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ArchivesThe name Vairette
Hello,
My wife's forename is Vairette which does not appear to be a very popular name. I was wondering if anyone has encountered it before and if you had any information about its origin, history, and meaning. Also, are there special ways that names are pieced together and how can we determine the meaning of a name. I am looking forward to reading the replies. Thank you and have a nice day.
Regard,
Tim
My wife's forename is Vairette which does not appear to be a very popular name. I was wondering if anyone has encountered it before and if you had any information about its origin, history, and meaning. Also, are there special ways that names are pieced together and how can we determine the meaning of a name. I am looking forward to reading the replies. Thank you and have a nice day.
Regard,
Tim
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Replies
Vair is a French word meaning soft leather (kid) and I was taught that the original Cinderella story by Perrot was really about a kid slipper (vair) and not a glass slipper (verre). "-ette" is a diminutive and so my guess would be "little soft soft leather/kid". Very tactile!
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The story about Cinderella was written when the word "vair" wasn't still (or longer?) used in the French language, so the thing about kid slippers is a myth. It was indeed glass slippers. But vair still means "soft leather", of course.
Short and sweet like Swedish summer....
Short and sweet like Swedish summer....
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I think the theory is that it is precisely because vair was an obsolete word in French is why Perrault, the author of the most famous version of Cinderella, confused it with verre. But there does seem to be a lot of disagreement on whether or not he did this deliberately.
Cinderella is actually the oldest one of the "fairy tales" still popular in the Western world. The oldest version of it found so far is from China in the 9th century A.D., so the basic tale is over a thousand years old.
Cinderella is actually the oldest one of the "fairy tales" still popular in the Western world. The oldest version of it found so far is from China in the 9th century A.D., so the basic tale is over a thousand years old.
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That's fascinating to know. Thank you!
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More on Cinderella
Here: http://snipurl.com/vhtn.
The "fairy godmother" was originally "Cinderella"'s dead mother's spirit, who originally came back in the form of a fish (later, the Grimm Brothers had the mother inhabit a tree) to aid her daughter. Personally, I think Perrault's exchanging of the mother's spirit with a fairy godmother who appears out of nowhere destroys an integral bit of logic in the story... but that's all off topic, isn't it? ;-)
Miranda
Proud adopter of 15 punctuation marks; see my profile for their names.
Here: http://snipurl.com/vhtn.
The "fairy godmother" was originally "Cinderella"'s dead mother's spirit, who originally came back in the form of a fish (later, the Grimm Brothers had the mother inhabit a tree) to aid her daughter. Personally, I think Perrault's exchanging of the mother's spirit with a fairy godmother who appears out of nowhere destroys an integral bit of logic in the story... but that's all off topic, isn't it? ;-)
Proud adopter of 15 punctuation marks; see my profile for their names.
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Vairette is probably a variation of Vairet, which is a French surname going back to the Old French word vair, which originally meant "variegated". So it was either a nickname for someone with a blotchy complexion, or for someone who had the habit of dressing in clothes that were multi-colored. As explained in the remarks below about Cinderella, in medieval France the word vair also was used for a type of multi-hued squirrel fur imported from Russia. The -et or -ette would indeed be a diminutive, so the original connotation of the surname would have been "small/cute/young person with a variegated appearance".
The above information is from Hanks & Hodges's A Dictionary of Surnames.
The above information is from Hanks & Hodges's A Dictionary of Surnames.
This message was edited 8/24/2006, 2:23 PM
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