rather outlandish performer again after a spell of nearly a year without going near her. I flit in and out of liking music quite rapidly, so it was a charming surprise to see her reappear on my shuffle. It’s always nice to hear the sound of a once forgotten song again.

But we’re here to talk names, so let’s pause awhile and shift slightly from the weeks posts to look at two of the stage names of performers Emilie surrounds herself with, whom are referred to as the Bloody Crumpets:

Aprella

I’ll admit, when I first watched a live show on YouTube, I thought Emilie called her umbrella, not Aprella. But where does the name Aprella come from? She’s not listed on most of the popular websites we could consult, such as Nameberry; BehindtheName; BabyName Wizard et al. However, my first instinct is that she’s an elaboration of the month name April and it seems that the majority of sites which do list the name seem to agree with me on that one.

The name April has remained relatively stable over the past few years:

	2003	2004	2005	2006
Rank	281	313	325	372
Births	144	129	125	112
	2007	2008	2009	2010
Rank	328	289	327	308
Births	134	163	136	154

As for the origins of the name April, she comes from the Latin word aprilis. When the Roman calendar -which would later evolve into the Gregorian one the majority now abide by – was being drawn up, each month was in honour of a God, and in this case it was Venus. Scholars have speculated that the Etruscan name for Venus was Apru, and this is where aprilis derives from.

Contessa

We have an easier time with our second name, which is simply the italian word for Countess. Personally, I’m surprised by how much I like the name, even though it begins with the prefix – con. But there are a few popular names in England&Wales that begin in such a way:

The most popular example is the nickname Connie:

	2003	2004	2005	2006
Rank	238	231	220	226
Births	188	197	217	214
	2007	2008	2009	2010
Rank	128	110	125	144
Births	434	504	430	382

You may be wondered why we all started to name our baby girls Connie in 2006, the answer is delightfully simple. Connie Fisher won the talent show How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? back in 2006, which involved Andrew Lloyd-Webber searching for a Maria for his stage adaptation of The Sound of Music. It’s therefore likely she was part of the sudden resurgence of the name in 2007, whereby it rose 102 places with the number of births increasing more than twofold.

It’s also worth noting that in 2009 saw the birth of 4 Connie-Maes and 3 Connie-Roses, but neither hyphenated name ranked in 2010.

Contessa may also be confused for the more established name Constance, a name which currently sits at #281 with 176 births. I’ll admit, she’s much more popular than I expected her to be, which acts more of a nice surprise for me than frozen horror.