Peleg
August 11, 2014 § Leave a comment
ORIGIN:
Hebrew, meaning “division” or “channel”.
VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
. . . Pel?
REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Captain Peleg King, captain of the steamer Eolus, which carries Candace Arden to her cousins’ home in Newport, in A Little Country Girl (1885), by Susan Coolidge.
Moses
August 10, 2014 § Leave a comment
ORIGIN:
From Hebrew, meaning “saved” or “son”.
VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
Mo, Moe, Moey, Moises, Moishe, Moisey, Mose, Moshe, Moss, Musa, etc.
REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Moses Pennel, Becky Moore’s country suitor in “Mountain-Laurel and Maiden-Hair”, from A Garland for Girls, by Louisa May Alcott, 1887.
Lemuel
August 7, 2014 § Leave a comment
ORIGIN:
From Hebrew, meaning “devoted to the Lord”.
VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
Lem, Lemmie, Lemmy.
REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Lemuel Homer, the gentlemanly scholar who escorts his wife and Misses Ethel Amory and Jane Bassett around Europe, in “Poppies and Wheat”, from A Garland for Girls, by Louisa May Alcott, 1887.
Ruth
August 7, 2014 § 7 Comments
ORIGIN:
From Hebrew, meaning “friend” or “companion”.
VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
Ruta, Rute, Ruut, Ruthie, Ruthy.
REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Ruth Bowen, the noble, sea-loving young heroine of “Water Lilies” from A Garland for Girls, by Louisa May Alcott, 1887.
– Ruth Huckabuck, Reuben’s dwarfish granddaughter and heir, in Lorna Doone, by R.D. Blackmore (written in 1869, set in the 1670s-1680s).
– Ruth Jameson (sometimes called “Ruthie“), “a girl of the city” who cannot see herself as the Harvester’s dream girl, in The Harvester (1911) by Gene Stratton Porter.
– Ruth Varnum (later Mrs. Ned Hale), a friend of Ethan’s and Mattie’s, who, as landlady to the narrator, is able to fill him in on some of the details surrounding Ethan’s tragic life, in Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome (written in 1911, but set in the 1890s or first few years of the 1900s).
– Ruth Visor, Keren Lemon’s cousin, who fears she will be forced to compete with Keren for Robert Racket’s love, in “The Farrier Lass o’ Piping Pebworth” (written in 1887, set circa 1600), from A Brother to Dragons, and Other Old Time Tales (1888), by Amélie Rives.
WRITERS:
– Ruth Gordon (1896-1985), American actress and writer.
– Ruth Prowler Jhabvala (1927-2013), German-born British-American writer.
– Ruth Edna Kelley (1893-1982), American author and librarian.
– Ruth Rendell (b. 1930), English author.
– Ruth Stout (1884-1980), American author.
– Ruth Plumly Thomson (1891-1976), American children’s book author.
Samuel
August 7, 2014 § 7 Comments
ORIGIN:
From Hebrew, meaning “God has heard” or “name of God”.
VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
Sam, Sami, Sammie, Sammy, Semuel, Shem, Shemuel, Shmuel, etc.
REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Samuel Warburton, Mrs. Warburton’s husband, a scientist and scholar, in “Pansies” from A Garland for Girls, by Louisa May Alcott, 1887.
WRITERS:
– Samuel Beckett (1906-1989), Irish novelist, playwright, and poet.
– Samuel Butler (1613-1680), English poet and satirist.
– Samuel Butler (1835-1902), English writer and iconoclast.
– Samuel Clemens (1835-1910), American author and humorist who wrote under the pen name “Mark Twain”.
– Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), English critic, poet, and philosopher.
– Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), English moralist, writer, and lexicographer.
– Samuel Pepys (1633-1703), English diarist.
Sarah
August 6, 2014 § 8 Comments
ORIGIN:
Alternately spelled “Sara”, from Hebrew, meaning “lady” or “princess”.
VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
Cera, Cerah, Sadie, Sal, Sallie, Sally, Sairey, Sairy, Sara, Sarai, Saraih, Sarette, Sarey, Sari, Sariah, Sarina, Sarit, Sarita, Sary, Sera, Serah, Serita, Seryl, Sorale, Soralie, Sorella, Suri, Syril, Tzeitel, Zara, Zarah, etc.
REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Sarah, a housemaid at the Reed’s house, Gateshead Hall, in Jane Eyre, 1847, by Charlotte Bronte.
– Sarah Parsons, a neighbor of the Kennedy’s who is befriended by Ida Standish in “May Flowers”, from A Garland for Girls, by Louisa May Alcott, 1887.
– Sarah Reed (née Gibson), Jane’s selfish, hard-hearted aunt-by-marriage, in Jane Eyre.
– Sarah Ridd, the lovely and good-hearted farmer’s widow who is mother to John, Annie, and Eliza, in Lorna Doone, by R.D. Blackmore (written in 1869, set in the 1670s-1680s).
WRITERS:
– Sarah Stickney Ellis (1799-1872), English author.
– Sarah Josepha Hale (1788-1879), American writer and editor.
– Sarah Orne Jewett (1849-1909), American author.
– Sarah Chauncey Woolsey (1835-1905), American children’s book writer who published under the pen name “Susan Coolidge”.
Nathan
August 6, 2014 § 2 Comments
ORIGIN:
Hebrew, meaning “gift”. Sometimes used as a shortened form of “Nathaniel” or even “Jonathan“.
VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
Nat, Natan, Natanael, Natanaele, Natanail, Nataniel, Nate, Nathanael, Nathanahel, Nathaniel, Nath, Nathe, Natty, Nethanel, etc.
REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Nathan Baxter, the carpenter Almira Miller hopes to marry, in “May Flowers”, from A Garland for Girls, by Louisa May Alcott, 1887.
– Nathan Hale Creighton (called “Nate“; 1848-1852), 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).
Bartholomew
August 2, 2014 § 1 Comment
ORIGIN:
From Aramaic via Greek / Hebrew, meaning “son of Talmai (abounding in furrows)”.
VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
Bart, Barth, Bartie, Bartlett, Bartley, Bartol, Barty, Bertok, Mees, Mies, Tolly, etc.
REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Rev. Bartholomew Irons, an “awakening man” befriended by Lady Southdown in Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray (published in 1847-48, but set in the 1810s-20s).
WRITERS:
– Bartholomew of Lucca (also known as “Bartolomeo Fiadóni”, “Tolomeo da Lucca”, or “Ptolemy da Lucca”; c.1236-c.1327), Italian historian and monk.
– Bartholomew Dowling (1823-1863), Irish author, editor, and poet, who sometimes published under the pen names “Masque” or “Southern”.
– Bartholomew MacCarthy (1843-1904), Irish author, chronologist, curate, and scholar.
– Bartholomew Mastrius (also known as “Bartholomaeus” or “Bartolomeo Mastri”; 1602-1673), Italian monk, philosopher, theologian, and writer.
QUOTATIONS:
– The poem “Bartholomew“, written by Norman Rowland Gale in the 1910s, starts: “Bartholomew is very sweet, / From sandy hair to rosy feet. / Bartholomew is six months old, / And dearer far than pearls or gold.”
Isidor
August 2, 2014 § 1 Comment
ORIGIN:
Variant of “Isidore”, from the Greek name “Isidoros”, meaning “gift of Isis”.
VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
Isa, Isadore, Isidro, Issy, Izzie, Izzy, etc.
REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Isidor is Joseph Sedley’s Belgian manservant while he accompanied the regiment to war in Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray (published in 1847-48, but set in the 1810s-20s).
Dan
August 2, 2014 § 2 Comments
ORIGIN:
From the Hebrew for “judge”; often used as a shortened version of “Daniel“.
VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
Dannie, Danny.
REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Nickname for Daniel (b. 1917), the ninth 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.
– Dan Lawrence, George’s son, wounded at Shiloh / Pittsburgh Landing, who brings news to the Creightons of Tom’s death in the battle, in Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt (1964; set during the American Civil War, 1861-1865).
– Dan Malony, a cousin of Mrs. Major O’Dowd’s, in Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray (published in 1847-48, but set in the 1810s-20s).
The Art of Literary Nomenclature 