The Great Bustard name chase

[Neil Rigby]

First you were asked to tell us about cuckoos and you replied in your thousands (more than twelve thousand to be a little more precise).

Then you were asked to come up with a name for Britain's latest great bustard chick, just born on Salisbury Plain. And yet again you have replied in force. Such force, in fact, that I have only had the time to look at the first 500!

So here it is, my completely unscientific analysis of your suggestions and how they can be organised:

First there were the sensible majority of you who came up with perfectly excellent names like Dave, Jessica, and Leslie. Then there was the less sensible group who opted for stranger names like Chris, Kate, Simon and Bill...

Others suggestions were more contextual:
Rohanf, for example, thought that the bustard chic should be named Lucky as it is lucky to be alive, and MexicanIan liked the name Clint since the great bustard is a "Great (Salisbury) Plain Drifter" (although the Clint I was thinking about was a High Plains Drifter).

One suggestion was contextual but didn't refer so much to the context that the chick might find itself in as the context that the viewer found himself in: "I think Micro is a good name because when I first heard about the chick I was eating micro chips!"

Genius! But others were even more highbrow:
Snowiewhite suggested it should be called Sarum, the old name for Salisbury. Another recommended Otis because the bird's scientific name is Otis Tarda; and mgketteridge suggested calling it Charles as it is "Darwin's 200th year." (Happy Birthday, Charles!)

Others of you focused on the word 'bustard' to come up with names such as Alan (after Alan B'Stard in The New Stateman); James, Charlie or Matt (in honour of the original members of the pop group Busted); Mustard (because it rhymes with bustard); and Bud Star or Rat Burds (because they are anagrams of the word 'bustard'...)

The vast majority of you, however, concentrated on the fact that the chick's mother is called Fanny. By suggesting names such as Dango, Dabydozee, and Pack you came up with whole new names like Fandango, Fandabydozee, and Fanny Pack (what we might call a 'bum bag').

Now some party-poopers have pointed out that this makes no sense whatsoever as a child's name is not usually preceded by the mother's name. But I beg to differ. My given name is Mole and my mother's name is The...

And my favourite suggestion? Well, as you ask, my favourite is the name suggested by janicexxxxx who says:

"It could also be Sammy..."

And why?

"..cos it rhymes with Fanny a bit."

Hurrah!




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