Talk:Kylie (name)

Attractive, Boomerang?

How can the name both mean "boomerang" and "attractive"? In which language does it mean attractive? Maikel 16:28, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

OK, I have looked it up at the library, and after putting in a request for citation for five seconds have changed the information in the article to "Kylie = female form of Kyle". Maikel 21:31, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

I agree with Maikel above. I have this name, it is RARELY if NEVER aboriginal-Australian. It is Gaelic for beautiful AND the feminine for of Kyle.68.231.111.63 (talk) 07:10, 2 November 2010 (UTC)

Maybe if there was some sort of citation or evidence for prior use of the name outside Australia then I would be sympathetic to this theory. Searching the England and Wales census for 1851-1891 via https://ukcensusonline.com/ returns no exact matches for Kylie (assuming they would sort before approximate matches). Name interpretation websites often invent an etymology based on a mild compliment in some other language, these can't be trusted.

Based on our own name list, it would seem that Kylie Tennant is the most likely originator of the name. Her books were popular when Kylie Minogue and Kylie Bax were born. She was born Kathleen Tennant, a 1967 article in the Australian Women's Weekly states that "She became "Kylie" in childhood, Kylie being an Aboriginal word meaning boomerang." This magazine article is a pretty good source as these things go, it's obviously based on an extensive interview with the subject. So the name didn't originate as an Aboriginal given name, it originated as a nickname for a child based on an Aboriginal word. This agrees with most of the baby name websites and seems to me to be the most likely theory for the ultimate origin of the name. -- Tim Starling (talk) 23:50, 11 July 2018 (UTC)