This will be a post of few words, as it is mostly a collection of pictures I snapped on a recent trip to the National Maritime Museum in Liverpool’s Albert Docks. For you see, in one of the exhibitions there included a sea urchin trail for the young ‘uns, wherein there were cute toys in various display cases that you had to find. Since I have a much younger sister, I got away with doing it myself.
Donald the Sunbather
Gussie the Seagull
Lucy the Lobster
Mickey the Monkey
Des the Diver
Shelly the Seahorse
Sammy the Starfish
Robert the Fisherman
Polly the Parrot
Percy the Parrot
Ollie the Octopus
Molly the Mermaid
Wendy the Whale
Anyone else notice, like me, that the majority of names seemed to be nickname-y? It’s only really Donald & Robert that are outliers in this case (yes, Wendy isn’t strictly a nickname, but has been used as one). This trail is aimed at the under-10s, and I did start to wonder what kind of thought went into the naming of the sea urchins, i.e. using kid-friendly names? What exactly are kid-friendly names? Personally, I see them as whatever a child may use themselves for their toys, and I have personally used plenty of names from this list. Other names from my own toy collection include: Alice, Corky, Snowy, Rosie, Kippy, Dobby, Whizz & Russie. Notice how almost all of them end in the ee sound?
What’s for certain is that there was a clear attempt to make the names alliterative, although this was not always the case. I love me a little bit of alliteration, and it seemed to go down well with Sippy.
Want more information on the names above? Of course you do:
Des (no rank), short for Desmond (#1620), which means South Munster.
Donald (#1407), from Gaelic meaning ruler of the world.
Gussie (no rank), nickname for Augusta (no rank) which means great, venerable
Lucy (#21), from the Latin lux, meaning light.
Mickey (#1724), short for Michael (#53), which means who is like God
Molly (#42), originally a nickname for Mary (#213).
Ollie (#63), short for Oliver (#1), which means elf army
Percy (#1407), short for Percival (#3865), which was created in the 12th century by a French poet
Polly (#300), variant of Molly (#42), which is a short form of Mary (#213)
Robert (#90), means bright fame
Sammy (#744), short for Samuel (#14), which means God has heard.
Shelly (#5707), means clearing on a bank. Common nickname for Michelle (#251), also.
Wendy (#2589), means either friend (in the case of J.M. Barrie’s character) or white, blessed, fair (from the Welsh gwen).
Oh, and since we all love a little gawk at the monogrammed tat, here’s a look at some of the names available in the gift shop. I think it’s mostly spot on for names I see everywhere, but what names are you surprised to see? (Fun fact: At a French bowling alley my sister became Hayley since the name Heather doesn’t really exist in the French concious. Another friend, Bethan, became Bella for the same reasons; the French will say Bethan as if the h were silent)
Tat shelf #1
Tat shelf #2
Mer de Noms 