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Archivesorigin of Gloria as a Marian devotion name
I don't normally link to my column on this site but I wanted to give some more evidence about the origin of Gloria than I could in my post under "comments" in the listing for the name.
Here is my column on the name:
http://www.omaha.com/living/evans-gloria-is-a-name-that-s-ready-to-relive/article_067cbbf4-f1e6-58d6-9222-4c47b2010e0f.html
It is a bit surprising to me that name books in English speaking countries have so far not realized that Gloria originated in Iberia as one of the names developed from titles of the Virgin Mary, like Dolores, Mercedes, Pilar, etc.
Perhaps this is because the word "Gloria" is the same in Latin as it is in Spanish and Portuguese, so it was just assumed the name was created in Britain or America directly from the Latin word. Perhaps it also has to do with the fact that Gloria seems to have been more common in Portugal than Spain (though it was certainly used in Spain, as my column's reference to the Perez Galdos novel explains.)
British name dictionaries seem to think the name was invented by George Bernard Shaw for the character in his 1898 play "You Never Can Tell." However, in that play the character Gloria was taken to the Portuguese island of Madeira as a baby by her mother, who was fleeing a bad marriage in England. She has just returned to England at age 18 along with her mother and younger twin siblings. In the second act her father, Mr. Crampton (who she has no memory of and whose name she didn't even know) unexpectedly shows up. The following exchange takes place between them:
CRAMPTON (in sudden dread). No: don't think. I want you to feel: that's the only thing that can help us. Listen! Do you—but first—I forgot. What's your name? I mean you pet name. They can't very well call you Sophronia.
GLORIA (with astonished disgust). Sophronia! My name is Gloria. I am always called by it.
CRAMPTON (his temper rising again). Your name is Sophronia, girl: you were called after your aunt Sophronia, my sister: she gave you your first Bible with your name written in it.
GLORIA. Then my mother gave me a new name.
CRAMPTON (angrily). She had no right to do it. I will not allow this.
GLORIA. You had no right to give me your sister's name. I don't know her.
Though it's never explicitly stated in the play, I think it's probable that in Shaw's mind Gloria's mother chose Gloria as her new name because they had just moved to Madeira, and she thought a Portuguese name would help her daughter fit in with the natives of her new home.
In my column it's already mentioned that Gloria became regularly used in the United States because of the novel "Gloria" by Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth. In that novel Gloria is the daughter of a Portuguese ambassador to the United States who has married a wealthy Maryland heiress. Shortly after Gloria meets David Lindsay, who will eventually become her husband, she explains to him that her full birth name is actually "Maria da Gloria" -- the Marian title name as used in Portugal.
So both the novel which introduced the name Gloria to the United States and the play which introduced it to Britain say that their characters named Gloria have connections with Portugal. I think it is almost certain the name was originally Iberian and was introduced to English speaking countries from Portugal and Spain, and was not independently created by Southworth or Shaw.
Here is my column on the name:
http://www.omaha.com/living/evans-gloria-is-a-name-that-s-ready-to-relive/article_067cbbf4-f1e6-58d6-9222-4c47b2010e0f.html
It is a bit surprising to me that name books in English speaking countries have so far not realized that Gloria originated in Iberia as one of the names developed from titles of the Virgin Mary, like Dolores, Mercedes, Pilar, etc.
Perhaps this is because the word "Gloria" is the same in Latin as it is in Spanish and Portuguese, so it was just assumed the name was created in Britain or America directly from the Latin word. Perhaps it also has to do with the fact that Gloria seems to have been more common in Portugal than Spain (though it was certainly used in Spain, as my column's reference to the Perez Galdos novel explains.)
British name dictionaries seem to think the name was invented by George Bernard Shaw for the character in his 1898 play "You Never Can Tell." However, in that play the character Gloria was taken to the Portuguese island of Madeira as a baby by her mother, who was fleeing a bad marriage in England. She has just returned to England at age 18 along with her mother and younger twin siblings. In the second act her father, Mr. Crampton (who she has no memory of and whose name she didn't even know) unexpectedly shows up. The following exchange takes place between them:
CRAMPTON (in sudden dread). No: don't think. I want you to feel: that's the only thing that can help us. Listen! Do you—but first—I forgot. What's your name? I mean you pet name. They can't very well call you Sophronia.
GLORIA (with astonished disgust). Sophronia! My name is Gloria. I am always called by it.
CRAMPTON (his temper rising again). Your name is Sophronia, girl: you were called after your aunt Sophronia, my sister: she gave you your first Bible with your name written in it.
GLORIA. Then my mother gave me a new name.
CRAMPTON (angrily). She had no right to do it. I will not allow this.
GLORIA. You had no right to give me your sister's name. I don't know her.
Though it's never explicitly stated in the play, I think it's probable that in Shaw's mind Gloria's mother chose Gloria as her new name because they had just moved to Madeira, and she thought a Portuguese name would help her daughter fit in with the natives of her new home.
In my column it's already mentioned that Gloria became regularly used in the United States because of the novel "Gloria" by Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth. In that novel Gloria is the daughter of a Portuguese ambassador to the United States who has married a wealthy Maryland heiress. Shortly after Gloria meets David Lindsay, who will eventually become her husband, she explains to him that her full birth name is actually "Maria da Gloria" -- the Marian title name as used in Portugal.
So both the novel which introduced the name Gloria to the United States and the play which introduced it to Britain say that their characters named Gloria have connections with Portugal. I think it is almost certain the name was originally Iberian and was introduced to English speaking countries from Portugal and Spain, and was not independently created by Southworth or Shaw.
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