Catrin’s visit to Wagamama

August 27th, 2011 by Roger Darlington

Today I indulged in one of my favourite activities: spending time with my gorgeous granddaughter Catrin (now seven and a half months).

I was supposed to be babysitting this evening so that her mum & dad could go out and visit friends, but I was advised early in the day that she had her first cold, she had slept badly, and mum & dad would not therefore be going out this evening. But I was invited to spend some time with Catrin and parents in the afternoon.

In spite of her cold, Catrin was in good spirits and gurgling happily. When we went out, we managed to dodge the showers and for the first time I carried Catrin in the sling with her facing out to the world.

We went for some lunch to a branch of Wagamama on London’s South Bank and Catrin had the odd noodle. Back at the flat, I read stories to Catrin before her dad gave her a bath (her favourite time of the day).

“Remind me again –
what are these child chopsticks for exactly?”

“I wonder why it’s called Wagamama
and not Wagadada?”

“I love it when granddad reads to me.”

Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (1)

What’s it like to be a NEET?

August 26th, 2011 by Roger Darlington

A NEET is a young person not in education, employment or training. What’s it like? “Being NEET, is no fun at all.” Who says so? My son Richard in this online piece.

Posted in British current affairs | Comments (2)

New views of St Paul’s Cathedral

August 25th, 2011 by Roger Darlington

Today I had a business lunch with a BT colleague at a restaurant close to the company’s headquarters in Paternoster Square which is next to St Paul’s Cathedral. I took the opportunity afterwards to call into the new shopping centre One New Change.

I confess that I was less interested in the shops than in the new views which the complex presents of the familiar London landmark of St Paul’s Cathedral.

View between shops on the ground floor

View from observation platform of the 6th floor

Posted in Miscellaneous, My life & thoughts | Comments (0)

A review of “Never Let Me Go”

August 25th, 2011 by Roger Darlington

I’ve read the 1985 novel by Kazuo Ishiguro [my review here] and now I’ve seen the faithful 2010 film adaptation [my review here].

Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)

Ever seen locks of love?

August 24th, 2011 by Roger Darlington

“By mid afternoon, it was raining but – like the true Brits that they are – Roger & Silvia had umbrellas and kept going, determined to see as much as possible of the city. We left the Old Town and wandered around a park centred on the City Canal. The iron bridges over the canal were festooned with metal locks inscribed with the names of lovers and the dates that they were locked in place – how romantic (but what happens if you fall out of love and cannot find the key?).”

This is an extract from my account of a trip to the Baltic States with my sister in 2008 and the location was the city of Riga, the capital of Latvia.

According to this article in today”s “Guardian” newspaper, the idea of fitting a lock to a bridge as an act of love comes from the 2006 novel “I Want You” by Federico Moccia – something I didn’t know before.

In the novel, the location in question is the Milvian Bridge in Rome, but it seems that the practice has spread around Europe and it is now causing a scandal in Venice. Do you know somewhere where there are locks of love?

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What are the most popular first names in America?

August 23rd, 2011 by Roger Darlington

Each Mother’s Day in the United States, the Commissioner of Social Security publishes the most popular baby names based on all social security card applications for children born the previous year. The latest available lists of the top ten boys’ and girls’ names, relating to the year 2010, are as follows:

Position	Boys	Girls
1	Jacob	Isabella
2	Ethan	Sophia
3	Michael	Emma
4	Jayden	Olivia
5	William	Ava
6	Alexander	Emily
7	Noah	Abigail
8	Daniel	Madison
9	Aiden	Chloe
10	Anthony	Mia

Several points can be made about these lists.

Firstly, it is a stable pair of lists. Jacob has been top of the male list since 1999, while Emily has only just fallen a little after having been in the top three female name from 1996-2008.

Secondly, for all the ethnic diversity of the USA, both these lists are remarkably Anglo-Saxon. None of the boys’ names except Jayden would be out of place in the UK and, of the girls’ names, only Madison would look odd in Britain.

Thirdly, there some distinct similarities between the most popular names in the USA and the UK. Five of the top ten American boys’ names and seven of the top ten American girls’ names (if one equates the Sophia and Sophie) are in the top 20 for UK names of the appropriate gender. In the United States, two of the top four boys’ names begin with ‘J’, while this is the case for three of the top ten boys’ names in Britain. Emily is the sixth most popular girls’ name in the USA and it is the third most popular girls’ name in Britain.

As in many countries (and possibly even more so), in the USA names come in to and fall out of fashion very rapidly. Take Jacob which has topped the boys’ names list for more than a decade; the name was hardly used at all until the 1960s when it suddenly exploded into popularity. Or consider the girls’ name Emily; this was a modestly-used name in gentle decline until, again in the 1960s, it became incredibly popular.

For more information on American names, click here and, for my study of naming practices around the world, go here.

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What are the most popular first names in Britain?

August 23rd, 2011 by Roger Darlington

Of course, names change in popularity. According to the data compiled annually by the Office of National Statistics (ONS), the most popular names for children born in England & Wales during 2010 were as follows:

Position	Boys	Girls
1	Oliver	Olivia
2	Jack	Sophie
3	Harry	Emily
4	Alfie	Lily
5	Charlie	Amelia
6	Thomas	Jessica
7	William	Ruby
8	Joshua	Chloe
9	George	Grace
10	James	Evie
11	Daniel	Ava
12	Jacob	Isabella
13	Ethan	Mia
14	Samuel	Maisie
15	Joseph	Daisy
16	Dylan	Poppy
17	Mohammed	Isabelle
18	Noah	Ella
19	Lucas	Holly
20	Oscar	Charlotte

There are some patterns here.

First of all, astonishingly the top boys’ name and the top girls’ name are essentially the same – what is technically known as cognates – and this has been so for the last two years. Is this the case in any other nation?

Second, it is striking how traditional most of the names are for both boys and girls, although for the boys it is interesting that the familiar form of names rather than the original version is often preferred – Jack instead of John, Harry instead of Harold, Alfie instead of Alfred, Charlie instead of Charles.

Third, in the case of boys, five of the top 20 names begin with the letter ‘J’ while, in the case of girls, six of the top ten names end with the sound ‘ee’ and nine of the top 20 names contain one or more of the letter ‘l’.

On the other hand, the name David – which is the second most common name in Britain – slipped out of the top 50 of names chosen for baby boys born in 2004 and has stayed out (it is currently 64th). Similarly Margaret – the most common female name in the population as a whole – does not even appear in the top 100 names chosen for girls these days.

These observations underline how much fashion shapes the popularity of different names.

It should be noted that the Office of National Statistics (ONS) produces its ranking of the popularity of names using the exact spelling of the name given at birth registration.

If one combines the numbers for names with very similar spellings, a different picture is revealed. For boys, combining the occurrence of Mohammed, Muhammad and Mohammad would put the name in fourth place – a reflection of the changing ethnicity of the British population. Similarly, if one combines the occurrence of Isabella, Isabelle, Isabel and Isobel, one would find the name top by far of the girls’ list.

For more information on British names, click here and, for my study of naming practices around the world, go here.

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A review of “Blue Valentine”

August 21st, 2011 by Roger Darlington

If you’re looking for a rom-com movie, this definitely isn’t it. But, if you’re looking for a mature work about the struggle to sustain a relationship, this is well worth seeing. I’ve reviewed it here.

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How consumers and citizens make choices

August 20th, 2011 by Roger Darlington

Some of the reading I’ve done recently has made me think more about how and why people make decisions in the economic and non-economic spaces. This has led me to write an essay for my web site entitled “How Consumers And Citizens Make Choices”. You can read it here.

Posted in Consumer matters, Social policy | Comments (0)