What’s in a Name?
The theme for “Smile on Saturday!” is “what’s in a name”. I knew what name I wanted to select for this theme immediately: Gemma.
A girl’s name, Gemma, is of Latin origin, meaning "gem", "gemstone" or "jewel". In Hebrew it has the meaning of "little dove". It was the third most popular female name in 1984 in the UK. Records also indicate that 3,426 girls in the United States have been named Gemma since 1880. The greatest number of people were given this name in 2012, when 1,011 people in the U.S. were given the name Gemma.
Saint Gemma was an Italian saint canonized in 1940. However I like the name Gemma because of two actresses who scored major breakthroughs in their careers in 1976: British actress Gemma Jones (whom I remember best as the straight talking Cockney Louisa Trotter the BBC television drama “The Duchess of Duke Street”) and Irish actress Gemma Craven (whom I still love to watch sing and dance across my television screen in my favourite musical “The Slipper and the Rose – the Story of Cinderella”).
This photograph is actually of Gemma Craven’s name, taken from the billing on the back page of the very rare “The Slipper and the Rose – the Story of Cinderella” movie tie in book adapted by Bryan Forbes from the original script written by Bryan Forbes, Robert B. Sherman and Richard A. Sherman, published by Namara Publications and Quartet Books in 1976.
What’s in a Name?
The theme for “Smile on Saturday!” is “what’s in a name”. I knew what name I wanted to select for this theme immediately: Gemma.
A girl’s name, Gemma, is of Latin origin, meaning "gem", "gemstone" or "jewel". In Hebrew it has the meaning of "little dove". It was the third most popular female name in 1984 in the UK. Records also indicate that 3,426 girls in the United States have been named Gemma since 1880. The greatest number of people were given this name in 2012, when 1,011 people in the U.S. were given the name Gemma.
Saint Gemma was an Italian saint canonized in 1940. However I like the name Gemma because of two actresses who scored major breakthroughs in their careers in 1976: British actress Gemma Jones (whom I remember best as the straight talking Cockney Louisa Trotter the BBC television drama “The Duchess of Duke Street”) and Irish actress Gemma Craven (whom I still love to watch sing and dance across my television screen in my favourite musical “The Slipper and the Rose – the Story of Cinderella”).
This photograph is actually of Gemma Craven’s name, taken from the billing on the back page of the very rare “The Slipper and the Rose – the Story of Cinderella” movie tie in book adapted by Bryan Forbes from the original script written by Bryan Forbes, Robert B. Sherman and Richard A. Sherman, published by Namara Publications and Quartet Books in 1976.