New Post
Search
Help
ArchivesHello :) just looking for a meaning of a name!
Hi, I was wondering if anyone could tell me the meaning of the name Tonya?? This is my name and on the BtN database doesn't give me any solid answers.
I know it was derived from Antonia which was derived from Anthony.
Here are all the meanings I have been told. Then had people tell me these meanings are completely wrong but they are not sure of the actual meaning.
Fairy Queen, Priceless, Flower, Beyond Praise, Praiseworthy etc.
If you know the true meaning of the name Tonya could you please let me know.
My mother does not know the meaning but she said she was using the Spanish form of Tonya. Because I know there are different orgins and all.
Any help on this would be truly appreciated. Thank you so much :)
edited to add: feel free to click on the name "Tonya" link and read some of the comments because a lot of the comments follow what I have been told the meaning meant. So that confuses me because others have said the same thing. But maybe there is something on there that can be helpful to the true meaning. Thanks again
___________________________________________________________
~Proud wife of Jacob~
*Proud mother of my pets*:
Cricket, Dusty Rose, Angel, Snowball and Butterbee
~*To be great is to be misunderstood*~
I know it was derived from Antonia which was derived from Anthony.
Here are all the meanings I have been told. Then had people tell me these meanings are completely wrong but they are not sure of the actual meaning.
Fairy Queen, Priceless, Flower, Beyond Praise, Praiseworthy etc.
If you know the true meaning of the name Tonya could you please let me know.
My mother does not know the meaning but she said she was using the Spanish form of Tonya. Because I know there are different orgins and all.
Any help on this would be truly appreciated. Thank you so much :)
edited to add: feel free to click on the name "Tonya" link and read some of the comments because a lot of the comments follow what I have been told the meaning meant. So that confuses me because others have said the same thing. But maybe there is something on there that can be helpful to the true meaning. Thanks again
___________________________________________________________
~Proud wife of Jacob~
*Proud mother of my pets*:
Cricket, Dusty Rose, Angel, Snowball and Butterbee
~*To be great is to be misunderstood*~
This message was edited 4/16/2007, 6:01 AM
1
Replies
I'm afraid that whether you think of Tonya as derived from Antonia or as an alternate spelling of Tanya, derived from Tatiana, both of these go back to ancient Roman names for which the original etymological meaning is simply unknown. Anything that can be said about either of them is simply a guess. Some guesses may be more educated than others, but until and unless someone finds more evidence from ancient writings, or deciphers the Etruscan language, the answer in terms of etymology must be "unknown".
This is a case where the use of the term "meaning" in regard to etymology may be misleading. The names Anthony and Tatiana didn't survive because of any original etymological connection, but because they were the names of Christian saints. If I were you, I'd look up the lives of those saints and take their stories as the "meaning" for your name, because they are why the names are still in use today.
Of the etymologies suggested, the one that seems to at least come from an educated guess is "priceless". The "fairy queen" meaning comes from confusing Tatiana with Titania, the name of the fairy queen in Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream, so it is the one which is almost surely NOT correct as an etymology. The "Flower" meaning, as the derivation for Anthony given on this site says, is an ancient mistake made by confusing Antonius with the Greek word for "flower". Since the spelling Tonya does not include the "h", it really wouldn't be correct to use the "flower" meaning, though I suppose for Anthony one could at least say the modern form has been blended with the Greek word for "flower".
This is a case where the use of the term "meaning" in regard to etymology may be misleading. The names Anthony and Tatiana didn't survive because of any original etymological connection, but because they were the names of Christian saints. If I were you, I'd look up the lives of those saints and take their stories as the "meaning" for your name, because they are why the names are still in use today.
Of the etymologies suggested, the one that seems to at least come from an educated guess is "priceless". The "fairy queen" meaning comes from confusing Tatiana with Titania, the name of the fairy queen in Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream, so it is the one which is almost surely NOT correct as an etymology. The "Flower" meaning, as the derivation for Anthony given on this site says, is an ancient mistake made by confusing Antonius with the Greek word for "flower". Since the spelling Tonya does not include the "h", it really wouldn't be correct to use the "flower" meaning, though I suppose for Anthony one could at least say the modern form has been blended with the Greek word for "flower".
1
No doubt that's "priceless" = "very expensive", not "priceless" = "very funny"?
Clearly you're right - but this also applies to other names as well, surely? People complain about Caleb, for instance, because they find it distasteful to give a child a name that means "dog" ... but people don't go through the wonderful Search function looking for a name that means "dog" in the first place; they like the biblical connection and/or the sound of the name. Probably the sound. Not many Philomenas, compared to Anthonys, and practically no Frideswides, though they've got perfectly respectable religious pedigrees.
Clearly you're right - but this also applies to other names as well, surely? People complain about Caleb, for instance, because they find it distasteful to give a child a name that means "dog" ... but people don't go through the wonderful Search function looking for a name that means "dog" in the first place; they like the biblical connection and/or the sound of the name. Probably the sound. Not many Philomenas, compared to Anthonys, and practically no Frideswides, though they've got perfectly respectable religious pedigrees.
1