Analysing The Ponds #4: Naming The Ponds
Yeeeees…I know I said I’d be doing The Timeline Of River Song next. But because a) it’s taking longer than I expected and b) it’s not really analysis, I’ve decided to make that a whole seperate project and finish Analysing The Ponds first. (I’ve gone back and edited some of the previous posts with new observations, too) So here we have…names!
Names in Doctor Who are chosen well. Sure, a lot of this probably wasn’t intentional…but I don’t care!
Amy– you know already that it means ‘beloved’. But Amy’s full name is Amelia, which means ‘Industrious and striving’. A very fitting name for a woman who later a) started her own perfume business and b) saved the world several times.
Amy’s middle name is Jessica, and this is quite interesting- it means ‘God is watching’. If you consider that Amy basically holds the Doctor up as a god, that name becomes a very suitable one. The Doctor has watched her throughout her entire life, from childhood to adulthood…
And of course, Amy’s last name is Pond– she’s named after water. Water is very much Amy’s element, associated as it is with intuition, imagination, emotion, and the feminine. Plus, well, water brings life. If not for the Ponds and the Rivers, life on Earth would simply not exist as we know it…
There may also be something to be said about the fact that a Pond stands still while a River flows, but our Ponds have travelled the universe and have not really stood still even back on Earth, so I’m not sure that bit quite stands up…
Rory, as I may have mentioned, means ‘red’- ‘red king’ to be specific (see icon!). Red like Amy’s hair. The name has both Irish and Scottish roots, apparently- Scottish, like Amy herself! And I like the ‘king’ part, as Rory very much grows into a (symbolic) King- one with a red cape, as well.
I also like that ‘Rory’ can be a male or a female name, as Rory himself has a few feminine qualities.
Williams next- Wikipedia has a whole page on the name. “Derived from an Old French given name with Germanic elements; will = desire, will; and helm = helmet, protection.” Desire, will, protection and helmet- ah, those words are very much Rory-related. Desire for Amy, will to do the right thing, protection of Amy/Doctor/Melody, and helmet- he had a Roman helmet as the Last Centurion.
Melody means- you guessed it- music and song. Alas, there’s not a lot else to be got there! But…what can always break the Silence? A Song.
Mels in Leadworth takes the name Zucker. When we first heard Mels’ surname- I think it was on a trading card or something- people pointed out that it sounded like ‘Sucker!’ Which is a very, very Moffat thing to do, considering that Mels herself is a walking plot twist. But it is also a German name meaning ‘sugar’…now, “sugar” is often used as the pet name for a partner or lover, and of course sugar is the primary ingredient of sweets. Hello, sweetie…
Ah…and then there’s Mrs Robinson, the Doctor’s occasional name for River. Mrs Robinson is the quissential name for ‘the older woman’ after the film The Graduate, which showed a young man (played by Dustin Hoffman) falling in love with an older woman. But interestingly, in the end Dustin Hoffman leaves with the woman’s daughter instead. Maybe the Doctor should have called Amy Mrs Robinson…
Let’s move on to the elder Ponds, as they are of course important figures in Amy, Rory and Melody’s lives…
Amy’s mother is called Tabitha. There’s a famous Tabitha in the Bible who was raised from the dead by by Saint Peter…and Tabitha herself, along with her husband, is (technically speaking) raised from the dead. Neat!
Augustus was the name of the first Roman Emperor. Amy, of course, was fascinated by Roman history, to the extenct that the Alliance built a whole army of Auton Romans from her mind- was Amy’s love of this era a subconcious connection to the father she never had? (I like to think so.)
Sharon means Forest. A word that plays an important part in Amy, Rory and Melody’s lives- the only water in the forest is the river.
And then there’s the people who play various roles, however tiny, in the lives of the Ponds-
Lorna is a popular name in Scotland, Amy’s land of origin. Her surname Bucket is more significant, though- a bucket is of course used to transfer water, and what does Lorna do? She makes a Pond (via her prayer leaf) a River, of course.
The name Renfrew means “Dwells near the still river”- and Dr Renfrew dwells with and looks after the girl who will grow to be River. (That one was definitely done on purpose.)
Kovarian, the woman charged with delivering Amy’s baby, very nearly has the word ‘ovary’ in her name. ‘Madame’ I think is a title given to women of high rank (and Kovarian does seem to be the only woman working for the Silence.)
I find it significant that the woman killed by the Silence in front of Amy was called Joy, as her death definitely symbolises the end of any real joy for Amy in Series Six. She’s already seen her best friend die, but things get even worse- she even loses her baby, which is most likely the most traumatic thing to ever happen to a Companion.
And then there’s places-
Leadworth as a name doesn’t seem to actually mean anything, but lead is a metal that soon turns to a dull greyish colour. And to Amy, Leadworth was often dull and grey. Not only that, but lead is poisonous- maybe the Amy we know would have ‘died’ had she stayed in Leadworth.
Stormcage contains the wife of “The Oncoming Storm”…
Byzantium was a city which became the imperial residence of- who else- the Romans. Romans are everywhere in Series Five! (The city is now the place called Istanbul, in Turkey.)
Lake Silencio is, of course, named after the Silence. (It doesn’t actually exist, by the way. I checked.)
And then, of course, there’s the Doctor’s name- the one great secret. But you know…he’s married into the Pond family, where the tradition so far is for the men to take the wife’s surname. (Although Amy has been called Williams from time to time, interviews, promo material and Amy herself have firmly labeled Rory as a Pond.) Could the Doctor maybe get around this whole thing by simply announcing to the Silence…
…”I am Mr Song?”
