Sia

Australian Music Artist Sia

There are plenty of great girls names of the three-letter-ends-in-"ia" variety. The reigning queen for quite some time has been Mia - in Australia, the US and UK she was a top 10 name (at #5, #8 and #10) in 2013. But no-one loves her more than the Germans. In 2013 Mia was their number one girls name!

At the other end of the spectrum you'll find Sia, pronounced SEE-ah. In the US she was ranked #2979 in 2013, so is much, much rarer. Up until a few years ago you may not have heard of the name, but an Australian musician by the name of Sia has been giving this name a lot of exposure, albeit in an understated fashion.

You may recognise the name but have trouble placing her. Sia has been in the music industry for years, collaborating with many great artists. In 2010 she worked with Christina Aguilera, gaining a Golden Globe nomination for best original song from the soundtrack of 'Burlesque' and appearing as an advisor for team Aguilera on 'The Voice'. She had continued success with her next (and fifth studio album) 'We Are Born'. She was the vocals on the David Guetta track 'Titanium', and more recently had a chart topper with 'Chandelier'. And as an aside, if you haven't seen the Jim Carrey skit on 'Saturday Night Live' based on the video clip for 'Chandelier', you should. It's hilarious.

But where does the name Sia come from? Seems it has a few possible origins. Different sources claim it to be:

• Of Indian origin, derived from the goddess Sita who represents the feminine virtues of dedication, self-sacrifice, courage and purity;
• A Hebrew name meaning 'helper';
• Derived from the Old Norse "sigr", hence a Swedish name meaning 'victory';
• A Scottish word meaning 'six';
• A variant of the Arabic name Zia, meaning 'light, splendour or glow';
• Of Swedish origin, meaning 'prophesy'; or
• Persian in origin, meaning 'one who brings joy'. 

Whichever it means, it feels like the time is right for Sia to rise. She's just different and quirky enough to feel fresh and cool, yet familiar enough not to be intimidating to parents debating whether it's usable. Or maybe you think this would make a cute and spunky nickname. In which case you might want to consider names such as Anastasia, Sienna, Elyssia, Alexia, Cassia or even Sophia for the birth certificate.

Give it a few years and I'm sure you'll notice many more Sia's turning up in birth announcements.

10 Useful Facts about the 2013 SSA Data

♣  To make it to the SSA lists, a name must be given to 5 or more children of the same gender in that year. Using this criteria, the 2013 lists cover the names given to 1,871,467 bouncing baby boys and 1,736,630 darling new girls.

♣  Despite there being more than one hundred thousand more boys than girls, over five thousand more girl names (19,114 names) make the list than boy names (13,958 names).

♣  Compared to the number of names that made the lists in 1880, in 2013 the range of boys names has increased by 1319% and girls by 2029%.

♣  Sophia kept her #1 crown, despite being given to 1,083 fewer girls in 2013 than 2012. She accounts for 1.214% of girls on the list.

♣  Noah toppled the mighty Jacob, but was bestowed on 809 fewer boys in 2013 than Jacob was in 2012. Noahs born in 2013 account for just 0.967% of all boys on the list.

♣  At the other end of the spectrum, 1927 boy names and 2,693 girl names only just made the cut (given to only 5 boys or girls each). 

♣  By number of births Sadie and Jase experienced the biggest leap in use - while Isabella and Ethan decreased the most.

♣  By rank the biggest risers in the top 100 were Sadie and Jase; in the top 1000 it was Daleyza and Jayceon, for the complete lists the winners were Tahiry and Jaceyon.

♣  The biggest decreases by rank were experienced by Makayla and Kayla for girls and Brandon for boys in the top 100, Kenia and Bently in the top 1000, and Yuritza and O'Neil overall.

♣  Since June 2012 I've featured 378 names, both alone and in themed lists. Of those, 108 names did not chart in 2013! Most of them are perfectly usable - and some are fantastic gems. So if you're after a truly unique and rare name, Baby Name Pondering is the place to be!

Top Australian Names for 2013

The final results for the top names in Australia for 2013 have been released this week. That makes it a perfect time for a fun little graphic, so like last year, here is a graphic representation of the top names across all of the Australian states in 2013. If you're interested in how this compares against 2012, you can see last years maps here.

Apologies for my not-quite-polished graphics!

If you're after a more detailed state by state analysis, Anna at Waltzing More Than Matilda has done a great job discussing these as each state released their data over the last few months.

Mark McCrindle Research has also released a report detailing the results of the 2013 data, and the implications for baby names in Australia in 2014. It also includes a list of the top 100 names for our neighbour New Zealand - definitely worth a look if you are naming an Australian or New Zealand baby in 2014.