Visitors to the Flower Fairy Names nameberry message boards have recently been treated to personalized anagrams of their names by Nephele, who’s turned ordinary appellations into charming, creative names worthy of flower fairies and elves. Here, she writes about the Flower Fairy legacy and names.
It’s certainly no news to names enthusiasts that flowers and herbs can be a great source for inspired baby-naming. Familiar flower names such as Jasmine, Lily, and Rose are perennial favorites. Less familiar flower names such as Celandine and Tansy also make lovely choices.
Such names inspired poet and artist, Cicely Mary Barker (1895-1973) for her classic series of little books titled The Flower Fairies. Barker illustrated, with accompanying poems, the beloved flowers of her English countryside and gardens, personifying them as fanciful fairy-children.
It is Cicely Mary Barker who has inspired me to bring my anagramming craft to Nameberry, to see what sort of “Flower Fairy Names” we might discover among some of our forum members here.
You may find a name from among those below that appeals to your own naming aesthetic. These Flower Fairy names have been anagrammed from the scrambled letters of people’s actual names. Names of flowers, herbs, and trees — especially in foreign languages — serve as likely surnames complementing the flowery-sounding forenames.
While the vast majority of Nameberry participants appear to be female, males are also welcome — although, I may give dudes the somewhat more flatteringly masculine title of “Elf”.
ALISABETHE NELKE
“Nelke” is the German name for the Pink.
JILLY TRINKET BRAMBLE
“Bramble” is another name for the Blackberry bush.
Lilla” is the Italian name for the Lilac.
AURELIA SAHIRRA GELBE
“Gelbe” is from “Gelbe Narzisse,” a German name for the Daffodil.
“Achillea” is the Latin botanical name for Yarrow.
LULANA CHICORIA
“Chicoria” is the Italian name for Chicory.
ROALD HAWKE CRINLLYS (an elf!)
“Crinllys” is a Welsh name for the Dog-Violet.
For an added treat and postscript, I offer you the following list of Welsh flower names. Many are in actual use for Welsh girls, some are merely pretty-sounding Welsh names for flowers.
Welsh has always struck me as an almost magical-sounding language — small wonder that fantasy novelist J.R.R. Tolkien used Welsh as a basis for the Elvish languages he created for his Lord of the Rings series. By the same token, Welsh flower names make likely-sounding fairy names.
BLODYN (flower)
BLODWEN (white flower)
BRIALLEN (primrose)
CEILYS (pink)
CELYNNEN (holly)
EIRLYS (snowdrop)
EIRYS (iris)
FFIONA (foxglove)
GWENITH (wheat)
GWENONWY (lily of the valley)
LILI (lily)
LILWEN (white lily)
PANSI (pansy)
PERLLYS (mignonette)
RHEDYN (fern)
RHOSLYN (rose valley)
RHOSMARI (rosemary)
RHOSYN (rose)
SERENYN (scilla)
SIASMIN (jasmine)
TANSI (tansy)
Nephele is the ‘net name of an obsessive anagrammatist who for years has provided unique name makeovers for people on numerous message boards (mostly gothic) on the Web. Her anagramming work has been praised by gothic musician Voltaire and, most recently, by baby names experts and authors Pamela Redmond Satran and Linda Rosenkrantz. Another obsession of Nephele’s is ancient Rome, and she can be found moderating the history discussion forums of UNRV.com (where she is also the online-published author of a scholarly series on ancient Roman surnames). Despite the popularity of Nephele’s anagrams, she is not prepared to give up her day job in an undisclosed public library in New York.
Tags: Cicely Mary Barker, elf names, flower fairies, flower fairy names, flower names, girl names, girly baby names, girly-girl baby names, name anagrams, nameberry guest blogger, nature names, Nephele, Nephele anagrams, old-fashioned girls' names, vintage baby names, vintage girls' names
This entry was posted on Monday, June 29th, 2009 at 4:38 pm and is filed under British names, Uncategorized, baby name popularity, baby names from books, celebrity baby names, creating names, creative names for boys, creative names for girls, flower names, girl names, girls' names, guest bloggers, literary baby names, name history, name ideas, name style, nameberry, nameberry message boards, names from poetry, nature names, quirky names, romantic names, unique baby names, unusual baby names, vintage baby names . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
June 30th, 2009 at 4:10 am
How would you pronounce
EIRLYS
and
EIRYS