The small Canadian city of Port Alberni, which is located on Vancouver Island, finally welcomed its first baby of 2023 on the morning of January 4.
Born at West Coast General Hospital to parents Andre-Anne and Joseph Danshin, the baby boy was named Solander Laurent Danshin.
Why “Solander”?
He was named after Solander Island, an ecological reserve off the northwest coast of Vancouver Island. Both his parents work at sea, said Andre-Anne.
“It’s a name that resonates a lot with us,” she said.
The small, rocky island of Solander — which was named in honor of Swedish botanist Daniel Solander (1733-1782), who had been a pupil of Carl Linnaeus — was designated as a reserve in 1971 in order to “protect large colonies of breeding seabirds and their habitat.”
The Swedish surname Solander is made up of the elements sol, meaning “sun” in Swedish (and various other languages), and andros, meaning “man” in Ancient Greek. (Andros is also an element in Andre-Anne’s compound first name.)
What are your thoughts on the name Solander?
P.S. Solander has an older brother named Beaufort.
Sources:
- Rardon, Elena. “Port Alberni’s first baby of 2023 has arrived.” Alberni Valley News 9 Jan. 2023.
- Solander Island Ecological Reserve – BC Parks
- Hanks, Patrick. (Ed.) Dictionary of American Family Names. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2022.
Image: Adapted from Solander Island by Padraic Ryan under CC BY-SA 3.0.
I like it a lot if it’s pronounced with the stress on the second syllable (so-LAND-er). But if it rhymes with colander, I’m not into it.
I believe Solander might actually rhyme with “colander” — at least when it’s pronounced by English speakers. (I don’t know how Swedes would say it.)