The Beauty of Names

Princess Catharina-Amalia of Orange Catharina-Amalia + Many More - On December 7th, Catharina-Amalia, Princess of Orange and heir presumptive to the Dutch throne, turned eighteen. Her full name is Catharina-Amalia Beatrix Carmen Victoria, and she has two younger sisters, Princess Alexia Juliana Marcela Laurentien and Princess Ariane Wilhelmina Máxima Inés. All of them have meaningful family names. Beatrix honors their grandmother, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, while Juliana does the same with their great-grandmother, Juliana of the Netherlands. Laurentien is for their aunt, Laurentien, who married Prince Constantijn in 2001. Wilhelmina is an often used name in the Dutch royal family, and just so happens to be the name of their great-great grandmother. And finally, Máxima is the name of their mother, Queen Máxima Zorreguieta Cerruti, whose own mother was named María del Carmen Cerruti Carricart, showing us just where the Carmen in Catharina-Amalia's name came from. Ice...

Winter is one of my favorite seasons, runner up only to Autumn, and so I have a special affinity for names relating to winter, or snow, or frost! This year I've decided to list some of my favorites from around the world, just in time for Christmas. What are some of your favorite wintry names, and do you see any here? Girls: Aneira - This lovely Welsh name is pronounced "uh-NYE-ruh" and comes the elements an, an intensifying prefix, and eira , meaning "snow". To put it poetically it means "much snow" or "very snowy". Bingbing - Comes from the Chinese bing , meaning "cold, ice". Actress Fan Bingbing is a famous bearer. Drífa - In Norse mythology, Drífa is the daughter of king Snær. Her name means "snowdrift". Flykra - A Faroese name meaning "snow flake". Frostrós - From the Old Norse elements frost , meaning "frost" and  rós , "rose". Used in Iceland. Kaniehtiio - This name is of Kanienʼkehá꞉ka ...

Hermine from GBBO Season 8 Bona - I stumbled across the unusual name while researching royals and found out there is not only one but two Princess who bore it! The first Princess was Bona of Savoy, Duchess of Milan, who lived from 1449 to 1503 and married into the famous Sforza family. The second was Princess Bona, or Maria Bona, of Savoy, who married Prince Konrad of Bavaria. She lived from 1896 to 1971. Bona is Latin and means "good", "noble", or "kind". In Italy when you call a girl "Bona" you mean that she is beautiful. Hermine and Sura - I've started the newest season of the Great British Bake Off, one of my favorite shows ever, and as usual there are some interesting names in the mix! I'm especially intrigued by Hermine, the French and German feminine form of Herman, meaning "army man", and Sura, which is Arabic and means "Highness of Status" or "Glory". Gudrid - Gudrid  Thorbjarnardóttir ( Guðríður  Þo...

Björn Thors with his twin sons ( credit ) Happy Easter to everyone that celebrates it, and hope you're having a good Sunday to those who don't. Gijs, Thaddea, Lavinia and More - I'm currently making my way through Netflix's "The Letter for the King", based on a Dutch book by the same name. I'm a sucker for anything fantasy, and while it's nothing new, I think it would be great for younger viewers, and there's a lot of diversity as well! The characters boast some interesting names - a mix of made-up and rarer established names - such as Tiuri, Virdian, Iridian, and Jussipo to Iona, Lavinia, Darya, and Arman. Even the cast has some names of note. Iona is played by Thaddea Graham, and the villain Prince Viridian is played by Dutch actor Gijs (pronounced sort of like Heist but without the T) Blom. An Icelandic Sib-Set: Also on Netflix there is a great new crime show called "The Valhalla Murders". It's Icelandic, and the main male...

"Summer" by Henrietta R. Rae Harpa - Summer is my least favorite season. Here in Texas it's oppressively hot -just stepping outside makes me break into a full blown sweat - and because of that I want to stay constantly indoors in the vicinity of the nearest fan. But I've always thought the name Summer was pretty, ever since I was little and I met an older girl with the name. Unfortunately nowadays it reads more 90's than fresh - but that doesn't mean you're out of options. I stumbled across an interesting one - Harpa - which was ranked #12 in Iceland in 2015. Harpa was the name given to the first summer month in the old Icelandic calendar, which divided the year into winter and summer, both of which have six months. Where the name Harpa comes from exactly is debated; some believe it's the name of a pre-Christian Goddess, though there's not much to confirm that theory. If you're interested in more summery names check out my previous post ...

Mimi Thorisson Marie-France - I've recently discovered the blog of Mimi Thorisson , mother to seven kids, cookbook author, and caretaker of fourteen dogs. The blog is full of beautiful photos of food and her life, taken by her husband photographer Oddur Thorisson, who is Icelandic. Mimi is really Marie-France Valentine, possibly one of the prettiest names I have heard. And her kids? Mia, Hudson, Louise, Audrey (middle name May), Gaïa (middle name Johanna), and step-kids Gunnhildur and Thorir (or Þórir). Sindri - Moving on to more Icelandic names. I was doing a bit of research on Bjork, and discovered her kids have really great names; her son Sindri Eldon Þórsson and daughter Ísadóra Bjarkardóttir Barney. Sindri means "sparkling" in Old Norse, and in mythology was the name of a dwarf who made magical objects for the Gods with his brother, and the name of the hall were the good would go after Ragnarök. Florestine - This is one I've never seen before. Princess Fl...