I’m An Onomastic!

Hi 🙂

There is something you can catch me doing on Sundays. No, I don’t lounge around, well maybe sometimes, but most of the time I’m asking for our local newspaper looking at the birth and obituaries sections. Don’t worry, I’m not one of those creepy people who look at who’s died looking for a date. I look up and down the two rows at the beautiful names of children who were born in the last two weeks or so. I can’t quite explain why I do it or how it got started, I’ve just been addicted to asking for the paper on that specific day. I’m not interested in the news articles, just this part.

I wish I could say it was my only outlet but it’s not.

When I started Pinterest back in 2012, I was searching other boards and one day I found a board full of names! I found so many good ones that I didn’t just want to “like” each one so I ended making them a board. And then a couple of years later I made up another (secret) board of names for characters that were stuck in the depths of my mind. Luckily for me, there is actually a big difference between these two boards. One has more modern and classic baby names whereas the second has forgotten and out of the box names.

Here are some examples:

Baby Name Board:

Hazel | Paige | Abigail | Otto | Leon | Lachlan

Character Name Board:

Oryn | Zachari | Leopold | Tarina | Isadora | Annika

After watching so many episodes of Jeopardy, I actually started to see more and more contestants say they’re also obsessed with names as well, but there is actually a name for it. It is onomastics.

I am into is where the names originated, like my name: “Meghan” is actually Greek, which shouldn’t had surprised me as much as it did but I thought it was pretty neat though! I tend to love names from different countries like Denmark, France, Ireland, Italian, and Sweden. I also love names that were made up from stories like Shakespeare (despite the fact I can’t read his stories for the life of me!). I had always heard that Mr. Shakespeare is the one who came up with “Jessica” I still don’t know if this is true, and then of course you have mythology! I love the Celtic, Egyptian, and Norse mythology names! I have contemplated about using the names “Seti” and “Ra” in my children’s names!

When I first started looking into the large branches of the British monarchy, I realized they had very long names. One time I saw where they had seven middle names–not counting their first and last names! This person was actually Mary of Teck or later known as Queen Mary who married King George V in the early 1900s. “Mary” is actually her first middle name while her first was “Victoria” but her family called her “May.” As I’ve found the middle names are usually driven from previous family names. Mary would have been a young girl when Queen Victoria was still queen, but I have no idea about the rest.

Where is it in time frame where they start adding onto the names? I haven’t exactly figured this out yet as I’ve just figured out of the century of the War Of The Roses! I’m also curious on how open were they to give their children different names too? I’ve just recently found the name “Susan” while researching a former duchess on Facebook. It was the first one I had seen dating back to the 1500’s.

Now when you look back further their the history books, around the time when you have the Plantagenet and Tudor families where they only had one name. For explain King Henry VIII’s first daughter Princess Mary, is just simply Mary Tudor. Same goes for Queen Elizabeth I, she was just referred to Elizabeth Tudor. If she hadn’t became queen, I think some people would have gotten confused while researching the Tudor dynasty as King Henry VIII also had a younger sisters by the name of Princess Mary and Elizabeth.

For this next part I thought I’d share some of my favorite names and explain that some belong in other categorize too! So maybe if you’re expecting or love names just as much as I do, they will become some of your favorites too!

Classic:  Isabella, Victoria, Eleanor, Anne, Theodora, Cecily, Naomi, Albert, Edgar, George, Louis, Michael, Nicholas, Philip, Richard, Samuel, and Vincent.

French Names: Blanche, Celeste, Camille, Agnes, Alexandrine, Augustine, Bastien, Claude, Emeric, and Ernest.

Irish Names:  Aoife, Bridget, Fiona, Eabha, Moira, Oona, Siobhan Ronan, Declan, Donal, Liam, Mahon, Owen.

Out Of The Box: Piera, Olympia, Wilhelmina, Evanna, Reverie, Atlas, Thompson, Calix, Hugo, Audric, Henrik, and Micah, 

Are you interested in names? What are some of your favorites? I really want to know, so please tell me some in the comments!

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What Do You Watch In The Winter?

Howdy!

I think one of the most difficult things you have to get through are the hiatuses of your favorite TV shows. Ever since I started watching different shows as a weekly thing I haven’t been able to think about what could happen to my favorite characters and what could change within the actual show. It doesn’t matter if it’s for winter or summer breaks, but let’s get real here summer breaks are the worst; it’s not like you’re waiting like a month, you’re waiting from whatever day in May it goes off until either the end of September or beginning of October for the season to begin.

I know I’m not alone in how I feel because both of my parents go through their own withdrawals with their shows they watch too! Recently, I’ve been basically hoardering some of my favorites into my DVR (and my folk’s side too!) to get me through the winter break. I know, I’ve been talking a lot about shows but I also do the same with films too! Sometimes it doesn’t matter if I’ve already seen it, hated or loved it, and will probably only watch it that one time but I will have stored into my DVR for safe keeping in case that once in a blue moon comes along!

I was asked to create a list of both movies and TV shows that can be streamed on any device you use whether that’s your phone or television. If you want to know more information about maybe getting a better connection using multiple devices, you should look into Luma‘s customizable home surround wifi system.  I do think it’s fair to say that I went a little random with my choices. If I was allowed more than six I would have added Hunting Hitler, The Vampire Diaries and Toy Story. I just went with what I know I’ve been obsessed with this past year, so that’s my excuse!

I still think my picks are pretty interesting! If anybody knows me well enough, you can say these practically spell “Meghan” all over them! You should already know about why I would add both X-Men: Days Of Future Past and Supergirl! I know I’ve discussed The Golden Girls recently when I figured out how much I am like Dorothy than I wanted to find out! The other three were sort of random picks though!

I choose White Oleander because it’s one of the first films that I remember watching as a young girl, even though it’s not the most ideal for someone under the age of 13 but oh well! It’s also the film that literally made me afraid of Michelle Pheiffer, not because of the role she portrayed but she just looks very intimating in general! I know I can’t be the only one who thinks this, am I? I can honestly say it’s one of the films that I can be in both a good or bad mood and still watch the whole thing in one day! The other film is The Theory Of Everything and I think it’s an amazing movie. I will literally go out of my way to get more people to watch it. If I can get my mom to watch it I would, but she’s not interested in British films as I am, plus I don’t think should handle the science and disability themes it discusses in it.

My last TV show I placed on the slot is The Tudors which I know can be streamed on demand, because that’s how I was able to watch it! I will say, I liked it so much that I would actually buy the entire box set too and I’m not going to lie, if I ever do that or was ever given that as a present I’d probably cry my heart out! Also if you love Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Natalie Dormer, and/or Henry Cavil, you’ll love this show just trust me!

What do you like to watch during the hiatuses? Do you go back and rewatch the current season’s episodes? 

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REVIEW | The White Queen

Hey guys!

So I’ve been really into different TV shows lately! I’ve surprised myself at times because they’ve been about almost everything! I’ve decided to review three or four, whatever I choose to talk about for the next couple of weeks.

First up was shown on the network Starz one night. I’ve only seen it on my guide probably two times in my whole life and apparently it’s only been that one episode they air. I watched The White Queen! Back in February, I watched The Tudors and that took up quite a bit of my time and I really enjoyed it, mostly because of the stories of King Henry VIII and his wives, daughters, and counselors. It was all very interesting to me because I’m so into that part in history, but The White Queen predates him. The story is about Elizabeth Woodville, a widow and mother of two boys who meets King Edward IV and they fall in love, get married in secret and she comes to court with her family and everything turns very ugly. She is not accepted into Edward’s family: George, Richard and Cecily, the Duchess.

The show not only tells the story of this section of the family, but also of the Warwick family who are cousins of Edward, George, and Richard. Lord Richard Warwick made Edward king giving him the nickname “The Kingmaker”. The story goes on to discuss the daughters of Lord Warwick who were Isabel (she married the oldest brother George) and youngest daughter Anne who married firstly Edward of Westminster while her father tried to win the throne over Edward IV for her brother-in-law George. This Edward dies in battle and she later becomes a wife to the younger brother of the king, Richard. The addition of the first Tudor family is mentioned with Lady Margaret Beafort who gave birth to Henry Tudor who would later become King Henry VII of England and it talks about the ups and downs of both of their lives as this reign of the King and Queen goes on!

Sorry if any of this confuses you! Since almost every name I’ve heard in both The White Queen and The Tudors repeats throughout things can get very confusing! Anyways, the stories of this family and “War Of The Roses” actually comes from a series of books from Phillippa Gregory and the books, “The White Queen, The Red Queen, and The Kingmaker’s Daughter”. The first book was on my to be read list on Goodreads at one time and so was a book called The Princes In The Tower which the shows talks about towards the end.

If you decide to watch the show, I should probably tell you the whole thing is one whole season. Yeah, that wasn’t very loved by me because I wanted it to be longer!  After I was finished, hell even while I was in the middle of the second episode I couldn’t help keeping myself after from looking ahead and reading different articles about the families, because I was wondering how much of it was true. You get that way after watching The Tudors like crazy! You also become like this when the whole timeline is turned into 22 episodes. Even you know the writers left out a bunch of different things! So I guess that would be its only downfall. I liked the conflict between all of the characters, I really liked the storyline between Richard and Anne towards the end. And what I found about Richard as I watched the last episode was very interesting! Another love I had were the women’s braids. They were so gorgeous!

Have you watched The White Queen? What do you like or dislike about it?

More information about Richard:

http://www.archaeology.org/slideshow/508-king-richard-iii-england-bones-skeleton

I’ve Finally Watched The Tudors!

Hey guys!

Well, you’ve been following me on Twitter you know that earlier this month I started Showtime’s series The Tudors that was on air from 2007-10. It talked about King Henry VIII in dealing with difference in religious views of himself and his kingdom, plus the stories of how he came to marry six women from 1509 (with Catherine Of Aragon) to 1534 (with Catherine Parr). He fathered three living children: Mary I, Elizabeth I, and Edward VI.

I’m sort of familiar with the story, mostly while he was married to Anne Boelyn, but I realized how much of that marriage that I didn’t know either! I started watching a couple episodes here and there, between Showtime and BBC America. However neither were from the beginning so I didn’t pay too much attention to them. I finally decided to ask my mom to show me how to download them onto my DVR because I was in the mood for a little Jonathan Rhys Meyers and I ended up losing a part of myself for three weeks. I got lucky and I could watch all four seasons for free for the month of February, so I kind of went a little faster and had some all-nighters watching episode after episode! In one night, I watched four episodes! I finished the series as a whole on Valentine’s day. I’ve been going through mini withdrawals ever since!

I generally loved the show! I was surprised with myself on how much I didn’t care of the fashion and locations as much as I’m kind of known to doing whenever I watch historical specials like this. I was seriously into the stories of each character, what significant each one had to the tale of King Henry’s reign. I think Jonathan Rhys Meyers was a brilliant choice to play King Henry VIII as I was very intimidated and felt both happiness and pain throughout the whole thing. He should have won that Golden Globe!

There was one more thing I was disappointed on and that was quite a few characters/actors just kind of jumped off the face of the Earth. From season two to three, we lost Sir Anthony Knivert, Duke of Norfolk, Archbishop Cranmer, and Thomas Tallis. Either I didn’t pay that great deal of attention between these two seasons or all four really left. I was seriously confused why the actor that played Cranmer was talked about through seasons three and four, but never came back to the show!

I find it odd that I’m complaining about a show that hasn’t been on the air since 2010 but oh well!

The Two Natalie’s.

Like I said before, I knew more about the story of Anne Boelyn, but not as much as I’d like honestly! I’ve seen The Other Boelyn Girl which focuses on the Boelyn sisters, Mary and Anne. So I’m used to Natalie Portman. When I started watching, I fought hard in my mind of how much I could remember what was included in that film and what was different. Of course, the one difference was the fact that Mary had gotten pregnant and the rumors were that he was the father of her child, but he only recognized one illegitimate son by Lady Elizabeth Blout named Henry FitzRoy in 1519

I actually liked Natalie Dormer as Anne Boelyn more than Natalie Portman. She was fierce, powerful and mysteriously wicked. As it’s been a few years since I’ve last seen the film, I do remember not exactly seeing the chemistry between Eric Bana and Natalie Portman as to Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Natalie Dormer. When you can see the deep connection between the actors, you know they’ve sold it! It all felt real to me! I found the end of the Boelyn’s very much upsetting as it did the first time. I felt Anne was tossed into this life without having a voice to say “no” because her father and brother were both at court and had the king’s ear just as much as she did! So when she and George were executed I was very sad. I had grown to love that character so much that it broke my heart. She and Jane Seymour’s deaths where the only ones I cried at the end of their episodes!

As For Queen Jane Seymour.

Even though I was very confused during that first episode of season three, seeing a totally different actress for Jane Seymour, I ended liking her a little more than I thought I would. Annabelle Wallis was more feminine and older looking as to the first actress that was featured in the last of season three.

She got along with everybody, which after the collapse of Catholic faith and the King basically calling him God, she made things between father and daughters less chaotic! Especially for Princess Elizabeth, as Anne Boelyn was awaiting her death baby Elizabeth was considered a “bastard” to King Henry after he heard rumors of Anne’s alleged affairs and deformity of the last baby she had that died. I feel if it wasn’t for both Jane and Anne Of Cleves, she wouldn’t be allowed to court like Princess Mary and Prince Edward.

When that episode of the birth of the prince loomed, I actually got really upset again!! What is wrong with me?!?! Anyways, I’ve said that you could feel the love between him and Anne, but he looked like he genuinely loved Jane too! He must’ve really loved her because when he died, even though he was still married to Catherine Parr, he is buried with her at St. George Chapel in Windsor Castle.

I Hated Catherine Howard.

Something that got me while Thomas Crownwell arranged the married of Anne Of Cleves, that Thomas Seymour and Charles Brandon find a young woman at an orphanage to suit this king! In a way, I was thinking in my head, have you people learned anything from Thomas’ mistakes?! 

From that first episode she was brought to court, I knew it wasn’t going to end well. And yes, I had spoiled it for myself beforehand and looked up how she died and her charges. What surprised me the most was Lady Rochford!! I think after going through her husband’s death George Boelyn and sister-in-law Anne Boelyn she’d know better! This technically didn’t seem like it was on accident. In ways, I felt as though she wanted a way out of court and life altogether and thought this was her only shot. She just ended up taking a king’s groomsmen and the Queen down with her!

I felt Catherine Howard was WAYYY too young to succeed to the throne! She wasn’t the ideal queen, as to those who came before and after her, who were proper and had grace surrounding them. There was no comparison to her and Princess Mary as far as they acted out in court. Even her ladies-in-waiting irritated me!

Testing 1, 2, 3

I’ve always been a little hesitant because I know how big King Henry VIII got later on in his life. So I was really curious before I watched the third and fourth seasons of how big Jonathan would be willing to get for this role. Despite the fact that there are shots and shots of him eating, looking like he had absolutely no control over what he put into his body, the only noticeable changes that were made for Jonathan were his facial and voice at the end of season four. I was really mad that they couldn’t depict him better than that!but once those scenes were finished I kind of forgot about it.

Jonathan Rhys Meyers was brilliant! For like two separate nights I was in a bit of a daze, the first night I watched 3 episodes in one sitting and the other? Almost 5! That ultimately ruined my sleep pattern for a week! Anyways, I was basically stuck in my bed watching the story of his hopeless-romantic-but-if-you-didn’t-produce-a-son-he-found-himself-out-of-the-marriage kind of guy! So that right away tested my ability to watch it.

The second was while he put Catherine of Aragon out of the castle and she lived in poverty while he took up Anne Boelyn as his official mistress. Something usually happens as I watch these historical dramas like this that I didn’t even know I have trapped inside of me until later on after I’ve finished with an episode. I was feeling for every single wife he took on!

I even felt sorry for both Princess Mary and Elizabeth!! It was mostly because he didn’t seem to care about any of them at all, only his needs. Which during the last episode of the series, where in a dream sequence Catherine of Aragon played by Maria Doyle Kennady, Anne Boelyn played by Natalie Dormer, and Jane Seymour played by Annabelle Wallis all come back beyond their graves and haunt Henry for his past sins of annulment, beheading, and not caring about his son, Prince Edward. As early season three appeared Jane Seymour was this gentle, modest Queen and she came back in what felt like to me out of character, but as I thought about it, it wasn’t. He wanted a male heir to the throne, but once he he got it, it was like he lost interest with him altogether. He couldn’t bring Jane back but he could have respect her and love on not only his son but daughters a little more too!

I Did Not Think This Through!

I did not know Henry Cavil was in this show before I started watching it. When I first saw the opening credits, I was kind of shocked but yet excited because I haven’t seen anything besides Man Of Steel, and the show is of course, before he signed up for Superman. I actually opened my mind a little bit for him as Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. I was very impressed though. I didn’t genuine like the role until the end of season two. If he hadn’t switched sides that he would have been killed right along George Boelyn on something that he didn’t do!  It was nice to see him outside of Superman for once and into this very gentle giant that was haunted by the lost, troubled souls he helped murder for the rebellion.

When I watched the season four opening credits and seen how long his hair and beard were getting, that about did me over!!! I am my mother’s daughter!

Now that I am finished, are they any other historical fiction shows that I show check out? Don’t worry, Reign is on my list for spring! 

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