The baby name world changed forever when Pamela Redmond Satran and Linda Rosenkrantz penned their seminal work, Beyond Jennifer & Jason, back in the 1980s. Many more books were to follow, and along the way they educated a generation of parents on naming babies, and made it possible to admit to being interested in names – even obsessed with them. Now they have the Nameberry website, which provides a massive amount of information and opinion on names, creates a space for name nerds everywhere to meet up with other devotees, and inspires many a name blogger. Pam and Linda are the fairy godmothers of the baby name community, and you can link with them on Facebook and Twitter too.

Linda has been kind enough to take some time from her busy schedule to be interviewed on names, writing Jennifer & Jason, creating Nameberry, and how their love of names changed all our lives.

What is your name? 

Linda Rosenkrantz aka Linda Ruth Rosenkrantz Finch.

Have you ever changed your name?

This is a story that I’ve told in a Nameberry blog. It’s about how I was give a name at birth, but never called by that name. I was so traumatised when I began kindergarten and was called by that unfamiliar name that my wise mother allowed me to pick a new one for myself at the age of 5 or 6.

When did you first become interested in baby names?

I would say names in general rather than just baby names have always been a passion of mine from a very early age – a shrink might say it dates back to that kindergarten experience. And being a compulsive list-maker, I was constantly making lists of names, including names for fictional characters, names of prospective husbands, and of course, future children.

How did you and Pam meet?

A mutual friend brought her over for dinner to where I was then living, in Greenwich Village [in New York City], and we hit it off immediately – bonding, in part, over our mutual love for and attitudes towards names. Strangely enough, that was one of the few times we lived in the same city – she later moved to England, then the Bay area [of San Francisco], and then New Jersey. I settled in Los Angeles.

What made you decide to write Beyond Jennifer & Jason together, and how did the process of writing and publishing go?

Pam had been frustrated at the fact that there were no good name books around when she was naming her first child, Rory, and I had the idea of writing an article about the subject for Glamour magazine where Pam was an editor. We both realized that this had the makings of a book that would be a perfect project for a collaboration.

We wrote a very short outline of Beyond Jennifer & Jason and brought it to an agent, who thought it was so original – no one had ever looked at names this way, taking in their contemporary social context and categorising them – that he was sure he could sell it. It was bought by St. Martin’s Press, who published all ten of our name books, all edited by the excellent Hope Dellon.

Over the years, we have gone from communicating via thermal faxes to the internet – I’d say we email an average of 25 times a day, plus phone confabs and New York meeting several times a year. Responsibilities have been divided along the lines of our various strengths. But when it comes to working on some large project, we might split the boys and girls, then switch and edit each others’ efforts. It’s been a remarkably congenial, long-term marriage.

How did the success of your first book change your lives? Did you wake up one morning and discover you were now international baby name gurus?

First of all, here’s Pam’s answer to this question:

The first book changed my life in that it allowed me to quit my full-time job as an editor at “Glamour”, work at home as a writer full-time, and spend more time with my children – at that time, my oldest was only three years old. Although “Beyond Jennifer & Jason” was a big hit, we didn’t feel like international baby name gurus. Just writing books, you have so much less relationship with your readers, and it was difficult for us to tell how much influence our work really had. Our books were not published outside the US until the early 2000s, so we certainly didn’t feel like we were having an international impact overnight … or for a really long time.

Yes, it was a gradual process – and, although our books were successful in the UK, it wasn’t until the internet hit that we expanded into international “gurus”. Cumulatively, it has changed my life completely – widening my world in all sorts of ways, providing immense gratification. And it’s also been VERY HARD WORK.

When did you and Pam start the Nameberry website?

We started off with a smaller site, based on our book The Baby Name Bible. (We were fortunate enough to retain the digital rights to all our books – which is a very unusual situation). Nameberry began in 2008; we were excited to expand the word to a larger audience. We had no idea at the time that such a huge community of name lovers would form around the forums and blogs – an incredible group of informed, helpful people – now reaching two million people a month!

Do you have a favourite blog post that you have written for Nameberry?

Hard to come up with one post, but I especially enjoy those that require a lot of research, and feel good when I can come up with a topic that hasn’t been touched on before. (Which gets harder and harder with all the input we’re now getting from our great Berry Juice bloggers.)

There’s been some new developments on the site recently – what else is in the pipeline?

We are working on some new features, but we’re most excited about two new e-books – best girls’ names and best boys’ names.

What are some of your favourite names?

Pam and I did a slideshow of our faves on Nameberry, which includes several names I never tire of – Barnaby, Mirabella, Dinah, Duncan, and Araminta.

What names do you dislike?

Herman and Sherman.

Are there any names you love that don’t seem practical in real life?

That area is definitely narrowing. Some of the multi-syllabic and exotic names that once seemed too heavy for a baby to carry now seem perfectly wearable – like Persephone, Peregrine, Zinnia, Amaryllis and Peridot. The baby-naming climate is so much more “anything goes” than it was when Pam and I started.

What are your favourite names in the US Top 100?

Girls: Amelia, Lydia and Violet. Boys: Josiah, Julian and Lucas.

What are your favourite names in the rest of the US Top 1000?

Girls: Ivy, Maeve, Paloma and Arabella. Boys: Declan, Edison, Finnegan and Jedidiah.

What are your favourite names that have never been in the US 1000?

Verity, Boaz and Barnaby.

What is your child’s name?

Chloe Samantha (the Samantha was for my father, Samuel, who had recently died).

Did you and your husband agree easily on a baby name together?

Since my husband is British, we had some varying perceptions of names, especially boys names – and in fact never did find a boy’s name we both really loved. But when we hit on Chloe, there was instant agreement.

What is something that we may not know about you?

That I’ve written books on subjects ranging from Old Hollywood to collectibles to the history of telegrams to animation art to memoir to fiction. And Pam is a New York Times best-selling writer of fiction and humorous books.

(Photo of Linda and Pam from Nameberry; Linda is on the left)

The Hills Shire is in the north-west region of Sydney. Big news in The Hills at the moment is the North West Rail Link, which will connect Rouse Hill to Epping, and involve the construction of eight new railway stations. To assist with the necessary disruptions, The Hills Shire council has put out a pamphlet: Is your business north-west rail ready? The pamphlet suggests you may want to stagger your work times, or work from home until the North West Rail Link is complete.

The North West Rail Link is the “baby” of the Hills Shire council, and as often happens, their baby name was “stolen” when Kanye West and Kim Kardashian called their daughter North West. However, in this case New South Wales has precedence, because they came up with the name North West in 1998. Why it takes 15 years between the proposal and sending out pamphlets is a question only local government can explain. (If you’re really curious, Wiki it). There is no date set for ending the project, which may not occur until 2020. Hope you’re north-west rail ready!

North is one of the four major compass points, and in Western culture, it is considered the primary direction, and the one from which all other directions are taken. By convention, north is placed at the top of globes and maps, although the word comes from an ancient Germanic root which means “down, under”. This may come from an ancient root meaning “left, below”, because north is to the left when you face the rising sun.

For people in the northern hemisphere, north is the direction towards the Arctic, and when they think of “northern lands”, they probably envisage ice and snow, or at least cooler temperatures. In many fantasy tales, dangerous or evil creatures come out of the north, such as Hans Anderson’s Snow Queen, and the dragon in Tolkien’s The Hobbit. However, the ancient Greeks believed that in the far north lay the country of the happy Hypoboreans, who lived in a land of eternal sunshine (kind of on the right track due to the Midnight Sun).

In the southern hemisphere, north is the direction of the Equator, and we may think of northern places as hot and dry, or steamy and tropical. In Australia, the northern part of the country Australia has a certain mystique as vast, hot, empty of people, and rich in natural resources.

North is also an English surname. The aristocratic North family hold the title of Earls of Guildford, and Frederick North, the second Earl, was Prime Minister of Great Britain during the American War of Independence. Frederic Dudley North, descended from the British Prime Minister, emigrated to Western Australia in the 19^th century and undertook several important posts, including representing the state during Queen Victoria’s Jubilee.

The origin of the surname is unclear – it could refer to someone who lived to the north of a particular town, or possibly someone with Norse ancestry, or who looked as if they might have.

West is another major compass point, conventionally placed on the left side of maps, and lying in the direction of the setting sun. It seems to be from an ancient root which means “downward”, referring to sundown, and is closely related to the word evening.

Because the west points toward the sunset, in many cultures it represents death (to go west, means “to die”). The ancient Celts imagined the Otherworld could be found far out in the western sea, while the ancient Greeks believed the paradisaical Fortunate Isles were located in the western ocean. The island of Atlantis was also thought of as being to the west, far out in the Atlantic.

In Britain, the West End is the posh part of London, while Westminster is the seat of power, and the West Country the land of legends and fairy tales. Westward Ho!, by Charles Kingsley, is set in the West Country and deals with adventures in the West Indies. Its title is the same as a Jacobean satire by Dekker and Webster on west London, taken from the call of Thames watermen. The playwrights later wrote Northward Ho!, set in north London.

In the United States, the western frontier lands in the 19^th century symbolised freedom, adventure, opportunity and progress, as in the famous phrase, Go west young man. The Old West is not so much a time and a place as part of the American psyche, and the American West helped inspire imaginative works as diverse as Little House on the Prairie, Star Wars, The Great Gatsby, On The Road, Breaking Bad, and The Wizard of Oz (which has a Wicked Witch of the West).

The iconic Wild West played a major role in the development of the Australian myth of The Bush, and there is much we can identify with, as we have our own frontier country, the Outback. Here the west is Western Australia, the largest state, and the most geologically ancient part of the country, at over 4 billion years old. The oldest life forms on Earth, the stromatolites, can be found in Shark Bay, and the world’s oldest fossil, 3.4 billion year old bacteria, was discovered in Port Hedland.

The West also refers to Western civilisation, an idea which goes back to the ancient Greeks. Today it has political connotations, with people believing that “the West” stands for any number of values they might like or dislike. It is political rather than geographic, because “western” countries are all over the world.

The English surname West denotes someone who lived to the west of a town, or someone who had moved to the area from the west. It turns up early on in Essex, the most easterly part of England. This is another aristocratic surname, for the Wests were an old family originally from Devon, in the West Country.

North and West have both been used as personal names since at least the 16^th century, with West much more common overall. Most Norths and Wests have been male, although the first North I can find in the records was a girl, and there are many female examples of both names. A larger proportion of Wests have been female, compared to Norths. There are thousands of Norths and Wests of both sexes in Australian records, although most of these are middle names.

North and West are names which sound a little out of the ordinary, and yet are straightforward and instantly recognisable. Everyone can spell and pronounce them, and they’re easy to explain: “North, like the North Pole”, “West, like the Wild West”.

They seem modern, but have surprisingly long histories, and layers of meanings, of which you are free to choose the ones which appeal to you the most. Kanye and Kim reportedly chose North because they saw it as meaning “the furthest up”, and therefore the pinnacle of their relationship, which strikes me as very northern-centric, and making a second child’s name problematic. If the first child’s name marks the pinnacle of your relationship, what’s left for Number 2?

(Picture shows an artist’s impression of a station on the North West Rail Link)

Media personality Basil Zempilas, and his wife Amy, welcomed their daughter Chloe Margaret on August 29. The middle name is in honour of Amy’s grandmother, Margaret. Chloe Zempilas weighed 3.17 kg (7 lb), and measured 50 cm long; she joins big sister Ava, aged 2. Ava’s birth was announced on the blog. ~ Thanks to Ebony for this celebrity baby tip!

Golfer Marc Leishman, and his wife Audrey, welcomed their son Oliver on August 18, a brother for Harvey. Marc currently plays on the PGA Tour, and in 2009 he became the first Australian to win the Rookie of the Year award. He won his first tournament last year at the Traveler’s Championship, becoming the second Australian to win after Greg Norman in 1995.

Tennis player Casey Dellacqua, and her partner Amanda, welcomed their son Blake Benjamin a few weeks ago. Blake’s birth was announced at the US Open, which was also the first public acknowledgement that Casey is gay and has a partner. Casey has ranked as high as 39 in the world, and won her first Grand Slam Title at the French Open in 2011, playing mixed doubles.

Soccer coach Michael Brown, and his wife Louise, welcomed their son Tyler not long ago. Michael is a coach at the Ipswich Knights.

Reality TV contestants Josh Maldenis and Andi Thomas welcomed their son Harry Joshua on August 6. Josh and Andi entered the last season of cooking show My Kitchen Rules, and withdrew from the competition when they discovered that Andi was pregnant. Tagged on the show as “dating hipsters”, Josh is a business development manager and Andi is a fashion buyer.

NRL player David Gower, and his wife Erika, recently welcomed their daughter Amelia. Amelia’s birth was announced on The Footy Show, when David and Erika took part in the “Perfect Partners” quiz segment. David has been playing rugby league professionally since 2006, and has been with the Manly Sea Eagles since this season. He has also played rugby league in England.

NRL player Craig Gower, and his wife Amanda Flynn, welcomed their daughter Freya Rose on July 23, a sister to Lola, aged 4. Freya was born just a few hours after Prince George, but because of the time zone difference, they don’t share a birthday. Craig has been playing professional rugby league since 1996, and is currently with the Newcastle Knights. He has been selected for the national squad, New South Wales, and City. Craig has also played rugby union in France and Italy. Amanda is a model, media personality, and former Penrith Panthers cheerleader. Craig and David Gower are not related, as far as I know.

NRL player Josh Hoffman, and his wife Emma, welcomed their daughter Leilani Grace in July. The middle name is in honour of Josh’s mother, Grace, who passed away unexpectedly in 2009. Josh has played for the Brisbane Broncos since 2008, and has also been selected for the New Zealand national team. He is related to retired rugby league star Wendell Sailor, and to Dane Gagai and Travis Waddell, who play for the Newcastle Knights. Emma is a registered nurse.

Cricketer Sarah Elliott, and her husband Rob, welcomed their son Samuel, known as “Sam“, about nine months ago. Sarah made her debut for Victoria Spirit during the 2000-01 season, and made her debut on the women’s national team in 2005, against England. During the Women’s Ashes series this month in England, Sarah became the first Australian mother to make a century. Rob is a cricket coach at the Northern Territory Institute of Sport, and accompanied Sarah and Sam on tour.

Actor and comedy writer Jason Gann, and his wife Alejandra Varela, welcomed their first child on August 13, and have named their son Xano William. Xano is a Brazilian short form of Alexandro, a masculine form of Alejandra’s name, while William is Jason’s own middle name. The name is pronounced SHAH-no.

Jason first gained national attention when his short film Wilfred won Best Comedy and the People’s Choice Award at Tropfest in 2002, while Jason himself gained Best Actor in that year and the next. He went on to write and star in 52 episodes of TV sketch show The Wedge, as well its spin-off show, Mark Loves Sharon.

In 2007 he wrote and starred in the TV series Wilfred, based on his short film. Both seasons won awards at Tropfest, and he received AFI Awards for Best Comedy and Best Screenplay in a Television Series. In 2010, Wilfred was sold to a US TV network and redeveloped for the American market, with Jason co-starring with Elijah Wood.

Alejandra is a Spanish-born actress and model; she and Jason were married in February this year.

Rugby union player Nathan Hines, and his wife Leann, welcomed twins named Lachlan and Chloe on June 4, a brother and sister for Joshua, aged 4. The twins’ birth was announced on Twitter.

Nathan started out in rugby league, playing for the North Sydney Bears in 1997, before switching to rugby union at Manly Rugby Union Football Club the following year. Since then, he has played for rugby union teams in Scotland, Ireland and France, as well as being selected for Scotland’s national team, and the British and Irish Lions. He is currently with French team ASM Clermont Auvergne.

Chloe is a very popular name in France, and Joshua is rising in popularity there, but Lachlan’s name seems as if it will stand out in his country of birth.

(Photo shows Nathan, Leann and Joshua)

Liberal party candidate, Zed Seselja, and his wife Ros, welcomed their daughter Grace on September 2. Grace Seselja was born at 11:15 am weighing 4.5 kg (9lb 15oz), and she joins older siblings Michael, Tommy, William and Olivia. Grace is thirteen years younger than her eldest brother.

Zdenko or “Zed” was a member of the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly from 2004 to 2013, and was Opposition Leader from 2007 to 2013. He won the electorate of Brindabella in last year’s territory elections, but this year he stood down as party leader to run for the senate in this year’s Federal Election, which is on September 7.

Zed’s campaigning duties have been scaled back because of Grace’s birth, and he is visiting the hospital several times a day. Ros and Grace will be leaving hospital soon.

The name Muhammad joined the national Top 100 last year, which was also its first time in the New South Wales Top 100. However, data from the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages shows that, if you combine all the variant spellings, Muhammad has been in the Top 25 of the state since 2010, giving it a similar level of popularity to Xavier, Jayden, Mason and Charlie.

This trend looks likely to continue, with 161 baby boys named Muhammad, Mohamed, Muhammed or Mohammed already born in the state this year between January and August.

Muslin leader and community spokesperson, Keysar Trad, who has a son named Muhammad, believes that these statistics are a sign that Australian Muslims are becoming more confident in giving their children Islamic names.

He thinks that they show a greater acceptance of Muslim names in the wider community, and a healthier connection with their religion amongst Muslims.

Mr Trad says that religious names not only allow an expression of devotion to God, but allow parents to reclaim an aspect of their culture.

By choosing the name of a significant religious figure, they hope that their child will share in the good qualities of that name, and perhaps be inspired to learn more about it when they get older.

“You think that one day, maybe they will read up on the significance on the name,” he said.

The prophet Muhammad’s full name was Abū al-Qāsim Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib ibn Hāshim, and he was a 6^th century leader from Mecca in Arabia who unified his country under Islam.

According to his own testimony, at the age of 40, he began receiving revelations from God through the archangel Gabriel, and a few years later began preaching these revelations. He proclaimed that “God is One”, and that complete surrender to Him was the only acceptable path to God – the word Islam itself means “surrender”. Muhammad declared himself a prophet, and a messenger sent by God.

The revelations which Muhammad reported receiving until his death in his early 60s form the Quran, which is the basis of the Muslim religion, and regarded by Muslims as the Word of God.

The name Muhammad means “praised, praiseworthy” in Arabic, and it is a very popular name amongst Muslims. It has a variety of transliterations and spellings because of the different languages used in the Islamic world.

It is believed that Muhammad, counting all variant spellings, is the most common personal name in the world, with an estimated 150 million men and boys bearing the name. It is the most common boys name in England/Wales, and in the United States, if all the spelling variants were combined, Muhammad would be in the Top 200 and rising, with a similar popularity to Silas, Maddox, Weston and Greyson.

There is a popular theory that names which are too “ethnic” sounding should be avoided lest they lead to discrimination, and you can find studies which show that in many cases, it can be harder to get a job interview if the name on your resume looks “foreign” (although this Australian study showed it depended where you lived and what kind of “ethnic” your name was).

Kayser Trad acknowledged that there have been cases where people with an obviously Muslim name had trouble getting a job, but he doesn’t believe the answer is to “go into hiding”, or change your name to Charlie Edwards to get an interview.

It also occurs to me that this theory assumes that all businesses are owned and all industries are controlled by people from an Anglo background, and that all people in charge of such businesses would prefer not to employ non-Anglo people. That just isn’t true.

I watched the daily business report on television yesterday, and noted that of the half dozen spokespeople from major businesses interviewed, four of them had ethnic names, including two with Arabic names. Furthermore, many businesses are owned by people from non-Anglo heritages, and having a Muslim name may prove an advantage in some areas.

Businesses in areas with a strong migrant community could prefer to hire people from a similar background for greater rapport with and understanding of their customer base, and your name shouldn’t be any disadvantage in the public and non-profit sector – about 25% of the workforce, and in some areas, up to 80% of the workforce.

Muhammad joining the Top 100 is a watershed in Australian society, but it should also be remembered that the majority of names on the boys Top 100 are of Jewish or Christian origin, with many names of pagan origin only coming into popular use through saints, such as George and Aidan, and even surname names developing because of saints, such as Mitchell and Jackson.

If you are interested how names of other religious figures fare in New South Wales, during the 2000s more than one baby each year, but less than six, were named Jesus or Moses, and in the same period most years saw about 7-11 babies named Abraham. By July this year, 10 babies named Krishna had been born. Hmm, this could be another growth area …

(The picture shows a 17th century Ottoman calligraphy panel by Hafiz Osman, describing the physical appearance of the prophet Muhammad; it is not permitted to show images of Muhammad in Islam)

Actress Brooke Harman, and her husband, director Jeffrey Walker, welcomed their first child on June 24, and have named their son Boston Scott. Boston Walker was born at 10.38 pm, and weighed 3.6 kg (7lb 15oz); Brooke announced his birth on her blog.

Brooke was born in the United States, and came to Australia as a young child, growing up in Queensland. Her first television role was at the age of 11, on the children’s series, The Wayne Manifesto. She has guest starred on shows such as Home and Away and All Saints, and been in a few films, including the 2003 version of Ned Kelly. Brooke had the lead role in children’s drama series, Pirate Island, and recently had a recurring role on teen drama series, Dance Academy.

Jeffrey started out as a child actor, with his first role at the age of 6, on House Rules. He had major roles in Round the Twist, Ocean Girl, and Mirror, Mirror, and was the star of The Wayne Manifesto, for which he received a Young Actor’s Award from the Australian Film Institute. He and Brooke first met on the set of The Wayne Manifesto. Jeffrey is now a television director who has worked on soaps such as Neighbours and Home and Away, as well as children’s series such as Wicked Science, H2O, The Elephant Princess, and Blue Water High. Jeffrey also plays guitar for the indie rock band, Ballet Imperial.

(Photo of Brooke and Boston from Hello Sailor)

Thank you to Nicole for sending in this celebrity baby tip! All celebrity baby news is gratefully received.

NRL player Dylan Farrell, and his partner Hayley Mundy [pictured], welcomed their son Derain about a week ago. Derain Farrell joins big sister Leilani, aged 3. Derain is a place in New South Wales, whose name is said to come from an Aboriginal language meaning “of the mountains”; Dylan grew up on an Aboriginal mission on the South Coast. Dylan has played for South Sydney Rabbitohs since 2010, and has been signed with the St. George Illawarra Dragons for next season. Souths will face Manly in the finals on Friday.

Soccer star Mark Milligan, and his wife Rhia, welcomed their daughter Audrey earlier this year. Audrey Milligan joins big sister Maya. Mark has been playing professionally since 2002, and is currently signed with Melbourne Victory; he is also a member of the national team, the Socceroos.

Local rugby league player Chris Thompson, and his wife Chrystal, welcomed their son Chandon early in the year. Chandon Thompson joins big sister Alaqua, aged 4, and big brother Mataeo, aged 2. Chris plays for CYMS in Dubbo. Chandon is a French surname, taken from a common place name in France; it is most associated with the champagne Moët & Chandon.

Former Miss Australia, model and media personality Rachael Finch, and her husband Michael Miziner, welcomed their first child on September 24, and have named their daughter Violet Rachael. Violet’s middle name seems to be after her mother.

Rachael won the Queensland Model of the Year contest in 2004, while she was still in high school, and signed with IMG. She received the People’s Choice Award for Miss Teen Australia in 2006, and was crowned Miss Australia in 2009; she came third runner-up in the subsequent Miss Universe pageant that year. After her pageant wins, she came third in Celebrity Masterchef 2009, and was a contestant on Dancing with the Stars in 2010. She has worked as a fill-in radio host on NovaFM, and currently does a daily weather report on Channel Seven’s Sunrise.

Michael was born in Russia and came to Australia as a child (Rachael is half-Ukrainian on her mother’s side). He is a professional ballroom dancer, and he and Rachael met when they were partnered on Dancing with the Stars in 2010. Michael and Rachael were married in January this year, and discovered they were expecting a baby while on their honeymoon in Thailand.

(Photo of Rachael and Michael from the Townsville Bulletin)

Basketball coach Carrie Graf, and her partner Camille Chicheportiche, welcomed twins Charli and Bentley on June 21. Charli was born first, weighing 2.8 kg, and her brother Bentley followed just two minutes later, weighing 2.7 kg. Charli and Bentley were conceived with the help of IVF, using an international sperm donor who is open to revealing his identity to the twins if they want that. The twins both have Chicheportiche as their middle name, since a hyphenated surname seemed too unwieldy.

Carrie began her basketball career at the age of 15, and competed in the Women’s National Basketball League from 1983-89 before studying to become a coach. She has coached women’s basketball for over 20 years, and was named WNBL Coach of the Year in 2007 and 2008. She holds the most records for coaching wins, with more than 200 under her belt. She has coached the Sydney Flames and the Canberra Capitals; she coached the latter during their 2008/2009 season when they won the WNBL Championship. Carrie was the first Australian to be named a head coach in the American WNBA, coaching the Phoenix Mercury. She has also coached the national women’s basketball team, taking them to medal wins at two Summer Olympics, winning the FIBA Oceania Championship, and the World University Games. Carrie won High Performance Coach of the Year and Young Coach of the Year in 1996, was awarded an Australian Sports Medal for services to basketball in 2000, and was named a life member of the WNBL in 2006. She was Sportsperson of the Year in 2008.

Camille, who carried the twins, is on maternity leave from the Australian Federal Police. She and Carrie have been together for seven years after being introduced by mutual friends, and wear rings as a sign of their committment. The couple live in the ACT where same-sex marriage is about to be legalised, but even if the legislation gets through, they have no immediate plans to marry.

(Picture shows Carrie and Camille with the twins – Carrie is on the right holding Charli in pink; photo from the Sydney Morning Herald).

Actress Tammin Sursok, and her husband Sean McEwen, welcomed their first child on October 8 and have named their daughter Phoenix Emmanuel. Phoenix Sursok-McEwen was born around 9.30 pm, and weighed 4.4 kg (just under 10 lb).

Tammin is originally from South Africa, and moved to Sydney while still a very young child. She began her acting career in 2000 on Home and Away as rebellious teen Dani Sutherland, a role for which she won a Logie for Best New Female Talent the following year. In 2002 she was named Junior Youth Ambassador for New South Wales, and in 2003 received the Australian Centenary Medal for Service to Australian Society and Acting. After leaving the show she brought out an album, which was successful in Australia. In 2006 she relocated to Los Angeles to further her career, became a regular cast member on soap opera The Young and the Restless, and later had a recurring role on Hannah Montana. Since 2010 she has played Jenna Marshall on the teen drama Pretty Little Liars.

Sean is an American actor, writer, director and producer; his film Happy’s Last Wish has won multiple awards and been shown at numerous film festivals. He and Tammin were married in Florence in 2011.

(Photo of Tammin and Sean’s wedding from Woman’s Day)

Author and media personality Kathryn Eisman, and her husband Siimon Reynolds, welcomed their first child on October 13, and have named their daughter Capri Mirabelle. Capri Reynolds was born at 7.51 am weighing 3.8 kg (8 lb 8 oz) at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Capri’s birth was announced on Twitter.

Kathryn was born in Sydney and studied journalism at the University of Technology, Sydney before moving to New York City. She started out at WNBC’s morning news show, Today in New York. She has hosted several lifestyle/entertainment shows, and been a reporter on morning shows on Channels Ten and Seven. She is the author of several books, such as How to Tell a Woman by Her Handbag, is columnist on several magazines, including Cleo and Men’s Health, and a blogger for websites such as Yahoo!

Siimon is an Australian business mentor, motivational speaker, and author of self-help books such as Why People Fail. He was one of Australia’s youngest self-made millionaires, making his fortune by 21, and was part of the advertising group behind the notorious “Grim Reaper” AIDS campaign in the 1980s.  He is chairman of website group OMG. Siimon and Kathryn were married in Palm Springs, California, in 2011.

(Photo of Kathryn and Siimon from the Sydney Morning Herald)

NRL football player James Tamou, and his partner Brittney McGlone, welcomed their first child in August, and have named their son Brooklyn Knox.

James is originally from New Zealand, and moved to Australia when he was 13. He has played for the North Queensland Cowboys since 2009, and in 2010 he was named their most improved player. He has played for the New Zealand Maori team, and has recently represented both Australia and New South Wales. Currently James is in England for the Rugby League World Cup, playing for the Australian national squad.

Brittney is a full-time professional athlete, a 400-metre hurdler at the Australian Institute of Sport. One of her hobbies is running in stilettos, and she has won all four races that have been held in Australia – two of them for Guinness world records. She has also been entering fashion-on-the-field competitions on race days since she was a teenager, and last year was crowned Myer Face of Canberra Racing.

(Photo from Facebook)

Olympic aerial ski-er Alisa Camplin, and her husband, Oliver Warner, welcomed their daughter Florence on October 3. Florence Warner was born at the Royal Women’s Hospital in Melbourne. Alisa and Oliver lost their first child, Finnan, in 2011, and set up the charity Finnan’s Gift in his honour.

Local cricketer Matt Scheiser welcomed his daughter Ella last month. Matt plays for the Port Douglas Mudcrabs in Queensland.

Northern Ireland’s motorcycle racer, Jonathan Rea, and his Australian wife Tatia, welcomed their first child on September 27, and have named their son Jake Elijah [pictured]. Jonathan competes in the Superbike World Championships for Castrol Honda, and has been named Irish Motorcyclist of the Year three times. Tatia is from Philip Island in Victoria, and she and Jonathan live on the Isle of Man.

Bookmakers Luke and Claire Behrmann welcomed their first child on September 24, and have named their son Noah. Luke is the managing director of the Behrmann Group in Sydney.

Golfer Steve Jones welcomed his son Jackson in August. Steve is from Victoria.

Chef Ben Willis, and his wife Andy, welcomed their first child on July 7, and named their daughter Chloe. Ben owns the Aubergine restaurant in Canberra, which won the Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide Regional Restaurant of the Year.

Australasian International Boxing Federation lightweight champion Brett W. Smith, and his wife Taryn, welcomed their daughter Zara in May. Brett has been a professional fighter for five years, and is an electrical foreman on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland.

Author Felicity Castagna welcomed her son Zain this year. Felicity teaches writing in the community, and at the University of Western Sydney, where she is a doctoral candidate. She recently launched her first novel, a story for young adults set in Parramatta called The Incredible Here and Now; she completed writing it the same day she went into labour with her son, who the book is dedicated to.

AFL footballer Michael Walters, and his partner Marnie Tyers, welcomed their daughter Laila last year. Michael has been playing for the Fremantle Dockers since 2009, and as a junior player won the Kevin Sheehan Medal as the best player in the Under 16 Championship. Michael and Marnie are currently expecting another child.

The 44^th Parliament of Australia opened yesterday at 10.40 am, with the swearing in of new MPs. When I covered a name from the election back in September, I hinted that there might be more political names coming up when all the votes had been counted. Now more than two months later, after an extraordinary vote-counting process which seems to have been more than usually disorganised, all results seem to have been declared, and we can go ahead with some names from politics.

One of the electorates which political pundits were keeping a close eye on was Indi. The division of Indi is in north-eastern Victoria, and its northern border is the Murray River, while in the south-east it is bordered by the Australian Alps. Its largest settlement is the city of Wodonga, on the border between Victoria and New South Wales. Although one of the largest electorates in Victoria, much of it lies within the Alpine National Park and is uninhabited.

Indi has existed continuously since Federation, being one of the original 75 electorates formed in 1900, and for almost all of its history has voted conservative. The last time Labor won here was in 1928, and that was because the conservative candidate rather carelessly forgot to nominate. The first person to represent Indi was Sir Isaac Isaacs, who went on to become Attorney-General, Chief Justice of the High Court, and the first Australian-born Governor-General.

The name Indi is taken from a local Indigenous name for the Murray River. Names starting with Ind- are very trendy in Australian, such Indiana, India, Indigo, Indie and Indy, and Indi seems like a great way to follow this trend with a specifically Australian meaning. It could be used for either sex, although many people feel an -i ending seems “feminine” eg Toni is for girls, Tony for boys.

Traditionally, Indi has been represented by what has been described as the “rural gentry”, but this changed in 2001 when former Melbourne barrister Sophie Panopulous (later Sophie Mirabella) won the seat with a primary vote of 40%. She was dubbed “Uptown Girl” by those who didn’t relish the thought of a young, female, Greek-Australian city lawyer representing their rural seat; however she had no trouble gaining pre-selection for the seat from the Liberal Party, and easily defeated her opponents.

Sophie continued to win elections in the safe Liberal seat, however some residents felt that she was taking them for granted. They formed a grassroots movement, Voice for Indi, to find an Independent candidate to run against Sophie Mirabella, and eventually Cathy McGowan accepted.

Cathy had been a staffer for Indi’s Liberal MP in the 1970s and ’80s, a regional councillor for the Victorian Farmer’s Federation, and President of Australian Women in Agriculture. She has a Masters in Applied Science in Agricultural and Rural Development, and received an Order of Australia for raising awareness of women’s issues in regional, rural and remote areas. Cathy lives in Indigo Valley, where she was born and raised, and works as a farmer and rural consultant.

The contest in Indi was extremely close, and counting of votes went on for eleven days, but on September 18, Sophie Mirabella conceded defeat and Cathy McGowan claimed victory by 431 votes, giving her a swing of 9.2% and a slender majority of 0.2% – the first time an Independent has won in rural Victoria since World War II, and the first Independent to ever win Indi. I believe this was the narrowest win in the lower house for this year’s election, and Sophie Mirabella was the only Liberal incumbent to lose her seat.

I can’t help feeling rather tickled that an Independent from Indigo Valley won the seat of Indi. Amazingly, nobody thought to use this as a headline, which would have been rather fetching.

An important message from the Voice for Indi election campaign is that a sitting MP should never take a safe seat for granted in the long term. The good news is that if you are stuck with a lacklustre MP in your electorate, you may be able to get rid of them with the right candidate, a well-orchestrated campaign, and grassroots support. Yay, people power!

Although she didn’t manage to make herself very popular in politics, Sophie Mirabella has a fantastic surname.

Mirabella is an Italian name which is the Latinate form of the English name Mirabel, from the Latin for “wonderful”. In the Middle Ages, Mirabel was a unisex name, but is now considered feminine, while Mirabella is specifically feminine (the male form is Mirabello – Mirabello Cavalori was an Italian painter during the Renaissance).

Beautiful, elaborate and right on trend, Mirabella would be a great choice for someone who loves Miranda and Isabella, but worries they seem too common. This has been chosen as a name for his daughter by Canadian rock singer Bryan Adams, and it’s a long-time favourite of Linda Rosenkrantz from Nameberry – that’s a very high recommendation! You could use hip Mira or popular Bella as the short form.

One other issue is that Mirabella is the name of an Australian company which makes electric light-bulbs, but when you think about it, light is a positive association. Unfortunately, I fear that the widely-loathed Mrs Mirabella may have done this pretty name more harm than a few light globes ever could.

(Photo shows the Murray River near Wondoga, from where the Division of Indi receives its name)

Rugby union player Matt Giteau, and his netball player wife, Bianca, welcomed their son Kai James on November 12 in Toulon, France. Kai Giteau joins big brother Levi, aged nearly 2. Levi’s birth was announced on the blog last year.

(Photo of Matt with Kai from Twitter)

Sailing champions Mathew and Rike Belcher welcomed their first child on September 4, and have named their son Anton Rolf.

Mathew or “Mat” Belcher is an Olympic Gold Medallist in the 470 class Dinghy. Mat carried the flag during the closing ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympics, competed at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, and won gold at the 2012 Olympics in London, with fellow crew member Malcolm Page. Mat was named Australian Sailor of the Year last month, and recently won the (male) World Sailor of the Year Award – just the second Australian to have won the award in 19 years.

Friederike or “Rike” Belcher (nee Ziegelmayer) is an Olympian sailor, also a world champion in the 470 class. She has competed both for Australia, and her native Germany.

Singer Toby Allen, and his boyfriend, actor Darren Weller, welcomed twins named Harvey and Roxanne six months ago. Harvey and Roxanne were carried by a surrogate mother from California, who has since visited the twins.

Toby is a member of the pop group Human Nature, along with Andrew and Mike Tierney, and Phil Burton. All schoolmates with a background in choir, they formed a band while still in high school. Their debut album, Telling Everybody, was released in 1996, and went triple platinum; it is considered one of Australia’s most successful debut albums. They have continued to bring out top-selling albums, toured with acts like Michael Jackson and Celine Dion, and performed the national anthem at the 2000 Olympics. Since 2005, they have been associated with Motown stars like Smokey Robinson and Mary Wilson, and after performing in the United States in 2008, have become a resident act on the Las Vegas Strip. Toby has played the lead role in the musical Cabaret, for which he won a Helpmann Award, and also appeared in Grease. He has competed on Dancing with the Stars, and Australia’s Brainiest, where he came runner-up as Australia’s brainiest musician (his bandmate Phil Burton won).

Darren has appeared in several television series, such as All Saints and White Collar Blue, but is principally a stage actor. He is best known for portraying Julian Assange in the “Wikiplay”, Stainless Steel Rat/Man in the Middle, which has been staged in Sydney and London. The play was regularly updated to reflect changing events. Darren and Toby have been together for nine years, and live in Las Vegas in the United States.

(Photo shows Darren and Toby with the twins; Toby is on the right)