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Posts Tagged ‘ British names ’

CORNISH BABY NAMES

Wednesday, October 21st, 2009

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.

cornwallThe 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.

(more…)

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Posted in British names, Celtic baby names, European baby names, Irish baby names, Scottish baby names, Welsh baby names, creative names for boys, creative names for girls, exotic baby names, guest bloggers, international baby names, mythological names, nameberry message boards, romantic names, undiscovered names, unique baby names, unusual baby names | 19 Comments »

TOP ENGLISH GIRLS’ NAMES: Who Are The Most Popular?

Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

unionjackgirk At the beginning of this year, the UK ’s Office for National Statistics let it be known that they wouldn’t be issuing their annual lists of most popular names due to recessional budget cuts, and a collective moan was heard across the name-o-sphere.  (Can you imagine what would happen if our Social Security list didn’t appear one Mother’s Day?) 

Well, I don’t know what happened–maybe the uproar was too deafening–but suddenly,  nine months later, their lists of top 100 boys and 100 girls names  in England and Wales have now materialized.  Definitely a case of better late than never.

Once upon a time I used to think that, since we share the same language, the Yanks and the Brits would have similar taste in names.  That was before I married a Brit myself and it came to naming our daughter, when I saw just how different our perceptions of most names were.  And though things have evened out to some degree with the rise of the Internet and the international sharing of opinions, looking at the top English girls’ names today (we’ll take up the boys’ next week), we can see that there is still quite a divide.  (more…)

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Posted in British names, Uncategorized, baby name popularity, baby names of 2008, girl names, girls' names, international baby names, name popularity, nicknames, popular names | 32 Comments »

BRITISH BABY NAMES

Tuesday, August 25th, 2009

When I lived in London in the 90s, I was gobsmacked (astonished in British) by how different the baby names were there. It wasn’t like they used names Americans had never heard of – exotic ones like Pema or invented ones like Puma – but that they used some of the familiar English names far more often than did parents in the U.S.

Clementine and Hugo, for instance, were the most fashionable names of that day in the U.K., names I’d rarely heard stateside. Clementine was pronounced with an –een ending, which removed it from the “Oh My Darling” association – not that many Brits carried that association.

Some of the names popular in Britain and not in the U.S. are similarly free of connections that may damn them in America: Jemima, say, and Archie. Others are old Celtic or Cornish or Welsh names that never crossed the ocean, such as Tamsin and Callum.

And then there are those names on this list that are classics or short forms heard in America, but not as fashionably – I’m thinking of Forence, for example, and Freddie, Lucy (yes, still) and Louis.

Based on another entertaining tour through the London Telegraph birth announcements from the past few months, here are some names that are stylish in the U.K. right now.

pintGirls

ALICE
CECILY
CHARIS or CARYS
CRESSIDA
DARCY or DARCEY
DAVINA
EDIE
ELIZA
FLORA
FLORENCE
FREYA
GENEVIEVE
GEORGIANA or GEORGINA
IMOGEN
JEMIMA
LUCY
MAISIE
NATASHA
OCTAVIA

(more…)

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Posted in British names, name style | 22 Comments »

NAMES RESCUED FROM THE TITANIC

Monday, June 8th, 2009

titanic You may have read that the last living link to the Titanic tragedy of 1912, a British woman named Millvina Dean, died last week at the age of 97.  She was only nine weeks old when she was lowered into a lifeboat in a canvas mail bag and, along with her mother and two-year-old brother, was rescued by another ocean liner and taken to New York, the youngest survivor of the world’s worse ever maritime disaster.

Millvina. Now that’s a name that hasn’t been heard much since 1912.  (She was actually christened Elizabeth Gladys, but for some reason was always called Millvina.) This started me  wondering what other long-lost names might be found on the ship’s passenger list. Since the records are recorded by class  (Millvina’s family was traveling in Third Class), it offers some  insight into class differences among names as well.

Here are some more unusual names that stand out:

FIRST CLASS MALES (the majority of whom were American)

ALGERNON

ARCHIBALD

COSMO

ENGLEHART

FLETCHER

HUDSON

PERCIVAL

QUIGG

RODERICK

THORNTON

WASHINGTON

WYCKHOFF

FIRST CLASS FEMALES

CHRISTIANA

HEDWIG

KORNELIA

LEILA

LEONTINE

MAHALA

MALVINA

MARGARETTA

NELLA

OLIVE

ORIAN

SIGRID

SECOND CLASS MALES (more of these were British)

ALDEN

DENZIL

EDWY

ENNIS

ESCOTT

PERCY

REGINALD

SERAFINO

SHADRACH

SIBLEY

SINAI

VILO

SECOND CLASS FEMALES

ANTONINE

ARGENE

CLEAR

FLORENTINA

IMANITA

LULU

LUTIE

LYYLI

MARTA

OLGA

ROBERTHA

SIMONNE

THIRD CLASS MALES (much more multi-cultural, including a number of Austro-Hungarians, Bulgarians, Swedes, and Syrians.)

ANDERS

BARTOL

FILIP

JOVAN

JOVO

KANIO

LALIO

MILAN

NESTOR

ROSSMORE

THOR

WOOLF

THIRD CLASS FEMALES

ALFRIDA

ALOISA

BANOIURA

EBBA

ELIINA

HANORA

LATIFA

MALAKE

MARIJA

SELINI

SULTANA

THAMINE

SERVANTS (ladies’ maids, etc.)

ALBINA

AMELIE

AUGUSTE

BERTHE

DOLLINA

ENCARNATION

EUGENIE

PIETA

SAIIDE

SANTE

VICTORINE

WENDLA

P. S. Thanks to Nephele for the inspiration.

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Posted in British names, Uncategorized, boys' names, girls' names, historic names, international baby names, unusual baby names, vintage baby names | 9 Comments »

BRITISH BABY NAMES: Quirky & Charming

Thursday, June 4th, 2009

peterrabbit03We all know, thanks to Princess Diana’s infamous wedding blunder, that British people like to use lots of middle names.  But it’s not just about quantity: The multiple British names feel inventive and surprising, chosen less for any conventional notion of flow and more for individual considerations of style and family.

Thalia Violetta Carlisle?  I would bet the nameberry farm that not a single child in America was given that combination of names last year….or maybe any year.  It’s quintessentially British, and it works.

In the examples of recent British baby names below, you’ll notice that lovely antique first names are combined with surnames are mixed up with nicknames, and that once in a while a word name – Rabbit, Reckless – is stuck in, just in case things weren’t eccentric enough already.

Name aficionados will want to check out the Birth Announcements in the London Telegraph for hundreds more such goodies. WARNING: This makes highly addictive reading.  Do not undertake too close to bedtime.

In fact, there were so many amazing three-name examples that we had to offload some pretty wonderful two-name choices, such as Hector Foxx and Acacia Lola and Jemima Fleur.  Another time.

Girls

Bay Mary Mason

Beatrice Isabella Catherine

Cecilia Katherine Ottilie (a sister for Romilly and Penleigh)

Christabel Charlotte Silvia

Dorothea Isobel Ann

Eilidh Anne Muir

Elisabeth (Elsie) Sarah Joyce

Elspeth Alice Eugénie

Evangeline Sophia Kate

Florence Elizabeth Avril

India Isabel Mary

Maizie Anne Patricia

Matilda (Tillie) Ivy Fiona

Millie Mary Holly

Pearl Amelia Rose

Phoebe Grace Florence

Ruby Anne Mora

Tatiana Adairia Lucy

Thalia Violetta Carlisle

Ursula Isabel Langdale

Venetia Elizabeth Thalia

Willow Serena May

Boys

Alexi William Martin Rabbit

Arlo Alexander Telfer

Barnaby Thomas Montgomery

Edmund Oliver Kynaston

Felix Michael Harry Lisle

Gruffydd Matthew Dylan

Gus Edward William

Hugo Edward Fleetwood

Ivo William Casimir

Joseph Saxon Wallace

Magnus John Kerr

Maximillian Arthur Bennett

Milo George Thomas

Oliver Konstanty Melville

Oliver Reckless Hyatt

Ralph William Milnes

Raphael Kenneth Vincent Windsor

Toby James Hedley

Wilbur Willis Benjamin

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Posted in 2009 baby names, British names, creative names for boys, creative names for girls, international baby names, middle names, name style, unique baby names, unusual baby names, vintage baby names, weird baby names, word names | 34 Comments »

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