I have just discovered that these names can mean 'friend of gold' or 'son of gold'.
When Ethel gave the name 'Golding' to her son Sidney, she was living in the gold-mining town of Gulgong.
Thomas Goulding / Golden Brown, the father of her second husband, was baptised in the gold-mining town of Aruleun.
Maybe the name was simply a good luck charm, an indicator of good fortune, given in the hope that the bearers would find gold and become wealthy.
It may have also carried the meaning that the child was as precious as gold.
This could explain why 'Goulding' and 'Golden' were the English names adopted by an Aboriginal 'royal' family.
So the fact that two of Ethel's sons, one born when she was married to Jimmy Governor and the other to Frank Brown, and Brown's father bore these names seems to be significant, not just a coincidence as I previously said.
When Ethel gave the name 'Golding' to her son Sidney, she was living in the gold-mining town of Gulgong.
Thomas Goulding / Golden Brown, the father of her second husband, was baptised in the gold-mining town of Aruleun.
Maybe the name was simply a good luck charm, an indicator of good fortune, given in the hope that the bearers would find gold and become wealthy.
It may have also carried the meaning that the child was as precious as gold.
This could explain why 'Goulding' and 'Golden' were the English names adopted by an Aboriginal 'royal' family.
So the fact that two of Ethel's sons, one born when she was married to Jimmy Governor and the other to Frank Brown, and Brown's father bore these names seems to be significant, not just a coincidence as I previously said.
