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Recently I was told by a friend that Donna (as well as Dona) is another form of Grant, as "dona" is the word for "grant" or "grant us". Is there any truth to this?
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In Latin, the verb which we translate as: to give was: dare. Then a longer form became current: donare. Same meaning - but you can see that the English words: donor and: donate come from the second one. To use the imperative form, like "Grant ..." or "Grant us ...", you just remove the -re at the end, which would leave you with: Da (from dare) or: Dona (from donare).
So, if you really want to stretch it, I suppose you could. Or, if you're desperate for a girl form of Grant and you don't fancy Grantella or Grantine, Dona might do it for you. But anyone who wasn't familiar with your analysis would just assume it's the Portuguese for: Lady.
As for me, I'm not sure that anyone would want a daughter named Gimme!
All the best
So, if you really want to stretch it, I suppose you could. Or, if you're desperate for a girl form of Grant and you don't fancy Grantella or Grantine, Dona might do it for you. But anyone who wasn't familiar with your analysis would just assume it's the Portuguese for: Lady.
As for me, I'm not sure that anyone would want a daughter named Gimme!
All the best
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Not that I'm aware of. I don't know much about other languages, but the name Donna was derived from the Italian language and means "lady". It may also be used as a feminine form of Donald, which means "ruler of the world" in Gaelic. Dona is merely a variant spelling of Donna.
Grant is Norman French for "grand, large", and was originally a Scottish surname.
Click on the hyperlinks for more info.
Miranda
Grant is Norman French for "grand, large", and was originally a Scottish surname.
Click on the hyperlinks for more info.
Miranda
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