Message: "Any clues to meaning/etymology? Spanish? Female."

Any clues to meaning/etymology? Spanish? Female.

by VIRIDIANA (guest)

9/19/2007, 8:50 AM

Met a kid whose name is VIRIDIANA. Mom in Mexican-American family chose that name for her daughter because she (mom) had known someone with the same name and liked the name, but does not know what it means.

#Spanish

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- Cleveland Kent Evans (clevelandkentevans)

9/19/2007, 10:38 AM

If I am interpreting my Italian and Spanish name dictionaries correctly, Viridiana goes back to Viridianus, a Roman family name which probably was related to the word for "green", with the connotation of both "youthful" and "flourishing". St. Viridiana was a Italian Benedictine nun who died in 1242:

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=007v2h

- Lumia

9/19/2007, 10:35 AM

Viridiana comes from the Latin presonal name Viridianus, Viridiana, Roman cognomen from viridis, "green", with the addition of -anus, that is "greenish", in the sense of "young, fresh".

The diffusion of the name in Mexico and Spain is because of the film Viridiana by Luis Buñuel (1961).

- penguiny7

9/19/2007, 8:59 AM

Perhaps it's related to the colour viridian?

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