Guess The Name

I've been watching this older British mystery series where the main detective Inspector Morse won't ever say his first name because he doesn't like it. Well it came down to the last few episodes and he finally gives a clue to what his first name is. I thought it was so neat I wanted to share it with you and see if any of my readers could figure out what his first name is.

His Clue: 

Inspector Morse loves crossword puzzles so he gave the clue to his name in the form of a crossword puzzle clue: "My whole life's effort has revolved around -eve-. 9 letters."

Name Associations: 

His mother was from a Quaker background and his father loved reading about the explorer Captain James Cook. 

This might be tricky but all the information is there if you care to try and figure it out. If there's interest shown then I'll post the answer!

Your Resident Name Enthusiast,

Miss Laurie :)


Edited August 12, 2011: Since no one hazarded a guess I decided to post the answer here. His first name was Endeavour which is a Virtue name that Quakers sometimes used and Captain James Cook's ship was called The Endeavour. Spelled the British way with the extra "u" in it makes 9 letters. I thought the clues were rather clever when you remember that the word effort is often used synonymously with the word endeavor. 

Exotic Pronunciations

Recently I've encountered some interesting names while watching a few interior design and cooking shows.  Most of these are girls names and a lot of these just have interesting pronunciations. Enjoy!

Girls:

• Aarti - a Hindi name pronounced ARH-tee (a bit like Artie, to rhyme with party). I probably wouldn't have liked it but the name was on a lovely young chef who infuses her Indian upbringing and warm caring nature into every dish! And her accent has a slight British clearness to it which makes her name almost sound like she's saying the letters R T together.
• Adela - on an older BBC TV show I watched a while ago there was a lady with this name but they pronounced it uh-DAY-luh. I was very surprised but like the name a bit more now because this pronunciation reminds me of Helena (heh-LAY-nuh) and Elena (eh-LAY-nuh) which I love!
• Alicia - alot of people where I'm from pronounce this name uh-LEESH-uh (or uh-LEESH-er depending on their costal Maine accent) even if they spell it with a variant like Alisha or Alecia. Recently on a TV show there was a model turned chef who's name was pronounced uh-LISH-uh. I still think I like the British uh-LEESH-ee-uh best of all these pronunciations. How do you pronounce Alicia?
• Aria - this name has always had such music to my ear (hee hee :D) but when I recently heard it used on a beautiful young chef it added a bit of sparkle to the name as well.
• Celie - I encountered this name while playing name games at Behind the Name and kind of fell in like with it! I've always like Celia, Cecilia and Cecily so to find Celie and it's cute pronunciation of SEE-lee I just loved it!
• Dzintra - this was the name of another chef (and in fact her last name was Dzenis - zehn-is!) and being the name enthusiast that I am my interest at how this name is pronounce was piqued! Dzintra is pronounced ZIHN-truh. It sounds so exotic, but all the information I got pointed to it being a Polish name.
• Ellis - as the name of a young teenager. I love it for a boy but had never heard it used for a girl!
• Orchid - the name of a Philippine chef, she was petite and sweet and I thought her name was gorgeous on her! I don't think it would work as well on an American girl.
• Peach - the name of a 50-year-old fashion designer who looked very distinguished. I thought the name was a bit funny of her at first but it turns out she's just a southern Georgia Peach!  
• Serena - I really like this name and knew that it was popular in Italy and some Spanish speaking countries as well. The young lady this name was on was a petite, spunky, beautiful Italian chef who talked too fast when she got excited. Her name was pronounced seh-RAY-nuh with the rolled Rrrr sound. So beautiful! She was anything but serene though! :)
• Tamsin - Although I don't like a lot of T names for girls, I've been liking this name a lot more lately, I just think it's so cute and sweet! Actress Tamzin Merchant is definitely all of those things. And I've also heard the name Thomasine (or Thomasyn) pronounced like Tamsin.

Boys:

• Juba - one African-American chef with a boyish look. His name is pronounced ju-BAH which reminds me of the Biblical names Judah and Jubal which I love!

What do you think of these names and especially their pronunciations?

Have you seen or heard these names used before reading my post?
What interesting names have you encountered lately?

Two Sibsets of Interest

I just loved this photo of a sweet girl with darling curly pigtails! 

Now just a few sibsets that I hear while watching the old British TV show "Nanny". Time period is the 1930's.

Frederick & Dorinda "Dolly" Sackville have:

• Artemis
• Dorothy "Dottie" (mother says "It's an ugly name but daddy chose it so we just have to live with it, don't we Dottie?")
• Emerald (sometimes "Em")
• Sophia "Nancy" (pronounced so-FYE-uh, always called "Nancy" except when her father is in the room)
• Caroline "Caro" (always called Caro except by her grandmother)
• Peregrine George Alexander Gordon (only boy and since he's a baby they just call him "Boy")

Robert & Olivia Lamerton have:

• James "Jaime" (always called Jaime)
• Lalage "Lally" (pronounced LA-luh-gee, her brother calls her "Lally" LAL-ee)

I'm absolutely delighted to find this charming old-fashioned families and their wonderful names!

With the first sibset the mother introduces her children to the Nanny with explanations on which names she chose and which names her husband chose. I now love the name Artemis! I'd never heard it before and actually I would never have guessed it was a girl's name. It is rather lovely! And I do love "Caro" as a nickname for Caroline and the way they pronounce Sophia has always interested me (Maria is often pronounced mah-RYE-uh as well). The boy's long extravagant name is also interesting!

I've always like Jaime on a boy and as a nickname for James or Jamison is best. I've never heard Lalage pronounced that way before and I thought it was very interesting! Also I like the nickname "Lally", it's similar to "Lollie" which is what my dad calls me sometimes for fun.

What do you think of the names individually?
What do you think of the names when used for siblings?
Would you pronounce these names differently than they did in this particular program?

Your resident name enthusiast,
Miss Laurie :)  

Zebidah or Beulah?

So you all know I'm a name enthusiast, but even so I don't often name objects (I know my dear laptop should have a name but usually it just goes by "Satellite" which is the type of Toshiba it is). But my parents have always named their vehicles - currently they have a gemstone theme based on the paint color "Emerald" and "Beryl".

My car is similar to this one

So when I was very blessed by a lady in my church giving me her old white Suburu I knew that I had to choose a special name! I wanted a name that means "blessing" or "gift" and because I know her through church I decided that a Biblical name would be best. I had so much fun researching Biblical names and found a few interesting names that I wanted to share!

The first Biblical name that came to my attention was Beulah, and it immediately seemed to suit my new car because she is older but has a distinguished air about her. But although Beulah means "blessed, favored" and has a lovely Biblical uses, it wasn't quite what I was looking for. 

In my searching I stumbled upon the site Biblical-Baby-Names.com, a wonderful resource that has detailed info on so many great names used in the Old and New Testament in their Database. I highly recommend you check out their page!

It was through their webpage that I found the Old Testament female name Zebidah. It not only has the lovely meaning "gift" but was also the name of the wife of good King Josiah. I had fun looking up the verses and finding the various forms which are: Zebudah (used in King James Version), Zebida, Zabia.

Zebidah is the feminine form of the masculine Hebrew name Zabad (other forms: Zabbud, Zabud) which also means "gift".  

"Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty and one years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah of Boscath. And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in all the way of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left." - 2 Kings 22: 1-2 KJV

"And Pharaohnechoh made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the room of Josiah his father, and turned his name to Jehoiakim, and took Jehoahaz away: and he came to Egypt, and died there.Jehoiakim was twenty and five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Zebudah, the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah." - 2 Chronicles 25: 34, 36 KJV

Again, similar to my car

So I really like the idea of naming my car Zebidah (maybe with nickname Zeb or Zebbie) but I also love Beulah and think it sort of fits a bit better. Of course the more I talk about Zebidah more I like it! 

What do you think? Which one should I choose?

Don't forget to check out Biblical-Baby-Names.com! 


Your Resident Name Enthusiast,
Miss Laurie :)