What's in a Name? Well, Plenty.

1 November 2010

A recent Article from 'The Hills Times':

'For decades now, naming your house and displaying it prominently has been popular. The choice of name is a deeply personal thing. People call their homes all sorts of weird and wonderful names, although the reasoning behind it is not always apparent. Yvonne Campbell reports.

Just about every boat owner names their boat. It’s good luck. And plenty of people have pet names for their car or bike. Naming the house though, is something else. A sign on a house indicates that this isn’t just an address, it’s a home and it’s welcoming. Drive around any suburb in Sydney and they can be seen in abundance. Nameplates adorn the wall next to the front door or sit above the letterbox or are recessed into a front fence.

So is there rhyme to the reason? Meaning to the madness? Apparently so, sign companies say. Beagley Nameplates has a list of suggested house names on its website – some English and others Aboriginal in origin. Many are names which can be seen often – Aberdeen, Camelot, Dover, Glenelg, Lanark and Nottingham all have that decidedly British ring to them. And how about Akoonah? – which is Aboriginal for flowing water. Or Allambee which means to remain a while. According to the website, Carinya means happy home and Mirambeena means welcome.

But what about some of the weirder ones – such as Wombat Bottoms or the old favourite Emoh Ruo, which is ‘‘our home’’ spelled backwards? Tony Fischli from sign company Danthonia Designs said some people named their house after the town or property that they lived on in their youth. He said others combined syllables from the husband and wife’s first names. ‘‘Some house names describe a location or setting, a favourite animal or plant found in the area,’’ he said.

Danthonia created the Wombat Bottoms sign for Peter Dryden’s Wollombi property. Formerly called Mirrabooka, Mr Dryden said the wombat connection came from the many burrows found around the creek on the property. He said the bottoms probably stemmed from the fact that when a wombat goes down a burrow, they go head first, hence the ‘‘bottom’’ is the last thing you see.

Mr Fischli said that sometimes there was a historic, cultural or family connection and some house names were based on what the building was used for in the past. But it’s not just the name itself which home-owners seem to become focused on. He said people used the poetry of the name and the artistry of the hand-crafted sign to express their special feelings about a place called ‘‘home’’.