French Music Scene

Coeur de Pirate, from blogger.com

You know when you get this idea in your head and you feel the need to run with it? I’m getting that a lot lately and it’s produced yet another slightly random post. Although, that said, it’s Eurovision tomorrow, so one could see this as a delightful prelude into French music before we get to see the French performance tomorrow night. Last year France sent a guy named Amaury, who performed in Corsican. This year France are fielding a girl named Anggun, yes that really is her name; she’s originally from Indonesia, but is now a naturalised French citizen.

Other interesting (at least to me) names from the French music scene are:

1. Lola (song w/ English&French lyrics)

Not the name of an artist, moreover the name of a single by French pop-punk band Superbus, fronted by Jennifer Ayache. The song was released in June 2007 and reached #7 in the French charts. It was this song and the single released before it, Butterfly, which essentially established Superbus in the French conscious. The album they both came from, Wow, was Superbus’ third studio album and won Best Pop Album at Victoires de la Musique in 2007. My second favourite Superbus song? Nelly. In both cases the songs are about girls named Lola and Nelly, respectively.

The name Lola was originally a nickname for Dolores, which means sorrows, but has come to be popular in her own right, like so many other names in the England&Wales Top 100 for 2010 (Lola ranks at #33).

2. Béatrice

The real name of artist Coeur de Pirate, who is currently expecting a baby at the end of summer 2012. Fun fact: the French nickname for Béatrice is Béa, said bay-ah, not bee. She released her self-titled album in 2009, which went on to be nominated for a Juno award.

The name Béatrice in whatever form derives from the Latin beatus, meaning blessed or happy.

3. Nolwenn

A lass by the name Nolwenn Leroy was the winner of season two of France’s Star Academy. The winners of the other seasons were: Jenifer (S1); Élodie (S3); Grégory (S4); Magalie (S5); Cyril (S6); Quentin (S7); and Mikels (S8).

This is a Breton name, which means holy one from Noyal. The singer has helped to spur the popularity of this name, and she pronounces her name nol-wen.

4. Florent

In 1998, Florent Pagny won the Victoires de la Musique award for Male Artist of the Year. He’s had several no.1s in France since his début in 1988, the most recent being in 2003 with Ma liberté de penser, which held the top spot for 6 weeks.

The name Florent is the French masculine form of the Latin name Florentius, which means belonging to Florens; the name Florens itself means blossoming.

5. Édith

It would see wrong not to mention the great Édith Piaf in this list at least once; the lady behind the great Non, Je ne regrette rien. French names are consider to be über chic, which may just give Édith the edge. To me, I’ve always seen Edith as a classic English name, so the accent took some getting used to, even for me. I guess it works fine for the French, but I question its need if one does not interact either with or in French.

The name itself comes from the Old English name Eadgyth, which means blessed war.

6. Mylène

Ms Farmer is one of the most successful artists in France, perhaps due to the fact that she holds the record for the most no.1 singles in the French charts; I have a friend who calls her France’s answer to Madonna. Many of you may now be familiar with Myleene Klaas, the British celeb who had a baby named Hero Harper last March.

As for the name, it is a shortening of the compound name Marie-Hélène.

7. Maé

Christophe Maé has been around for a few years now, and it’s his surname which caught my eye. Kind of apt really, given that it is still (just) the month of May. Christophe is another pop singer, although he’s more of a acoustic guitar pop-singer than a synthesiser one.

The name of the month comes from Maia, who was the Roman Goddess of fertility.

8. Mika

Now, this is an interesting fact: in the list of the Top 10 best-selling singles in France in 2011, only one was sung in French, and it was released by London-based Mika. You may have heard of him, he’s released several English-speaking singles over the years too, infact, Elle Me Dit was his first single in French and it clearly went down well with the general French public.

We’ve covered Mika a few times, most recently here, but the general gist of the name from the masculine point of view is that it is a variation/diminuative of Michael, which means who is like God?

9. Yannick

Yannick Noah was first a successful tennis player, and now he spends his free time carving out a music career. Yannick mostly sings pop songs; the last time I was in France his single Angela was getting quite a bit of airplay. For the Americans reading, Yannick’s son, Joakim Noah, plays for the NBA Chicago Bulls.

Yannick is a relative popularity in France, deriving from the Breton name Yann, which is their version of John.

10. Kyo

I’ve covered the band Kyo at least once before, notably here, so there’s nothing really new to report, except that Kyo are expected to reform in October this year. Well, that’s the latest rumour. They’re a pop-rock band who were especially popular in the early so-called noughties.

Weekend Post: The World Beyond Ella Pt.II

 

Kala and Tarzan, from dvdizzy.com

As previously mentioned, I’m not a big fan of the name Ella, but I do find myself fond of several similar names to her. A few weeks ago, I wrote Pt.I of this series which discussed names similar to Ella, in that they too began with the letters El. It therefore seems apt to devote Pt.II of this series to names which end -la, as Ella does.

But this could get a little complicated since many -la names are also -ella names. Think Gabriella, Arabella and so forth, so I’ve resolved this by excluding all such from this list for fear of clutter. It’s not exactly the perfect solution, but frees me up to devote more time to other -la names worthy of attention. This is by no means a complete list, rather a selection of familiar and less-familiar names which end in -la, you may also query as to whether some could truly be alternatives to Ella, but that isn’t really the aim of this post. The aim is to explore names with similar characteristics to Ella, which are of the following do have:

Alaula – Hawaiian name meaning either sunset glow or light of the dawn.

Beulah – Biblical name meaning married. There’s a similar looking name, Betula, which comes from Latin and means birch.

Calendula – A botanical name for the English marigold.

Casmilla – A variant of the name Camilla. There’s also the name Milla, which is a short form of the latter name.

Carla/Carola – Both originally derive from the name Charles, which means man.

Delilah – Biblical name means delicate, weak and thin.

Embla – A name from Norse Mythology, where Embla was the name of the first human female, formed from an elm tree.

Fionnuala – Irish name meaning white shoulder. Variations include Fionnghuala, Finnguala, Finuall and, sigh, Fenella. She also shortens to Nuala, noo-la.

Iola – Likely to be a variation of the name Iole, which is a Greek name meaning violet. The name Viola is worth a mention here, too, alongside the Romanian name Viorel which also means violet.

Kala – Hawaiian version of Sarah, and a Sanskrit name meaning art form, virtue. Also the name of Tarzan’s mother in the Disney film.

Kamala – Sanskrit name meaning lotus.

Lila – She means play in Sanskrit, but may also be taken as a variation of either Leila or Lily. Lila is also the German word for purple. Slightly similar, but not entirely ending -la is the name Lillai, which is a Romani name meaning spring and summer.

Lola – Spanish pet-form of the name Dolores, which means sorrows.

Nahla – Arabic name meaning either drink or bee.

Orla – Also spelt Órlaith. She’s an Irish name meaning golden ruler – I sometimes see the meaning is altered to golden princess.

Perla – Italian form of the name Pearl

Petula – An elaboration of the name Petal, notably seen on British singer Petula Clark.

Thekla – Contracted form of the name Theoclea, which means God’s glory.

Theophila – Feminine form of the name Theophilus, which means friend of God.

Tuathla – Old Irish name meaning ruler of the people. Sometimes seen anglicised to Tuala.

Tula – Sanskrit name meaning balance, scales and likeness.

Twyla – Of uncertain origins, but she has been linked to the name Étoile and Twilight as possibly being an offshoot of either of them. Also spelt Twila.

Ursula – Latin name meaning bear.

Vela – The name of a constellation, originally part of Argo Navis which was later divided into three pieces, creating Vela, Carina and Puppis.

Willa – Feminine form of the name William.

Lola Rennt

Lola from moviefodder.com

A little while back I had two posts in a row inspired by French cinema. Well, I’m been at the continental films again, but this time it’s a German one. Lola Rennt, released in English as Run Lola Run, is one of the few German films I’ve watched and I love it. Another great thing about it is the opening sequence, which lists out all the names of the characters and the actors – albeit very quickly.

The premise of the film is a near impossbily task: Lola has to find 100,000 deutschmarks in 20 minutes for her boyfriend, Manni, who left a bag full of the original money on a tube train and then a tramp ran off with it. If he doesn’t get the money to bossman Ronnie by noon, he’s in trouble (it’s heavily implied that Ronnie will kill him, but this is relayed to the audience by a hysterical Manni). If you think it may be difficult to elongate a twenty-minute scenario into a film-worthy length, let it be known that the scenario is played out three times, each with wildly different outcomes. The cause of the changes is a youth and his dog on the staircase Lola initially runs down at the start of her sprint from her flat. In the first case the dog growls at her and she speeds up to run past him; in the second case the youth trips her up causing her to leave a few seconds later; in the third case she jumps over the youth/dog combo and thus leaves a few seconds earlier.

The main character of Lola is played by a lady named Franka and her boyfriend Manni is played by a Moritz. The name Lola is the Spanish short-form of Dolores, and is also a Spanish slang word for little girl. Either way, an immediate thought when hearing the name Lola is of the infamous Nabokov novel Lolita.

As for the actress, I’m pretty sure she is just Franka, not Francesca. It rather reminds me of the German name Frauke, which derives from the German word frau, which means female, or indeed Ms, as in, Ms. Smith/ Frau Smith; it doesn’t indicate marital status. Franke is a legit alternative way to spell Frank, and Francis from which many get the name Frank means Frenchman.

Whilst watching it, the name Manni constantly reminded me of the German word for a mobile phone: Mein Handy. It is never touched upon as to whether Manni is his name, or simply a nickname. What’s worth mentioning here is that there is a Norse God of the Moon named Máni, and an Indian male name Mani, which comes from Sanskrit and means jewel. Either way, I’m more likely to lean towards the idea that Manni is short for Manfred, which is an Old German name meaning peaceful man. Of course, Manni could also be short for a name such as Norman, Sherman etc.

Jutta is the mistress of Lola’s father, and in the first two scenarios she bursts in on them whilst they are discussing Jutta’s pregnancy. In the first scenario, Lola’s father is led to believe that the baby is his, whilst it is revealed in the second, thanks to Lola running late, that the baby isn’t actually his. This plays a key role in the dynamics of the characters, and indeed how Lola and her father interact once she arrives on the scene to ask for money from him.

The name Jutta is the German form of the name Judith. It’s a biblical name which means Jewish woman. There is a Book of Judith in the Bible which tells of a female named Judith who spends the night with a disliked man by the name of Holofernes. She then kills him, and using his death to inspire the Israelite troops to victory.

Sibset of the Week: The Browns

Wes Brown, from jjtoy.com

No, we’re not talking about Scary Spice in this post, nice though her choices of Phoenix/Angel/Madison for her three daughters may be. Instead, we’re talking football yet again. It’s getting quite good around my neck of the woods, since at the moment my team are go up – and our rivals going down. However, today’s father has not played for either team, rather, he prefers to spend his time with Premier League side Sunderland – having only just moved from Manchester United.

Wes Brown was born Wesley Michael in 1979 in Manchester. Surely, a man named Wesley (although only ever referred to as Wes) would have an interesting take on naming children? Indeed he does, since with wife Leanne, he has three daughters named:

Halle

Lilia

Lola

If you ever had doubts that the letter l is in fashion right now, look no further than here for proof, with each daughter possessing 2 ls apiece in their names. Certainly, they are names very similar in style – but there is still a slight breadth of choice to be had if a fourth daughter were to come along. They could go slightly vintage-nickname with Sally, or even double back to Harlow, so you have a Halle and Harlow, Lilia and Lola.

They could, just as easily, go with Sue, simply because they like the name Sue – not letting the idea of cohesive sibsets get in the way of choosing names.

Yes, this does happen.

Santa Special

Santa Train, via flickr

I’ve spent all weekend handing out presents to excitable small children, and what has to be the biggest pack of Brownies I’ve ever come across in my life. This all adds up to the need for an extra special post to give me a chance to share with you as many names as my poor mind can remember.

That said, this post does comes with the warning that, whilst I know their rough ages due for present-selecting purposes, I can only hazard a guess at the spellings of their names. This is by no means a complete list, rather, a collection of the ones I remembered, and for the sake of simplicity, yes there were many multiples of many of these names, but I’ve forgone this since I can’t give exact numbers on how frequent each names was used, but, the ones I saw time and time again?

• Alfie
• Ben
• Hayden
• Henry
• Lucy
• Isabella
• Joshua
• Ruby

Before unleashing the lists on you, it is worth noting that the children could’ve easily been introducing themselves by their nickname, not their fullname.

Babies

Alfie	James	Olly
Eloise	Nina	Polly
Evie	Meggie	Ruby
Isabella	Maggie	Susanna

1-2

Ace	Cameron	George	Lucy
Aiden	Casper	Hannah	Maisie
Alfie	Charlie	Harry	Nancy
Amy	Che	Henry	Niamh
Archie	Chelsea	Holly	Phoebe
Baxter	Debbie	Isabella	Sally
Bea	Ebony	Isla	Sally
Bella	Eddy	Jack	Sean
Ben	Edward	Jenny	Stanley
Billy	Effie	Liam	Teddy
Bobby	Evan	Lila	Thisbe
Callum	Evie	Lola	William

3-5

Abby	Esther	Jason	Oliver
Abigail	Ethan	Joel	Olivia
Alfie	Eve	Jordan	Olly
Alice	Ewan	Joshua	Oscar
Amelia	Faith	Kian	Owen
Ben	Felix	Lenny	Penny
Bess	Fergus	Leon	Poppy
Betty	Gabby	Lily	Poppy
Bruno	Gabriella	Lola	Ralphie
Cameron	George	Lolly	Riley (m)
Cleo	Hamish	Lucy	Rosie
Coco	Hannah	Luke	Samuel
Daniel	Imogen	Maggie	Summer
Darcy	Isabella	Martha	Summer
Eleanor	Isla	Molly	Tammy
Elise	Jack	Niamh	Tommy
Emily	James	Nora	William

6-8

Alex	Freddie	Joshua	Reuben
Archie	Georgia	Kai	Sam
Ben	Geraldine	Kiefer	Scarlett
Cameron	Greta	Leo	Sophie
Charlie	Hannah	Lexie	Stacy
Charlotte	Harriet	Libby	Summer
Chloe	Hayden	Lily	Teddy
Connor	Isabella	Lucy	Theo
Delphine	Jessica	Margaret	Thomas
Eliza	Jessie	Molly	Verity
Elliott	Jimmy	Noah	Victoria
Elliott	Jimmy	Owen	Wendy
Emily	Joe	Perry	Willa
Erin	Jools	Petra	William
George	Joseph	Rebecca	Zeke

9-10

Bea	Jack	Molly
Becky	Jake	Sarah
Ben	Jessica	Stanley
Erin	Matthew	Thomas
Felicia	Noah	William

10+

Charlotte	Joel	Charlotte
Emily	Joshua	Quinn
Emmy	Matthew	Rowan
Frank	Melody	Winnie
Hattie	Niall	Zach
James	Noor

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.

Sibset of the Week: The Broads & The Fruchtmanns

Annie Lennox with her two daughters

It’s time for another double dose of sibsets, inspired once again by my father’s record collection. Since I rather upset Abby last time I made mention of said collection, let’s start with a disclaimer. My father is a self-professed big kid. He’s a bigger fan of Lady Gaga than I, and despite having at least two, if not three, daughters in the target demographic of One Direction, it was him who went out and bought their début single and it was a competition between him and I as to who could purchase Ed Sheeran’s album the quickest. He’s currently singing Year 3000 in the kitchen, I kid ye not.

Now that we’ve said that, let’s kick off this bumper post with the Broads. You may be racking your brains wondering who on Earth I’m talking about. Personally, if I saw this post I’d be wondering whether Stuart Broad really is old enough to have kids, or even whether he’s lived a previous life as a musician before turning to cricket. But we’re not talking about one of my Nottingham brethren, we’re talking about Billy Idol, of course, who was born William Broad and born in Middlesex. As a child, and indeed to this day, I get him mixed up with Billy Joel. Personally, Strictly Come Dancing is the root of my love of his music, after the professionals performed a jive to his single Rebel Yell a few years ago.

If you don’t like alliterative names, avert your gaze now, because that’s the route he’s taken when it came to naming his two children:

Willem Wolf 

Bonnie Blue

Personally, I’ve nothing against alliterative names unless the push the realms of sensibility. Does Bonnie Blue do this? I guess she does to a certain extent, depending on your personal taste, and for me she certainly plays with my line of sensability. I do love how Willem Wolf sounds, though.

Our other musician may not be immediately obvious from the surname I’ve used above, since she goes by her maiden name professionally, and the surname Fruchtmann is that of the Israeli-born father, Uri.

Annie Lennox comes from lovely Scotland, and achieved major success as part of the Eurythmics. She’s also found success as a solo artist, when not engaging in political or social activism. She’s been married twice, but it was during her second marriage to the aformentioned Israeli producer that she became a mother three times between 88′ and 93′:

Daniel (stillborn)

Lola

Tali

Controversial name Lola rearing her head again, whilst Tali is a Hebrew name meaning dew. Both perfectly lovely names, as indeed is Daniel. When it comes to couples who come from two different cultures, finding names which work in both is always a major factor and for many it does become the topic of debate. I’m mentioned my friend Alice time and time again, whose name has suffered at the hands of the French and Germans during her visits to their country and likewise the England&Wales favourite Harry doesn’t fare well with an American accent.