On 04/02/2024 11:36, Java Jive wrote:
> On 04/02/2024 10:36, NY wrote:
>>
>> Hopefully Ethel and Gertrude won't see a resurgence.
>
> Still less Egbertha, Clothilde, Euphemia, Benedicta ...
>
> Back in my family there were two generations, two great great aunts and
> a daughter of one of them, of Adas, short for Adelaide.  Curious as to
> the reason for this sudden appearance of this new name into the family,
> I looked it up.  Apparently it's from the German, literal meaning
> something like "Eagle head" which is usually translated as something
> like "noble-minded".  As to the sudden appearance within the family,
> there was a Saxe-Meiningen Princess Adelaide who married William IV, and
> so in time became Queen Adelaide, whom the British public thought very
> well of for her charity and moral rectitude, and the timing is perfect
> as an explanation for the sudden popularity of the name:
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adelaide_of_Saxe-Meiningen
>
> So, no, they weren't named after an Australian city!  In fact of course
> the city got its name the same way as the Adas.

Duh! It had never occurred to me that Adele / Adelaide was derived from
the German word Adler meaning eagle.

Clothilde and Egbertha. Whatever next? Clitoris (pronounced ClitORis, if
you remember the girls-in-the-pub conversation in Shirley Valentine).

On 03/02/2024 11:18, Java Jive wrote:
>
> Perhaps the book was the
> beginning of Shirley's use as a female forename?  (I haven't bothered to
> search for any actual evidence for that, it's just a passing thought.)
Well, I might have bothered, I didn't have to look far ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_(name)

"Shirley is a given name and a surname originating from the English
place-name Shirley, which is derived from the Old English elements scire
("shire") or scīr ("bright, clear") and lēah ("wood, clearing, meadow,
enclosure"). The name makes reference to the open space where the moot
(an early English assembly of freemen which met to administer justice
and discuss community issues) was held. The surname Shirley became
established as a female given name in 1849 due to its use in Charlotte
Brontë's novel Shirley, in which the character explains that her parents
had intended the family surname for a son. It was further popularized in
1851–52 by its pseudonymous use by California Gold Rush writer Louise
Amelia Knapp Smith Clappe (Dame Shirley). It was eventually brought to
its highest popularity, in the 1930s, by the fame of child star Shirley
Temple.[1] [2]"

.... and who, who has seen it, can forget Stanley Baxter's send up of
Shirley Temple (even if they should wish to):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTN99GHpNdM

Sorry about that, but at least it brings the thread back OT for the
group :-)

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Fake news kills!

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On 04/02/2024 11:50, NY wrote:
>
> Clothilde and Egbertha. Whatever next? Clitoris (pronounced ClitORis, if
> you remember the girls-in-the-pub conversation in Shirley Valentine).

Somehow I don't think he would have been such a star had be been called
Clit Eastwood.

--

Fake news kills!

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On 04/02/2024 12:14, Java Jive wrote:
>
> Somehow I don't think he would have been such a star had be been called
> Clit Eastwood.

This reminds me of a rather politically incorrect joke by my favourite
comedian, Derek Brimstone ...

A song'n'dance man wants to make it good in Show Biz, and goes to see an
agent. After showing what he could do, the agent says:

"Yes, that's pretty good stuff, I think you might make it, but you must
change your name!"

"Penis Van Lesbian?"

"Yes, I'm sorry, but I just can't sell you with that name! You'll have
to change it!"

But the man doesn't want to change his name, so they part company
amicably enough. Years later, they bump into each other at a Show Biz do.

"Oh! It's you! How yer doin? Did you ever make it good?!"

"Yeah! I'm doin' really well now, becoming something of a star. You
were right though, I *DID* have to change my name!"

"Well, yes it was inevitable really, so what yer callin' yerself now?"

"Dick Van Dyke!"

--

Fake news kills!

I may be contacted via the contact address given on my website:
www.macfh.co.uk

On Sat, 03 Feb 2024 00:52:43 +0000, NY wrote:

> On 03/02/2024 00:16, Blueshirt wrote:
>> NY wrote:
>>
>>> On 02/02/2024 20:48, Blueshirt wrote:
>>>> In Ireland "Gay" - as a name - was often used a shortened version of
>>>> Gabriel.
>>>
>>> Ah, so that's the reason for Gay Byrne's name.
>>
>> Yes. It's Gabriel Byrne... and his middle name was "Mary".
>
> Not that I didn't believe you, but I checked in Wikipedia :-)
>
> I've always wondered what the logic is in giving a boy an obviously
> female middle name. OK, we're into "Boy Named Sue" territory. France
> does it a lot: Jean-Marie Le Pen (French politician) is an example.
>
> It's interesting how the gender of names changes over the years. I tend
> to think of Evelyn and Hilary as being almost exclusively female names,
> Waugh and Benn notwithstanding. Likewise I think of Sidney as being
> exclusively male, but I once met a woman - probably in her 80s and I
> think from Canada - with that name. I knew a woman at work called
> Laurence (stress on second syllable) but she was French and for all I
> know it's a female name there. Obviously you've got the names which are
> either: Leslie (male, apart from Ash) and Lesley (female), Kim, Ashley.

I always thought the child as born Hermaphrodite.