Ida
August 5, 2014 § 2 Comments
ORIGIN:
Germanic, meaning “work” or “labor”.
VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
Idah, Ide, Idella, Idelle, Idina, Iida, etc..
REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Ida, daughter of the Prime Minister 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).
– Ida Standish, member of the Mayflower Club in “May Flowers”, from A Garland for Girls, by Louisa May Alcott, 1887.
WRITERS:
– Ida Pollock (1908-2013), English author who published under her own name, as well as several pseudonyms.
– Ida Tarbell (1857-1944), American author, journalist, and teacher.
– Ida B. Wells (1862-1931), American activist, editor, and journalist.
Frederica
August 4, 2014 § 2 Comments
ORIGIN:
Feminine version of “Frederick“, “Frederico”, etc.
VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
Federica, Fred, Freda, Fredda, Freddey, Freddi, Freddie, Freddy, Frederiek, Frederika, Frederikke, Frederique, Fredrica, Fredrika, Frici, Friderici, Frieda, Friederike, Frioriki, Fritzi, Fryderyka, Rica, Riika, Rika, Rike, Rikka, Rikke, etc.
REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Frederica, Uncle Len’s long-suffering girlfriend, in Sleeping Arrangements, by Laura Cunningham (published 1989, set in the 1950s).
– Lady Frederica Bullock, Fred Bullock’s mother, in Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray (published in 1847-48, but set in the 1810s-20s).
WRITERS:
– Frederica Sagor Maas (1900-2012), American author, dramatist, essayist, memoirist, playwright, and screenwriter.
– Frederica J. Turle (1880-19??), English children’s book author.
Fred
August 4, 2014 § 4 Comments
ORIGIN:
Shortened version of “Frederick“, meaning “peaceful ruler”. Sometimes used as a diminutive of “Alfred“, “Manfred”, “Wilfred”, etc., or, for girls, for names like “Frederica” or “Winifred”.
VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
For girls: Freda, Freddi, Freddie, Frieda, Fritzi.
For boys: Fred, Fredde, Freddie, Fredo, Fritz.
REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Nickname for Frederick (b. 1916), the eighth 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.
– Fred, a rather snobbish and foppish young man in “Water Lilies” from A Garland for Girls, by Louisa May Alcott, 1887.
– Fred (called “Freddy“) Allen, whose wife is a friend of the Gray girls and Berry Joy, and frequently serves as chaperone for their parties, in A Little Country Girl (1885), by Susan Coolidge.
– Fred (Frederick Augustus) Bullock, the young man Maria Osborne hopes to marry in Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray (published in 1847-48, but set in the 1810s-20s).
– Fred (Philip Frederick) Ottenburg, the dynamic young brewing heir who launches Thea’s operatic career, in The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather (written in 1915 and set in the 1890s).
WRITERS:
– Fred Thompson (1884-1949), English writer and librettist.
– Fred Urquhart (1912-1995), Scottish short story writer.
Rosa
August 1, 2014 § 3 Comments
ORIGIN:
Latinized version of “Rose“, meaning, well, “rose”. Sometimes used as a diminutive for names beginning with “Ros-“.
VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
Ros, Rosabel, Rosaleen, Rosalie, Rosalind, Rosaline, Rosamond, Rosamonde, Rosamund, Rosanne, Rose, Roselin, Roselind, Rosella, Roselle, Rosemond, Rosemund, Rosetta, Rosette, Rosie, Rosina, Rosine, Rosita, Roslyn, Rosy, Roz, Roza, Rozelle, Rozie, Rozy, etc.
REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Rosa Bullock, one of Fred and Maria Bullock’s children, cousin to Georgy Osborne, who her mother hopes may one day be a means of recapturing her children’s inheritance, in Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray (published in 1847-48, but set in the 1810s-20s).
– Rosa Dawson, Lady Crawley, is Sir Pitt Crawley’s second wife and mother of the girls clever little Becky Sharp is hired to be governess for in Vanity Fair.
– Rosa Jemima Todd, the younger sister of Osborne Todd, and the Todd family’s hope of uniting with the Osbornes on the chance that young Georgy might grow up to fall in love with her, in Vanity Fair.
WRITERS:
– Rosa Waldeck (1898-1982), pen name of German-American author Rosie Goldschmidt (R.G.) Waldeck.
Daniel
July 30, 2014 § 5 Comments
ORIGIN:
From Hebrew, meaning “God is my judge”.
VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
Dan, Danilo, Dannie, Danny, etc.
REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Daniel (b. 1917; sometimes called “Dan“), 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.
– Daniel Byrne, a local man who offers to help get Mattie packed up and on her way out of town, in Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome (written in 1911, but set in the 1890s or first few years of the 1900s).
WRITERS:
– Daniel Defoe (1660-1730), English author and satirist.
– Daniel Keyes (1927-2014), American author.
– Daniel Moran (b. 1947), pen name of American fantasy, science fiction, and Western author Robert E. Vardeman, who has also published under the pen names “Cliff Garnett”, “Edward S. Hudson”, “F.J. Hale”, “Jackson Lowry”, “Karl Lassiter”, “Paul Kenyon”, and “Victor Appleton”.
– Daniel Stern (1928-2007), American novelist.
QUOTATIONS:
– In The Merchant of Venice (1596), by William Shakespeare, the character of Shylock implies that he hopes for a wise resolution in the difficult case at hand: “A Daniel come to judgment! yea, a Daniel! / O wise young judge, how I do honour thee!”
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?”
The Art of Literary Nomenclature 