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Posts Tagged ‘ Nephele ’

BEATRIX POTTER NAMES: Jemima & Jeremy

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

Nameberry’s own Nephele takes us into and guides us through the enchanted world of Beatrix Potter.
 
Beatrix Potter (1866-1943) is a beloved children’s picture book author and illustrator whose stories have an enduring charm that will no doubt continue to delight readers well beyond our 21st century. 
 
Her popular stories have made their way from the printed media into animated adaptations for television (The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends), and ballet (The Tales of Beatrix Potter).  Films have also been made depicting her life, the most recent being the 2006 movie titled Miss Potter and starring Renée Zellweger.

Beatrix Potter was an early conservationist, and her stories of Peter Rabbit and friends reflect her great love of the British countryside and nature.  Her animal characters (with the exception of the American animals appearing in The Tale of Timmy Tiptoes) were drawn from life, revealing Beatrix Potter’s eye for realism as well as whimsy.

Apparent in her stories is a Victorian delicacy of understatement and wit in describing unavoidable unpleasantries, such as death: “Your father had an accident there; he was put in a pie by Mrs. McGregor.”  In addition, the Victorian expectation of children to master vocabulary can be found in Beatrix Potter’s use of the occasional “soporific” and “improvident” sprinkled among the more childish bobbitties and scrumplies in her books.

While many of Beatrix Potter’s anthropomorphic characters bear whimsical names, such as the beloved hedgehog laundress known as Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle, there nevertheless can also be found a number of baby-worthy names among her characters.  These names will mainly appeal to those with classic naming tastes, representing names (and nicknames) that also appealed to the people of the British Isles living in the Victorian and Edwardian eras:

 GIRLS

 ANNA MARIA

BETSY

CECILY

DORCAS

JANE

JEMIMA

JENNY

JOSEPHINE

LUCIE

LUCINDA

MARGERY

POLLY

REBECCAH

ROSE

SALLY

SARAH

SUSAN

TABITHA

THOMASINA

BOYS

ALEXANDER

BARNABAS

BENJAMIN

DIGGORY

JEREMY

JOHN

JOHNNY

PERCY

PETER

SAMUEL

TIMMY

TOMMY

WILLIE

And now, for some Beatrix Potter fun!  There’s a Beatrix Potter character hiding within your own name, just waiting to be released through the magic of anagrams.  If you would like to know your “Beatrix Potter Name,” simply click on this link.

Nephele is the ‘net name of an obsessive anagrammatist and lover of names who is known for her anagrammed name makeovers on various themes which she provides a a fun service to Nameberryites on the “Talk About Names” forum.  Her belief that she should have been born in the Victorian era is reflected not only in her fondness for Beatrix Potter, but also in other blogs she contributed to Nameberry, on Cicely Mary Barker’s Flower Fairy names and names from the light operas of Gilbert and Sullivan.

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Posted in British baby names, British names, Uncategorized, animal names, baby names from books, boys' names, children's book names, girl names, girls' names, name ideas, namesakes, pet names, quirky names, vintage baby names | 12 Comments »

FLOWER FAIRY NAMES

Monday, June 29th, 2009

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 FairiesBarker 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.

(more…)

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Posted in 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 | 13 Comments »

BABY GIRL NAMES FROM ANCIENT ROME

Monday, June 1st, 2009

ancient-roman-2 Today’s guest blogger, Nephele, moderator for the ancient Roman forums at UNRV.com (United Nations of Roma Victrix, in case you were wondering), offers us a crash course in ancient Roman girls’ names and naming. Some of these names are still current, like Antonia and Virginia; others, such as Lucilia, are a bit more esoteric.

Modern Western civilization owes much to the legacy of ancient Rome, not the least of its many influences being found in our names.

In the ancient Roman system of naming, each citizen belonged to an ancestral group called a “gens,” and took his name from his particular gens. The traditional form of the Roman name existed in three parts: Roman males would be given a first name at birth, called a “praenomen,” followed by his gens name, and then a last name called a “cognomen” that identified the branch of the gens to which he belonged.

In the time of Rome’s early to middle era, there wasn’t much variety in women’s names. In fact, they generally were given the gens name of their father (in the feminine form), and daughters within the same family were usually distinguished from their sisters by an additional name indicating their position in the birth order.  So the first born would be Prima, the second Secunda, and the third Tertia, etcetera.

Despite the seeming lack of concern of the Romans of this period for bestowing unique names on their girls, we nevertheless have a number of lovely Roman feminine names to consider.  Those listed below are all feminine forms of the gens names that were in use by notable Roman families in the time of Rome’s Republic (509 BCE to 31 BCE), many of which are still heard today.  Those that are less familiar may make especially interesting choices for modern-day girls’ names.

AEMILIA
ANNIA
ANTONIA
AQUILLIA
AULIA
AURELIA
CAECILIA
CARISIA
CASSIA
CATIA
CLAUDIA
CORNELIA
DECIA
FABIA
FANNIA
FLAVIA
JULIA
JUNIA
LICINIA
LIVIA
LOLLIA
LUCCEIA
LUCILIA
LUCRETIA
MAEVIA
NOVIA
OCTAVIA
QUINTIA
QUINTILIA
RUBRIA
SALONIA
SALVIA
SEPTIMIA
SERGIA
SESTIA
SOSIA
TERENTIA
THORIA
TILLIA
VALERIA
VARIA
VIRGILIA
VIRGINIA

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Posted in Uncategorized, ancient names, classic baby names, girls' names, guest bloggers, name history | 21 Comments »

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