I love this so much -- and so does my cat, Jenny Wren. I'm looking forward to rolling out her many aliases and seeing how she rolls with them. And the next time I see a kestrel, I will shout "windf**ker!!" into the ether and it shall be right and good.
Watching a kestrel doing its signature hovering-over-one-spot thing (achieved by some fancy wingwork) I totally see why they called them Windfuckers, it looks very much like it!
Yeah, that's surely it. When it's hovering the hips bob up and down in a very suggestive way! And kestrels don't have particularly large powerful wings, compared to a buzzard or something.
This has always intrigued me too, and links to my sense that “Who killed Cock-Robin?” (“I, said the Sparrow, with my bow and arrow”) hides some long forgotten murder mystery.
Margaret, as well as shortening to Maggie or Mag, can be turned into Peggy or Peg, so it’s maybe surprising that we didn't get the more alliterative Peggypie.
Relatively recently I discovered that the fact that daisies are marguerites in French means that Daisy as a girl’s name also derives from a pet form of Margaret.
Who killed Cock-Robin is so great. Have you ever read John Skelton's poem about Philip Sparrow? It's an even earlier (1508) poem about a slain bird - https://www.exclassics.com/skelton/skel025.htm
This is such a fascinating post. "Jenny" is a generic name for a witch. This might explain some of the hostility to the wren on Wren Day when the tiny bird was hunted by men and boys on Boxing Day and paraded around on a pole. I'm only guessing.
such an interesting read! something you might be aware of already or might find interesting if not - i’ve spoken to andy gosler who is a professor of ethnoornithogy (study of how people relate to birds) and he also has some really interesting thoughts on common names of birds. i am trying to remember a conversation from a couple of years ago so i’m afraid this won’t be that scientific or academic! he says that these common names tell us a lot about the way people have interacted with nature. e.g the more common names and the more “affectionate” a name is, the closer people felt to a bird and the more they interacted with it. so potentially this reflects changes in bird population size or their ecology/behaviour, or human behaviour and interest in nature (or of course all 3). the wren is a really small & drab bird AND is quite wary of humans but as you’ve said it has some of the widest range of common names. were they more common or were we paying more attention? they’re also affectionate - he says calling a wren a jenny wren suggests a sense of closeness, like they’re part of the community. contrast that with a study from a few years ago that found that over 40% of british home undergrads studying BIOLOGY at the university of oxford couldn’t name 5 british bird species… so many of us have lost that sense of closeness and connection with nature. thank you for this article!
ahh thank you i wasn’t familiar with andy’s work so this is really really good to know! this post was slightly inspired by the book “the spell of the sensuous” which is all about how folklore and language and oral tradition preserve ecological and anthropological knowledge so i will definitely be looking into andy’s work as well!
This is fun, thank you! Good to hear names that aren’t just dull and descriptive. But I think it should be “body and soul” not body and foul, don’t you? The letter “s” often looks like an “f” in old texts. So, perhaps the kestrel was “Windsucker”, maybe a more appropriate name given the way it is swooshed by the wind. Though it does ride the wind. (And then there’s the Goatsucker, the nightjar, said to steal milk from the cow’s udder in the night. )
Oops, i changed most of the long s characters to regular s ones but clearly missed one, thank you! and yes, i think windsucker is one theory for the origin of the word although i think windfucker is attested slightly earlier!
The Australian wagtail, Rhipidura leucophrys, is officially Willie Wagtail. Willie can be found around Australia, and also in the PNG, the Solomons, and eastern Indonesia.
Fantastic! This confirms my sense of the riches of old language and history - we need to use these names again! Old words! So colourful and spicy. Words today seem bland in comparison. Thanks for this article, please write more.
WINDFUCKER has now been added to my lexicon and I thank you for this gift.
I love this so much -- and so does my cat, Jenny Wren. I'm looking forward to rolling out her many aliases and seeing how she rolls with them. And the next time I see a kestrel, I will shout "windf**ker!!" into the ether and it shall be right and good.
Jenny Wren!!! now that’s a gorgeous name for a cat! tell her and the windf**kers hi from me!
Thank you! Jenny Wren sends her greetings in return!
Watching a kestrel doing its signature hovering-over-one-spot thing (achieved by some fancy wingwork) I totally see why they called them Windfuckers, it looks very much like it!
Yeah, that's surely it. When it's hovering the hips bob up and down in a very suggestive way! And kestrels don't have particularly large powerful wings, compared to a buzzard or something.
This has always intrigued me too, and links to my sense that “Who killed Cock-Robin?” (“I, said the Sparrow, with my bow and arrow”) hides some long forgotten murder mystery.
Margaret, as well as shortening to Maggie or Mag, can be turned into Peggy or Peg, so it’s maybe surprising that we didn't get the more alliterative Peggypie.
Relatively recently I discovered that the fact that daisies are marguerites in French means that Daisy as a girl’s name also derives from a pet form of Margaret.
Who killed Cock-Robin is so great. Have you ever read John Skelton's poem about Philip Sparrow? It's an even earlier (1508) poem about a slain bird - https://www.exclassics.com/skelton/skel025.htm
No, I’ve not, thanks for the tip
This is such a fascinating post. "Jenny" is a generic name for a witch. This might explain some of the hostility to the wren on Wren Day when the tiny bird was hunted by men and boys on Boxing Day and paraded around on a pole. I'm only guessing.
I didn’t know that about witches! owls were often jenny howlet or jenny owlet so that tracks!
Wow, that totally tracks. I really want Jenny Howlet as my roller derby name now. Thanks for always bringing the goods on here!
such an interesting read! something you might be aware of already or might find interesting if not - i’ve spoken to andy gosler who is a professor of ethnoornithogy (study of how people relate to birds) and he also has some really interesting thoughts on common names of birds. i am trying to remember a conversation from a couple of years ago so i’m afraid this won’t be that scientific or academic! he says that these common names tell us a lot about the way people have interacted with nature. e.g the more common names and the more “affectionate” a name is, the closer people felt to a bird and the more they interacted with it. so potentially this reflects changes in bird population size or their ecology/behaviour, or human behaviour and interest in nature (or of course all 3). the wren is a really small & drab bird AND is quite wary of humans but as you’ve said it has some of the widest range of common names. were they more common or were we paying more attention? they’re also affectionate - he says calling a wren a jenny wren suggests a sense of closeness, like they’re part of the community. contrast that with a study from a few years ago that found that over 40% of british home undergrads studying BIOLOGY at the university of oxford couldn’t name 5 british bird species… so many of us have lost that sense of closeness and connection with nature. thank you for this article!
ahh thank you i wasn’t familiar with andy’s work so this is really really good to know! this post was slightly inspired by the book “the spell of the sensuous” which is all about how folklore and language and oral tradition preserve ecological and anthropological knowledge so i will definitely be looking into andy’s work as well!
“the spell of the sensuous” sounds so interesting! thank you for mentioning it, i’ll definitely give it a read!
Windfucker aside, I can’t get over Dirty Allen!?
Peggy Dishwasher, I’m intrigued!
This is fun, thank you! Good to hear names that aren’t just dull and descriptive. But I think it should be “body and soul” not body and foul, don’t you? The letter “s” often looks like an “f” in old texts. So, perhaps the kestrel was “Windsucker”, maybe a more appropriate name given the way it is swooshed by the wind. Though it does ride the wind. (And then there’s the Goatsucker, the nightjar, said to steal milk from the cow’s udder in the night. )
Oops, i changed most of the long s characters to regular s ones but clearly missed one, thank you! and yes, i think windsucker is one theory for the origin of the word although i think windfucker is attested slightly earlier!
I would like a word with William Worm (wwWW), even the acronym looks like a worm
Careful. Mr. MAGPIE will curse you in perpetuity.
One is for sorrow, two is for joy
Three is for girls and four is for boys.
Five is for silver and six is for gold.
Seven is for a secret never to be told.
Ignore this at your peril!! Lol!
The Australian wagtail, Rhipidura leucophrys, is officially Willie Wagtail. Willie can be found around Australia, and also in the PNG, the Solomons, and eastern Indonesia.
This brought me so much joy, thank you so much for writing this 😂
I am doing a magazine on birds for my artschool graphic design class as a semester project, and I would like to include this text 😊
sure!!! i would love to see pictures when its done :)
Fantastic! This confirms my sense of the riches of old language and history - we need to use these names again! Old words! So colourful and spicy. Words today seem bland in comparison. Thanks for this article, please write more.
Crufty is hardly bland...
What a lovely read on this fine day!