Becky
July 31, 2014 § 1 Comment
ORIGIN:
Diminutive of “Rebecca“, from the Hebrew name “Rivkah”, meaning “yoke” or “snare”.
VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
Becca, Becka, Beckah, Beckie, etc.
REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Great Aunt Becky, Lily’s elderly relative, who believes her deceased nephew is still alive and living in Alaska because no one in the family has the heart to break the news to her, in Sleeping Arrangements, by Laura Cunningham (published 1989, set in the 1950s).
– Becky Hawkins, a sharp and saucy “parcel-girl” who is as brave and generous as she is quick-witted, in “Becky”, from Nora Perry’s A Flock of Girls and Boys (1895).
– Becky (Rebecca) Moore, the plain, hard-working farm girl with the heart of a poet in “Mountain-Laurel and Maiden-Hair”, from A Garland for Girls, by Louisa May Alcott, 1887.
– Becky (Rebecca) Sharp, the clever and self-centered anti-heroine of Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray (published in 1847-48, but set in the 1810s-20s).
Barbara
July 31, 2014 § 4 Comments
ORIGIN:
From Greek, meaning “strange” or “foreign”.
VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
Babs, Barb, Barbary, Barbera, Barbie, Barbra, Barby, Bobbie, Bobby, Varvara, Varvora, etc.
REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Barbara, a servant at Lowood Academy, in Jane Eyre, 1847, by Charlotte Bronte.
– Barbara, a “severe and devout Princess of the House of Bolkum, widow of the monarch of Pumpernickel, where Dobbin, Amelia, Jos, and Georgy stop for a while on their Grand Tour, in Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray (published in 1847-48, but set in the 1810s-20s).
– Lady Barbara Fitzurse is an heiress who serves as a topic for gossip between Miss Crawley, Rawdon Crawley, and Becky Sharp in Vanity Fair.
– Barbara Pinkerton, the formidable sister in charge of Miss Pinkerton’s Academy for young ladies in Vanity Fair.
WRITERS:
Want to learn more about writers named “Barbara”? Check out this post for starters.
QUOTATIONS:
– “Barbara Allen” is a traditional folk song with origins in England and Scotland in the 17th century, though it has undergone hundreds of variations since it was first recorded by Samuel Pepys in 1666: “In Scarlet town where I was born / there was a fair maid dwellin’ / and every youth cried Well-a-day / For her name was Barb’ra Allen”.
The Art of Literary Nomenclature 