The term onomamania describes an obsession with names. Though I swear I do not need a straitjacket, I have always been a bit crazy about names.
When I was a boy of nine or ten, I invented a game that I could play on my own involving dice and made-up football teams. With the help of a road atlas, I picked the team names - usually with my eyes closed. Each team in the league required eleven players and to name them required a telephone directory.
Again - with my eyes closed - I would hit upon a random page and use my index finger to find each player's name. Hence "Hunstanton Town" might be represented by:-
Reed (goalkeeper), Barlow, Riley, Wilcox, Moon, Godfrey, Brague, Edwards, Gray, Slatten and Taylor (captain).
The game against "Cleckheaton Rovers" would be played with the aid of the dice and all scores would be recorded in my notebook. Maybe Dunham would score the winner for Cleckheaton. A lot of my pleasure was derived from the initial naming processes.
Moving on, as a teenager, I spent far too long dreaming up names for imaginary pop or rock groups - Miles of Smiles, The Reserves, Red River Panic, Crisis, Suburban Heroes. More recently I came up with Flying Debris which echoes back to those name dreaming days.
When a baby is born, I like to know his or her name and then I will roll it over in my mind and decide whether or not I like it. Will it be suitable? Two years ago, over in Ireland, my nephew Kevin fathered a boy called Finn and that name certainly passed my approval test. So did the names Phoebe, Zachary and Margot - though Margot could have easily been a Poppy. Poppy is a girl's name that irks me even though I think it is fine for dogs, cats and even white mice .
Many first names have sudden bursts of popularity and then slip out of fashion. I witnessed this a lot as a secondary school teacher. Take those two nice men yesterday - Dean and Ashley. Those forenames date them for nowadays hardly anybody names their sons Dean or Ashley. Today's top names for boys in Great Britain are Noah, Oliver, George and Leo with Muhammad coming at the top of the list.
Top girls' names are Amelia, Isla, Lily and Freya with Olivia coming at the top. My mother was called Doreen and my grandmothers were named Phyllis and Margaret. Almost nobody picks such names any more.
Maybe I need expert help or counselling to suppress my onomamania but I guess that there are worse obsessions I could have - like meticulous housekeeping or fashion consciousness for example.
My name "Debra" immediately marks me as a child of the 1950s, when Debbie Reynolds was a huge movie star. There were 3 "Debbies" in my small school class alone. The name fell out of favour as other movie stars came along to replace it. The last time "Debra" had been popular before the 1950s was in Puritan England of the 1640s and 50s, apparently. Puritans love a good Biblical name, and that's what "Debra" was, from the Book of Judges.
ReplyDeleteDid you ever hear the song "Debora" by T Rex?
DeleteI have a fascination with names too, but not to the extent of naming teams and players. When I was ten or so I had already pre-named my future children, but of course as time went by I changed my mind often and their names now are not at all what I'd once dreamed of. I use a lot of my favourite names in my Friday short stories.
ReplyDeleteI also used a phone book to find a name when I divorced and didn't want to carry the marriage name, nor my maiden name which is too difficult to pronounce and spell.
So let me see... You are now called Elsie Smith?
DeleteI have a mania for Names too. Even as a Kid a fav past time was to pretend to name future Children by getting a Phone Book, closing my Eyes, and pointing to Names, then pretending those were what the Kids would be named. Sometimes it was appropriate and I liked the random names, other times it was just funny... there are some weird and awful names out there that people have to live life with.
ReplyDeleteI agree. It must be awful living with a name like Donald.
DeleteI may be guilty of one of those obsessions. I just drink wine. I am not obsessed with it.
ReplyDeleteMy home company notwithstanding, I can envisage a return of Phyllis.
We have a young Lily in the family.
Are you a peotillomaniac by any chance?
DeleteIt is interesting how names go in and out of style over time. My mom's name was Jane, and my grandmothers were Myrtle and Ella. No one uses Myrtle anymore but Ella persists and Jane seems to be having a bit of resurgence, based on what I see at the school where I work. My grandfathers were Frank and Jesse. Frank is passé but Jesse is still hanging around.
ReplyDeleteI know a little Frank who is three years old. Nowadays, Steve is a good name for a budgerigar or a hamster,
DeleteEvery now and again, the topic of names, their meanings and what we think of them comes up in the blogging world, and I find it fascinating. Miles of Smiles would indeed be a great name for a band! The trend for babies‘ names is similar in Germany; you can usually tell more or less the age of a person by their first name.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was volunteering at the polling station last Sunday, I was responsible for the register and check each voter‘s name after proof of identity. My favourite was Travis Davis.
I used to teach a boy called Alan Alan.
DeleteSome old names are coming back into fashion again - such as George, Arthur, Harry, William, Lily, Rose and Violet. Others are the fashion of the day - Leia, Darth, and Yoda spring to mind. Then there are those people who name their kids after footballers. I was always conscious when choosing a name for Kay that it wouldn't produce initials that could be made fun of. For example, my grandfather was William Charles (WC) and a neighbour named their daughter Bianca Anne Paris (BAP). I had to giggle when Cheryl Cole married Liam Payne and they named their son Bear. To go through life with the name Bear Payne will be hard.
ReplyDeleteThis week a woman I have known since she was three years old gave birth to her first child - a daughter. They have named the baby Iolanthe! The poor wee thing!
DeleteCarrying names forward, is something our family does. So my eldest grandson on the wedding invite has his own name, grandfather's name and surname, plus at the end his father's name. Poor Matilda though has my name as her middle name. My daughter on the other hand is cross with me for giving her the name Karen, a rather insulting word used nowadays to described a certain middle aged female (which she is not!) Should have called her Heidi ;)
ReplyDeleteHeidi? Why? Does she enjoy looking after goats and yodelling?
DeleteMy obsession is famous people's age and I find myself googling them. I also am a plantaholic.
ReplyDeleteSome one who is obsessed with plants is an anthophile... I think.
DeletePart of my job, in my days of gainful employment, was to work with schoolchildren. Some of their names used to make me cringe - what were their parents thinking! With some there seemed to be a desire for something different that would stand out in the crowd. Footballers, pop stars and of course celebrities, seemed to feature prominently. The one name that sticks in my mind (goodness knows why) was Gemma - there were dozens of them, much to the frustration of their teachers, and three doors away there is a Villa Gemma - named after the owner's daughter!
ReplyDeleteThat's a lot of manias I never heard about before! ... Here in Sweden, the most popular baby names in 2024 were (top of the list first): Girls: Alma, Freja (Freya), Alice, Olivia, Elsa. Boys: Noah, Valter (Walter), William, Lucas, Hugo. Most of them are names that I would associate with my own grandparents' generation. (One of my grandfathers, born 1901, was called Hugo.) - This post also reminded me that way back in secondary school, I used to make my own name popularity statistics for my own generation based on the annual school catalogue...
ReplyDeleteHow do you feel about the invented names, combining the mother and fathers name to come up with something one of a kind?
ReplyDelete