Guest blogger and name lover Eleanor Nickerson, aka nameberry’s own Elea, tells us all about the exotic and gorgeous names from Cornwall, the exotic and gorgeous region in the southwest of England.

The first time I visited Cornwall was at the tender age of one. Sadly, my dad’s abiding memory of that holiday was a grouching baby grizzling all through his long-awaited sailing trip (something he has yet to fully forgive me for to this day). A few years later my parents bravely returned again, one more child in tow, and fortunately much fun and sandcastle-building ensued.

It wasn’t until several years later when I returned to the region as a fifteen year-old that I was truly able to appreciate the breath-taking beauty of the Cornish coast and countryside. In the intervening years since my last visit I had developed an avid, border-line obsessive, passion for names and their meanings. What struck me was that many houses were named instead of numbered, and these place names, along with those adorning road signs, quickly caught my attention both due to the foreign sound to English ears, and the similarity to my greatest name-love: Welsh names.

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If you look at the list of most popular names in the state of Hawaii, you won’t find them very different from others, with Chloe, Isabella and Madison, Ethan, Noah and Isaiah at the top.  It isn’t until you get quite a bit futher down the list that you find names more reflective of the distinctive native nomenclature, such as Kai, Leilani, Malia, Kainoa, and Kalena.

In the past, names have  held deep significance in the Hawaiian culture, especially prior to the arrival of English-speaking missionaries in the late 18^th century.  Before that, the choice of a name involved the whole extended family, and was believed to have been  sent by the family’s ancestor god, either via a dream, a spoken message or some other sign, and to ignore it could mean illness or death to the baby.  Another  old tradition was for several words— of particular significance to the parents– to be joined together into one long name, which would then be shortened into a nickname.  Much of this came to an end in 1880, when King Kamehameha IV enacted a law mandating that all citizens follow the standard European system of naming—that is using a Christian name followed by a surname–which didn’t exist before.   

There are few families of names as lilting, rhythmic, and romantic as indigenous Hawaiian names.  In both sound and meaning, they evoke pleasant images, many of them related to nature—flowers, the forest, sky and water.  Part of this flavor derives from the fact that there are only five vowels and seven consonants in the language, making the names rich in vowel sounds, each of which is pronounced as a separate syllable.  Many English names have been “Hawaiianized,”  to accommodate the missing consonants. (see below to translate your own name to Hawaiian)

Many, if not most, traditional Hawaiian names are used interchangeably for girls and boys, but here are some that are more or less gender specific, with their meanings and/or English equivalents.  Note that the accent is always on the next to last syllable.)

 GIRLS

 AKELINA  –  noble (form of Adeline)

ALAMEA –  ripe, precious

ALANI  –  orange tree

ALEKA –  nobility ( form of Alice)

ALOHI  –  shining, brilliant
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Maybe they didn’t have voices then, but lots of the silent screen stars did have intriguingly exotic looks and equally exotic names–even if many of them were invented by studio publicists.  Theda Bara, for example, the quintessential vamp, was not the Egyptian-born daughter of a French actress and an Italian sculptor whose name was an anagram of Arab Death, as the PR people proclaimed to the public, but was actually Cincinnati-born Theodosia Goodman, daughter of a Jewish tailor. Likewise,  Nita Naldi’s real last name was Dooley, Olga Petrova was born Muriel Hardy and Alla Nazimova’s birth name was Miriam Leventon.

But real or concocted, these names–primarily short, with two-syllables and heavy on the vowels–still retain vestiges of that sultry  1900’s-1920’s glamour, and  could have  some vintage appeal today:

ALLA

ASTA

GRETA

ISA

JETTA

LEDA

LEILA

LINA

LITA

LOLA

LYA

LYDA

NEVA

NITA

OLGA

ORA

ORMI

POLA

RIA

THEDA

TORA

VALLA

VILMA

VOLA

ZENA (more…)

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.

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Let’s say you have a dilemma:  There’s someone dear to you who would make a great namesake, but who has a not-so-great name.

Or there’s a name you’ve always loved that has become a bit too popular over time.  

One solution you might consider is finding a foreign variation of the name that adds a little pizzazz to it, while still retaining the family connection. No reason why Great-Aunt Florence can’t inspire a little Fiorella, or Grandpa Henry can’t bond with his relatedly-named Enrico.  (Granted, the idea might take a little getting used to on the part of the honoree.)

It doesn’t take much to change a conservative straight guy or  Plain Jane kind of name into a Latin lover or a French flirt. Sometimes it’s only a matter of adding one final vowel to give it that extra bit of exotic flair–say going from Leonard to Leonardo–or dropping a letter, as in making Flora into Flor; while others require some more elaborate  translating.  In any caseo Romance language cognates can definitely make a name more romantic, and the possible variations are almost endless..

Here, first, are some pairs with minimal differences, where the relationship between the two names is fairly obvious:

GIRLS

ADRIENNE  –  ADRIANA

ALEXIS –  ALESSIA

AMANDA –  AMANDINE

AMELIA  –  AMELIE, AMALIA

BEATRICE  –  BEATRIZ

BLANCHE –  BIANCA, BLANCA

CHARLOTTE  –  CARLOTTA

CLAIRE  –  CHIARA

EMILY  –  EMILIA

ESTELLE  –  ESTELLA

FELICE  –  FELIXA

FLORA  –  FLOR

FRANCES  –  FRANCESCA

GENEVIEVE  –  GENOVEVA

GRACE  –  GRAZIELLA, ENGRACIA

JACQUELINE  –  JAQUETTA

LEONA  –  LEONIE (LAY-oh-nee)

LOUISE –  LUISA

LUCY  –  LUCIENNE, LUCIA, LUCIANA, LUZ

LYDIA  –  LYDIE

MELISSA or MILLICENT –  MELISANDE

NAOMI  –  NOEMI

NICOLE  –  NICCOLA

PATRICIA  –  PATRIZIA

PAULA  –  PAOLA

PEARL  –  PERLA

RACHEL  –  RAQUEL

SYDNEY — SIDONIE

SYLVIA  –  SILVIE

VERONICA  –  VERONIQUE

VICTORIA  –  VITTORIA

VIOLET  –  VIOLETTA

BOYS

ADRIAN  –  ADRIANO

ANTHONY  –  ANTONIO

CALVIN  –  CALVINO

CONRAD  –  CORRADO

FRANCIS  –  FRANCESCO, FRANCHOT

FREDERIC  –  FREDERICO, FEDERICO

ISAAC  –  ISAACO

LAWRENCE  –  LORENZO

LEONARD  –  LEONARDO

LUCAS  –  LUCA

LUCIANO  –  LUCIANO

MARK  –  MARCO

MATTHEW  –  MATTEO

MICHAEL  –  MIGUEL

OLIVER  –  OLIVIER

PAUL  –  PAOLO

PHILLIP  –  PHILIPPE

SAMSON  –  SANSONE

TERENCE  –  THIERRY

THADDEUS  –  TADDEO

And now some where the connection isn’t quite as clear-cut:

GIRLS

CYNTHIA  –  CINZIA (CHIN-zee-a)

FLORENCE  — FIORELLA

HYACINTH  –  JAQUETTA

JADE  –  GIADA

JEWEL  –  BIJOU

JOAN — GIOVANNA

MICHELLE  –  MIGUELA

BOYS

CYRIL  –  CIRO

ELIJAH  –  ELIO

HENRY  –  ENRICO

HERMAN  –  ARMANDO

JAMES  –  DIEGO

JULIUS  –  GIULIO

LOUIS  –  CLOVIS

RALPH  –  RAOUL, RAUL

ROLAND  –  ORLANDO

STEPHEN  –  ESTEBAN, ETIENNE

WILLIAM  –  GUILLAUME