The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #106125   Message #2194745
Posted By: Rowan
15-Nov-07 - 04:36 PM
Thread Name: BS: The MOST British given name of all is...
Subject: RE: BS: The MOST British given name of all is...
Kaleea, I've come across a couple of Oz Godfreys and more than a couple of Jocelyns but the most frequent occurrences in Oz of the ones you mention (excepting Jocelyn) are as surnames. And, again, it's Stirling rather than Sterling.

More generally, although Little Hawk asked for names that were British, from a US perspective, the examples on the thread indicate the influence of British heritage in Oz names is still extensive. When we had our first child, a daughter, her mum wanted names from out of our joint family trees; she'd been genealogically ferreting around hers between proper jobs. The two we liked most had already been picked by my brother (who, at that stage, knew nothing about the family beyond our grandparents) for his two daughters; such is life.

What we noticed about our ancestries (hers 4th generation Oz with lots of English and Irish, mine First & Second Fleet with some English, some Scottish and a bit of French) though, was how limited was the range of names for the male parts by comparison with the female parts, pace Dariel Fo. The range of women's names was at least twice and almost thrice the range of men's names.

At least, we found that interesting.

Cheers, Rowan