Eliza
August 2, 2014 § 3 Comments
ORIGIN:
Shortened form of “Elizabeth“, meaning “oath of God”.
VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
Ella, Ellie, Elissa, Elsa, Elsie, Elyse, Libby, Liddy, Lisa, Lise, Lisette, Liz, Liza, Lizette, Lizy, Lizzie, Lizzy, etc.
REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Eliza Brandon, Col. Brandon’s cousin, who is forced to marry his brother, and who leaves him the care of her young daughter, in Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility (set between 1792-1797, published in 1811).
– Eliza Reed (sometimes called “Lizzy“), one of Jane’s spoiled, mean-spirited cousins, in Jane Eyre, 1847, by Charlotte Bronte.
– Eliza Ridd (called “Lizzie“), John’s small, strange, and spiteful book-loving youngest sister, in Lorna Doone, by R.D. Blackmore (written in 1869, set in the 1670s-1680s).
– Eliza Spears, a local woman who was miraculously cured by Zeena’s new doctor, Dr. Buck, in Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome (written in 1911, but set in the 1890s or first few years of the 1900s).
– Eliza Styles is the false name Rawdon Crawley uses to receive letters from Becky Sharp in Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray (published in 1847-48, but set in the 1810s-20s).
– Eliza Williams, Col. Brandon’s ward, who follows too closely the example of her unfortunate mother in at least one regard, in Sense and Sensibility.
WRITERS:
– Eliza Acton (1799-1859), English author and cook.
– Eliza Cook (1818-1889), English author, poet, and writer.
– Eliza Haywood (c. 1693-1756), English actress and writer.
– Eliza Tabor Stephenson (1835-1914), English novelist.
Arabella
August 2, 2014 § 5 Comments
ORIGIN:
A medieval Scottish variant of “Annabel” / “Amabel”, meaning “loving”. Possibly also related to the Latin for “invokable” or “capable of moving by entreaty”.
VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
Amabel, Anabel, Anabella, Anabelle, Annabel, Annabella, Annabelle, Aribel, Aribella, Aribelle, Bela, Bella, Belle, Ella, Elle, Mabel, Mabella, Mable, Maybell, Maybelle, Maybelline, etc.
REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Miss Arabella Briggs, companion to the wealthy Miss Crawley, in Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray (published in 1847-48, but set in the 1810s-20s).
Peggy
August 2, 2014 § 4 Comments
ORIGIN:
Variant of “Meggy”, diminutive of “Margaret“, from Greek via Latin, meaning “pearl”
VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
Madge, Mae, Maggie, Maggy, Mame, Mamie, Marge, Margie, Margy, May, Meg, Megeen, Meggie, Meggy, Midge, Peg, Pegeen, Peggie, etc.
REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Peggy, one of the Lexington girls clamoring to partner with Rab at the Silsbee country dance in Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes (written in 1943; set during the years leading up to the American Revolutionary War, 1773-1775).
– Peggy (Auralia Margaretta) O’Dowd (née Malony), the Mrs. Major O’Dowd who serves as a sort of de facto queen and hostess of George Osborne’s and William Dobbin’s regiment in Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray (published in 1847-48, but set in the 1810s-20s).
– Peggy (Margaret) “Smith”, a simply-dressed, sweet girl who experiences a case of mistaken identity, in “That Little Smith Girl” from Nora Perry’s A Flock of Girls and Boys (1895).
QUOTATIONS:
From “Peggy“, a poem written by Scottish poet Allan Ramsay in the early 18th century: “My Peggy is a young thing, / Just enter’d in her teens, / Fair as the day, and sweet as May, / Fair as the day, and always gay.”
Glorvina
August 2, 2014 § Leave a comment
ORIGIN:
Invented by Irish author Sydney, Lady Morgan (1781-1859) for her 1806 novel, The Wild Irish Girl. Possibly a portmanteau of the names “Glory” and “Malvina”.
VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
Gloria, Glory, Vina?
REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Glorvina O’Dowd (called “Glory” by her brother) is Major O’Dowd’s unmarried sister in Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray (published in 1847-48, but set in the 1810s-20s).
Letitia
August 2, 2014 § 1 Comment
ORIGIN:
From the Latin “Laetitia”, meaning “joy” or “happiness”.
VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
Laetitia, Latisha, Latitia, Latisha, Latizia, Leta, Letisha, Letitia, Letizia, Lettice, Lettie, Letty, Lecia, Licia, Ticia, Tish, Tisha, Tishie, Tishy, etc.
REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Miss Letitia Hawky is a student Miss Pinkerton recommends to Mrs. Bute Crawley, in Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray (published in 1847-48, but set in the 1810s-20s).
WRITERS:
– Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802-1838), English poet and novelist.
Matilda
August 2, 2014 § 7 Comments
ORIGIN:
From the Germanic, meaning “strength in battle” or “mighty battle-maid”.
VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
Malta, Mathilda, Mathilde, Matilde, Mattie, Matty, Maud, Maude, Maudie, Tilda, Tilde, Tillie, Tilly, etc.
REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Matilda, Miss Crawley (sometimes referred to as “Tilly”), is the wealthy relative on whom the entire Crawley family, Rawdon especially, pin their hopes, in Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray (published in 1847-48, but set in the 1810s-20s).
– Matilda Crawley, daughter of Pitt and Lady Jane, in Vanity Fair.
– Matilda Crawley, one of the Rev. Bute Crawley’s daughters in Vanity Fair.
– Matilda Raggles, the young daughter of former butler Mr. Charles Raggles, able to attend boarding school on the strength of her father’s presumed prosperity as a landlord, in Vanity Fair.
– Matilda Sheepshanks, Lady Southdown, is mother to Lady Jane and her siblings, in Vanity Fair.
QUOTATIONS:
– “Matilda” is a calypso song dating back at least to the 1930s, and recorded by Harry Belafonte in 1953: “Matilda, she take me money and run Venezuela!”
– “Waltzing Matilda” is Australia’s most popular “bush ballad” (folk song), the “unofficial national anthem”, first written in 1895 by Banjo Paterson. The phrase is slang for traveling by foot, carrying your things in a sack (“Matilda”) on your back: “Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda, you’ll come a-Waltzing Matilda with me”
Emily
August 1, 2014 § 15 Comments
ORIGIN:
English feminine version of “Emil”, from “Aemilius”, a Latinate family name meaning “rival”.
VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
Em, Emma, Emmalee, Emelina, Emeline, Emilia, Emilie, Emiline, Emmaline, Emmeline, Emmie, Emmy, Millie, Milly, etc.
REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Lady Emily Hornblower, née Sheepshanks, Lady Jane’s sister, who “wrote those sweet tracts, ‘The Sailor’s True Binnacle’, and ‘The Applewoman of Finchley Common'”, in Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray (published in 1847-48, but set in the 1810s-20s).
– Emily Spenser, the invalid girl who learns to appreciate nature in “Mountain-Laurel and Maiden-Hair”, from A Garland for Girls, by Louisa May Alcott, 1887.
WRITERS:
– Emily Brontë (1814-1848), English novelist and poet.
– Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), reclusive American poet.
– Emily Frasier (b. 1965), pen name of American author Laura Albert, who also published under the pen names “Gluttenberg”, “JT LeRoy”, “Laura Victoria”, and “Speedy”.
Rose
August 1, 2014 § 9 Comments
ORIGIN:
Germanic, meaning, well, “rose”. Sometimes used as a diminutive for names beginning with “Ros-“.
VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
Ros, Rosa, Rosabel, Rosaleen, Rosalie, Rosalind, Rosaline, Rosamond, Rosamonde, Rosamund, Rosanne, Roselin, Roselind, Rosella, Roselle, Rosemond, Rosemund, Rosetta, Rosette, Rosie, Rosina, Rosine, Rosita, Roslyn, Rosy, Roz, Roza, Rozelle, Rozie, Rozy, etc.
REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Rose Crawley (short for “Rosalind“) is the elder of the two little Crawley girls Becky Sharp is hired to be governess for in Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray (published in 1847-48, but set in the 1810s-20s).
Violet
August 1, 2014 § 3 Comments
ORIGIN:
English, after the small woodland flower, from the Latin “viola”.
VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
Lette, Lettie, Letty, Vi, Vilet, Vilette, Viola, Violetta, Violette, Vy, Vylet, Vylette, etc.
REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Violet Crawley is the younger of the two little Crawley girls Becky Sharp is hired to be governess for in Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray (published in 1847-48, but set in the 1810s-20s).
The Art of Literary Nomenclature 