Australian Names

22. January 2009, 8:00 UhrPopular CulturePlanning Queen12 comments

Whilst trawling the internet to find a name for our fifth baby, I came across names from all origins: Gaelic, Nordic, French, Germanic, Italian and so on. This made me think, is there such a thing as an Australian name?

I racked my brains (and the internet) to try and come up a list of common “Australian” names. This was what I achieved:

Male:
Barry (my beloved dad’s name) – with the eloquent abbreviation of Bazza
Darren – with its abbreviation of Dazza
Jason – Naturally shorten to Jas
Craig – Maybe this list is too influenced by my teenage years of watching Neighbours!

Female:
Kylie – meaning curled stick; boomerang
Sharon – and of course the abbreviation of Shazza
Raelene – cited as a modern invented name!
Narelle – cited as Aboriginal for a companion.
Lyndal – cited to mean a waterfall.

So what do you think? Is there such a thing as an “Australian” name? A name when you hear it immediately identifies itself as being from Australia, like for example Seamus or Sean does with Ireland? What names would you add to this list?

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12 comments

12 comments:

  1. Moses @ BeerandSport.net, 22. January 2009, 10:05

    Bruce is pretty occa, as is Sheila

     
  2. Pseudonym, 22. January 2009, 17:01

    Apart from Indigenous names, I’ve noticed that Australians definitely use a different mix of names than in other countries.

    I’ve never met anyone called Lyndal, but I know several people with very Welsh names like Bronwyn and Myfanwy (famously shortened to Myf in the case of one Australian celebrity). Australia also probably has more Trevors and Lachlans per capita than any other country.

     
  3. Kay Smoljak, 23. January 2009, 21:33

    Isn’t Jason about as Greek as you can get? The Argonauts and the Golden Fleece and all that?

    Maybe the massive Greek population in Australia is why that one makes your list.

     
  4. Jan, 24. January 2009, 7:59

    You have got to be joking! All those names are from the same decade. And they are all used in comedy shows. (Sorry to all the Kylies, Craigs, Narelles and Sharons.) But all Australian names are derived from other cultures unless you are indigenous.

     
  5. Bryce, 25. January 2009, 12:49

    Shouldn’t you have written “common for post-Baby Boomer/Baby Boomer children”?

     
  6. ribbon, 26. January 2009, 0:24

    I think your list is spot on! Made me smile :-)

     
  7. ribbon, 26. January 2009, 0:25

    ps i think you forgot Bruce

     
  8. Lorne Fade, 30. January 2009, 21:20

    I loved the list, spot on for Australian names.

     
  9. Jed Rose, 31. January 2009, 22:35

    Not sure, but I’m thinking Kaylene, Darlene, Faylene (getting a pattern here?)

     
  10. Prizetastic, 27. February 2009, 18:58

    LOL!!! Bazza, Shazza & Dazza for sure….. :D

     
  11. Enrique, 3. March 2009, 3:21

    Where do you get this details?

    Our daughter name is Katia and I’d like check it in the list

     
  12. Marcus, 8. March 2009, 14:24

    Definitely gotta have Bruce in there! Warren (Wazza or Rabbits) is also a good one