Tuesday, April 30, 2013

April 2013 Rounup

Here's my monthly round up of posts from other baby name sites for April!

Baby Name Pondering had a long post on the Doctor's newest companion, Clara. I thought about profiling Clara myself, but I wanted to see how the character developed, since so much about her is still a mystery. They also profiled Khaleesi, from George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, aka Game of Thrones. Never having read the books or seen the television show, I found it an enlightening read.

Naming the Fishes talks about the historical origins of Idris, and discusses Lore, which is known to Trekkies as the name of Data's brother from Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Nameberry shares a list of inventors, both famous and obscure, as possible namesakes. Some of the choices here are a bit odd. You really have to love coffee to name your kid after the guy who invented coffee filters.

My Name is Pabst introduces their March Madness winner, Severus Danger. Looks like this adorable lad is already working on his namesake's sneer.

Waltzing More Than Matilda has a great in depth post on Thor. I prefer the female version, Thora, myself. 

For Real Baby Names found a girl named Saturn Marie.  

British Baby names profiled Freya, which has several geeky references. In Stargate SG-1, Freya was a woman who as host to a Tok'ra symbiote. There's a character in Final Fantasy IX named Freya Crescent. There is a main belt asteroid named 76 Freia, and a Swedish satellite named Freja.
 

Monday, April 29, 2013

Merry

In the Doctor Who franchise, Merry Galel was an inhabitant of Akhaten. She was known as the Queen of Years, and was a Sun-singer of the long song. The song was continuously sung by various singers to appease the sleeping Old God. The Doctor's companion, Clara, encountered Merry when she was running away because she feared she would make a mistake. Clara convinced her that she would be able to complete her task and convinced her to return. While Merry was singing, the Old God awoke, and took her as a sacrifice. The Doctor and Clara rescued her and convinced her that she did not need to sacrifice herself to appease the Old God.

Merry was the nickname of Meriadoc Brandybuck in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. He was a Hobbit and one of the Fellowship of the Ring. At Gondor, he became a squire to Théoden. He helped Éowyn kill the Witch King of Angmar. He was awarded a knighthood for his bravery. 

Merry Pemberton was a character in the D.C. Comics universe.

Merry is an English name that means 'Happy'. Merry appeared in the SSA's top 1000 names for most years between 1920 and 1969, but hasn't ranked since then. It ranked highest in 1954 when it was #468. In 2011, the name Merry was given to just 15 girls.

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Tycho

Tycho Brahe was a Danish astronomer who lived in the 16th century. He observed a supernova in 1592, and unlike most of his contemporaries, asserted that the star was further away than the moon. He coined the term 'Nova' to describe what we now call Supernovas. Tycho lost part of his nose during a duel over a mathematics formula, and often wore a false nose made of various metals, depending on the occasion. There are craters on the moon and on Mars that are named for him.

Tycho Celchu is a character in the Star Wars universe. He was a native of Alderaan, and he lost his entire family when the planet was destroyed by the Death Star. He was a member of the Imperial Navy at the time, but the destruction of his world spurred him to join the Rebel Alliance as a starfighter pilot. He later continued to serve as a pilot for the New Republic. He eventually became a General in the Galactic Alliance Defense Force.

There are characters named Tycho in the computer games Fallout and Marathon, and in the Warhammer 40,000 game.

Tycho is a Greek name that means "hitting the mark". I think the fact that it can be shortened to the modern nickname 'Ty', makes this name a little less archaic. In 2011, 13 boys in the United States were named Tycho.

Friday, April 26, 2013

Quorra

Quorra was a character from the movie, Tron: Legacy and the video game, Tron: Evolution. Quorra was the last known ISO (Isomorphic Algorithm) still alive. She was a friend of Kevin Flynn, and helped his son Sam Flynn after he traveled to the Grid. She eventually escaped with Sam to the real world, becoming a real person in the process.

Quorra is pronounced the same as the name Cora, so it might have been intended as a variant of that name. Cora is an Italian name that means 'heart.' Quorra is another name for the Niger River. It might also derive from the Latin word 'quora', which means 'whose'. In 2014, 26 girls were given the name Quorra.

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Kitiara

Kitiara 'Kit' Uth Matar was a character in the Dragonlance series of novels by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. She was a mercenary who joined the Dragonarmies of Ansalon. There, she rose in rank to become the Dragon Highlord of the Blue Dragonarmy. She was the half-sister of the hero Caramon Majere, and his twin, the sorcerer Raistlin Majere. She was also a lover of the half elven hero Tanis and the knight Sturm Brightblade, whom she later killed. She was killed by Dalamar the Dark, a former apprentice of her brother Raistlin, in the Tower Of High Sorcery in Palanthas.

Kitiara is an invented name. It's unusual, but the sounds are familiar enough to make it a useable name. It would also be an awesome name for a female cat. Kitiara has hovered at the bottom of the SSA lists from 1990 through 2005, occasionally dropping off altogether. In 1993, the highest ranked year, 12 girls were named Kitiara.

Monday, April 22, 2013

Kingsley

Kingsley Shacklebolt was a prominient wizard in the Harry Potter series. Kingsley was a Auror who joined the Order of the Phoenix. After Voldemort was defeated, he became the Minister of Magic.

Doctor Sara Kingsley was a character in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode 'Unnatural Selection'. She led a genetic experiment on children which made them immune to all forms of disease, but also made them deadly to normal humans.

Kingsley's Adventure was a video game created for Playstation in 1999.

Kingsley is an English name that means 'King's meadow'. In 2011, the name Kingsley was given to 196 boys and 33 girls.

Friday, April 19, 2013

Gallifrey

In the Doctor Who franchise, the planet Gallifrey is the homeworld of the Doctor, and his race, the Time Lords. The word Gallifrey means "They that walk in the shadows". It was located in the constellation of Kasterborous. Kasterborous was also known as the Seven Systems, and Gallifrey was sometimes called "the Shining World of the Seven Systems". It was destroyed and recreated multiple times, lastly by the Doctor during the Last Great Time War.

Gallifrey does not appear in the Social Security Adminstation's database. It sounds similar to some surnames, so it might blend in with the current surname as first name trend. I think it's better left to the middle name spot.

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Alice

Alice was the main protagonist from the Resident Evil movie franchise. She was a security operative working for the Umbrella corporation. After Umbrella creates a zombie apocalypse, she becomes the enemy of the corporation.

In Star Trek: Voyager, Tom Paris discovers an alien shuttle craft with an A.I. that he called Alice, after a girl he chased while a student at Starfleet Academy. Tom was able to interface with the ship through a neurogenic interface, and gradually, the ship began to control him.  

In the original Star Trek television series, notorious con artist Harry Mudd created a series of android women that he called the Alice series.

In the Doctor Who spinoff Torchwood, Alice Carter was the daughter of Captain Jack Harkness. Jack used her son, Steven, to reverse a signal being sent through the children of Earth by the 456. The process stopped the 456, but resulted in Steven's death.

In the Harry Potter francise, Alice Longbottom was the mother of Neville Longbottom. She was driven mad when Bellatrix Lestrange tortured her with the Cruciatus curse.

Alice was the name of a Pretender Transformer in the movie, Revenge of the Fallen. She took the form of an animatronic figure of Alice in Wonderland from an amusement park.

There is a main belt asteroid named 291 Alice

Alice ML is a programming language that is a dialect of Standard ML

Alice Eliot was a character from the video game Shadow Hearts. She could hear supernatural voices and later became an exorcist. She could use white magic to heal others and inflict damage on enemies.

Alice 19th was a Japanese manga series published from 2001-2003.

ALICE is an acronym for Artificial Linguistic Internet Computer Entity, and for A Large Ion Collider Experiment.

Alice is a German name that means 'noble'.  Alice has always been in the top 1000 names in the United States. The highest it's been was #8 in the years 1906, 1882, & 1880. In 2011, it ranked at #140.

Saturday, April 6, 2013

Temeraire

Temeraire is a Dragon created by author Naomi Novik. Her Temeraire series consists of seven novels that re-imagine the Napoleonic Wars with an aerial squadron of Dragons thrown into the mix. Temeraire is a Celestial dragon, a rare breed that is worshiped in it's native China. While still in his egg, Temeraire was captured from the French by a British ship, and the ship's Captain William Laurence became the dragon's companion. Temeraire's power is the 'Divine Wind', a roar that produces a concussive force that can destroy objects.

Téméraire is a French word that means "rash, reckless, foolhardy." The name wouldn't really work for a person, but I think it would be an awesome name for a rambunctious pet.

Friday, April 5, 2013

Rosha

In Stargate SG-1, Rosha was the host of the Tok'ra Jolinar of Malkshur. She was lovers with Martouf, who was the host of Lantash, who was Jolinar's lover. When Jolinar was being hunted by an Ashrak, a Goa'uld assassin, she abandoned Rosha and took another host in an attempt to evade the Ashrak. The ultimate fate of Rosha is unknown.

Rosha might be a variant of the boy's name Roshan, a Persian name that means light, or bright. Rosha does not appear in the Social Security's name database.

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Mitchell

In the television series, Being Human, John Mitchell was a vampire with a werewolf roommate in a flat inhabited by a ghost. Mitchell attempted to go 'dry', and refrained from feeding on humans, in an attempt to live a normal human life. In the end, he failed, and asked his werewolf roommate to kill him so that he would not continue to take human lives. 

Cameron Mitchell was a U.S. Air Force pilot, and later the leader of SG-1 in the series Stargate SG-1. While a pilot, he led the Earth forces at the Battle of Antarctica, becoming seriously wounded. When he recovered, he was given his choice of assignment. He chose SG-1, only to discover that the original team was dissolved, and he made it his mission to get them back together.

Gary Mitchell was a helmsman on the U.S.S. Enterprise in the original Star Trek television series. When the Enterprise traveled into the galactic barrier, Mitchell and Dr. Dehner came into contact with energies of the barrier. When they recovered, they developed powerful god-like abilities. Mitchell's powers corrupted his personality, and with the help of Dr. Dehner, Captain Kirk was forced to kill Mitchell.

Mitchell was a member of Katniss's sharpshooting team in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay. He was from District 13, and was killed during an assault by Katniss's team on the Capitol.

American Maria Mitchell was a 19th century astronomer who discovered a comet that became known as "Miss Mitchell's Comet". There is a crater on the moon named Mitchell in her honor.

Mitchell is a surname with several origins. It can be a variant of the name Michael, an anglicization of the Irish surname Mulvihill, which itself comes from Ó Maoil Mhichíl, or it might be derived from the Middle English word meaning 'Big'. Mitchell has appeared in the Social Security Administration's database as a first name since the first recorded year in 1880. In 1994, the name reached it's highest peak at #71. In 2011, it ranked at #418.