Dot

Dot

It seems a good moment to talk about the name Dot, a name I first came across in the Sammy Keyes books by Wendelin van Draanen. The character’s real name was Margaret, but went my Dot owing to a round birthmark on her face.

Since these days, most people are on the net in one way or another and this was alluded to in the Opening Ceremony of the London Olympics as Sir Tim Berners-Lee made an appearance. I was quite surprised by a few people who seemed to be unaware that he was responsible for the creation of the internet.

Roughly around 1995 to 2000, there was something these days termed as the dot-com bubble. This was when stock markets in industrialised nations saw their equity value soar from the growth in the internet sector.

In the dot-com phrase, dot clearly nods towards the full stop. The domain name com derives from the word commercial, which indicates the original purpose of domains to be for commercial organisations.

Going back to dot, it of course indicates the end of a sentence; that is essentially Year 1 English 101. In most countries we also use dots for decimal points, but I know for a fact that the French use a comma instead. So, whilst here in England a pencil case would be £5.99, the French would say €5,99. Or whatever the current equivalent is.

In some countries, they also use a dot as an accent, which extends to these languages:

• Lithuanian
• Polish
• Turkish

I also believe that dots make appearance in sheet music, which I can’t read as I never learned to play an instrument.

Now, believe it or not, there is someone out there with the name Dotcom, but only because he legally changed his surname.

Kim Dotcom was famously arrested in January 2012 by the New Zealand police due to accusations of copyright infringements in relating to his Megaupload website. He is a German-Finnish computer programmer and was born Kim Schmitz.

As for simply Dot, she’s usually seen as simply a nickname for Dorothy/Dorothea, a name that means gift of God. Thinking about it, if you wanted a more out-there name, you could consider Peridot ‘Dot’; the only flaw in that plan being that the t is silent in Peridot.

Dot did not rank in England&Wales in 2011, but Dotty and Dottie do at #2636 and #1807, respectively

Name Spot of the Week: Game Show Blitz

Simmy (l) and James (r), from James May's Man Lab, from tinypic.com

I found myself humming Little April Shower from Bambi earlier on today, and that got me thinking: April or Avril? Or maybe even Aprella? There were four voice actors for Bambi in his film, of which the ones for baby, young and adolescent Bambi were called Bobby, Donnie and Hardie.

I’ve rediscovered the TV channel Challenge this week, and have been busy gobbling up up the classic game show reruns. Earlier on today I caught an episode of Family Fortunes featuring a family of elderly ladies named Joan, Dorothy, Enid, Margaret and Ella. To the modern eye, Ella looks almost out-of-place, but in fairness Ella was at #97 in 1904.

Classic Who Wants To Be A Millionaire threw up an Ingram – who went on to win the top prize. He has a son called Isaac ‘Zac’, whilst the player beforehand used his friend Olaf for Phone A Friend.

Million Pound Drop also restarted up again this week – huzzah! Akbar and Lynne won 25k, whilst Craig and Seve won 100k. Seve was half-spanish and he reminds me of the man called Simmy who turned up in James May’s Man Lab series from a few weeks ago. I can only speculate that Simmy is short for Simon. Back to Million Pound Drop and there was also a pair called Jono and Liam, and another pairing called Kenneth and Whitney who went out on their first question.

I’ve also started to get into this series of Masterchef: The Professionals, whilst includes a male named Perry – and another one named Ash. Speaking of Ash, 3-letter names rock, and I’m not just saying that because Lou fits this category. I’m also saying this because I couldn’t help but notice a buzz developing around these names of late, especially over at Elea’s little corner of the internet. They’re certainly more intriguing than Ann or Rob, and the collection mentioned over the past week by my peers is nothing short of fascinating:

Roa, from Eponymia’s post on Names From Jordan.

Zed and Ovo, from Bewitching Names’ post of Names From Cirque du Soleil

Ada and Azo from Baby Names From Yesteryear’s post on Lord Byron.

Bell, Pax, Paz, Eir, Joy, Gil, Lux, Luz, Ora, Ori, Uri, Nur and Xue from British Baby Names’ Advent Calendar series.

Icy and Ivy from Midwinter Names’ post on Wintery Names.

Ava and Jem from Waltzing More Than Matilda’s post on Names From Stories on Midwives

Asa and Roy from Names 4 Real’s most recent post of Birth Annoucements.

Zeb and Zef from Appellation Mountain’s post on Z- Names for Lads.

Dot from Nook of Names post on Rune Names.

Wim and Kit from Marginamia’s post on Names from The Glow.

Decade Snapshot 1930s/A-Z

Fry's Dainties, from pzrservices.typepad.com

Following on from our 1920s name list, here are the top names for each letter in the US Top 1000 of 1930.

A – Arthur and Alice

B – Billy and Betty

C – Charles and Catherine

D – Donald and Dorothy

E – Edward and Elizabeth

F – Frank and Frances

G – George and Gloria

H – Harold and Helen

I – Ira and Irene

J – James and Joan

K – Kenneth and Kathleen

L – Louis and Lois

M – Marvin and Mary

N – Norman and Nancy

O – Oscar and Opal

P – Paul and Patricia

Q – Quentin and Queen

R – Robert and Ruth

S – Stanley and Shirley

T – Thomas and Thelma

U – Ulysses. No female.

V – Vernon and Virginia

W – William and Wanda

X – none.

Y – Yvonne. No male.

Z – Zane and Zelma

 

Decade Snapshot 1920s/A-Z

Occasionally, I find a need to peruse some data. Here is the product of just that. I looked at the Top 1000 for the USA from 1920 and created this list. Out of the Top 1000 names on the 1920 name list, this is a list of the name that appears first with each beginning letter.

A – Arthur and Anna

B – Bernard and Betty

C – Charles and Catherine

D – Donald and Dorothy

E – Edward and Elizabeth

F – Frank and Frances

G – George and Gladys

H – Harold and Helen

I – Irving and Irene

J – John and Josephine

K – Kenneth and Katherine

L – Louis and Lillian

M – Michael and Mary

N – Norman and Norma

O – Oscar and Opal

P – Paul and Pauline

Q – Quentin and Queen

R – Robert and Ruth

S – Stanley and Sarah

T – Thomas and Thelma

U – Ulysses and Una

V – Vernon and Virginia

W – William and Willie

X – N/A

Y – Yoshio and Yvonne

Z – Zach and Zelma

Coming Soon, to an all-girl preschool near you

Think about it. Twenty years ago, commonplace names we know now such as Alfie and Jasmine were much less popular. Here are just a few names I can imagine becoming much more popular in the coming twenty years:

Old Lady Chic

– Edith

– Dorothy

– Olive

– Maude

Weird, but wonderful

– Shoshana.

– Araminta. Popular amongst the London Telegraph namers, she’s sure to trickle down to use by us mere mortals.

– Belphoebe. She has a lovely sound, and you can use the popular Belle nickname.

The Thorns of Rose

– Rosemary

– Rosalie

– Rosamund

The Goddesses

– Artemis. Eoin Colfer claimed this name as the name of his male character, so this name could easily be the next Ashley/ Madison.

– Cynthia. From Greek Mythology.

– Diana. From Greek Mythology. The late Princess of Wales

– Hera. From Greek Mythology.

– Nuala. From Irish Mythology, pronounced NOO-la,

The New Emily/Emma

–Emmeline

–Emmanuelle

–Emer. The name of an Irish Goddess, who possessed the six virtues of womanhood.

–Emery. Emory

–Emerson

Others to look out for:

–Adele

–Lila

–Leonie