Ormond Posted February 13, 2018 Author Share Posted February 13, 2018 (edited) Here's the link to today's column. I did something a little bit different with this one. http://www.omaha.com/living/evans-in-honor-of-mardi-gras-a-primer-on-some/article_805a79c8-376b-533b-93cb-c85477dc0339.html Sorry I didn't have space to mention Daniel Defoe's character Friday in Robinson Crusoe. If one takes the last two centuries as a whole, Saturday looks like it's the rarest day of the week name ever. By the way, I haven't been able to figure out why Sunday had such a sudden one year boom in 1966. When a name goes up and down so quickly there has to have been some pop culture reason, but I haven't found it yet. If anyone else out there knows, please tell us. Edited February 13, 2018 by Ormond Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ormond Posted February 27, 2018 Author Share Posted February 27, 2018 (edited) Here's the link to today's column. If I had had room I would have mentioned Queen Joanna I of Naples (1328-1382), one of the first European women to rule a country in her own right. I knew Joanne was "younger" in the UK than the USA before I wrote the column but was a bit surprised to see just how far apart the difference between the two peaks was. http://www.omaha.com/living/with-french-roots-famous-joannes-and-joannas-spread-far-and/article_e26defe8-114e-592e-848f-73f0d0687e50.html Edited March 1, 2018 by Ormond fixing queen's dates Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lady Winter Rose Posted March 1, 2018 Share Posted March 1, 2018 Interesting column, how do you pronounce Joan? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HexMachina Posted March 1, 2018 Share Posted March 1, 2018 3 hours ago, Lady Winter Rose said: Interesting column, how do you pronounce Joan? Rhymes with phone, loan, moan etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lady Winter Rose Posted March 6, 2018 Share Posted March 6, 2018 On 3/1/2018 at 11:53 PM, HelenaExMachina said: Rhymes with phone, loan, moan etc. But Joanne is Jo-Anne, no? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ormond Posted March 6, 2018 Author Share Posted March 6, 2018 1 hour ago, Lady Winter Rose said: But Joanne is Jo-Anne, no? Yes. Joann is also usually pronounced as "Jo-Ann", but there are probably a few exceptions who pronounce it the same as Joan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mormont Posted March 6, 2018 Share Posted March 6, 2018 (edited) There's a Scottish politician whose first name is Johann, pronounced Jo-Ann. Is this a variant maybe more commonly found elsewhere? Edited March 6, 2018 by mormont add link Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maltaran Posted March 6, 2018 Share Posted March 6, 2018 1 hour ago, mormont said: There's a Scottish politician whose first name is Johann, pronounced Jo-Ann. Is this a variant maybe more commonly found elsewhere? I thought she was a man for ages, simply because I always read it with the German pronunciation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ormond Posted March 6, 2018 Author Share Posted March 6, 2018 1 hour ago, mormont said: There's a Scottish politician whose first name is Johann, pronounced Jo-Ann. Is this a variant maybe more commonly found elsewhere? I haven't seen this in any numbers at all in the USA. I just checked the 1934 Social Security data, the year Joanne was at its height in the USA, and there were 31 girls born that year in the USA named "Johanne", 26 "Johann", and 8 "Johan". So I guess this is a rare variant some parents who wanted an unusual spelling came up with in all English speaking countries, inspired by the spelling of the exclamation "Oh!". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ormond Posted March 13, 2018 Author Share Posted March 13, 2018 Here's the link to today's column. I didn't have time to explain in it that the Scandinavian surnames Neilsen and Nilsson are NOT from Neil but are from Scandinavian forms of Nicholas. http://www.omaha.com/living/evans-famous-neils-have-made-giant-leaps-throughout-history/article_655163c1-6279-5c21-a24b-302fe3ca3c41.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lady Winter Rose Posted March 16, 2018 Share Posted March 16, 2018 Nice column. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ormond Posted March 27, 2018 Author Share Posted March 27, 2018 Here is the link to today's column. Personally I have always thought Gloria was a name with a beautiful sound. I am amazed that most baby name books in English speaking countries don't seem to know that Gloria, like Dolores and Mercedes, is a Marian devotion name from Iberia. British name books seem to think that George Bernard Shaw invented the name for a character in his 1898 play "You Never Can Tell." But in that play the character Gloria has just returned to England after... living on the Portuguese-speaking island of Madeira for about 17 years. She was taken to the island by her mother as a baby, and it's stated her mother renamed her Gloria -- she was actually named Sophronia after her father's sister at birth, but the mother was fleeing a bad marriage when she moved to Madeira. So Shaw probably was thinking she chose a Portuguese name for her daughter so she would fit in. http://www.omaha.com/living/evans-gloria-is-a-name-that-s-ready-to-relive/article_067cbbf4-f1e6-58d6-9222-4c47b2010e0f.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ormond Posted April 24, 2018 Author Share Posted April 24, 2018 I was so busy I never got around to putting in the link to the column from two weeks ago: http://www.omaha.com/living/evans-daisy-the-popular-english-name-has-french-origins/article_6ff5e272-604c-5068-9524-6b750882eb87.html Didn't have space there to mention the song "Daisy Belle", which everyone remembers as "A Bicycle Built for Two" (written in 1892), or the most famous American woman named Daisy, civil rights activist Daisy Bates: https://www.biography.com/people/daisy-bates-206524 They have cut me back to 500 words on the column, so there wasn't room to mention lots of stuff I wanted to say about Barbara -- such as the fact that it was much more popular in Scotland than in England in the 19th century, which may have something to do with the Scottish folk song "Barbara Allen", which goes back to the 17th century. http://www.omaha.com/living/evans-the-barbara-boom-brought-big-names/article_d9374bbf-01bc-5257-88dc-e28c8c2ac2c5.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lady Winter Rose Posted April 28, 2018 Share Posted April 28, 2018 What do you think of repeating names of new Prince of Cambridge? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lady Winter Rose Posted April 28, 2018 Share Posted April 28, 2018 On 3/27/2018 at 5:33 PM, Ormond said: Here is the link to today's column. Personally I have always thought Gloria was a name with a beautiful sound. I am amazed that most baby name books in English speaking countries don't seem to know that Gloria, like Dolores and Mercedes, is a Marian devotion name from Iberia. British name books seem to think that George Bernard Shaw invented the name for a character in his 1898 play "You Never Can Tell." But in that play the character Gloria has just returned to England after... living on the Portuguese-speaking island of Madeira for about 17 years. She was taken to the island by her mother as a baby, and it's stated her mother renamed her Gloria -- she was actually named Sophronia after her father's sister at birth, but the mother was fleeing a bad marriage when she moved to Madeira. So Shaw probably was thinking she chose a Portuguese name for her daughter so she would fit in. http://www.omaha.com/living/evans-gloria-is-a-name-that-s-ready-to-relive/article_067cbbf4-f1e6-58d6-9222-4c47b2010e0f.html That was so nice to read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ormond Posted April 28, 2018 Author Share Posted April 28, 2018 2 hours ago, Lady Winter Rose said: What do you think of repeating names of new Prince of Cambridge? Repeating names? Do you mean what do I think of the fact that his first name is the same as his older brother's second middle name? I don't see any problem since the older brother is never going to be addressed by his second middle name alone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maltaran Posted April 28, 2018 Share Posted April 28, 2018 10 minutes ago, Ormond said: Repeating names? Do you mean what do I think of the fact that his first name is the same as his older brother's second middle name? I don't see any problem since the older brother is never going to be addressed by his second middle name alone. Louis and Arthur are also two of Prince William’s middle names. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hereward Posted April 28, 2018 Share Posted April 28, 2018 1 hour ago, Ormond said: Repeating names? Do you mean what do I think of the fact that his first name is the same as his older brother's second middle name? I don't see any problem since the older brother is never going to be addressed by his second middle name alone. Well, previous kings have taken the throne under one of their middle names. Though admittedly the chances of a King Louis, outside of us losing a war to the French, are remote. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lady Winter Rose Posted April 29, 2018 Share Posted April 29, 2018 13 hours ago, Ormond said: Repeating names? Do you mean what do I think of the fact that his first name is the same as his older brother's second middle name? I don't see any problem since the older brother is never going to be addressed by his second middle name alone. I mean Charles is variant of Charlotte. But I guess you're right... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ormond Posted May 8, 2018 Author Share Posted May 8, 2018 Here is the link to today's column. There is really a lot more to my argument about "Shania." I did not come up with the "ani aya'aa" phrase just by looking through the Ojibwe dictionary on my own. It was suggested to me by posters on the Ojibwe Language Society (Miinawaa) internet discussion board back in 2004 when I was writing The Great Big Book of Baby Names. http://www.omaha.com/go/music/evans-fan-of-shania-twain-here-s-the-story-behind/article_dc704ea5-cc92-5511-a56c-99ff63799427.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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