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Help[Facts] Adelcinda?
My teacher Elaine enquired about this name, which is borne by a parent of another student. I sent her this e-mail with my theory about the name, but I wanted to know if anyone else had any more information.
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Adelcinda seems to be made up to me, though it looks like a medieval name. The "adal" particle (which is often "adel" in modern spelling) means "noble", but Adel- could also be short for Adelaide, which is composed of "adal" and "heid" meaning "kind, sort, type" in Germanic (Adalheidis was the original form, and Adelheid is the modern German and Dutch form). "Cinda" is probably from either Cynthia or Lucinda:
Cynthia's the Latinised form of Kynthia, a Greek name meaning "woman from Kynthos". Kynthos was a mountain on the island of Delos, where Artemis and Apollo were born, and Cynthia was therefore an epithet for Artemis.
Lucinda was probably created in 1605 by Cervantes, for his story "Don Quixote". It's an elaboration of Lucia, which is a feminine form of Lucius. Lucius was a Roman given name meaning "light", from the Latin element "lux".
There's a third name "cinda" could come from, but it's much more unlikely: Jacinda, a variant of Jacinta, the Spanish and Portuguese feminine form of Hyacinth. Hyakinthos was the original form in Greek, but I can't find the meaning for it. The namesake of the flower was male, called variously Hyacinth, Hyacinthus, or Hyakinthos. He was a beautiful lover of Apollo, but was accidentally killed by the god in a discus game gone awry; the flower sprang from Hyacinth's blood and was accordingly named after him by Apollo. (The flower wasn't our modern hyacinth, but rather a lily, larkspur, or gladiolas.)
Now, that's my theory. I vaguely recall seeing Adelsinda in a royal or noble family, but that could be my brain playing tricks on me. I did find an Adalsinda in an online obituary for the Miami Herald: http://snipurl.com/94da. And several Adalcindas appeared when I searched for it, but all but one of the results were in Portuguese: http://snipurl.com/94dj.
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Miranda
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Adelcinda seems to be made up to me, though it looks like a medieval name. The "adal" particle (which is often "adel" in modern spelling) means "noble", but Adel- could also be short for Adelaide, which is composed of "adal" and "heid" meaning "kind, sort, type" in Germanic (Adalheidis was the original form, and Adelheid is the modern German and Dutch form). "Cinda" is probably from either Cynthia or Lucinda:
Cynthia's the Latinised form of Kynthia, a Greek name meaning "woman from Kynthos". Kynthos was a mountain on the island of Delos, where Artemis and Apollo were born, and Cynthia was therefore an epithet for Artemis.
Lucinda was probably created in 1605 by Cervantes, for his story "Don Quixote". It's an elaboration of Lucia, which is a feminine form of Lucius. Lucius was a Roman given name meaning "light", from the Latin element "lux".
There's a third name "cinda" could come from, but it's much more unlikely: Jacinda, a variant of Jacinta, the Spanish and Portuguese feminine form of Hyacinth. Hyakinthos was the original form in Greek, but I can't find the meaning for it. The namesake of the flower was male, called variously Hyacinth, Hyacinthus, or Hyakinthos. He was a beautiful lover of Apollo, but was accidentally killed by the god in a discus game gone awry; the flower sprang from Hyacinth's blood and was accordingly named after him by Apollo. (The flower wasn't our modern hyacinth, but rather a lily, larkspur, or gladiolas.)
Now, that's my theory. I vaguely recall seeing Adelsinda in a royal or noble family, but that could be my brain playing tricks on me. I did find an Adalsinda in an online obituary for the Miami Herald: http://snipurl.com/94da. And several Adalcindas appeared when I searched for it, but all but one of the results were in Portuguese: http://snipurl.com/94dj.
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Miranda
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