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”
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.
Maria
July 28, 2014 § 11 Comments
ORIGIN:
Pronounced either “ma REE’ a” or “ma RYE’ a”, this is the Latin form of Mary.
VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
Maia, Maike, Maja, Malia, Mara, Mairen, Mari, Mariah, Marie, Mariele, Mariella, Marietta, Marijeke, Marika, Mariska, Marita, Mary, Maureen, Maya, Mia, Mimi, Mirele, Moira, Reena, Reeta, Ria, Riele, Riella, Rina, Rita, etc.
REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Maria, maid-of-all-work for Maggie Bradford’s family in “May Flowers”, from A Garland for Girls, by Louisa May Alcott, 1887.
– Maria Johnson, the farmer’s wife in The Song of the Cardinal, by Gene Stratton Porter (1903).
– Maria Lucas, the younger sister of Lizzie Bennet’s best friend Charlotte in Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (written in 1797, published in 1813).
– Maria Mirvan (called “Molly” or “Moll” by her father), Evelina’s dearest friend, with whom she enters into London society, in Evelina, or, The History of a Young Lady’s Entrance into the World (1778), by Fanny Burney.
– Maria Frances Osborne, the younger of George Osborne’s sisters in Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray (published in 1847-48, but set in the 1810s-20s).
– Maria Porter (called “Ria“), a shopgirl Anna Winslow helps in “May Flowers”, from A Garland for Girls.
– Miss Maria Temple, head teacher and superintendent of Lowood Institute, whose kindness to Jane encourages and consoles her, in Jane Eyre, 1847, by Charlotte Bronte.
– Maria Todd, Miss Osborne’s goddaughter and sister to Osborne Todd, Georgy Osborne’s friend, in Vanity Fair.
QUOTATIONS:
– “They Call The Wind Maria” is a song from the 1951 musical Paint Your Wagon by Alan J. Lerner and Frederick Loewe: “Away out here they got a name / For rain and wind and fire / The rain is Tess, the fire Joe / And they call the wind Maria”. (Obviously, you have to go with the “ma RYE’ a” pronunciation for this song, or it doesn’t really rhyme. Also, I have serious doubts about anyone actually calling fire “Joe”.)
– “Maria” is a song from the 1957 Broadway musical West Side Story by Arthur Laurents, Leonard Bernstein, and Stephen Sondheim: “The most beautiful sound I ever heard. / Maria! . . . Say it loud and there’s music playing, / Say it soft and it’s almost like praying.”
– “(How Do You Solve a Problem Like) Maria” is a song from the 1959 musical The Sound of Music by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II: “How do you solve a problem like Maria? / How do you catch a cloud and pin it down? / How do you find a word that means Maria? / A flibbertigibbet! A will-o’-the-wisp! A clown! / Many a thing you know you’d like to tell her / Many a thing she ought to understand / But how do you make her stay / And listen to all you say / How do you keep a wave upon the sand? / How do you solve a problem like Maria? / How do you hold a moonbeam in your hand?”
Lydia
July 28, 2014 § 5 Comments
ORIGIN:
From Latin, meaning “a woman from Lydia”, which was an ancient country on the west coast of Asia Minor, once ruled by the famously wealthy Croesus. Perhaps not the most deeply meaningful name origin, but whatevs.
VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
Lidia, Liddy, Lidya, Lydda, Lydie, etc.
REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Lydia Bennet, the foolish and frivolous youngest of the five Bennets in Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (written in 1797, published in 1813).
– Lydia Creighton (b. 1834), one of “the twin girls, long since married and moved to Ohio” who are among Jethro’s far-distant older siblings, in Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt (1964; set during the American Civil War, 1861-1865).
– Lydia Hancock, the aunt for whom Mr. Hancock goes to Mr. Lapham to have a silver sugar bowl made, in Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes (written in 1943; set during the years leading up to the American Revolutionary War, 1773-1775).
WRITERS:
– Lydia Becker (1827-1890), English activist, publisher, and scientist.
– Lydia Yudifovna Berdyaev (1871-1945), Russian poet.
– Lydia T. Black (1925-2007), American anthropologist and author.
– Lydia Cabrera (1899-1991), Cuban anthropologist and poet.
– Lydia Cacho (b. 1963) Mexican activist, author, and journalist.
– Lydia Campbell (1818-1905), Anglo-Canadian diarist.
– Lydia Maria Child (1802-1880), American activist, journalist, and novelist.
– Lydia Chukovskaya (1907-1996), Russian/Finnish author and poet.
– Lydia Davis (b. 1947), American essayist, novelist, short story writer, and translator.
– Lydia Gregory (b. 1954), pen name of American children’s book author and novelist Diane Carey, who also publishes as “D.L. Carey”.
– Lydia Grigorieva (b. 1945), Ukrainian poet.
– Lydia Hitchcock (1946-2011), pen name of English romance author Penelope Halsall, who also published as “Annie Groves”, “Caroline Courtney”, “Melinda Wright”, and “Penny Jordan”.
– Lydia Jannsen (1843-1886), Estonian poet who published under the pen name “Lydia Koidula”.
– Lydia Kwa (b. 1959), Canadian novelist, poet, psychologist, and short story writer.
– Lydia Mackenzie Falconer Miller (1812-1876), English children’s book author who also published under the pen name “Harriet Myrtle”.
– Lydia Millet (b. 1968), American novelist.
– Lydia Sargent (b. 1942), American activist, actor, author, playwright, and writer.
– Lydia Sigourney (1791-1865), American poet who published as “Mrs. Sigourney”.
– Lydia Tomkiw (1959-2007), American poet, singer, and songwriter.
– Lydia Wahlström (1869-1954), Swedish activist, author, and historian.
– Lydia Wevers (b. 1950), New Zealander critic, editor, historian, and writer.
– Lydia Zinovieva-Annibal (1866-1907), Russian dramatist, novelist, and short story writer.
The Art of Literary Nomenclature 