Weekend Post: Good, Fresh, Uncomplicated Names

Eat’s ethos

Since I shared this photo in last week’s Spot post, I’ve been thinking about the Eat ethos, which is good, fresh, uncomplicated food.

What would be the naming equivalent?

Let’s break it down.

FRESH

Fresh is often used (and I’m particularly guilty of this one) as another way to say unusual, but one could also see it as a name that hasn’t been overexposed.

In the end I settled for 4 set criteria for a name to pass this category and go on to the next category. For a name to be fresh in my eyes, it must not be:

• A name that has been in the Top 100 for 10 years at some point in time
• A name that ever been #1
• A name that has been given to a high profile celeb offspring
• A name that has risen more than 100+ places in the Top 500 since 2000

Taking this into consideration, names that fail this category include:

1. Amber
2. Amelie (up 1420 since 2000)
3. Chloe
4. Harry
5. Jack
6. Kayden (up 1326 since 2000)
7. Lexi (up 1949 since 2000)
8. Oliver
9. Suri
10. Thomas

GOOD

For a name to be good, I believe it has to have little negative connections such as an evil forebearer (whether fictional or not) or less-than-lovely meaning.

8 names that would fall down at this hurdle, but would’ve passed the previous category include:

1. Adolf – self explanatory
2. Azrael – aka The Angel of Death
3. Bellatrix – think Harry Potter
4. Dolores – means sorrows + think Harry Potter
5. Gretel – Hansel&Gretel tale
6. Louhi – name of a death goddess in Finnish mythology
7. Memphis – the US city known for crime
8. Mordred – rival of Arthur in Arthurian legend
9. Nuala – the Nuala in Irish mythology was less-than-nice
10. Persephone – means murder /to destroy

UNCOMPLICATED

What makes a name complicated? One could say it is a name which causes little spelling/pronunciation issues, such as James and Ruby.

8 names that fail this test, but passed the previous two include:

1. Caoimhe – pronounced KEE-va
2. Ceridwen – pronounced ke-RID-wen
3. Eluned – pronounced EH-lee-ned
4. Heliodoro – just generally a mouthful of a name
5. Joachim/Joaquin – just generally a name that causes me a headache when it comes to pronunciation
6. Schuyler – pronounced SKY-ler
7. Solveig – pronounced SOL-vay
8. Xanthe – pronounced ZAN-the

So, without further ado, here’s the list of  some of the names I think  pass all three tests:

BOYS

1. Angus
2. August
3. Barnaby
4. Bruno
5. Caspian
6. Cosmo
7. Ever
8. Ezra
9. Fergus
10. Gray
11. Indigo
12. Ivor
13. Rio

GIRLS

1. Avalon
2. Blossom
3. Coral
4. Gwen
5. Hero
6. Ingrid
7. Josie
8. Lux
9. Nova
10. Orla
11. Roma
12. Rosemary
13. Vera

Do you dispute any of these choices? Are there any names you think qualify too?

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.

Name Spot of the Week: Sailing Across the Sea

The Team GB Sailing Team for 2012, from dailymail.co.uk

A few days ago the Team GB sailing team was announced for the 2012 London Olympics. I’ll admit that I’m a rower, not a sailor – I was one of the many Brits who had never heard of the Yngling class of sailing until we won a gold medal in it at Beijing. For the 2010 Olympics, it’s being replaced by the Elliott 6m. Other names of sailing classes?

We have the Finn class which has been dominated by Ben Ainslie in the past few years. By coincidence, he’s been covered in much detail over at My Advice this week. A quick selection of the names of other classes in the world of sailing gives us: Tempest, Soling, Dragon, Firefly, Corsair and Buzz. If any sailors read this post, and are offended that I’ve missed out their class, I’ll repeat that I’m no expert in sailing, so feel free to add your own list in the comments section and put me to shame.

Sticking firmly to the sailing theme, the names of the sailers which have been selected are quite interesting – the stand out one for me being Saskia Clark. The other selected few were, in alphabetical order:

Andrew Simpson

Annie Lush

Ben Ainslie

Bryony Shaw

Hannah Mills

Iain Percy

Kate MacGregor

Lucy MacGregor

Nick Dempsey

I’ve been hoarding Metro newspapers for the past fortnight of so, not just because I’ve yet to have time to the sudokus, but because I keep forgetting I’m holding them until it’s too late and I’m off the bus. Something I’ve been wanting to mention for awhile, though, is the name of one of the characters on it’s cartoon page: Nemi.

I have been reading the articles in the Metro though, and there was a new story in the Metro this week about a family who built their own ‘hobbit house’ in four months for a couple of grand. The creative parents behind the project, Simon and Jasmine Dale, have two young children: Cosmo and Elsie.

I casually mentioned Warby Parker as an inspiration behind a Names of the Week post from the start of the month, and this week Kristen over at Marginamia went one step further, bringing you the names of the entire collection.

Dancing with the Stars kicked off in the States this week, whilst we’re still waiting for Strictly Come Dancing to begin here in the UK. Not that I watch it, since dancing is for girls 😉 Either way, a quick rundown of some of the notable names of professionals who’ve taken part in the series at some stage or another:

Aliona Vilani

Anton du Beke

Artem Chigvintsev

Erin Boag

Flavia Cacace

Izabela Hannah

Jared Murillo

Katya Virshilas

Lilia Kopylova

Ola Jordan

Pasha Kovalev

Ice Hockey is more of my thing, even though I don’t own a season ticket as my Uncle does. I tagged along with him to the Panthers game last night, so now seems an apt time to mention that we have a player named Guillaume. I love the name Guillaume, sometimes more than William, sometimes less (Guillaume is the French form of William). For the confused, it’s gee-OM.

Let’s end on a cheery note by mentioning Nook’s list of names meaning wealth, good fortune, success of happiness – inspired by a look into the rune name Feoh. Tomiko? Aston? Love.

As Popular As…

You know that joyful feeling when you find one of your favourite names right down near the bottom of the popularity list, which is popped hen you realise that it’s as popular as, well, a name you may not like as much? I’ve had that a lot recently:

Two of my favourite names, Clementine and Luna, share the ranking of #565, with Mylee, Billie, Jaya, Selina and Laaibah.

Cosmo is below the 1000, with only 24 births, alongside Issa and Ryder.

Wren and Sunny are also under the 1000 mark, with 17 births apiece, alongside Leni, Roxi, Beca, Chelsy, Ellymay and Lacey-Mai.

Rupert had 106 uses, as did Yuvraj and Deacon.

Phineas and Prosper had 5 apiece, as did Muizz, Nixon, Promise, Ramsay and Reily.

Juniper had 8 uses, as did Guste, Kodi and Romie.

Flora had 104 uses, as did Trinity.

Indie had 43 uses, as did Kaydee, Mercy and Mikayla.

Rosalind had 30 uses, as did Mazie, Cindy, Gurleen and Cienna.

Saskia had 94 uses, as did Bailey and Safiya.

On the male side, Rowan shares the #155 spot with Kenzie, and a female Rowan has 81 uses, alongside Alannah and Martyna.

Alistair is as popular as Rayhan, both with 100 uses each, respectively.

Cassius is as popular as Ilyas, each with 72 uses, respectively.

Gideon had 39 uses, as did Kajus, Nojus and Ronny.

Alec had 66 uses, as did Abbas and Shayan.

20 ‘O’ Names

Currently, a trendy suffix is ‘o’, so in this post I present to you some lovely ‘o’ boys names, some of which you may have heard of, others you won’t.

Amadeo

– Italian meaning lover of God.

Aurelio

– Italian variation of Aurelius, meaning Golden One.

Bruno

– German name meaning brown. Popular throughout Europe, currently #861 in the US.

Claudio

– Italian from Latin meaning lame. Featured in two Shakespeare plays, Much Ado About Nothing and Measure For Measure.

Cosmo

– Greek name meaning universe. The youth of today will likely associate the name with the ditzy, yet lovable character from Fairly Odd Parents.

Diego

– Spanish variaton of James, currently enjoying some popularity, placing it at #75. Dora the Explorer’s cousin is a bearer.

Hugo

– English parents will likely associate this name with bumbling Hugo from cult comedy show Vicar of Dibley. It’s a German name meaning mind, intellect, and currently sits at #409.

Indio

– Not only benefitting form the ‘o’ trend, but also the name trend of place names. Indio is the name of a Californian desert town.

Ivo

– German name meaning yew wood, archer. This is a more energetic name than Ivor.

Jethro

– Hebrew name meaning preeminence. It was also the name of Moses’ father-in-law.

Leo

– This name has Latin origins and means lion. Currently #209.

Mateo

– Spanish variation of Matthew that means gift of God. #229.

Milo

– German name meaning mind, peaceful, calm. #451.

Navarro

– Spanish name meaning from Navarre. It’s also a  surname in the Basque Kingdom, helping it appeal the surname trend as well as the place name one.

Nico

– Greek name, can either stand alone or be a nickname for a Nico- name, such as Nicolo, Nicodemus or maybe even Nicholas. Thus, this name’s popularity could be helped along be appealing the the nickname trend. #585.

Orlando

– Italian version of Roland, and means famous throughout the land. British actor Orlando Bloom shows this name isn’t necessarily for Italians only. Used by Shakespeare, and is currently # 410.

Pablo

– Spanish variation of Paul. Artist Picasso was a famous bearer. #344.

Pedro

– Spanish variation of Peter, and currently not far behind in popularity at #268 (Peter is at #191)

Reno

– Not only a cute moniker, but also the name of a town associated with gambling. That never stopped place names such as Rio, though.

Taddeo

– Charming Italian version of Thaddeus. Personally, this version looks to have more youth than the first.