Happy Shrove Tuesday! Or Pancake Day, if you prefer. As Lent begins and we leave February behind, it's time for me to look back and the namey goodness which I've been pondering this month.
Laia
February is awards season, kicked off this year by the BAFTAs (the British Academy of Film and Television Arts). This year's winner of the BAFTA Rising Star Award was Catalan actress Laia Costa.
Laia is a popular Catalan name -- it has ranked at #3 in Catalonia for the last four years, and in the top 5 since at least 2003 -- and also ranks in the top 30 in Spain overall. It is a shortform of Eulalia, the name of a popular 4th century Spanish martyr, St Eulalia, who is also the patron saint of Barcelona (the capital city of Catalonia).
Eulalia was originally an Ancient Greek name meaning "well spoken:" ευ (eu) "good" and λαλεω (laleo) "to talk". Laia is pronounced LĪ-yə (rhyming with Mya). You can hear the Catalan pronunciation here.
Mahershala
Another name which peaked my interest from the BAFTAs was that of American actor Mahershala Ali (pronounced ma-HER-sha-la), who most recently won the Oscar for Best Actor. As soon as I saw it, I was immediately reminded of Mahershalalhashbaz -- perhaps my favourite Biblical name, just because...well, it's so long and quirky (the longest name in the Bible in fact), and what's not to love?
It turns out that Mahershalalhashbaz is actually the full name of the actor. How exciting!
In the Bible, Mahershalalhashbaz is a prophetic-name, given to a child mentioned in the Book of Isaiah, meaning "Hurry to the spoils!". The name itself is said to have prophesied the plunder of Samaria and Damascus by the king of Assyria, Tiglath-Pileser III.
Giacinto
A trip to Bella Italia on a girls' night out led to this name-spotting on the menu:
Pippo is pretty fun. Like our Pippa is a short form of Philippa, Pippo is an Italian nickname for Filippo. But, I'm more struck by Giacinto, the Italian form of the Greek Hyacinthus. Even in Ancient Greek times, the name signified the Hyacinth flower. The last element is anthos "flower," but the first part is unknown.
The English form of the name -- Hyacinth -- has long since gained a feminine feel thanks to the flower, but across Europe there are plenty of great alternative masculine forms: the Italian Giacinto, Spanish and Portuguese Jacinto and Polish Jacenty/Jacek.
Havoise
I love genealogy. Sadly, I don't get much time to do it these days, but this month, I did grab a bit of time to research my soon-to-be brother-in-law's family tree. Sickeningly (for me, at least, because I'm incredibly jealous), Scott has a gateway ancestor who links to the gentry. Cue a whole host of illustrious ancestors, including King Edward III and Rollo, first Duke of Normandy. One of the names that really stood out to me was Havoise, the name of a daughter of Richard I, Duke of Normandy
She is more commonly known in Britain by the English form is Hawise -- a name I'm very familiar with as it was common in medieval England -- but the French form, Havoise, was one I never took note of before. Both come from the Germanic Hadewidis composed of the elements hadu "battle, combat" and wid "wide."
Maidie
Speaking of my soon-to-be brother-in-law, we took him to my father's ancestral home of Norfolk to meet some of the family last weekend and showed him the sights of Norwich. One of the main attractions is the city's glorious medieval cathedral, which featured an exhibition of the work of sculptor David Holgate, who created the statues of Mother Julian and St Benedict, pride of place on the Cathedral's west front.
One of his pieces included the headstone of a fellow Norwich artist (Florence) Maidie Buckingham (1901-1988).
Like May, Molly and Maisie, Maidie is a Victorian nickname for both Mary and Margaret. It is equally as appealing, but still lurks under the radar.
Storm
Storm Doris has raged across Britain this month. It was named by the UK's Met Office and Ireland's Met Eireann together, who have combined a list of 21 names for the 2016-2017 storm season from 10,000 submissions. The list is as follows:
Angus, Barbara, Conor, Doris and Ewan have already rolled through. Time will tell whether storm Wilbert ever comes to fruition.
Storm itself is a bold and striking nature name, but one that I think has a lot of potential while the likes of Bear and River get ever more popular.
