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CKE, As an Aussie Brit I always identify Tamsin with the English West Country. (Can't read your column since it's behind a paywall - I'm sometimes lucky with your erudite and fascinating columns, though, at least I have been in the past!) I wonder whether you have ever written a column on Melody. I'd love to know how much use it had in the USA before the 20th century. This is what I added to the Comments for Melody a few years ago: "I love the name Melody. To my surprise - a very pleasant one, since I like names with an established history of use behind them - I found (via a well-known genealogy site) that in England it has been used for girls since at least the 1780s. I looked at facsimiles of the baptisms to make sure. I suspect that it may have been used in the Middle Ages too, but its 18th century and onwards usage seems to militate against the charge that it is "tacky". I also found, on that same site, a Melody Ann Padwick baptised in 1788, daughter of a father named Edward and a mother also named Melody (her first name, not her birth surname). But I couldn't confirm that the record had been properly transcribed since no facsimile was available."