British Baby Names

Sibling Spotlight for Mimosa

Apologies for the lack of posts recently; I've had some rather large projects to work on. Hopefully things will pick up speed again soon.

As requested by Rachel, below is a selection of British siblings with Mimosa, from the last century to modern times. The year relates to the decade of birth for that set. 

1860s: Eunice Tryphena Philip Adolphus Mary Edna Edmonds Esther Lois Mimosa Kezia  1870s: Amy Lois Mimosa Mary  Emma Jane Edmund Charles    1890s: Angela L Isolda T Annie R Mimosa Valentina  Richard P B  Derwent (b)   Frederick William Mimosa Charles Edward Harry Thomas Arthur   Percy M Cecil J G Lionel A Elizabeth Leonora Mimosa Sybil Rioull Cunningham G Edwin Henry   Richard Horace Annie Lilias Augusta John Henry Gwendoline Daisy Howard  Ivy Mimosa    1900s: Mimosa Elfie -- definitely Elfie not Effie. Happy Hellier (b)    Barbara Mimosa   Norman Frederick Walter Mimosa Ruth H Edith E F Louisa F R    George Orbell Colenso Cissi Evelyn Horace Douglas Mimosa Maud Ethel Blodwen    Beatrice Mimosa Gwendoline Marguerite    1910s: Elsie H William J Mimosa R Peter J Norman F    Maurice J Mimosa M  Tevor S Arthur H Mimosa L  Margaret J Hubert G Hazel E

1920s: Alliance I J Mimosa M Eizo E C   Mimosa E Daphne D Jasmine E    1930s: Ronald Mimosa Shirley   Mimosa D Myosotis S   Iris P Mimosa Ivor E    Francis R Mimosa H    1960s: Mimosa K Mark A Francesca H Mandela A Natasha Anne  Barrie M D J David M C Mimosa R L P Sarah C H J Wilma W W L   Barry J Mimosa S Brad Furber C Vita Mercedes  1990s: Cosima Laura Mimosa Georgiana    Sibyl Mimosa R Hugh John Barber   Sapphire Mimosa Oscar Joseph   Farley Mimosa    2000s: Isabella Mimosa Annalise Freya    Alexander Frederick Zoe Mimosa   Florence Camellia A Poppy Alexandra G Posy Matilda R William Louis A Theo Francis A Mimosa Araminta Agnes

Quite a number of Mimosas appear (from what I can tell) to have been only children. Here are a few of the combos:

Mimosa Frances W 1896
Mimosa Ettie Lilian 1897
Mimosa Evelyn 1900
Mimosa Jessamine 1906
Mimosa Joyce 1907 
Mimosa Louise 1974
Mimosa Jane 1997
Mimosa Penelope 2003
Mimosa Miranda 2005
Lydia Mimosa 1967 
Soleil Mimosa 1989 

Name of the Week

An Irish surname, recently in vogue and rising.

 

Origin:

The Anglicised form the Irish Gaelic surname O'Raifeartaigh (or O'Raithbheartaigh). The name is composed of the Old Irish rath "prosperity, good fortune" and beartaigh "to wield," giving the surname the approximate meaning of "(descendant of) the wielder of prosperity." Rafferty has occasionally been used as an Anglicised form of O'Robhartaigh, from robharta meaning "flood tide." More properly, this is Anglicised as Roarty, but since the Rafferty coat of arms depicts two fish, it is possible that at one point the two forms were treated as the same.

Usage:

The O'Rafferty family hail from the counties of Donegal and Sligo. In Donegal the family were coarbs of St. Columba on Tory Island, while in Sligo the family were known as one of the "seven pillars of Skreen." As with most surnames, the name has had some usage as a first name, though in Rafferty's case it has been extremely rare. Much of its usage has been as a middle name, and I can only find a handful of examples of it being used as first name before the 21st century.  That all changed in the 1990s. From 1991-1995 Rafferty was used 4 times in England and Wales (given to two girls, and two boys) but unlike previous usage, this time it was used every year. In 1996, Jude Law and Sadie Frost named their eldest son Rafferty Jellicoe Frost Law, and the rising profile of the actor no doubt helped to raise the profile of the name. It certainly seems to be from this point that the name moved into the domain of boys' names.  Rafferty has been steadily rising in England and Wales since the turn of the 21st century: 2000: #2501 (4 births) 2002: #1190 (13 births) 2004: #688 (34 births) 2006: #644 (43 births) 2008: #514 (67 births)   2010: #406 (96 births)   2011: #378 (106 births)   The name is used far less in Scotland and Northern Ireland. It was used once in Scotland in 2010, but not at all in 2009 or 2011. It was registered once or twice in Northern Ireland in 2004, 2007 and 2009.

Famous Bearers:

* Chips Rafferty (1909–1971), Australian actor. * Lochlainn O’Raifeartaigh (1933–2000), noted Irish physicist. * Gerry Rafferty (1974–2011), Scottish singer-songwriter.

Variants:

O'Rafferty

Pronunciation:

RAF-ə-tee [key]

Possible Diminutives:

Rafe, Raff, Raffy, Taffy

Sibling Names:

Willa     Ottilie     Pearl     Zara     Kinvara     Fleur  Digby     August     Gregor     Oscar     Jasper     Everett

Name Lists:

Breezily Pleasing Surnames

 

If you like Rafferty you may also like:   Dexter, Raphael, Monty, Felix, Rory, Willoughby, Quincy, Thatcher, Rufus, Macaulay

 

 

The Farmans of Haddiscoe

Charles Farman, a marshman, and Matilda Ann Flaxman of Haddiscoe, Norfolk, married in 1844 and within a few months, they started their family.

The Farman family on the 1871 census

 

In late 1844 arrived the first child, Augustus Farman, who was followed in 1847 by a brother, Ambrose Farman. The couple seemed to like this 'A' theme because, in 1849, they named their first daughter Agnes Farman. 

At this point their name taste seemed to take a more unique turn. Another son, Malones Farman, was born in 1851. I have no idea what the inspiration for this name might have been, but he is the only Malones recorded on the Birth Index from 1838 to 1950.

Laban Farman was born in 1854. Laban is an uncommon biblical name, found in the Old Testament as the brother of Rebecca.

The next child, born in 1860, was another son named Anath Farman in 1860. Anath actually is the name of an ancient Semitic goddess of war, fertility and hunting. Perhaps Charles and Matilda took the name from Judges 3.31, which mentions a "Shamgar, the son of Anath." It is most likely that this meant Shamgar was connecting himself with the goddess, but it is not hard to see how it could be misinterpreted.

The couple's last child, born in 1864, was named Last Cutting Farman. It is tempting to think his name was inspired by Charles' work as a marshman, at the "last cuttings" during drainage. He was not the only child to have been called Last in the 19th century, but he is the only "Last Cutting." 

Most of the sons went on to become marshmen like their father — Last Cutting was a mole catcher for a while when a teenager — and most of them lived well beyond 60. They appeared to have been a close-knit family; Agnes, Malones, Anath and Last were living together on every census from 1871 to 1911, even after Charles and Matilda had both died. Only Ambrose, Laban and Last married.

Ambrose married Mary Ann Rushmer and had children: Ambrose William (1877), Ernest Leonard (1882), Lambert (1885) and Violet Marion (1889)

Laban married Ellen Smith and had children: Augustus (1876), Edith Ellen (1877), Mary Ann (1879), Lily May (1890) and Albert Last (1892)

Last Cutting married Alice Mary Green and had two children: Phyllis Fushia (1900) and Lester Lewis (1904)

 

Name of the Week

 

Is there anyone finer? the famous song says.
Jemima, Tabitha and Lois are all on the rise, so perhaps it's time again
for gentle, overlooked, Dinah to have her time in the sun.

 

Origin:

A Hebrew name derived from the word דִּין (din) "to judge," sometimes also used to mean "judgement," "lawsuit," "vindication" and "defense." In the Old Testament, Dinah is the name of the daughter of Jacob and Leah, and it is interesting to note that, essentially, Dinah is the feminine form of Dan, a name of one of her brothers. Her story is told in Genesis 34, and referred to as "the rape of Dinah." Traditional interpretation of the story has it that Dinah was kidnapped and violated by a Canaanite prince named Shechem, causing her brothers to retaliate violently, and for this reason her name has often been translated as meaning "vindicated" or "lawsuit." The events in the original text regarding Dinah's abduction are vague, however, and many scholars now believe that it has been mistranslated and misunderstood. We are told of Shechem that "his soul was drawn to Dinah ... he loved the maiden and spoke tenderly to her" and several compelling arguments have been written supporting the notion that Dinah and Shechem's relationship was not violent, representing either an old custom of abduction marriage or indicating that their relationship was impulsive and against their families' wishes.

Usage:

Records of the name Dinah in use in Britain date back to the 16th century. From this time the name steadily grew in usage, and was particularly notable during the 18th century. At this time it was often spelled Dina — the spelling used in the Greek and Latin translations of the Old Testament — and so frequently became confused with Diana in written records.  In his study of forty English parishes from 1538-1700, Smith-Bannister ranks Dinah within the Top 50 in three later decades of this period: #43 in 1650-59; #32 in 1680-89; #36 in 1690-1700.  The 1841 UK census lists 13,140 women named Dinah (84%) or Dina (9%) in various spellings. One quarter of those recorded were born before 1800 (indicating its popularity in the previous century), with 92% were living in England, 7% in Wales and 1% in Scotland. Similarly, there were between 13,000-13,500 Dinahs recorded on the 1851, 1861, and 1871 UK censuses, but this figure had fallen to 12,592 in 1881, 11,522 in 1891 and 10,777 in 1901. Notably, 25% of Dinahs recorded in 1841 were aged 10 or under, compared to 20% in 1861, 15% in 1881 and 13% in 1901, demonstrating that throughout the 19th century, Dinah declined in popularity for newborns. Dinah ranked #174 (133 births) in 1890, and #190 (136 births) in 1900.  Dinah very gradually declined in usage through the 20th century. In 1996, 16 girls were registered with the name in England and Wales (#1168). Since then the name has had a count of between 2 and 10 births per year. In 2011, 4 were registered in England and Wales (#4764), none in Scotland or Northern Ireland.

Famous Bearers:

History: * Dinah Craik (1826—1887), British novelist and poet. * Dinah Shore (1916—1994), American singer and actress. * Dinah Washington (1924—1963), American singer. Contemporary: * Dinah Sheridan (1920—2012), British actress. * Dinah Lenney (b.1956), American actress and writer. * Dinah Manoff (b.1958), American actress.  Literature and Media: * Dinah Morris, a character in George Eliot's novel Adam Bede (1859). * Dinah, Alice's cat in Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. * Dinah Drake Lance, the Black Canary, a DC Comics superheroine. * Dinah Hunter, the main character in The Demon Headmaster by Gillian Cross. Other: * Dinah, a popular song from the 1925 musical Kid Boots. * 17472 Dinah, a main-belt asteroid.

Variants:

Dina (Biblical Greek & Latin)

Pronunciation:

DĪ-nə  [key]

Possible  Diminutives:

Di, Didi

Sibling Names:

Sarai     Mercy     Jemima     Ruth     Esther     Sylvia  Amos     Simeon     Ezra     Gideon     Silas     Giles

Name Lists:

Funky-Clunky   Quirky Biblical Names   Gorgeously Georgian    Names from Enid Blyton

 

If you like Dinah you may also like:   Tabitha, Delilah, Keziah, Myra, Dahlia, Hadassah, Thirza, Zilla, Leona, Moriah

 

Thanks to Gwennan for requesting Dinah as this week's NotW. 

 

'Twas Ever Thus

Here is an interesting — if slightly snarky — article from 1871. It covers many subjects in naming, from the use of surnames-as-firstnames to multiple appellations. 

As the original piece was very long, I have not include the first half of the article which briefly discusses the surnames used by Dickens. 

 

NAMES    In the use of Christian names there is often much absurdity. A man's sirename is Smith, as good a name as exists, since it probably shows descent from the man who forged ploughshare or sword. Well, he condescends to lower affinities, and christens his boys Howard and Clinton, though he has not the remotest connection with the great houses of Norfolk and Newcastle. This, we hold, is a mistake. To use a family name praenominally is justifiable and wise; to use the name of some other praenominally is silly, and cannot be justified.  The way in which sirenames change their form and lose their significance was curiously indicated in a colloquy we had with a farmer of our acquaintance, named Esdras Dearlove. We asked him if he knew the meaning of his name. He thought at once of the Esdras, and said "it was something out of the Apocrypha." But when we assured him that the apparently sentimental name Dearlove was compounded of deor, a wild animal, and hlaf, a hill, and that his forefathers were probably rabbit warreners, he was perfectly delighted and has had a higher opinion of himself ever since. Names get corrupt, and their history is left uninvestigated. The man born to be called Simper does not know that he is really a Saint Pierre. Death is D'Aeth, and Diaper is D'Ypres. Mr. Filbert, when he takes his port, does not guess that some remote Teuton ancestor of his was viel brecht—very illustrious. Nor does Mr. Halfpenny, disgusted with so coppery a name, imagine that he has a perfect right to go back to the Norman origin of his folk, and call himself D'Aubigny. When making notes on names there are two or three points worth mentioning. One is the curious habit that our early English forefathers had of never using a Scripture name. Their names always had meaning; Æthelred is "noble counsel;" Godgifu (the Godiva of Tennyson) is "the gift of God." And here comes a second note—that in early English, A, the first letter of the alphabet, is invariably a masculine termination. We, with our absurd Marias and Jemimas and Matildas, are apt to be puzzled by Ina and Hylla and Offa of a thousand years ago. And now a line or two on later nomenclature. Double, treble, quadruple, Christian names are now the fashion; but the first Englishman that ever bore two Christian names was Henry Algernon, fifth Earl of Northumberland, born 1477, and it is probable that he was not so christened, but took the nickname Algernon (which means "having a moustache") from his ancestor in the days of William Rufus. Queen Mary called her godsons Anthony-Maria, Edward-Maria, and so forth; and Camden says "I only remember now His Majesty, who was named Charles James, and the Prince his sonne, Henry Frederic; and among private men, Thomas Maria Wingfield and Sir Thomas Posthumus Hobby." Also, the first Earl of Shaftesbury, born in 1621, says in his autobiography, "I was christened by the name of Anthony Ashley." Between 1571 and 1625 there were 2,222 students admitted to the Inner Temple, and there was not a double name among them. But the Court set the fashion. In 1738, George III was baptised George William Frederic. In 1761, Oliver Goldsmith, in the "Vicar of Wakefield," ridiculed the growing folly by introducing that charming and elegant person, Caroline Wilhelmina Amelia Skeggs. In 1781, the custom must have grown decided, for a Wiltshire register contains the entry, "Charles Caractacus Ostorius Maximilian Gustavus Adolphus, son of Charles Stone, tailor." After which, the deluge.                                              The Graphic                                     (London), 28 October 1871

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