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ArchivesMy column on Daphne
Here is the link to today's column:
https://omaha.com/life-entertainment/local/cleveland-evans-daphnes-meaning-goes-back-to-the-greeks/article_7cdc1b38-fd06-11ee-b7ff-3fb07be04e7e.html
This was one of the most fun names to research. Though I certainly knew about slaveowners giving "Classical" Roman and Greek names to slaves, Daphne hadn't been one that I thought of as being heavily used that way until I research the name in USA census records. It was quite a surprise to see that there were two free Black families in Talbot County, Maryland headed by women named Daphne in 1800.
It was interesting to see how the name seems to have been used for slaves in the USA before I could find evidence that it was ever used in Britain. Charlotte Yonge, one of the very first authors of a book on the history of names, said this about Daphne in the first edition of her book in 1863: "Daphne has not subsequently been used as a name except for dogs" (the "subsequently" referring to the original Greek myth!)
Though Daphne has a stereotype as an aristocratic English name, the first Daphnes in the 18th century in England were definitely NOT upper-class. As I mention in the column, Daphne Crossley, the second earliest Daphne I could find in the UK census, was listed as a "power loom weaver" in 1851. What I didn't have room to mention in the column was that she had two brothers and a sister who were also listed as "power loom weavers" that year. Their widowed mother Daphne Douglas Crossley never has an occupation listed in the census. By the way, her maiden name isn't in the census -- the reason I know it was Douglas is that she had a son whose first name was Douglas who emigrated to Massachusetts, and on his death certificate in Massachusetts it says his mother's maiden name was Douglas. Ancestry.com is putting a lot of links to other records in its census data, which helps one find such things out! It would be great if we could find out who the first Daphne's parents were back in Edinburgh, Scotland and why they gave her that name, but that information may well be completely lost.
The first aristocratic Daphne in England, as the column states, was Daphne De La Poer Beresford (1854-1941), a great-great-granddaughter of the first Earl of Tyrone. Her great-grandfather was a member of Parliament, while her own father was an army officer, which seems to be a career at lot of younger sons in noble families of Britain went into. Interestingly, this first aristocratic Daphne never married. The name rather suddenly starts turning up in the 1880s in multiple wealthy and upper middle class families in England, which is where it developed its modern "British upper class" stereotype. But there just wouldn't have been noticeable adult Daphnes among the British aristocracy until the start of the 20th century. So the character in "Bridgerton" is an anachronism, as are any other instances of fictional aristocratic Daphnes before 1854. Julia Quinn, the American author of the novels the TV series is based on, was simply guilty of projecting the name and its stereotype back into a past where it really did not exist.
https://omaha.com/life-entertainment/local/cleveland-evans-daphnes-meaning-goes-back-to-the-greeks/article_7cdc1b38-fd06-11ee-b7ff-3fb07be04e7e.html
This was one of the most fun names to research. Though I certainly knew about slaveowners giving "Classical" Roman and Greek names to slaves, Daphne hadn't been one that I thought of as being heavily used that way until I research the name in USA census records. It was quite a surprise to see that there were two free Black families in Talbot County, Maryland headed by women named Daphne in 1800.
It was interesting to see how the name seems to have been used for slaves in the USA before I could find evidence that it was ever used in Britain. Charlotte Yonge, one of the very first authors of a book on the history of names, said this about Daphne in the first edition of her book in 1863: "Daphne has not subsequently been used as a name except for dogs" (the "subsequently" referring to the original Greek myth!)
Though Daphne has a stereotype as an aristocratic English name, the first Daphnes in the 18th century in England were definitely NOT upper-class. As I mention in the column, Daphne Crossley, the second earliest Daphne I could find in the UK census, was listed as a "power loom weaver" in 1851. What I didn't have room to mention in the column was that she had two brothers and a sister who were also listed as "power loom weavers" that year. Their widowed mother Daphne Douglas Crossley never has an occupation listed in the census. By the way, her maiden name isn't in the census -- the reason I know it was Douglas is that she had a son whose first name was Douglas who emigrated to Massachusetts, and on his death certificate in Massachusetts it says his mother's maiden name was Douglas. Ancestry.com is putting a lot of links to other records in its census data, which helps one find such things out! It would be great if we could find out who the first Daphne's parents were back in Edinburgh, Scotland and why they gave her that name, but that information may well be completely lost.
The first aristocratic Daphne in England, as the column states, was Daphne De La Poer Beresford (1854-1941), a great-great-granddaughter of the first Earl of Tyrone. Her great-grandfather was a member of Parliament, while her own father was an army officer, which seems to be a career at lot of younger sons in noble families of Britain went into. Interestingly, this first aristocratic Daphne never married. The name rather suddenly starts turning up in the 1880s in multiple wealthy and upper middle class families in England, which is where it developed its modern "British upper class" stereotype. But there just wouldn't have been noticeable adult Daphnes among the British aristocracy until the start of the 20th century. So the character in "Bridgerton" is an anachronism, as are any other instances of fictional aristocratic Daphnes before 1854. Julia Quinn, the American author of the novels the TV series is based on, was simply guilty of projecting the name and its stereotype back into a past where it really did not exist.
This message was edited 4/21/2024, 2:01 PM
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Replies
A very interesting column, and one I am delighted to have read without either a newspaper subscription or having to bother you!
5
It's true that in Georgian / Regency England (well, Great Britain) most people were still beholden to the "classics" in terms of personal names: John, Mary, Henry, Catherine... This was especially true of those in the upper echelons of society. Names from mythology, or Shakespeare, started trending with the emerging bourgeoisie in the middle of the nineteenth century (around your recorded first appearance of Daphne in Great Britain), and this is theorized to have derived from art they patronized: books, paintings, plays, operas, etc. Parents heard or read character names, became fond, and decided to actually use them as a way to be unique (essentially, nineteenth century "fandom" names).
This was seen by the upper classes as rather gauche. I remember reading Jane Austen's Emma and how it was implied (through Emma's eyes) the moment the sisters Augusta and Selina were introduced that they were nouveau riche and not up to Emma's standards. Such an impression began with their very names - and that was early in the nineteenth century!
So yes, Daphne Bridgerton is anachronistic in regards to her name. But those of us who enjoy these romances forgive authors like Quinn for writing Daphnes, Evangelines, Lavinias, etc. before their time - because the alternative is every other lady being named Mary (with some Catherine/Katherines, Eleanors, and Biblical classics scattered throughout).
This was seen by the upper classes as rather gauche. I remember reading Jane Austen's Emma and how it was implied (through Emma's eyes) the moment the sisters Augusta and Selina were introduced that they were nouveau riche and not up to Emma's standards. Such an impression began with their very names - and that was early in the nineteenth century!
So yes, Daphne Bridgerton is anachronistic in regards to her name. But those of us who enjoy these romances forgive authors like Quinn for writing Daphnes, Evangelines, Lavinias, etc. before their time - because the alternative is every other lady being named Mary (with some Catherine/Katherines, Eleanors, and Biblical classics scattered throughout).
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It's a bit before "Emma", but this reminds me of this rather famous passage from the first chapter of Oliver Goldsmith's "The Vicar of Wakefield", published in 1766:
"Our eldest son was named George, after his uncle, who left us ten thousand pounds. Our second child, a girl, I intended to call after her aunt Grissel; but my wife, who during her pregnancy had been reading romances, insisted upon her being called Olivia. In less than another year we had another daughter, and now I was determined that Grissel should be her name; but a rich relation taking a fancy to stand godmother, the girl was, by her directions, called Sophia; so that we had two romantic names in the family; but I solemnly protest I had no hand in it."
It's interesting that Augusta is one of the names in the passage from "Emma" because, unlike Selina, it would have mostly have been introduced to England by the Hanoverian royal family, not just by novelists.
"Our eldest son was named George, after his uncle, who left us ten thousand pounds. Our second child, a girl, I intended to call after her aunt Grissel; but my wife, who during her pregnancy had been reading romances, insisted upon her being called Olivia. In less than another year we had another daughter, and now I was determined that Grissel should be her name; but a rich relation taking a fancy to stand godmother, the girl was, by her directions, called Sophia; so that we had two romantic names in the family; but I solemnly protest I had no hand in it."
It's interesting that Augusta is one of the names in the passage from "Emma" because, unlike Selina, it would have mostly have been introduced to England by the Hanoverian royal family, not just by novelists.
This message was edited 4/26/2024, 7:45 AM
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Very interesting. Thank you!
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