Saturday, January 29, 2011

Recent Names I've Encountered




Here were several births among my acquaintances in December and January and a few other names I've encountered recently:



  • Natalia Hope - my friends had their 9th child a week before Christmas and chose this beautiful name meaning "Christmas hope" for their sixth daughter!
  • Abide Ackroyd - my dear friend Jon and Ann had their first child, a boy on December 14th and gave him this unusual name. This summer Ann intimated to me that they were choosing a first name that honored an African Christian friend of their's but had changed the name a bit so the meaning wasn't something to do with the Muslin religion. Ann's maiden name serves as the middle name. I do love virtue names and this one is quite unique!
  • Clifford Martin Jr. - My friend Roxanne and her husband Cliff also welcomed their first child just after Christmas. The baby was named after his father and it seems he is to be called "Little Cliff". I must say that in general I pity Juniors who have to share their father's names but Clifford and Martin do stand out as old-fashioned names among the work of Dakotas and Braydens that I can't help admiring their boldness! 
  • Christopher Michael Jr. "C.J." - my little cousin was born in March and named after his father. His parents call him C.J. I do sort of wish they had used Matthias which was a family name they had considered but he is so adorable and the name actually suits him very well!

  • Esslyn - Encounterd while watching the TV series Midsomer Murders. Masculine, the character it was used on was a British stage actor full name Esslyn Carmichael. It looks a bit Welsh to me but I can't find any info, the closest my searches came were Jesslyn. I posted about this on Behind the Name's Name Fact Board and came up with this: "Esslyn is probably made up. There's not one single result for it as a first name or a surname in UK records from 1837 to last year, and the only male Welsh name I can think of that even sounds like it is Iestyn." I actually like the name quite a bit.
  • Cully - Also encountered whild watching Midsomer Murders. Feminine, the character is the daughter of the main police detective. Cully Barnaby is her full name. I assume "Cully" is short for a longer name but throughout the series she's only called by that one name. My own searches brought up Cully, Switzerland and the word Cully meaning "A fool or dupe" also "Slang pal; mate". After posting this also on Behind the Name I came up with this come conclusive info: "I found this on http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/Satellite/9476/news.htm: ''Cully's name John (Nettles) has also jokingly reiterated the story of how Cully got her name. In our younger days we spent our honeymoon in a place called Cully by Lake Geneva and it was there that Cully was conceived – and it was in relation to that experience that she got her name.'' I thought perhaps that was how the story ran (from Cully, Switzerland) but I couldn't remember hearing that explained in any of the episodes.

What new names have you encountered recently?


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