Hazel Edwards's Blog - Posts Tagged "hand-me-down-hippo"
Hazel, What's With the Retro Name?
My real name is Hazel. But I've never named a character that.
As a children’s author I’m conscious of names for my characters and tend to choose either symbolic ones or those which are common with the age group and they can pronounce.
Until now I’ve been in a fairly select name grouping. Ex-PM wife Hazel Hawke and I were a minority with the name Hazel. But there are a couple of other authors called Hazel Edwards, one writes Mills & Boon and another is an English historian. Plus there’s a US trans activist. There’s also a Hazel Edwards’ gravestone image on Google.
To quote from actor Julia Roberts on her twins being called Hazel and Phinnaeus
…Hazel is retro by at least a couple of generations. The world stopped having Hazels around the time it stopped having Berthas and Gladyses and Mildreds. The last time Hazel was heard from was 1961, when Shirley Booth played a busybody maid of that name in a sitcom of that name, based on a cartoon strip of that name. Phinnaeus is even more retro, as in Old Testament retro, and more obscure than such OT running mates as Methuselah and Obadiah.
But that's probably the point. Celebrity baby names these days are very ... different. We say this not to pass judgment, but to point out one more way celebrities are not like the rest of us….’
I’ve never thought of myself as retro nor a celebrity. I was named after my mother who was Hazel Grace, but known as Grace. My father suggested they use one of her names for their only daughter, so I became Hazel. That was lucky because I’m NOT graceful but neither was my mother. Names are not always accurate.
Ironically Grace is the most popular girls name with the under fives. My
‘Hand Me Down Hippo’ character called Mini was illustrated by Mini Goss who has a young daughter called Hazel, so that’s another coincidence and a ‘young’ Hazel.
My neighbour alerted me to the Happy Hazel society which meets annually at Harvey Bay and these Hazels were mainly in their 70s and married to Rons and sing ‘I’m a Happy Hazel’ to the tune of ‘I’m a little Teapot’ . I don’t fit that group either, nor the shortened version Haze which sounds like a fog.
While I was a guest on ABC National talkback on the ‘Hazel’ issue of names, a caller rang with the following anecdote.
At the christening, the Irish priest asked the parents for the baby’s name.
‘Hazel,’ they said.
The priest’s reply was, ‘With 365 saints names available for each day of the year, you have to call your daughter after a nut?’
In the newspaper listing of babies’ names , Hazel was very popular and grouped with other colours like Ruby and Scarlet. I didn’t anticipate that.
My view is that you should ‘lease’ your parent- given name until 21, and then be allowed to trade it in for your own choice. But after 21, that would be your label for life. Luckily authors can have pseudonyms. I do have a shared pseudonym A.K.Aye for some crime writing.
As a children’s author I’m conscious of names for my characters and tend to choose either symbolic ones or those which are common with the age group and they can pronounce.
Until now I’ve been in a fairly select name grouping. Ex-PM wife Hazel Hawke and I were a minority with the name Hazel. But there are a couple of other authors called Hazel Edwards, one writes Mills & Boon and another is an English historian. Plus there’s a US trans activist. There’s also a Hazel Edwards’ gravestone image on Google.
To quote from actor Julia Roberts on her twins being called Hazel and Phinnaeus
…Hazel is retro by at least a couple of generations. The world stopped having Hazels around the time it stopped having Berthas and Gladyses and Mildreds. The last time Hazel was heard from was 1961, when Shirley Booth played a busybody maid of that name in a sitcom of that name, based on a cartoon strip of that name. Phinnaeus is even more retro, as in Old Testament retro, and more obscure than such OT running mates as Methuselah and Obadiah.
But that's probably the point. Celebrity baby names these days are very ... different. We say this not to pass judgment, but to point out one more way celebrities are not like the rest of us….’
I’ve never thought of myself as retro nor a celebrity. I was named after my mother who was Hazel Grace, but known as Grace. My father suggested they use one of her names for their only daughter, so I became Hazel. That was lucky because I’m NOT graceful but neither was my mother. Names are not always accurate.
Ironically Grace is the most popular girls name with the under fives. My
‘Hand Me Down Hippo’ character called Mini was illustrated by Mini Goss who has a young daughter called Hazel, so that’s another coincidence and a ‘young’ Hazel.My neighbour alerted me to the Happy Hazel society which meets annually at Harvey Bay and these Hazels were mainly in their 70s and married to Rons and sing ‘I’m a Happy Hazel’ to the tune of ‘I’m a little Teapot’ . I don’t fit that group either, nor the shortened version Haze which sounds like a fog.
While I was a guest on ABC National talkback on the ‘Hazel’ issue of names, a caller rang with the following anecdote.
At the christening, the Irish priest asked the parents for the baby’s name.
‘Hazel,’ they said.
The priest’s reply was, ‘With 365 saints names available for each day of the year, you have to call your daughter after a nut?’
In the newspaper listing of babies’ names , Hazel was very popular and grouped with other colours like Ruby and Scarlet. I didn’t anticipate that.
My view is that you should ‘lease’ your parent- given name until 21, and then be allowed to trade it in for your own choice. But after 21, that would be your label for life. Luckily authors can have pseudonyms. I do have a shared pseudonym A.K.Aye for some crime writing.
