Baby name story: Garance

Madder (Garance in French)
Madder (Garance in French)

American journalist/editor Garance Franke-Ruta was born in the summer of 1972 in southeastern France, then “raised by artistic parents in Mexico and New Mexico.”

Here’s how Garance (pronounced gah-RAHNSS) explained the origin of her unusual first name (links added by me):

The river Durance runs through the Vaucluse, and I was named Garance in honor of that sound and the main character in Marcel Carne’s Les Enfants du Paradis, one of the classics of French cinema. The character, played by Arletty, uses Garance as a stage name, though her real name in the movie is Claire Reine.

The French word garance refers to several things: the madder plant, the dye made from the root of the madder plant, and the deep purple-red color of that dye.

What are your thoughts on the name Garance?

Sources:

P.S. Garance was also the name of one of the days (Brumaire 23/November 13) of the French republican calendar, which was used during the French Revolution.

Baby name story: Mikado

The Mikado

From mid-1885 until the end of 1886, English actor James Danvers appeared in the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company’s touring production of the Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera The Mikado.

During that period — specifically, in early 1886 — he and his wife welcomed a baby boy in Liverpool.

What did they name him?

William Mikado Danvers.

That baby grew up to become comedic entertainer Billy Danvers. He appeared in music hall and variety shows from the age of four until the year he died (1964).

The Japanese word mikado, pronounced mih-KAH-doh, was formerly used as a title for the emperor of Japan. (These days, the preferred term is tenno.)

Sources: James Danvers – The D’Oyly Carte Opera Company, Willie Mikado Danvers – FamilySearch, Don Ross and ‘Thanks for the Memory’ – Voices of Variety, Tenno – Japanese title – Britannica

Baby name story: Nylic

New York Life Insurance Company illustration

Around the turn of the 20th century, Marshall and Ruby Bland of Milledgeville, Georgia, welcomed a total of four children — three girls and one boy. Their names were…

  • Elizabeth, or “Bessie” (born in 1895)
  • Nylic (b. 1898)
  • Lucie (b. 1900)
  • Marshall, Jr. (b. 1902)

How did their second daughter come to have the unusual name Nylic?

It was inspired by her father’s occupation: Marshall Bland was a local representative for the New York Life Insurance Company, also known by the acronym NYLIC.

And Nylic Bland’s business-based name ended up coming in handy several years later.

The Bland family attended St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, which had been damaged during the Civil War (specifically, during Sherman‘s March to the Sea in 1864).

In 1909, the congregation began raising funds to replace the original organ (into the pipes of which Union soldiers had poured molasses 45 years earlier).

Eleven-year-old Nylic took it upon herself to write to businessman George W. Perkins — who’d been the vice-president of NYLIC around the time she was born — to ask if he could make a contribution. In response, she received a telegram that stated: “Buy the organ and send the bill to me.”

Sources:

Image: Clipping from the New-York Life Insurance Company Annual Report (1907)

[Latest update: Nov. 2024]

Baby name story: Fiona

baby hippo

In July of 2021, Kerbe Shephard unexpectedly went into labor while visiting the Cincinnati Zoo with her husband David and son Bryce.

Later that day, the family welcomed a baby girl — born four weeks premature.

On a previous trip to the Cincinnati Zoo, Bryce had insisted that his future baby sister be named Fiona after the zoo’s famous Fiona the Hippo. (The hippo had been born six weeks premature in 2017 and required round-the-clock care in order to survive.)

At the time, Kerbe and her husband weren’t keen on Bryce’s suggestion.

My husband and I laughed, “Ok, buddy! That sounds great…we’ll add it to the list!” — knowing that we had other plans for names and we certainly wouldn’t name our daughter after a hippo.

After meeting their baby girl, though, they reconsidered.

The baby’s arrival had coincided with a trip to the Cincinnati Zoo, and she (like the hippo) was a preemie who would need special care, as she was born with both Down Syndrome and a congenital heart defect — “complications that we knew she would overcome,” said Kerbe.

So they decided to name her Fiona after all.

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Baby Hippo by Tim Sackton under CC BY-SA 2.0.

[Latest update: Feb. 2025]