What's in a name?

A landmark name in Madrid - photographed by Emma Ryan in Sol on New Year's Eve 2010

I am lesson planning and have been putting some material together around names. I was interested to learn that the most popular names in England in 2008 were Jack for boys and Olivia for girls. The Titanic influence still goes on. I don't know any baby Jacks in my circle but there is a crop of new babies on the horizon in 2010 so we shall see.

In contrast the most popular names in Spain are currently Daniel and Lucia. It seems that traditional Spanish names have lost favour, as Alexander, Paul and Adrian are also in the top five for boys.

I read an interesting if irritating article about the English names. According to the editor of the Daily Mail, if the various spellings of Mohamed were counted as one, this Muslim name would rank third in the popularity ratings. You can well imagine the slant the editor took in writing about immigration. Living in Spain has given me the perspective to see how my country and people are viewed from abroad and it is not a pretty picture.