1840s | The Art of Literary Nomenclature

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.

Lionel

August 2, 2014 § 1 Comment

ORIGIN:
From the Greek, meaning “little lion”. French diminutive of “Leon”.

VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
Leo, Leon, Levon, Linal, Linel, Lionnel, Lynal, Lynel, Lyonel, Lyonnel, etc.

REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Lionel, one of the pageboys Robin befriends during his stay at Sir Peter’s castle, in The Door in the Wall (written in 1949 and set sometime between 1327-1377), by Marguerite de Angeli.
– Rev. Lionel Delamere, a friend of Miss Briggs’, in Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray (published in 1847-48, but set in the 1810s-20s).

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).

James

August 2, 2014 § 14 Comments

ORIGIN:
From the same source as “Jacob”, from Hebrew, meaning “supplanter”, or possibly, “may God protect”.

VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
Giacomo, Hamish, Iago, Jae, Jacques, Jago, Jai, Jaime, Jaimie, Jamie, Jameson, Jamieson, Jamey, Jay, Jaymes, Jeames, Jem, Jemmy, Jim, Jimbo, Jimi, Jimmie, Jimmy, Jimsy, Seamus, Shamus, Sheamus, etc.

REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– James, the manservant at 999 Marlborough Street, in “Ally”, from Nora Perry’s A Flock of Girls and Boys (1895).
– James, butler for the Joy family while in Newport, in A Little Country Girl (1885), by Susan Coolidge.
– James, Mr. Woodhouse’s coachman in Jane Austen’s Emma (1815).
– James, one of the Boston children roused to their chores at the start of Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes (written in 1943; set during the years leading up to the American Revolutionary War, 1773-1775).
– James Cooper, whose wife is one of those married friends from Bath that Augusta Elton cites as an example of how married women always give up their pursuit of music, in Emma.
– James Alexander, the alias chosen by the con man who persecutes Georgie Gray and Berry Joy in A Little Country Girl.
– James Crawley (sometimes called “Jim“), one of the Rev. Bute Crawley’s sons in Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray (published in 1847-48, but set in the 1810s-20s).
– James Alexander Creighton (1849-1852), one of the three young Creighton boys who died of “paralysis” the year Jethro was born, in Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt (1964; set during the American Civil War, 1861-1865).
– James Marlowe (called “Jim“), the impetuous young man whose impulsive nature leads to a sorrowful mix-up, in “The Tragedy of the Unexpected”, from Nora Perry’s The Tragedy of the Unexpected and Other Stories (published in 1880, but set in the 1870s)
– James McMull, the “young sprig of Scotch nobility” Miss Rhoda Swartz ends up marrying after Mr. Osborne fails to add her to his family, in Vanity Fair.

WRITERS:
– See this post for a long list of writers named James dating all the way back to the thirteenth century.

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).

Fitzgerald

August 2, 2014 § Leave a comment

ORIGIN:
One of those “last names as first names” that were once a quite popular way for a mother’s maiden name to be passed on to her sons, “Fitzgerald” was an Irish surname (by way of Anglo-Norman French) meaning “son of Gerald“.

VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
Um, maybe Fitzie? And any version of “Gerald”?

REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Fitzgerald Fogarty, “Lord Castlefogarty’s second son”, who Mrs. Major O’Dowd thinks George Osborne is very like, in Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray (published in 1847-48, but set in the 1810s-20s).

Vere

August 2, 2014 § Leave a comment

ORIGIN:
One of those “last names as first names” that were once a quite popular way for a mother’s maiden name to be passed on to her sons, “Vere” was a French place name meaning “near the alder”.

VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
None that I know of.

REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Vere Vane, a gentleman whose mid-life crisis serves as a topic for gossip between Miss Crawley, Rawdon Crawley, and Becky Sharp, in Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray (published in 1847-48, but set in the 1810s-20s).

Jim

August 2, 2014 § 5 Comments

ORIGIN:
Shortened form of “James“, which derives from the same source as “Jacob”, from the Hebrew, meaning “supplanter”, or possibly, “may God protect”.

VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
Jae, Jaime, Jamie, Jamey, Jay, Jaymie, Jem, Jemmy, Jimi, Jimmie, Jimmy, Jimsy, etc.

REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Jim (James) Crawley, one of the Rev. Bute Crawley’s sons in Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray (published in 1847-48, but set in the 1810s-20s).
– Jim Lorton (sometimes called “Jimmy“), the teasing, critical brother of the Lorton family, in “The Youngest Miss Lorton”, from The Youngest Miss Lorton, and Other Stories by Nora Perry (1889).
– Jim (James) Marlowe, the impetuous young man whose impulsive nature leads to a sorrowful mix-up, in “The Tragedy of the Unexpected”, from Nora Perry’s The Tragedy of the Unexpected and Other Stories (published in 1880, but set in the 1870s)
– Jim Murdoch, a “hoop-pole man” who would like to court Virginia Herrick, if either she or her father would allow it, in Virginia of Virginia, written by Amélie Rives in 1888.

WRITERS:
– See this post for a list of writers who go by the name “Jim”.

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.

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