Sibset of the Week: The Joneses

Sophie Ellise-Bextor and Richard Jones, from digitalspy.co.uk

This has to be one of my favourite celebrity sibsets, almost certainly. I’m not sure why it is that this particular one has always stood out to me, but you can imagine how excited I was when I found out early last year that a third child was to be added to the clan. And I was right to be so, with another handsomely named son welcomed in April 2012.

The parents are both in the music industry: Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Richard Jones.

The former is a favourite artist of my fathers, and perhaps her best known track being Murder on the Dancefloor which reached the #2 spot in the UK Singles chart back when it was released in 2001 (scarily for me, that’s over 10 years ago now and before my youngest sibling was even born). As for Richard Jones, he’s the bassist for British band The Feeling, and for the international readers it’s worth noting he made an appearance in the music mash-up that was the closing ceremony for the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Their family of five include three sons:

Sonny (b. 2004)

Kit Valentine (b. 2009)

Ray Holiday (b. 2012)

Weekend Post: Mumsnet

Just a pretty French fountain

Ever heard of Mumsnet? Some call it one of the most influential sites here in the UK – the politicians were all clambering over each other in a race to interact with the mums there.

Well, the other day I stumbled across a topic with one mum asking what’s the most unusual name you love? Here are their answers, most of which are given with meaning, unless they’re a word name or I simply don’t know:

Airi – beloved jasmine (Japanese)

Andromeda – to think of a man (Greek)

Aria – song, melody, air (Italian)

Bear

Bellatrix – female warrior (Latin)

Blythe – happy (Old English)

Boycie – wood (Old French)

Calypso – she that conceals (Greek)

Ciar – black (Irish)

Clemency – mercy (English)

Clothilda – famed battle (Germanic)

Clover

Cyrus – far-sighted, young (Greek)

Darwin – dear friend (Old English)

Decca – ten (Latin)

Desdemona – ill-fated (Greek)

Echo

Eppie – diminuative of either Hepzhibah or Euphemia

Grayling

Heathcliff

Hebe – youth (Greek)

Hepzhibah – my delight is in her (Hebrew)

Hermia – feminine form of Hermes

Hope

Icabod – no glory (Hebrew)

Iolanthe – violet (Greek)

Isis – throne (Egyptian, possibly)

Kit – short for Katherine or Christopher

Lena nn Lenny

Lolita – nickname for Delores

Lysander – release of a man (Greek)

Maybre

Mercy

Misha – Russian diminuative of Mikhail

Mneme – memory (Greek)

Novello

Patience

Pepper

Perdita – lost (Latin)

Perserverence

Pier – Dutch form of Peter

Posy – nickname for Josephine

Ptolemy – warlike (Greek)

Quesnell

Ramsey – wild garlic island (Old English)

Saul – asked for (Hebrew)

Scarlett

Shepherd

Struan – stream (Gaelic)

Tikvah – hope (Hebrew)

Torren – chief (Irish Gaelic)

Vita – life (Latin)

Wolfgang – wolf path (Germanic)

Name Spot of the Week: La Haine

Scene from La Haine, from blogger.com

I’ve been watching a few french films of late, and there was one which really caught my attention. Yesterday I watched a film called La Haine, which is about life in the banlieu – basically the French equivalents of housing estates. In came out in the late 90s, several years before there were quite violent riots in France in 2005 – sparked by the accidental deaths of two teenagers whilst being chased by the police.

A few names from the film which stood out for me were:

Astérix (nickname)

Cassel (surname of one of the actors)

Choukri (actor)

Hubert – The t is silent when the French say this name, and for me that really makes me reconsider the name.

Mathieu (director)

Magimel (surname of one of the actors)

Médard

Rywka  (actress)

Saïd

Vincent ‘Vinz’

Other names vaguely related to the film are:

Cécile – Half sister of Vincent Cassel. He played one of the main characters.

Chanteloupe – The majority of the filming took place in an area called Chanteloupe-les-Vignes.

Deva and Léonie – The name of Vincent Cassel’s daughters. He played one of the main characters.

Makome – His death helped inspire the film.

Elsewhere, the frontman for Spandau Ballet, Gary Kemp, recently welcomed his fourth son: Rex Albert. He joins brothers Finlay Munro, Milo Wolf and Kit Frank.

 

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.

Name Spot of the Week: Marks&Sparks

Father Ted logo, from fatherted.org.uk

Marks&Spencers have re-opened an outlet in France this week, which makes my standard M&S chocolate box gift to any French friend feel somewhat threatened. The store is also colloquially named Marks and Sparks, and was predictably founded by Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer. Marks originally came from the area now known as Belarus and Spencer married a lady named Agnes. The last time I was in M&S was over the summer, when I was served as the till by a lovely lady named Hettie.

There are several models which M&S use on a regular basis for promotion; the one with my favourite name is also French. Her name? Noémie Lenoir, who has a son named Kelyan Makélélé.

I’m sure you’re all probably aware by now that the mascots for London 2012 are called Wenlock and Mandeville, but another recent sporting find of mine is that one of the leaders of the failed Qatar bid for the 2017 World Athletics Championships was called Aphrodite. Speaking of sporting events, how is this for patriotic? A guy in my littlest sister’s maths class is called Churchill.

In what a former teacher of mine called ‘webby-land’, I somehow ended up looking at Yahoo’s article on Where do the best baby names come from?. Whilst most of the comments weren’t perhaps the best examples of how to wield the English language, there were several fascinating names brought up by a few of the commenters:

• Britannia
• Brook-James
• Bryn
• Cashel
• Christy
• Elyon
• Hebe
• Kailua
• Lilac
• Maeve
• Rosalind
• Rudi
• Sorrel
• Talia
• Ted

Speaking of Ted, I watched an episode of Father Ted quite by chance the other day, in which Dougal spelt his name sans g. The character of Dougal is played by a man named Ardal, who has also appeared in the comedy series My Hero, in which he was the father of Apollo ‘Ollie’ and Cassandra ‘Cassie’. The name of some of the backing characters from the Father Ted series are notable, however:

• Assumpta
• Concepta
• Cyril
• Danita
• Fintan
• Imelda
• Ned
• Noel
• Polly
• Romeo

Another religion-based sitcom in the UK is called Vicar of Dibley, for which script contributions were made by a man named Kit Hesketh-Harvey – but Kit is short for Christopher. The lead character in Vicar of Dibley is a female vicar called Geraldine.