Working her way to the top

To strive, to work, to labour.  Name experts aren't completely sure where the name Amelia comes from but their favourite explanation is as a version of the German name, Amalia, which means 'work'.  And perhaps that is the most appropriate meaning for this girls name.  For after years of striving, working and trying, Amelia is top dog.

Amelia was the most popular name for little girls born in England in 2011.  Old favourites like Chloe, Lily and Olivia were scattered to the winds by the surprise triumph of a name that's always been a bit of an outsider.  While most etymologists go for the German theory of Amalia now, for years little Amelia was seen as a slightly fancy and really rather unnecessary way of using that old favourite, Emily.

The name first really came to notice with the arrival of a new royal family.  When Queen Anne died in 1714, having been predeceased by her nineteen children, the crown went to a distant German cousin.  George I arrived in England complete with an heir called George and a smattering of grandchildren, among them a Princess Amelia.  George I's queen had been locked in a tower long ago and the new king was distinctly lacking in family.  In fact his son, complete with wife and infant children, was it for the royals at that time.  And overnight princess Amelia went from unknown to celebrity status - and the same could be said for her name.  And when her trendy mother started going in for new fangled practices like vaccinations for her children, Amelia's currency in the fame game went sky high.

The little girl who arrived from a foreign land grew into the elder stateswomen of British princesses.  Deprived of her one true love in the royal marriage market, she remained a spinster and shocked much of upper class society by taking on jobs and speaking her mind.  Mocked for refusing to listen to flattery and preferring honest answers, as she moved into her seventies she was loved and revered by many.  Among them her nephew, now George III, who called the youngest of his fifteen children after his aunt.

The new princess Amelia was a favourite of her father and praised for her beauty and grace almost from birth.  But even as a teenager she showed signs of poor health.  A brief affair with a servant while recovering from a bout of illness was as close as she came to love as her father's increasing mental health problems, and her family's close ties, stopped any real discussion of marriage for the princess and several of her sisters. Aged just 27, Amelia became seriously ill and died soon afterwards.  George III never recovered from her loss and his grief at her death is one of the reasons given for his final descent into the madness that led to the Regency.

The name disappeared from royal life thereafter.  It dipped in and out of the top fifty names, helped by the publication in 1751 of Henry Fielding's novel of the same name.  But by the 20th century its popularity was waning and it was a name for maiden aunts and dusty spinsters, its prominence kept briefly alive by the exploits of aviator Amelia Earheart.

The 21st century has proved kinder to Amelia.  In 2003, the Crown Prince of Holland and his wife chose the name for their eldest child.  Catharina Amalia will one day be Queen of the Netherlands and by the time she was born the name Amalia/Amelia was already gaining ground across Europe.  Just eight years later it tops the charts in England.  Its moment in the sun has been a long time coming, but a prize worth the hard work.

Just wild about Harry

It's been a good week for Harrys.  First of all the most famous Harry, that young prince from Wales, was for one night only king of the Olympic castle as he stood in for the Queen at the closing ceremony of London 2012.  And then just a few hours later, his thousands of namesakes claimed a title of their own when Harry was revealed as the most popular name for baby boys born in England in 2011.

It's the first time the name has ever topped the charts.  In fact for many years, Harry failed to register in the top tens or fifties or even hundreds despite many of the male population bearing the name.  It began life as an English attempt to pronounce the imported French name, Henri, written as Henry.  Nearly every boy christened Henry was called Harry by friends, foes and family until English minds got to grip with saying the new name.  Henry grew in poularity, soon joining that select group of men's names that remained evergreen and as every family with a plethora of sons acquired a Henry, the sound of Harry spread throughout the country.

From Harry to Hal and by the time Shakespeare came to record the Wars of the Roses and the Tudor dynasties in his plays it was a royal name, linked to princes who became great kings in the prose of the Bard.  But while the name remained steadily popular it could never challenge the Johns and the Williams who outnumbered allcomers in every list of popular names in England.

But now, after hundreds of years, it has reached the top of the tree.  It only fell out of favour in the sixties, associated then with old men and uncles smelling of stale tobacco.  But by the time the latest royal Henry made his appearance in 1984 it was gaining favour once more and in recent years it has skirted the upper echelons of boys' names once more,.  Its rule at the top may be brief - even if the choice of boys' names remains as static now as it has in the past.  But in a year when the country started to like itself again and remember with pride the great words that have told its past and present, perhaps it is appropriate that the most English of names is the one parents are flocking to again.