Ormond Posted March 5, 2014 Author Share Posted March 5, 2014 Here's the link to today's column. I had mentioned Patricia Schroeder, Patty Hearst, and Patricia Cornwell in what I wrote but they all got edited out. http://www.omaha.com/article/20140304/LIVING/140309601/1714#cleveland-evans-for-patricia-think-italian-saints-and-sitcoms Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fragile Bird Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 Good grief, how does Patsy become a nick name for Martha? That took me by surprise! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gillio Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 and me!my mum's best friend in England (Auntie Margaret!) was Irish, she had a Patricia and a Diane. both born early 1950's Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ormond Posted March 5, 2014 Author Share Posted March 5, 2014 Good grief, how does Patsy become a nick name for Martha? That took me by surprise! Martha leds to Mahtha which lead to Matta which leads to Mattie which leads to Patty which leads to Patsy, with the "s" sound probably based on the analogy of Nancy for Anne. Polly is ultimately from Mary and Peggy from Margaret in the same way. For some reason back in Renaissance England women's names starting with "M" developed rhyming nicknames starting with "P". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fragile Bird Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 Cool. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gertrude Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 Nicknames that evolve like that fascinate me. I was baffled by Dick coming from Richard so had to look it up at one point. Those medieval folk are silly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ormond Posted March 18, 2014 Author Share Posted March 18, 2014 Well, today's column is on a more modern nickname: http://www.omaha.com/article/20140318/LIVING/140318676/1696#cleveland-evans-oh-brother-bubbas-big-small-black-and-white Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lady Winter Rose Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 Interesting article. I personally don't like Bubba, but I do like Belle. I check how popular Belle is and was surprised to see that Belle is not in top 1000. I though Belle is much more popular? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ormond Posted March 18, 2014 Author Share Posted March 18, 2014 Interesting article. I personally don't like Bubba, but I do like Belle. I check how popular Belle is and was surprised to see that Belle is not in top 1000. I though Belle is much more popular? In the United States right now, the favored sound pattern for popular girls' names is to have them end in -a. Bella is therefore way more popular than Belle. There were 4,311 Bellas born in 2012 and only 162 Belles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lady Winter Rose Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 It makes sense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lady Winter Rose Posted March 19, 2014 Share Posted March 19, 2014 On Bubba... This seems like a name more suitable for nickname. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ormond Posted April 1, 2014 Author Share Posted April 1, 2014 Here's a link to today's column. Among the paragraphs that I had written that got edited out was: In 2009 television scriptwriters had April on their minds. Virginal Dr. April Kepner (played by Sarah Drew) was introduced on “Grey’s Anatomy.” Broadway star Kristen Chenoweth began a recurring role as April Rhodes, music teacher Will’s former high school crush, on “Glee.” Katy Mixon starred as April Buchanon on HBO’s “Eastbound and Down.” And cynical April Ludgate (played by Aubrey Plaza) began her career of dryly humorous one-liners on “Parks and Recreation.” http://www.omaha.com/article/20140401/LIVING/140409995/1696#cleveland-evans-from-a-moody-nickname-to-the-ninja-turtles-bestie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yagathai Posted April 1, 2014 Share Posted April 1, 2014 I've always liked the name "Murgatroyd", though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ormond Posted April 15, 2014 Author Share Posted April 15, 2014 Here's today's column. It is fascinating to me how Emily and Emma have switched places in terms of popularity in the USA and the UK both in the 19th and the 21st centuries. In the USA Emilys are older and Emmas younger on average than they are in the UK right now, just as was true around 1880. http://www.omaha.com/article/20140415/LIVING/140418996/1696#cleveland-evans-emma-blossomed-from-medieval-roots Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gertrude Posted April 15, 2014 Share Posted April 15, 2014 So are Emma and Emily derived from different sources? I guess I kind of assumed Emma was derived from Emily and that it was more modern - hardly would have guessed it's a medieval name. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ormond Posted April 15, 2014 Author Share Posted April 15, 2014 Yes, Emma and Emily have different derivations. But most people of course aren't concerned with etymology, so the two are often confused or blended. There have been many girls named Emma Lee or Emmalee, for example. Emily was also often confused with Amelia. Emily is originally from a Latin family name, Aemilius, while Amelia is an anglicized version of Amalia, which is from a Germanic word which probably meant "work." Emma was much more common in medieval times in England than either Emily or Amelia, which really only became established in England during Hanoverian times in the 1700s. So Emma was well established as an English name at least six centuries before Emily was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angalin Posted April 16, 2014 Share Posted April 16, 2014 Ormond, here's a fun gif for you that illustrates your point about boys' names like Aidan: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/04/the-meteoric-rise-in-boys-names-ending-in-n/360328/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lady Winter Rose Posted April 28, 2014 Share Posted April 28, 2014 Ormond, will you do prediction about top 1000 of 2013? I mean, do you have any theories what names might rise high and what names might fall? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ormond Posted April 28, 2014 Author Share Posted April 28, 2014 Well, I suspect there's about a 50/50 chance Mason will be #1 for boys. I think there will be more Aryas and Khaleesis than there were in 2012. I think the % of kids given the top names will continue to decline as naming becomes even more varied. In checking some top rated TV shows, I see that the winner of the fall 2013 season of "The Voice" had the unusual first name of Tessanne. Though I doubt that will make the top thousand, it would surprise me if there weren't more than five born in 2013. It will also be interesting to see if Zendaya and Ingo got boosts from "Dancing With the Stars." Charlotte and Charlie for girls are probably going to continue to increase, both because they are on a general upward trajectory and because of the character on the TV show "Revolution." I expect Elsa to get a boost from "Frozen", but as that film didn't come out until November any increase might not show up until 2014. Katniss, Primrose, and perhaps Effie and Finnick will increase because of "Hunger Games." Ryan might go up a bit as a girls' name because of the character Sandra Bullock played in "Gravity." And Lupita will surely increase because of Lupita Nyong'o, though again "Twelve Years A Slave" may have been released too late in the year for that to show up much in 2013's data. We'll see what happens in a week or so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gertrude Posted April 29, 2014 Share Posted April 29, 2014 My cousin was upset that names she used for her daughters and had planned to use for a long time were so popular (Emma and Isabelle). My mom worked with 4 year olds and younger and she could've told her those names were big. You're my new go to guy now :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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