Amelia
July 31, 2014 § 11 Comments
ORIGIN:
Variant of “Amalia”, from a Germanic name meaning “work”. May also be considered a variant of “Emily” / “Emilia”, the feminine version of “Emil”, from “Aemilius”, a Latinate family name meaning “rival”.
VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
Amalia, Amelie, Amie, Amy, Emmie, Emmy, Malia, Melia, Melie, Millie, Milly, etc.
REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Princess Amelia of Humbourg-Schlippenschloppen, who marries the Hereditary Prince of Pumpernickel, where Amelia, Dobbin, Jos, and Georgy visit for a while on their Grand Tour, in Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray (published in 1847-48, but set in the 1810s-20s).
– Amelia Sedley (called “Emmy“), the naive and gentle heroine of Vanity Fair.
QUOTATIONS:
– “Amelia“, a poem written in 1878 by Coventry Patmore, begins: “Whene’er mine eyes do my Amelia greet / It is with such emotion / As, when in childhood, turning a dim street, / I first beheld the ocean.”
Abram
July 30, 2014 § Leave a comment
ORIGIN:
Hebrew, meaning “high father”.
VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
Abe, Abey, Abie, Abraham, Avram, Avrom, Bram, etc.
REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Abram Johnson, a farmer who looks after the titular bird in The Song of the Cardinal, by Gene Stratton Porter (1903).
Al
July 30, 2014 § Leave a comment
ORIGIN:
Shortened version of “Albert”, “Alfred“, “Alexander“, other names beginning with “Al-“.
VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
How much can you possibly vary or shorten “Al”?
REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Al Lynch, one of the girls’ suitors in Belles on Their Toes (1950), written by Frank Gilbreth, Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey.
Anne
July 28, 2014 § 10 Comments
ORIGIN:
Alternate spelling of “Ann“, this is a French variant of “Anna“, from “Hannah” (as used in the Greek and Latin Old Testament), a version of the Hebrew name “Channah”, meaning “favor” or “grace”.
VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
Ana, Anabel, Anabelle, Anabella, Anais, Andie, Andy, Aneta, Ani, Anica, Anika, Anita, Anitra, Anka, Anke, Anna, Annabel, Annabella, Annabelle, Anne, Anneke, Annetta, Annette, Annick, Annicka, Annie, Annika, Anniken, Annis, Anouk, Antje, Anya, Hanna, Hannah, Hanne, Nan, Nancy, Nanette, Nannie, Nina, Ninon, Ona, Onna, etc.
REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Anne (b. 1905), the eldest of the dozen Gilbreth children whose upbringing is related in Cheaper By the Dozen (1948) and Belles on Their Toes (1950), written by Frank Gilbreth, Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey.
– Anne Cox, one of Mr. Cox’s sisters, who Emma Woodhouse calls “the two most vulgar girls in Highbury”, in Jane Austen’s Emma (1815).
– Lady Anne Darcy, Mr. Darcy’s late mother and Lady Catherine de Bourgh’s sister, in Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (written in 1797, published in 1813).
– Lady Anne de Bourgh, Lady Catherine’s daughter and Mr. Darcy’s sickly cousin, in Pride and Prejudice.
– Lady Anne Lennox, older sister to Lady Dorothy and Lord Humphrey, in “Nurse Crumpet Tells the Story” (written in 1887, set circa 1630s-1669), from A Brother to Dragons, and Other Old Time Tales (1888), by Amélie Rives.
– Miss Anne Steele (sometimes called “Nancy“), Lucy’s well-intentioned but empty-headed ninny of an older sister, a woman of “vulgar freedom and folly”, in Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility (set between 1792-1797, published in 1811).
WRITERS:
– Anne Dudley (née Seymour), Countess of Warwick (1538-1588), English writer.
– Anne Ker (1766-1821), English novelist.
– Anne Lamott (b. 1954), American activist and writer.
– Anne Logan (b. 1947), pen name of American mystery and romance author Barbara Colley.
– Anne Meredith (1899-1978), one of the pen names of American writer Lucy Beatrice Malleson.
– Anne Rice (b. 1941), American novelist.
The Art of Literary Nomenclature 