As Black History Month segues into  Women’s History Month this weekend, we thought we’d take a look at the names of some African-American heroines.

Actually, compiling this list was not as easy as you might think (or as it should be).  Google and book searches tended to turn up only the usual suspects.  And then, late as usual, I bought my 2009 calendar from the bargain bin: A Journey Into 365 Days of Black History — Notable Women.

An array of admirable women are listed there, all of whom would provide wonderful role models (and lovely names) for any child.  The best:

ALICE Dunbar-Nelson — Journalist, poet, author.

BARBARA Jordan — Texas Congresswoman who won fame during Nixon impeachment hearings.

BESSIE Coleman — In 1922, became the world’s only licensed black pilot.  She staged flying exhibitions to fund a school to train black aviationists.

CHARLOTTE Ray — In 1872, became the first black female lawyer.

CLARA Stanton Jones — The American Library Association’s first African-American president.

CLEMENTINE Hunter — African-American painter, born in 1887.

CONSTANCE Baker Motley — First black female federal judge.

CORETTA Scott King — Widow of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

DOROTHY West — Harlem Renaissance author.

ELLA Fitzgerald — Jazz singer.

FAYE Wattleton — Women’s rights activist.

GWENDOLYN Brooks — Poet and first African-American to win the Pulitzer.

HALLIE Quinn Brown — 19th century women’s rights activist.

HARRIET Tubman (born ARAMINTA Ross) — Escaped slave who became an abolitionist and Union spy; most famous for her work with the Underground Railroad.

IDA B. Wells-Barnett — Journalist and founding member of the NAACP.

JANE Bolin — Judge and community activist; first black woman to graduate from Yale Law School.

JOSEPHINE Baker — Politically-minded entertainer who was the Angelina Jolie of her day.

JUANITA Hall — First black actress to win a Tony Award.

KARA Walker — Artist best known for her silhouettes.

LENA Horne — Actress, singer, and civil rights activist.

LORRAINE Hansberry — Author of play “A Raisin in the Sun”

MABEL Mercer — English singer.

MAHALIA Jackson — Gospel singer.

MARIAN Anderson — First black singer to perform with the Metropolitan Opera.

MARIAN Wright Edelman — Children’s Defense Fund founder.

NATALIE Hinderas — Composer and classical musician.

OCTAVIA Victoria Rogers Albert — Author and teacher.

PEARL Bailey — Actress and singer.

PHILLIS Wheatley — First published African-American female poet.  The name Phillis or Phyllis, the Roman goddess of spring, was typical of the classical names given to early African-Americans.

PRUDENCE Crandall — White woman arrested for teaching black girls at her school in 1833.

ROSA Parks — Heroine of the famous bus boycott that launched the civil rights movement.

ROSETTA Tharpe — Jazz and blues singer and songwriter.

RUBY Dee — Actress.

SADIE Tanner Mossell Alexander — The first African-American Ph.D. in economics.

SARAH Vaughan — Jazz musician.

SHIRLEY Chisholm — First black woman elected to Congress.

SOJOURNER Truth — Abolitionist and women’s rights activist.

SUSIE King Taylor — Ex-slave who became Civil War nurse.

TONI Morrison — Novelist who won the Nobel Prize in literature.

VIOLETTE Neatley Anderson — In the 1920s, became the first black female attorney to argue cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.

WILMA Rudolph — Olympic runner.

ZENSI MIRIAM Makeba — African singer.

If the letter ‘Q’ was a TV performer, it would get a very high Q-rating, if only for its quirky charm. Babies with names beginning with the least used letter of the alphabet can automatically claim a unique, attention-grabbing initial which they’ll have to share with very few others, and the same will probably be true of their name as well.

The original, core group of Q names stems from the Latin Quintus, which means fifth. Quintus has a considerable literary history: Quintus Ennius was one of the earliest Roman poets, Quintus was the name of Titus’s son in Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus, and Quintus Slide was a comical character in Anthony Trollope’s Palliser novels. It could fit right in with other trendy ancient Roman names, like Atticus and Augustus. Descendants and offshoots of Quintus include Quinton, Quintin, Quentin, and Quincy, Quina, Quintina and Quintana.

Quentin is, along with Quincy and Quinn, the most widely used. The name of a 5th century martyred saint (namesake of the San Francisco prison) who–this could come in handy–is the saint said to protect against coughs. The popularity of Sir Walter Scott’s 1823 novel Quentin Durward was largely responsible for spreading the name across Scotland and England. In modern literature we have William Faulkner’s Quentin Compson and the niece who is named after him in The Sound and the Fury. In addition, there are Theodore Roosevelt’s aviator son Quentin, and the somewhat outrageous Quentins Crisp and Tarentino.

Quincy has gone from prissy to cool, due in great part to the hip persona of musician Quincy Jones. It’s also historically linked to our sixth president, John Quincy Adams whose middle name came either from the Massachusetts township where he was born or was after his father’s close friend, Revolutionary patriot Josiah Quincy. The Q name with the highest Q quotient.

Here are some others:

Qamar and Qiturah are typical of the Arabic names where the Q is not followed by the letter U.
Quade is a multi-cultural name with Latin, German and Irish Gaelic ties.
Quain, a French name meaning quick and clever.
Quanah, a Native American Comanche name meaning sweet-smelling.
Quandra, Quella, Quenby, and Quintina, some distinctive Q names for girls
Quark, a sci-fi name attached to a Star Trek Deep Six 9 series.
Quarry, a modern word name, strong as stone.
Quebec, Quito and Quintana, two attractive place names. Quebec was also a minor character in Dickens’ Bleak House.
Queenie, a sassy showgirl name, recently nominated for an Oscar via Victoria during that monarch’s long reign.
Querida, a Spanish name meaning beloved.
Quest and Quince, two contemporary word names.
Quico, a Spanish nickname name for Enrique and Francisco.
Quilla, the name of the Inca mythological goddess of the moon
Quillan, Quillon, Quinton, Irish surname names
Quinn, the most user-friendly unisex name of the group, meaning intelligent.

I was lucky enough to go to Paris recently, and like most tourists, I ate croissants in sidewalk cafes, visited museums, and walked along the Seine.  Unlike most tourists, I also investigated the chicest French baby names.

“Prune,” pronounced a very stylish and knowledgeable Parisian woman of my acquaintance.  “Prune is the newest, most charming name for little girls.”

It’s hard to imagine Prune as a charming name for a child in any country, until you realize that in French it’s the equivalent of Plum.  Now THAT makes sense.

For boys, this same friend offered the name Illan, another unlikely translation to English.  In France, it’s pronounced Ee-lahn and sounds quite elegant.

Another friend, who volunteers at a Montessori preschool near the Louvre, said her class includes children named Capucine, the French for nasturtium; Frostine, best known to American children as the queen in Candyland; and Zingo — though Zingo (a boy) is Japanese.

Further investigation turned up the following French baby names on the Paris most-chic list:

girls

ADELE — Asleep in the U.S. but sprightly in Paris.

ANNAELLE — Names that end with AEL or AELLE, which is pronounced ah-el, are typical of Brittany in the north of France.

CLARA — Definitely on the rise in the U.S. as well.

ELOISE — Another name also being rediscovered in the U.S.

ENNA — Pronounced Ay-na.

HELENE — English speakers would say Hel-een but the French prononce this Hell-EHN.

LOU — Many Lou-related names are stylish in France as well as throughout Europe.  Other versions chic now include Lilou (lee-loo) and Malou (mah-loo).

LOUISE — I mention this long form separately from Lou to make the point that the French version of names typically does not end with an “a” sound — Louise vs. Louisa, Diane instead of Diana, Marie not Maria.

LUCILLE — May be part of the Lu craze.

MANUELA — Not a French name but a Latinate one stylish there.

MARGUERITE — In France, more the equivalent of Daisy than of Margaret.

SOLENE — Solange was fashionable a generation ago; this version, pronounced so-lehn, is the stylish one now.

THEA — Pronounced Tay-a.

THELMA — Prettier pronounced the French way — tel-ma — than with that thunk of a “thel.”

VIOLETTE — As Violet is stylish in the U.S., the French version, pronounced vee-oh-let, is chic there.

boys

AMAURY — Bears some relationship to Amery or Amory, also stylish in the U.S.

AUGUSTE – They would say oh-goost.

BASILE — Pronounced bah-ZEEL.

CESAR — The French version takes an accent over the “e.”  This imperial name might be more fit for modern American babydom thanks to the bestselling dog trainer.

EMMANUEL — Biblical choice overdue for revival in other places as well.

FERDINAND — An old pan-European name — do you dare?

FLORENT — One of those boys’ names that can probably only make it in Paris.

JULES — With Julius, taking over from Julian.

LOUIS — The Lou thing.

TANGUY — Very typically French, pronounced tangy with a very emphatic hard g.

THIBAUD — Another classic French choice, pronounced tee-bow.

A note on the illustration: I was hoping to photograph chic French babies, but they were all bundled up in down jackets and (mais oui) scarves, so I had to settle for a chic French baby shop window.

Plus, if you want to search beyond the recent trendies, here’s nameberry’s full complement of French baby names.

An inspiration for everything from vampires to voodoo, from zydeco to the Krewe of Zulu, Louisiana has been a colorful melting pot of divergent cultures for centuries.  Cajuns from Canada, Creoles and others of Haitian, African, Italian, Spanish, or Native American descent, all come together to form a mélange of backgrounds, and in point of fact, names.  Most share a history of French language and Catholicism, even if it’s not by blood. While these may not be the choices in use today in the Bayou, they have been culled from historical documents, maps, and folklore from the late 18th to the early 20th centuries.  The majority are either French proper, or my favorite, Frenchified.  Still more trace their roots to Classical Greco-Roman civilization, deep Southern culture, or are somewhere farther afield and include a curious preponderance of the letter Z.

So come on!  Allez-y! Chew on these names (and some maque choux), prepare to bare all for those beads, and laissez les bon temps roulez!

LADIES

Acadia- The word Cajun itself has its origins in Acadian

Adelaide

Alexandrine

Alma

Alzophine

Ambrosine

Ameline, Emeline

Arzilla

Avoyelles- This Cajun Parish might be picked up as a first name, piggybacking on the current Ava and Ellie love

Beatrice

Belle

Berangere

Bernadette- A much beloved Catholic saint, and one of the prettiest songs in the native New Orleans Neville Brothers repertoire

Cezelia

Clotille

Delphine- While Delphine is a lovely and lilting name, Delphine LaLaurie was a famous socialite and sadist who tortured her slaves

Dixie- Used to refer to the South at large, this may have originated in New Orleans on the ten dollar bill, upon which a local bank printed “dix”, the French for ten.

Dolucila

Elva

Ernestine

Eugenie- Napoleon’s first love

Eula, Eulalie

Evangeline- An epic poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow recalling the 1755 deportation of Acadian Canadians to the newly Spanish Louisiana

Ezora

Geraldine

Gertrude

Ghislaine

Heloise

Hiawatha- Another tale regaled by Longfellow, Hiawatha may not have been from the Bayou, but she had namesakes here

Ida

Josephine- Napoleon’s (second) love

Leonie

Lougenia

Magnolia- The state flower of Louisiana

Mahalia- Mahalia Jackson is a gospel and blues singer from the area, with a name worth borrowing

Marie- Marie Laveau was a reknowned Voodoo Queen who was visited by slaves and owners alike

Maude

Maxzille

Melba

Mellette

Minerva, Minnie

Oatha

Odilia

Ola, Olla Mae, Olima

Onezie, Onezime

Ophelia

Philomine, Philonese

Rosella

Sabine- The Sabine River runs through Louisiana

Sophronia

Tammany- Parish north of New Orleans

Ysabeau

Zeline

Zenobia (also spotted as Senobia)

Zerilda

GENTS

Alphonse

Amedee

Amos- Amos Moses is a song by Jerry Reed about a fictional one armed alligator-hunting Cajun man

Armand

Auguste, Augustin

Bartheleme

Beau, Beauregard- Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard was the most famous Civil War soldier from New Orleans and fought in the Battle of Shiloh;  his ghost is said to roam the streets of New Orleans whispering “Shiloh“, which means “place of peace”

Bernard- Parish east of New Orleans

Bertrand

Buford

Charles- Geographically, Charles is everywhere, from a street in NOLA to the western city of Lake Charles to St. Charles Parish in the east

Cleophas

Clovis

Cornelius

Cyriaque

Dagobert- Pere Dagobert was a well-respected 18th century priest who is still said to be heard singing “Kyrie” while keeping a watchful eye over the city of New Orleans.

Dempsey

Eloi

Gaston

Gilbert

Gustave –2008’s Hurricane Gustav (yes, that’s the way the storm was spelled) may have dampened enthusiasm for this name.

Hippolyte

Homer

Jacques

Jean-Baptiste- Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville founded Nouvelle-Orleans in 1718

Jules, Julius

Landry- St. Landry Parish is home to many a Cajun

Leon, Leontel

LeRoy- Leroy is originally from “le roi” or, “the king”

Louis -Louis Armstrong and Louis Prima are both Louisiana natives

Octave

Otis

Napoleon

Philippe- The city was named for Philippe II, Duc d’Orleans

Pierre- Pierre Augustin Charles Bourguignon Derbigny was among Louisiana’s Creole governors

Remy

Rene

Rex

Theodore, Theodule, Theophile, Theophilus

Virgil

Even though Australian baby names are a lot like British names, they do also have their own distinctive flavor.  The blend of cultures Down Under and the strong presence of several enduring indigenous languages and groups have a powerful influence on Australian baby names (the complex Aboriginal naming traditions definitely deserve a future blog of their own).  Last year, for example, though Australia’s most popular list included Jack and Ella, Joshua, Ethan, Emily, Chloe and Mia, also high up on their list were Matilda, Isla, Lachlan (the name of Oz newspaper mogol Rupert Murdoch’s high-profile son), the Scottish-influenced Angus, and the nickname-name Archie.

Aussie heroes–from outlaws like Ned Kelly to poets like Banjo Paterson to politicians such as Prime Minister Geogh Whitlam–provide some interesting and adoptable namesakes.

Here are some from the world of sports:

EVONNE Goolagong
KARRIE Webb
KEL Nagle
KIEREN Perkins
LIESEL Jones
LIONEL Rose
LLEYTON Hewitt
LUC Longley

And nameworthy names from the show biz arena:

ANGUS Young
BON Scott
BAZ Luhrmann
CATE Blanchett
ELLE Macpherson
GUY Pearce
HEATH Ledger
HUGH Jackman
ISLA Fisher
JACINDA Barrett
KAHAHL
KYLIE Minogue
LOUISA Brammall
NAOMI Watts
NATALIE Imbroglia
NELLIE Melba
NICOLE Kidman
OLIVIA Newton-John
PORTIA De Rossi
ROLF Harris
RUSSELL Crowe
TONI Collette

And what names do these Aussie celebs choose for their own their kids? Austarbabies include:

ADELAIDE — Rachel Griffiths
ALEXANDER — Naomi Watts
ANGELICA — Geoffrey Rush
AVA — Hugh Jackman
BANJO — Rachel Griffiths
BINDI — Steve Irwin
CHARLOTTE — Judy Davis
CHLOE — Olivia Newton-John
CHRISTIAN — Mel Gibson
DASHIELL — Cate Blanchett
FLYNN — Elle Macpherson
IGNATIUS — Cate Blanchett
KLAUS — Eric Bana
LILLIAN — Baz Luhrmann
LOUIS — Mel Gibson
MATILDA — Bryan Brown, Heath Ledger
MILO — Mel Gibson
OLIVE — Isla Fisher
OSCAR — Hugh Jackman
ROMAN — Cate Blanchett
ROSIE — Bryan Brown
SAGE — Toni Collette
SAMUEL — Naomi Watts
SATINE — Jacinda Barrett
SOPHIA — Eric Bana
SUNDAY — Nicole Kidman
TENNYSON — Russell Crowe

And there’s a whole lot more to Australian place names than South Australia capital city Adelaide. Here’s a selection:

ALBANY
ALLORA
ARARAT
AUGUSTA
BENALLA
BENDIGO
BOTANY
BURNIE
DARWIN
ELANORA
ESPERANCE
GALLAH
GRAFTON
GRIFFITH
HOBART
ISA
JANNALI
KALLI
KARRATHA
KILLARA
LINCOLN
LOGAN
MACKAY
MACQUARIE
MAITLAND
MILDURA
ORANGE
PERTH
RYDE
VICTORIA

We’d like to thank and acknowledge the imput of our Australian correspondent Alicia Polman, who alerted us to some interesting names and their backstories, and to the fact that “there’s more to Australian-esque baby names than Matilda and Jack.”