Family Tree Alternatives

Usually when people ask for alternatives of other names, they tend to look at similar-sounding names. However, in this post we’re delving into names related to popular names and picking out some intriguing possibilities for alternative names.

1. Harry and Amelia

Harry was born as a nickname for Henry, and these days is living it large in the #1 spot. Another offshoot of Henry is the Scottish variant Hendry.

Whilst choices were plentiful for Harry, the pool of potential names is smaller for Amelia and basically revolves around the same letter combinations, e.g. Amalia, Amélie etc. Perhaps the best bet is Emelia.

2. Oliver and Olivia

There are plenty of weird and wonderful international variants of Oliver, but I’m rather partial to Noll, which is an old medieval diminutive for the name.

Oliver and Olivia are interrelated, and my favourite other female name in the family tree is almost certainly Olivette.

3. Jack and Lily

There were quite literally a bazillion choices for both names here; in terms of Jack I’m thinking either the Welsh Ianto, or the French Yannick. The name Ianto is a diminutive, like Jack, of Ifan which is the Welsh form of John. As for Yannick, he comes from Yann which is the Breton form of John.

However, a last minute acknowledgement must go to the name Manech: he’s the Basque form of Jean, and Jean is of course the French form of John.

Then we have Lily, and my initial thought was the Scottish form of Lilian: Lillias or Lileas. Or go psuedo-chemistry with Lilium.

4. Alfie and Jessica

The complete opposite of the above pair of names, in that both Alfie and Jessica have few options. Alfie is, of course, a nickname for Alfred, and my best suggestion is Avery: a medieval form of Alfred.

Jessica is a toughie for the simple reason that she has few cousins, however Iscah is an intriguing possibility, being a possible source of the name Jessica.

5. Charlie and Emily

Charlie is a nickname for Charles, and in France they have Charlot. Anyone familiar with the French language will note that the t is silent, thus the name does not sound like Charlotte, more like SHAR-lo.

With Emily we encounter the same problems as with Amelia; there is a tenuous link between Emily and the Welsh name Emlyn, but alas, Emlyn is technically a male name. Best suggestion is likely to be either Emmy, Émilienne or Aemilia.

6. Thomas and Sophie

The Welsh short form for Thomas is Twm (said something like tuwm), or alternatively there is the Scottish variant Tavish.

As for Sophie, in Scandinavia they use Vivi as a nickname for Sofia.

7. Jacob and Ruby

There are, again, a plethora of options to choose from here, but I’m opting for the short’n’sweet option with Jeb.

Being a word name makes Ruby difficult, but the French for Ruby is Rubis and the German is Rubin.

8. James and Grace

For James, I would opt for Jem, which is an old and now rarely used nickname for James.

Ditto Ruby when it comes to Grace; once more turning to French we have both Grâce and Joliesse as translations. The former isn’t so practical, given that the French pronounce it to sound more like grass than grace.

9. Joshua and Ava

We’re venturing into the Arab world for Joshua, with the name Isa; the Arabic form of Jesus.

As for Ava, Chava is undoubtedly a wonderful suggestion – being the Hebrew form of Eve – but she’s mostly reserved to parts of the world not inflicted with the word chav. There is also the option of Hungarian name Évike.

10. William and Isabella

With William, I’m thinking maybe the German and Dutch dimiutive, Wim. Aside from him, we also have the option of Wiley, or even the Dutch Pim.

As for Isabella, being related to Elizabeth gives us plenty of options. As for the ones vaguely similar to Isabella, we have the German name Ilsa, which is a diminutive of Elisabeth.

Spot of the Week: Behind the Scenes Olympic Names

I visited my Grandma this morning and from the sounds of it, she appears to be drowning in a phenomenal pea harvest from Grandad’s allotment.  I’m sure there’s a post in that, but what remains unsolved.

Suffice to say, they’ve been almost literally throwing their harvest at their friends from the village these past weeks because they don’t want to be stuck eating peas every day for the next 8 years of their lives. My Grandma randomly mentioned a couple of these friends which the peas had been offloaded onto, and predictably, there was a lot of old-school nicknames going on: Dick, Charlie and Winnie were some of the few mentioned. Have I yet mentioned that my Grandma has a painter friend with the name Mim?

The interesting thing about Mim is that she’s been campaigning to the council about changing the name of the road she lives on of all things.

Whilst at the Olympic Stadium on Saturday, I was treated to a flowchart showing who’s who in the running of events services at the Stadium and I can report that the top lady has the surname Wrenn. Double n, and I rather liked it. She’s from the States I believe, not that it really means anything much. The guy who is top man at the Stadium is called Charles ‘Charlie’.

This week’s picture comes courtesy of yummy chocolatiers Thorntons and my Nana who bought it. Who would think to NAME a chocolate bear Bernie??

Thank you Nana!

…because one photo is never enough

Sibset of the Week: The Camaras and the Soumillons

from blogger.com

This week we’re off to France for two interestingly matched siblings, all reasonably young. The first one comes courtesy of a footballer by the name Zoumana Camara. He currently plays for Paris St. Germain, and has made just one appearance for the national team back in 2001. He has two daughters:

Oury, 2009

Aby, 2011

Oury fascinates me, she looks like she could be short for Aurore, but there was also a French film director called Gérard Oury who could have inspired the footballer; his real name was Max-Gérard Houry Tannenbaum.

Then we have a French model by the name of Sophie Thalmann. I wanted to mention her because like Jeremy Sisto,  she had a daughter named Charlie when she welcomed a son in 2008; the name she chose certainly caught my eye:

Charlie, 2005

Mika, 2008

I could really see Mika emerging as a new unisex choice in the coming years, especially here in Europe where we have two notable musicians with the name – one male, one female. Mika Newton represented Ukraine in Eurovision 2011 is female, whilst Mika Penniman, known simply as Mika, has carved out a successful career since crashing onto the pop scene in 2007. On whatever gender, certainly a name to watch for the future.

Names of the Week: Charlie and Connie

Konnie Huq and Charlie Brooker from telegraph.co.uk

On Thursday, Charlie Brooker and Konnie Huq announced that they were expecting a baby boy. Brooker is one of my favourite writers, and I try to keep up with his newspaper column even if I forget sometimes. Also, I watched Blue Peter around the time Konnie Huq was presenting, so I’m very much interested in what they name their child, even if I think there’s a real chance they’ll keep the name quiet.

We’ve mentioned Brooker before only briefly when we talked about the name Charlton – because that’s his name which he shortens to Charlie. Wife Konnie isn’t actually a Konnie either – her birth name is Kanak Asha (born to Bangladeshi parents in London). Therefore, one could expect an interesting choice of name for them. In theory.

But, let’s get on track and talk about the name Charlie. He’s currently #5 in England&Wales, so suffice to say, we Brits love the name Charlie. Perhaps that’s all down to the famous tale by Roald Dahl – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I remember receiving that book one Christmas in amongst a whole bundle of Dahl books given to me by my Auntie. I loved it, and still do even to this day even if it did slightly tarnish the name Violet for me.

Charlie was once a nickname of Charles, but nowadays you’re more likely to meet a Charlie than you are a Charles – which sits at #62 in England&Wales. Still of relatively popularity, but nowhere near the same league as Charlie currently is. I also think what it great about Charlie is that he can be fun, but equally he can also be rather serious – though not as much as brother Charles is. That makes him rather like Jack in my eyes.

Charles is either from the Germanic name Karl, which comes from their word for man; or it could have derived from another Germanic element: hari, meaning army, warrior.

Whereas both Charlie and Charles have been enjoying relative popularity for many decades now, on the other hand we have Connie who has only recently started to be used more frequently in England&Wales after a spell of being an out-of-fashion name. Certainly, I can also imagine a situation where Konnie also rises – although the Kardashian family isn’t as prominent over here just yet. This table hopefully demonstrates just how Connie has fared recently in terms of popularity:

	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

Looking at the graph, you should notice a sudden rise between 2006 and 2007. Why did we all started to name our baby girls Connie in 2007, and 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.

And I’m thrilled for it. Connie is one of those names which was once hopelessly out of fashion, but she really sits well with other more popular names such as Lily and Maisie.

However if you would prefer to use a longer form of Connie, there are a few options available. The most obvious one being the virtue 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 anything else.

A few months ago, we also mentioned the name Contessa, which is the Italian word for Countess. Other names which one could shorten to Connie at a slight push are:

• Azucena
• Caroline
• Coraline
• Cornelia
• Corisande
• Florence
• Nicola
• Veronica

Disney

Princess Merida, from inquisitr.com

Ariel and Jasmine are the classic examples of names which can both attribute some of their popularity to a Disney film. Logically speaking, therefore, upcoming Disney films could feature future starlets of the name world.

And the most recent release of Tangled has shown just that – the male lead character was called Flynn. Well, nicknamed Flynn for Eugene. At the same time, the Disney Channel Original Series Good Luck Charlie is about to welcome child no.5. The names of the currently four of them are:

• ‘PJ’
• ‘Teddie’
• Gabriel ‘Gabe’
• Charlotte ‘Charlie’

Teddie is female, and I’m fairly certain it’s short for something; I haven’t the foggiest what, though. As for the name of no.5, if I’m honest, none of the names on the poll really stood out for me when I went to cast my vote, but here are the ones in contention:

• Sydney
• Erika
• Mallory
• Talia
• Jenny
• Noah
• Jonah
• Bobby Jr.
• Bo

Wreck-it Ralph is due to be released in November 2012, featuring the eponymous character and there’s a fellow character called Fix-It Felix. Ralph and Felix? Both names I’m hearing more and more often, so Disney could be bang on here. For England&Wales in 2010, the names ranked at:

• Ralph – #258 (2009 ranking: #294)
• Felix – #122 (2009 ranking: #122)

Ralph comes from Old Norse roots, and means wolf counsel, whilst Felix is well-known for meaning lucky in Latin.

Moving closer to now we get to The Secret World of Arrietty is yet another take on the classic tale of The Borrowers. It was actually released in Japan in 2010, but is due to be released by Disney in the US at the start of 2012. Other members of the Clock family include Pod, Homily and Peagreen. According to the Disney page, it’s AIR-ee-ett-ee, and one could presume that neatly side-steps the issue Harriet and Harry seem to suffer in the States – that being people pronouncing it as they do hairy. One set of parents from 16 and Pregnant have recently welcomed child no. 2, a daughter: Arri.

As much as I loved The Borrowers when I was a kid, the film I’m really looking forward to? Brave. The lead character is to be a redhead, so it can only do wonders for my kind. I did initially believe that the lead female was called Brave, but alas, she’s actually called Merida. Sounds rather mythical, but the film really gets down to choosing whimsical Scottish-esque names when it comes to most of the other already-announced characters:

• Fergus
• Elinor
• Angus
• Harris
• Hubert
• Hamish

I tip my hat to ye Disney. All perfectly wonderful names. But something we should not forget is that Disney don’t just make films for theatrical release, they make plenty for their TV channels, which remain full of inspiration. Frenemies is due to be aired in January 2012,  names from which includes:

• Avalon
• Halley
• Kendall
• Cherie

Both Geek Charming and Lemonade Mouth have already been released this year, so aren’t upcoming releases per se, but there are some names featured in them which are worth a mention; from the film Geek Charming:

• Dylan (female)
• Asher
• Lola
• Ari (male)

Ari, Arri and Arrietty in one post from three different sources? It’s certainly not a trend I’d have intended to mention. I guess it makes sense, for me, given the immense popularity of similar sounding Harry and Harriet here in England&Wales – both are Top 100. I guess this is yet another potential trend for me to keep an eye on.

And some names from Lemonade Mouth (which has an upcoming sequel):

• Wendell ‘Wen’ (male)
• Mohini ‘Mo’ (female)

To be honest, if I’d seen only the nicknames and had been told one was male and the other female, I’d have guessed the opposite to what they actually are. Does that qualify Wen and Mo for our Girlish Nicknames on Boys post? It probably does.

As a final thought, the Disney Channel Original Series, Shake It Up, has an upcoming film in the works, thus the names of it’s characters qualify for this post:

• Cecelia ‘Cece’
• Raquel ‘Rocky’
• Flynn (brother of Cece)
• Ty (brother of Rocky)
• Tinka

All very modern-mama sounding names, and it’s yet another mention of Flynn. Something that has to be said, though, is that Flynn fell between 2009 and 2010: from #216 to #289. It will be interesting to see next year’s list to see where he’s heading next.

Weekend Post: Girlish Nicknames on Boys

Tiff Needell, from wikipedia.org

Last week we talked Boyish Nicknames on Girls, and Anna suggested that we make it a two-parter and look into Girlish Nicknames on Boys. It’s certainly a trickier subject to attack, since there are parents who will refuse point-blank to use a name once it goes to the girls on the grounds of bullying. Since I view the future as unpredictable timey-whimey, I don’t particularly view this argument as having solid grounds on which to abandon names you love.

I see nothing wrong with using slightly more feminine names for males, only the other day I was thinking about the plus sides of using Piper as a male name, and still thinks the lads can rock the name Harper. Personally, I know that if I ever were to use the name Cassius, he’d end up being referred to as Cass or Cassie. And Jenson? I’d rather use the cheery Sunny than the slightly less-upbeat spelling of Sonny.

Tiff Needell and Ruby Walsh are two sportsmen who go by less-than-masculine nicknames, but that hasn’t hurt their careers one bit. Tiff is a former racing driver who came into this world as Timothy, whilst Ruby started off life as Rupert and is a jockey.

Some say that not gender-specific names breed confusion, and I can’t argue against that. It does. I was given the book Housewife on Top last Christmas, or was the one before that? It could even have been a cheeky christmas/birthday present, come to think of it. It’s the third book in the series, so how was I to know that Helen lived in the appartement below a gay couple. Especially when they were called Paul and Sally. I spent much of the book wondering why Sally appeared to think she was a guy, and why Helen had the hots for her, and then it dawned on me that Sally was short for Salvador.

Then we have my brother, Jack – who is more often than not referred to as Jackie/Jacqui or even Jacqueline. This is because, like me, he has curly hair which grows faster than is really natural. There have been times in our childhood where his hair has been roughly the same length as mine – I kid ye not, so there must be people out there who think I have three sisters. Or a sister and two dwarfs for siblings, since the two ‘legit’ sisters are frequently referred to as Happy and Dopey.

There is some overlap between male and female nicknames. Allie can be short for both Alexander and Alison, and I wouldn’t bat an eyelid if you call little Charlotte or Charles by the name Charlie. There are times, though, when a little less vagueness in gender of the name occurs. Like Olly is more likely to be short for Oliver than Olivia, Ruby is more likely to be a female name than short for Reuben. I won’t lie, the idea of using Ruby in this capacity intrigues me. It especially works when you think that the German word for Ruby is rubin, which sounds like a cross between the names Robin and Reuben.

Speaking of our favourite O- names: Oliver and Olivia are top of the pecking order in England&Wales. Both could shorten to Olly, both could also shorten to Liv. Steve Tyler of Aerosmith has a daughter named simply Liv. In a similar vein, William could easily shorten to Lil; Daniel to Nell; Samuel to Mel. I also know of a Lenny whose name has morphed over time to Lainey.

One name that has been growing on me as of late is Beck. Normally given as a short form of Rebecca, he could easily transfer over to be associated with Becket(t), or maybe even Benedict. My sister informs me that there is a male character named Beck in the tween show Victorious.

Speaking of the box, there was a man named Jody on the news this morning. The name Jody is a legitimate short form of Joseph – although most men named Joseph seem to prefer to go through life as Joe instead.

The name Scout is emerging as a female choice, thanks to my sister’s favourite book, To Kill A Mockingbird, but he still has potential for the lads. I have a friend who suggested him as a short form of Sebastian. It’s certainly an eclectic option, but worth a look into.

Let’s end the post on a bold suggestion: Cleo, which I’ve genuinely been thinking about of late. It starts off with a French play, L’Avare, which has a male lead character called Cléante. The name is roughly said as CLAY-ohnt, so maybe say it CLAY-oh, not CLEE-oh? The name itself could possibly come from Cleanthes, which itself could come from the Greek kleos, which means glory and is also exactly where we get Clio from.

Not such a crazy idea after all.