Halloween 2012 Round Up

 

Happy Halloween Everyone!

If you've been checking out my blog this month, you'll already know that I've been featuring possible Halloween inspired names all month. Rather than profile one more today, here's a quick summary of my featured names and the inspirations for each choice.

I look forward to bring you another round of Halloween inspired names next October!

ALESSA - the scary girl in the super scary based-on-a-video-game movie 'Silent Hill'

SIX - spooky number that is especially devilish when written in triplicate

ALCIDE - super hot werewolf dude from 'True Blood'

BOO - a ghostly, ghastly sound

ROMERO - from legendary zombie movie writer/director George

FORREST - 'cos they're dark and spooky

AMITY - for scary real life town Amityville

DRESDEN - favourite fictional wizard come paranormal investigator

OBSIDIAN - black gemstone also known as "wizard's stone"

SCREAM QUEENS - no good horror movie is complete without one

BRAM - famous author of  'Dracula'

MITCHELL - hot and brooding vampire from 'Being Human'

HERMIONE - the fabulous Miss Granger of 'Harry Potter' fame

MOCKINGBIRD - address of the lovable Munster family

Mockingbird

Charity Wakefield, Eddie Izzard, Mason Cook, Portia de Rossi and Jerry O'Connell star in 'Mockingbird Lane'

I thought I'd round out this year's Halloween names with another fanciful, fun name - Mockingbird. Fans of the classic 60's television show 'The Munsters' may immediately recognise Mockingbird as a reference to the home of the Munster family, who lived at 1313 Mockingbird Lane in Mockingbird Heights. 'Mockingbird Lane' is also the title of the new version of 'The Munsters' that aired on NBC 4 days ago.

The new 'Mockingbird Lane' follows a similar formula to the original, and contains the original characters of Grandpa, Herman, Lily, Marilyn and Eddie. For those unfamiliar with the original series, each of the characters is based on a character from a classic Monster movie, except Marilyn who is a "normal" teenage girl and therefore considered the "strange" one in the family. The Munsters were far from horrible though, leading a fairly typical family life similar to other television families at the time, such as the Cleavers.

As many bird names have been popping up in birth announcements lately (think Wren, Lark, Dove, Sparrow) it's not a huge leap to think that Mockingbird could also rise with them. I think Mockingbird could be a really cool middle name for a child - boy or girl - especially if you are looking for something a little more whimsical to balance out a sturdy, more traditional first name. Personally I probably wouldn't use it as a first name. It's a very literal interpretation of a bird name since it actually has the word bird in it. Plus mock is not necessarily seen as a positive word. Then there are those fun songs with the same name (Mock, yea-ah!, Ing, yea-ah!, Bird, yea-ah!).

But it's not totally unusable, otherwise I wouldn't have featured it today. The mockingbird also features in one of the most famous lullaby lines ever - "Hush little baby, don't say a word, papa's going to buy you a mockingbird". This gives it a much sweeter image. It's the state bird of Texas, said to have the prettiest song of any bird. There is a Marvel female superhero called Mockingbird. And of course there's that story called 'To Kill A Mockingbird'. In this story, the Mockingbird is said to symbolise innocence, a beautiful image for a child. If you're a fan, Mockingbird could also be a way to differentiate yourself from those using Atticus, Harper or Scout to honour the book.

And if your literary tastes tend more towards 'The Hunger Games' than 'To Kill A Mockingbird' you could always take it that extra step and go with Mockingjay instead :) Either one would be incredibly unique.

Hermione

Emma Watson as talented witch Hermione Granger in the 'Harry Potter' movies

One of the great things about the 'Harry Potter' franchise is that it introduced the world to a lot of exotic sounding names that either hadn't been heard much, or had come to be considered as "fusty". J.K. Rowling gave many of these names a new vibrancy and made people think that maybe they could work on an actual person after all.

One of the witchy names that has caught people's imagination like no other is Hermione. Personally, 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone' was the first time I had ever seen the name, and at first I thought it was made up. By the time the first movie was released in 2001 I had read the first four books, and having only seen the name in print I had been pronouncing it 'her-MEE-oh-nee'. Of course, when the movie came out I found that it is actually 'her-MY-oh-nee', which sounds more like 'her-MINE-ee' when said fast.

Pronunciation lesson aside, Hermione is a Greek name, a feminine form of the Greek messenger god Hermes. There seems to be a little confusion over what it means though, with definitions ranging from 'messenger, earthly' to 'travel' to 'stone'. There was also a Hermione in Greek mythology, the daughter of Helen of Troy and Menelaus. She lived with her aunt Clymenestra, and married Neoptolemus after the Trojan war, which is mentioned 'The Odyssey'. She later left her husband after a dispute with Andromache, one of her husband's concubines, who Hermione blamed for her inability to fall pregnant because she claimed that Andromache was casting spells on her.

Other famous Hermione's (besides 'Harry Potter's' Granger) include:

• English actresses Hermione Baddeley, Gingold, Hannen, Hammond, Norris and Gulliford
• British radio and TV personality Hermione Cockburn
• Painter Hermione Harris
• Christian martyr and prophetess Hermione of Ephesus
• Veronica Lodge's mother in the 'Archie' comics
• Queen Hermione from Shakespeare's 'The Winter's Tale'.

David Bowie's album 'Space Oddity' also includes a song titled 'Letter to Hermione', although the name is never mentioned in the lyrics. And if you like names with a bit of an astronomical flair, there is a great dark main belt asteroid named Hermione.

In the US, Hermione was only sporadically used until 2001 when the first 'Harry Potter' movie was released. It peaked in 2006 at position #2489 when it was given to 74 girls, so the name is hardly common. It has appeared in the top 1000 in Belgium, but is the most popular in the UK. There it peaked in 2003/2004 when it was ranked #265. In 2010 it was sitting at #398, given to 111 babies.

While some people think the name is ugly and would be constantly mispronounced and mis-spelled, the huge benefit of 'Harry Potter' is that this is much less likely to happen these days. The name is now recognisable rather than strange, so girls with this name should have fewer causes to fear being called Herman or Hermy-own. Hermione Granger is a great role model, as she is brave, intelligent and strong. Yes, a girl with this name would be compared to her these days, but with such great attributes that is hardly the worst thing a child could hear. If it does concern you though, variations such as Hermia, Hermina, Hermine, Herminie, Herminia, Hermalina, Harmione, or Harmonia could be more to your taste.

Hermione - a modern day witch with a not-so-modern name. Greek names have been getting a lot of attention lately with the rise of Penelope, so why not be a little different and give Hermione a chance.