Spot of the Week: Rugrats

My younger sister has recently taken up watching Rugrats like there’s no tomorrow, and this has caused me to rethink the name Angelica after a rude-reminder of just how mean the character is.

Sad days.

That said, are you aware of the names of Tommy’s maternal grandparents? They’re Boris and Minka, and I’m developing a serious love of the name Minka in all her Eastern-European charm. The same charm new-favourite Mila has.

The name of Tommy’s paternal grandparents are even more wonderful: Beatrix and Louis, known as Trixie and Lou and the latter is the Grandpa character seen in most episodes. He remarried a lady named Louise ‘Lulu’ at the beginning of the Rugrats in Paris film. Then there is Susie’s mother, Luciell ‘Lucy’.

Clearly, there’s a lot of love for the name Lou in the Rugrats, and that rocks.

I can’t avoid the O word for long, and someone I want to talk about is a Judo gold medallist. Remember how I mentioned the name Pasha a week or two ago? The man who picked up the medal was called Lasha Shavdatuashvili and he hails from Georgia. That’s the country, not the state. Lasha is the name of a place east of the Dead Sea in the Bible.

To end, a new virtue name?

Pride the Lion

Or just a tad bit too much?

Sibset of the Week: The Hicks

David Nightingale Hicks, from npgprints.com

We’re looking at two generations of a family this week, because they all bear such facinating names. David Nightingale Hicks was a reknowned interior designer, who married Lady Pamela Mountbatten in 1960, and together they had three children:

Edwina Victoria Louise

Ashley Louis David

India Amanda Caroline

Then we come to the second generation, and let’s start with the eldest daughter, Edwina, who married her husband Jeremy in 1984 and together they have three offspring:

Maddison May (1994)

Jordan Anne (1995)

Rowan Michael (2001)

One can perhaps note the classics-in-the-middle, more modern choices in the front style they seem to have adopted for their names. Also, the relative gender-neutral-ness of the names – especially with the younger two children. I actual think this sibset may even be a few years before it’s time, as those kids could easily have been born in the last few years, rather than 10 to 20 years ago.

Edwina’s brother, Ashley, has worked as an author, designer and architect in his time. In 1990 he married an Italian designer named Allegra, with whom he welcomed two daughters:

Angelica Margherita Edwina

Ambrosia Maria Elizabeth

Note the matching initials, and that Ashley only named one of his daughters after one of his sisters.

Speaking of one of his sisters, we then come to India, who was a bridesmaid at the marriage of Prince Charles and Diana Spencer. India has four children with her partner, the interior designer David Flint Wood:

Felix Austen

Amory John

Conrad Lorenzo

Domino Carmen

Whilst I’ve seen both Felix and Conrad on people before, I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone call their child either Amory or Carmen before – they’re certainly bold choices.

When Penelope Gets Popular

Paloma Faith may inspire you, from metro.co.uk

When I originally penned the Clementine post, I never imagined doing a sequel post or even turning it into a series, but the fact of the matter is that the name Penelope is getting popular, and I’ve started to wonder about what alternatives are out there. This post started off as me pondering about what other names I could get Penny from (the final three being Typhena, Peony and Euphemia), but the original draft of such a post seemed like more should be said. An elaboration was in order, and a sequel was born. So, what other names could we use when Penelope gets too popular for our liking? Just to illustrate the fact that she has grown in popularity, here’s how she’s fared in the past few years:

	2003	2004	2005	2006
Rank	583	565	562	678
Births	50	55	59	46
	2007	2008	2009	2010
Rank	515	427	328	272
Births	72	99	135	181

A ranking of #272 is something to take note of, since she’s shot up from #678 in 2006 to where she is today. To start off with, it seems best to first approach this topic by asking what exactly are the kinds of names people are pairing the name Penelope with, either as sibling or middle names? A trip to the London Telegraph Birth Announcements was in order to find just that out, and it was an eclectic bunch of names to say the least; here is a cut-down version:

• Annabel
• Aurelia
• Bróna
• Clementine
• Esther
• Evelyn
• Dorothea
• Felicity
• Florence
• Georgina
• Harriet
• Hettie
• Horatia
• Jemima
• Lucinda
• Marissa
• Muriel
• Nancy
• Orla
• Scarlett
• Serena
• Willa

The names Clementine and Florence came up severeal times, whilst Lucinda also came up at least twice. There are some conflicting styles in the names, from the seldom heard Horatia, to the very Irish name Bróna. Since Florence is a clear favourite, it seems apt to kick off a list of suggestions with the younger Nightingale sister’s name: Parthenope. Like her sister before her, Parthenope was named after an Italian city, and like Penelope, she’s four-syllables. If long names are your preference, another four-syllable P name is Philomena, which shares Penelope’s Greek roots. Dorothea from the above list also shares this trait. Other four-syllable Greek names include:

• Angeliki
• Calliope
• Cassiopeia (technically five-syllables)
• Elisavet
• Eugenia (modern Greek form: Evgenia)
• Konstantina
• Louiza
• Ophelia
• Paraskeve (Pah-rah-ske-vee)
• Persephone
• Theodora
• Timothea
• Zenovia/Zenobia

But you may have no Greek heritage, which means the above list may means nothing at all to you. Fear not, for there are other, more English-based, options out there. The current leader of the pack for me is Peony. She’s floral, like Lily, and could also shorten to Penny if your heart so desires. I’m astonisahed that only 9 of them were born in England&Wales in 2010, because she is such a pretty name. I first came upon her, myself, when reading a book which I can’t for the life of me remember. But what I can remember was that Peony wore trousers with different coloured legs. She was an eccentric child, to say the least. Another seldom used name in England&Wales in Tolulope, given to just 4 girls in 2010, whilst Temitope was given to 10 girls.

Another P name that I reckon will be rising fast here in the UK in the next few years is Paloma. We’ve already had pop act Florence&The Machine attributed to the rise of Florence, and there’s another similar artist in the UK right now called Paloma Faith. She was the goth girl, Andrea, in the first of the rebooted St.Trinians films, but has since embraced colour to the max. Her name is Spanish for dove. Another British pop act, Mika, has three sisters named Yasmina, Paloma and Zuleika.

Going back to 2000, Penelope was given to 35 girls that year, as was Henrietta. Other names ranking similarly to her, and also containing four syllables (within 45-25 births) in 2000, with their 2010 ranking/birth number in brackets after are:

• Angelica (#531, 75 births)
• Henrietta (#730, 50 births)
• Ophelia (#559, 71 births)
• Valentina (#521, 77 births)
• Veronica (#452, 92 births)

As you can see, non of them have broken the Top 300 as Penelope has done, but they have all risen since 2000 and could rise further but maybe not as quickly as dear Penny. That leads us onto another point, one could simply use a nickname of Penelope instead. Aside from Poppy, which resides firmly in the Top 100, the nicknames are generally not as popular as their long form:

• Nell – #390
• Nelly – #747
• Penny – #396
• Petal – #3156
• Piper – #719
• Polly – #300
• Posy – #4688

I would also suggest Pippa as a nickname for Penelope, but she’s also on the express train to popularity at the moment. I guess one could argue that Philippa is another great alternative choice, who has actually been going backwards in the past few years. Other vintage-sounding P names include Patience, Prudence and Pearl, and Pomeline is a name with Royal heritage.

To conclude, Penelope is a great name with some great alternatives should her popularity put you off. My line on popularity is the same as always, though: if your heart says go for it, just go for it regardless of how popular the name may be.

Sibset of the Week: The Bowers

Natasha Kaplinsky, from guim.co.uk

Natasha Kaplinsky became one of the highest paying newsreaders in Britain following her move from BBC to Channel 5 at the end of 2007. In April the following year she made headlines for announcing her first pregnancy, going on maternity leave by August. Things got worse for Channel 5 when in October 2009 she announced her second pregnancy, giving birth to a daughter in April 2010. In October 2010, Kaplinksy announced that she would be leaving Channel 5 after 3 years with the broadcaster of which she spent the majority of maternity leave.

So, what did she name her two children with husband Justin Bower?

Arlo

Angelica Pearl