Goodbye for another year, November! It's been fun (and cold) and busy -- with lots of good chances to muse about names.
Cartimandua
Has anyone else been watching Bettany Hughes's new series on Channel 5 -- Eight Days That Made Rome? I'm hooked! (But then I did study Ancient History at University so this is thoroughly up my street anyway).
Last week's episode focussed on Boudicca's revolt. It was a great episode, but this clip in particular had me taking note:
Cartimandua? How had I missed her? Gotta love an ancient warrior woman doing it for the girls. Intriguingly, her name looks like it derives from the Proto-Celtic words karti-, possibly meaning "drive out," and mandu "pony" which puts it alongside the likes of Philippa and Rosalind.
Inanna
Lovely Bettany has been on a roll with the documentaries. This November, the BBC also aired her excellent and fascinating documentary Venus Uncovered: Ancient Goddess of Love.
As the blurb puts it:
"Charting Venus's origins in powerful ancient deities, Bettany demonstrates that Venus is far more complex than first meets the eye. Beginning in Cyprus, the goddess's mythical birthplace, Bettany decodes Venus's relationship to the Greek goddess Aphrodite, and, in turn, Aphrodite's mixed-up origins both as a Cypriot spirit of fertility and procreation - but also, as a descendant of the prehistoric war goddesses of the Near and Middle East, Ishtar, Inanna and Astarte. We start to see the Venus is about desire of all kinds - malign as well as benign."
I was one again reminded of the ancient Sumerian goddess Inanna -- not only goddess of love but also of war and political power. The meaning of Inanna is mysterious and most likely so ancient and elemental that it is lost to us. Some have related the meaning "Lady of Heaven" though the evidence is shaky.
Here's Bettany's take:
Nelson
We have a brand new pre-school at my school now, and so naturally I have been desperate to go name spotting. This month I finally got a good peak at the names and by far the one which jumped out at me was Nelson.
At #801 in England and Wales, Nelson is a rare one -- striking at the same time an unconventional yet friendly path. For me, I think of naval hero Horatio Nelson which puts it very much in the same category as cuddly yet heroic Winston.
Sapphire
Shout out to Clare and her amazing Scoop.it Name News page for this find. Stephanie and Wayne Prescott, whose son Braiden lost his fight with cancer in September 2016, have recently welcomed a daughter.
Her name -- Sapphire Starr -- is a tribute to Braiden: "Sapphire because blue was Braiden's favourite colour and Starr because he's now a star watching over them."
It's an interesting way to make an honour name, and just shows that all roads lead to Rome. Sapphire ranked #366 in England and Wales in 2016.
Eric
I'm ridiculously pleased that Dave Gorman's Modern Life is Goodish is back for Series 5. This time round, Dave openly talks about fatherhood and refers to his son as "Little Eric." At first I thought it could be a pseudonym for privacy (but I really wanted it to be true). Turns out it is!
Eric ranks #147 in England and Wales and is rising. I'm looking forward to it's top 100 breakthrough.
Topsy
And speaking of Dave Gorman, this little titbit from the second episode of the series really made me giggle for the name-y-ness:
It turns out that Topsy has ranked twice in the last twenty years in England and Wales -- 2009 and 2014 -- both times with 3 births. However, given that the statistics do not list names given to fewer than three babies, there may have been several years where just one or two Topsys were born. An intriguing thought....
And finally, my favourite name news of the month is the news that -- Boaty McBoatface stylie -- Doncaster Council asked residents via Twitter to name two of its gritter lorries in the run up to Christmas. The winning names were Gritsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Anti-Slip Machiney "Gritsy Bitsy" and David Plowie, with Basil Salty and Spready Mercury as runners up.
The thing I love most about this story is that, although naming is (rightly) often a solemn and serious decision, sometimes it can be delightfully carefree and lighthearted.
