Golda

"On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, five gold rings"

This line of  'The Twelve Days of Christmas' is special for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the melody and the time signature of this line is different - it's twice as many beats as the other lines and offers carolers a slight chance to catch their breath when they are getting to the last few verses of the song. The other is that it is possibly the only gift that is an inanimate object (well, objects to be precise).

I say possibly, because there are a couple of claims that this line actually refers to birds too, which would make the first seven gifts all birds. Some say that the five gold rings really represent the gold rings found on the neck of the ringed pheasant bird. Others say it is a mis-interpretation and that the line was originally "five goldspinks", which is an old name for a Goldfinch. Others argue though that an illustration from the first known 1780 English publication clearly shows the rings as jewellery. The song most likely pre-dates that and had French rather than English origins, so a lost in translation interpretation is possible, but is something that may never be able to be proven definitively.

Whichever interpretation you use, all have the gold in common. This song isn't the only connection that Gold has to Christmas and Jesus either - one of the gifts from the wise men is gold, and Jesus is often depicted with a gold halo. Christmas carol 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas' contains the lines "Here we are as in olden days, happy golden days of yore". And the colour is often dominant in Christmas decorations. So the pretty name Golda would make for a lovely festive season baby name.

Golda is thought to be both an English name (derived from the word Gold) and Yiddish. Its most famous bearer is Golda Meir, who became Israels' fourth Prime Minister in 1969.  It's one of those names that people have very divided opinions on. For some it is a family name that is generations old. This can make it seem dated and homely, or maybe familiar and charming. For other, some will see it as a simple, understated and elegant name, while others will find it garish and flashy, akin to people naming their children Diamond or Precious, for example.

I tend to fall more on the side of understated and stylish. Many of the precious metals and gemstone names are very "sparkly" by nature, such as Sapphire and Emerald. Both of which I also really like. But Golda feels like it sits more comfortably with vintage beauties such as Pearl, Opal and Ruby. It's not overly surprising then that Golda and Pearl peaked in usage in the U.S. in the 1890's, Opal and Ruby in the 1910's and Emerald, Sapphire, Diamond and Precious in the 1990's. From that point of view, it is a name from a different era.

Yet that is not a bad thing. Clearly there is still love out there for gemstone and precious metal names. It does mean that at the moment a young girl with this name is rare. However, Ruby is on the way up again - it's super popular here in Australia - and Pearl has recent celebrity baby endorsement. So it's not crazy to think that Golda may also be in for a revival soon.

If you're in agreement with those who find it sweet, elegant and understated, then Golda could be the Christmas name for your shining little girl that you've been looking for.

Emeralda

For the designers, decorators and artists among you, you may already be aware that Emerald is the Pantone colour of the year for 2013. If you're not sure what that means, basically it means that the colour Emerald will feature strongly in most designs, decorating schemes, soft furnishings, clothing, products and whatever else you can think of this year. Pantone usually pick a colour that they feel connects with the current spirit of society. Or maybe with two 'Wizard of Oz' movies coming out this year, they simply thought that when audiences saw those gorgeous images of the Emerald City they would have a renewed love of all things Emerald.

Of Emerald, Pantone says that it is "Lively. Radiant. Lush. A color of elegance and beauty that enhances our sense of well-being, balance and harmony". And also that "Most often associated with brilliant, precious gemstones, the perception of Emerald is sophisticated and luxurious. Since antiquity, this luminous, magnificent hue has been the color of beauty and new life in many cultures and religions. Also the color of growth, renewal and prosperity, no other color conveys regeneration more than green."

This reminded me of a name I heard a little while back that I had been keeping note of - Emeralda. What I love about Emeralda is that it is so similar to Emerald, the gemstone, but sounds a little more "namey", like Esmeralda. And at the same time it manages to sound just that bit fresher and spunkier than either of those. Esmeralda and Emeralda are in fact different versions of Emerald, which is a Persian word for the gemstone, meaning 'green'.

All three are pretty rarely used. Emerald appeared in the American top 1000 for girls from 1991 to 2001, peaking at #766 in 1994. It has also occasionally been used for boys. Esmeralda has also been used a similar amount of times for boys, but has been more popular than Emerald for the girls. It's been in the top 1000 since the fifties, and in 2011 was #332. By contrast, Emeralda has only shown in the charts in 1991, when it was given to just 5 girls.

 A few other reasons why you might want to choose an Emerald themed name include:

• wanting to honour an Irish background (as in the Emerald Isles)
• for a child born in May, under the sign of cancer, or on a Tuesday or Friday (as the Emerald is the birthstone for these times)
• to honour someone else born at those times
• to honour someone whose favourite gemstone is/was Emerald, or favourite colour is/was green
• to honour someone with an "Em" name, such as Emma or Emory.

Emeralda would be a rare, exotic choice, with the benefits of not sounding too strange. And it's easy to associate all of those great things that people think about Emerald with Emeralda. With so many great reasons to use Emeralda, it would be a very fashionable name to use in 2013.

Tutu dress from Little Dreamers on Etsy

Cameo

Word names are now huge, and look to be getting only more and more popular. One of the word names for a girl that I've seen thrown into the mix is Cameo, and I have to say that this is my favourite of the bunch.

There are many reasons why I'm attracted to Cameo, so here they are in no particular order:

 # Cameo ends with the magical O sound (I'm sure there's a good joke there, but I'll leave that one alone) which is the "vowel sound of the moment" in Australia right now. Whether at the start (Olivia, Olive, Oliver, Oscar), in the middle (Chloe, Zoe, Noel, Jacob) or at the end (Cleo, Echo, Hugo, Leo), O is the vowel to have.

# Cameo comes with the cute girly but tomboyish nickname Cami, or even Cam.

# The word cameo is based on the Italian word 'cammeo', and is a delicate gem portrait carved in relief. So when I hear the word I picture this beautiful style of jewellery, which makes me smile. I like names with immediate positive connections.

# Cameo is also the term used for a brief appearance, such as when a huge star makes a quick appearance in a movie. Think Ryan Reynolds in 'Ted', or Dave Grohl in 'The Muppets'. It's a nice surprise when you're least expecting it - another reason to smile when you hear this word.

#Even though it's a part of the current word name trend, it's not actually new to use Cameo as a name. It was also briefly popular as a name in the late 18th and 19th centuries. So it's a 'new' but established name.

#Not many people are using it. I certainly haven't seen any Cameo's in the local birth announcements.

#The benefit of word names (in theory) are that people are already familiar with the word, so should be able to spell and pronounce the word without needing to ask how. Plus it's "real", not made up like a lot of names appear to be these days as parents strive to make old name stand out from the pack and seem new again. Sometimes this works, more often it just looks like you don't know how to spell.

So there you have it - turns out I have seven lucky reasons why Cameo would be a good name for a little girl. What's your favourite word name?