The Art of Literary Nomenclature

ORIGIN:
Unknown; possibly Etruscan; the name of Aeneas’ wife in The Aeneid.

VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
Lavina, Lavena, Viney, Vinie, Vinnie, Vinny.

REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Lavinia Lyte (called “Vinny“), Johnny’s proud and determined mother (and Merchant Lyte’s niece), once the “wildest and handsomest girl in Boston”, in Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes (written in 1943; set during the years leading up to the American Revolutionary War, 1773-1775).
– Lavinia Lyte, Merchant Lyte’s daughter, a beautiful, spoiled, jaded, rich girl who gets what she wants no matter who suffers by it, in Johnny Tremain.

WRITERS:
– Lavinia R. Davis (1909-1961), American children’s book author and novelist, who also published under the pen name “Wendell Farmer”.
– Lavinia Derwent (1909-1989), pen name of Scottish author and broadcaster Elizabeth Dodd.
– Lavinia Dock (1858-1956), American activist, author, and nurse.
– Lavinia Greenlaw (b. 1962), English novelist and poet.

QUOTATIONS:
– From Titus Andronicus (c. 1594), Act II, scene 1, by William Shakespeare: “She is a woman, therefore may be woo’d; / She is a woman, therefore may be won; / She is Lavinia, therefore must be loved.”