Dannii Minogue

I have been thinking about the double i in Dannii Minogue's name and wondering why it is there and what statement it is trying to make. She was christened Danielle Jane Minogue, but at some point in her life she decided or it was decided for her that Danielle needed to be shortened - Danielle is a variant of Daniel, meaning God is my judge, and has 36 potential variants including Danette, Danyell and Danitza, but the unusually spelt Dannii is not one of them. Minogue, with her two men throwing top hats into the air on a far horizon at the end of her name, was perhaps seeking uniqueness and individuality in her choice of name alteration.

Few words go for the tricky double i combo - my research has only yielded ten and skiing, taxiing, shanghaiing and alibiing all feel a little bit dishonest because the 'ing' has made their leap into the double i hall of fame a little too easy for them. The other six words are denarii (plural of the ancient roman coin), radii (plural of radius), torii (the gateway of a Shinto shrine), genii (plural of genie), gastrocnemii (the chief muscle of the calf of the leg) and shiitake (a big old mushroom). Perhaps Dannii was attempting to align herself with these words when she changed her name: the denarii, a symbol of her wealth; radii, a symbol of her curvaceousness; torii, some sort of statement about indigenous Japanese religion; genii, symbolic of her magical ability to light up a stage; gastrocnemii, a symbol of her athletic ability and shiitake, a nod to her favourite type of mushroom. Hawaii and Wii, whilst not being words in the dictionary and not admissible in a game of Scrabble, also boast a double i.

Whatever her reasons, I hope Dannii puts her double ii to good use and bashes Louis Walsh over the head with them next time he utters nonsense (the next time he opens his mouth) on X-Factor.