Sibset of the Week: The Apatows and the Goldsmiths

Zac Goldsmith, from lidf.co.uk

My sister hates Zac Efron with a passion, so it was a surprise to catch her watching 17 again on her laptop earlier on this week. I have this habit of looking up any film I come into contact with, and thus pulled up the wiki page for 17 again. After flicking through several tie in pages I stumbled upon the wiki page of Leslie Mann, who played Scarlett O’Donnell in the film.

She looked oddly familiar, and a look at her filmography revealed why: she played Ursula in George of the Jungle. Fun fact: George of the Jungle was the first film I saw at the cinema, so I’ve always had a soft spot for it.

With her husband, Judd Apatow, she has two daughters, born in the late 1990s, early 2000s:

Maude

Iris

The second family this week has absolutely nothing to do with Leslie Mann whatsoever. Infact, truth be told, I’m trying to clear out my draft folder, in which this particular family has resided now for far too long.

Zac Goldsmith is a member of the Conservative Party, and currently represents the Richmond Park constituency in the House of Commons (i.e. he’s a politician). His father, Sir James Goldsmith, was quite the character and it’s worth mentioning the names of his children before we get onto Zac’s:

Isabel, 1954, mother: Maria Isabel Patiño

Manes, m, mother Ginette Lery

Alix, mother: Ginette Lery (children: Gaia and Lea)

Jemima Marcelle (aka Jemima Khan), 1974, mother: Lady Annabel (children: Sulaiman Isa and Kasim)

Frank Zacharias Robin, 1975, mother: Lady Annabel

Benjamin James, 1980, mother: Lady Annabel (children: Iris Annabel, Frank James Amschel and Isaac Benjamin Victor)

Jethro, mother: Laure Boulay de la Meurthe

Charlotte, mother: Laure Boulay de la Meurthe

As for Zac Goldsmith himself, with his ex-wife Sheherazade Ventura-Bentley, he had three children:

Uma Romanie

Thyra Amber

James

Experimentation&Pronunciation

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.

Straining Bookshelfs

The Thief Lord cover, from amazon.com

One of the best places to root around for names inspirations is books. The fictional world is where anything goes really – I once read a book named Storm’s Child where the main characters were called Rail (male) and Moa (female). Whilst I never got into Garth Nix’s main successes, I did love his book Shade’s Children – where the main characters were called Drum (male), Gold-Eye (male), Ninde (female) and Ella. Eoin Colfer once wrote a book called Supernaturalist, with characters Cosmo, Stefan and Mona. I digress, I read too much as a mid-teen and now my bookshelfs strain under the weight of all the books I own.

Since both Abby and Elea have both covered names of fictional characters this week in their own ways, I’m instead going to bring you inspiration from the names of the author’s which I read back when every waking moment of my life curled up with a book, along with the name of one of my favourite titles by them and some names from said title:

Benjamin Zephaniah (Teacher Dead–Jackson)

Benjamin Obadiah Iqbal Zephaniah is his full name, and I’m in awe of the mix of styles he’s been bestowed. I’ve met two young Zeph’s recently – one was a Zephyr and twin of Asher, whilst the other was a Zephaniah.TV’s Julia Bradbury welcomed a son named Zephyr earlier on this year in August.

The name Benjamin is of Hebrew origins and means son of the south/right hand, whilst Zephaniah is also of Hebrew origins and means Yahweh has hidden. For the sake of completion, Zephyr means west wind, whilst Asher means happy or blessed.

And a quick breakdown of each name’s popularity in 2010 in England&Wales:

	Benjamin	Zephaniah	Zephyr	Asher
Rank	22	1407	3332	364
Births	3005	17	5	112

Blue Balliett (Chasing Vermeer–Petra and Calder)

Balliett purposefully chose unusually names, believing that’s exactly what would appeal to her readers. When I initially read Chasing Vermeer about 3 years ago I didn’t like the name Petra all that much, but she’s grown on me. She’s the female form of Peter, which means rock, although the character was named with reference to the ancient city of Petra and as part of family naming tradition.

Now, for some hard data from the 2010 data for England&Wales. Blue doesn’t rank for girls (the author is female), but does for the boys:

	Blue	Calder	Petra
Rank	1801	n/a	1472
Births	12	n/a	20

Cornelia Funke (The Thief Lord–Prosper, Boniface ‘Bo’, Scipio, Esther and Ida)

I adore the name Prosper, and it’s from this book that my love for him was first sparked. I acknowledge that Funke’s other work, the Inkheart trilogy, is better known, but this one has a special place in my heart.

As for the name of the author, first we must note that the author is German, and then note the name is the female form of the Latin name Cornelius. The name comes from the Latin element cornu, which means horn. 4 girls were named Cornelia in 2010 in England&Wales, putting it at #4688. On the flip side, 6 lads were named Cornelius last year, and thus at a ranking of #2941. And for the names of her characters I mentioned above? (The ranking for Bo is the male ranking)

	Prosper	Boniface	Scipio
Rank	n/a	n/a	n/a
Birth	n/a	n/a	n/a
	Esther	Ida	Bo
Rank	156	878	1483
Birth	334	40	16

Cressida Cowell (How To Speak Dragonese–Hiccup, Fishlegs and Camicazi)

I know that I’m probably too old for Cowell’s books these days, but I am still eagerly awaiting the next installment of the Hiccup franchise next month (the film adaption of the first book dissolved me into tears-the only film to ever do so). I love the name Cressida, and she’s the medieval form of another name I love: Chryseis and also means gold. In Greek legend, Chryseis was the daughter of Chryses, a priest of Apollo. Since Hiccup and friends don’t rank, but Cressida does at #4688, with 4 births – same as Cornelia.

Enid Blyton (The Mystery of the Burnt Cottage–Frederick ‘Fatty’, Margaret ‘Daisy’, Lawrence ‘Larry’, Philip ‘Pip’ and Elizabeth ‘Bets’)

Enid is almost synonymous nowadays with the author, and the name comes from Welsh and means either soul or life. As an author, she chose rather classic names, all of which are not as popular nowadays as they were back when the books were first published, the one mentioned above came out in 1943:

	Enid	Frederick	Lawrence
Rank	2104	95	355
Births	12	688	117
	Philip	Margaret	Elizabeth
Rank	296	505	49
Births	152	80	1356

Compare the rankings of 2010 with that of 1934 when  all six names were in the Top 100:

	Enid	Frederick	Lawrence
1934	68	24	72
2010	2104	95	355
	Philip	Margaret	Elizabeth
1934	56	1	14
2010	296	505	49

Malorie Blackman (Noughts & Crosses–Persephone ‘Sephy, Jasmine and Meggie)

The Noughts&Crosses trilogy was the one which first introduced me to the name Persephone, although I wasn’t sure of the pronunciation until I watched the television show Firefly. My copy of the first book is also signed by the author, Malorie Blackman, which I won, rather than stood in a line for.

The name Malorie is a variant spelling of Mallory, a name that comes from Norman French and means unfortunate. Rather makes me think of the CBBC show Trapped, where the contestants are known as unfortunates. Persephone’s meaning is not established, although she has been linked to Greek words which means murder or to destroy, whilst Meggie is a short form of Margaret and Jasmine is a lovely botanical name. They rank, as such:

	Malorie	Mallory	Persephone
Rank	n/a	4688	3156
Births	n/a	4	7
	Jasmine	Meggie
Rank	41	5707
Births	1466	3

Tamora Pierce (The Magic In The Weaving–Sandrilene ‘Sandry’, Trisana ‘Tris’, Daja, Briar (male) and Lark)

I actually took this book out of my local library by mistake more than anything, but found myself reading it anyway. Whilst a little difficult to follow to begin with, I loved it enough to read all it’s sequels. This is the first real occasion I came across the name Briar, since I was never really shown Sleeping Beauty as a child, and I actually like it. The character himself chose the name, wanting something botanical, yet masculine. I think he achieved that, since I’ve often misread the name as Bear.

As for the name of the author, Tamora, she’s a variant spelling of the name Tamara, which is a variant of the name Tamar, which means palm tree in Hebrew. Predictably, none of the names have really made an impact in the popularity data for England&Wales (the data for Briar is the female one, since there is no male ranking):

	Tamora	Tamara	Sandry	Lark
Rank	n/a	458	n/a	5707
Births	n/a	90	n/a	3
	Trisana	Daja	Briar
Rank	n/a	n/a	5707
Births	n/a	n/a	3

Tom Becker (Darkside–Carnegie, Vendetta and Marianne)

I listed him because of his surname, rather than his first name. Becket is a nouveau name getting some attention right now, and I think I like Becker a tad more. He’s a German surname and variant of another surname, Becke, which means baker. The Carnegie Award is given out annually to a single children’s book which has impressed, and named after Andrew Carnegie.

Out of all the names, only Marianne ranks in the England&Wales data – at #946 with 36 uses.

Babies in the early ’90s

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.