Message: "Meaning of name" - Behind the Name

Meaning of name

by Ouida (guest)

6/22/2001, 10:45 PM

My name is Ouida (pronounced Weeda). I've heard it is an old Southern US name and that the spelling (Oui pronounced wee)is common in Oklahoma. My mother and I were named after a Native American woman who lived with my grandparents in Smithville, Mississippi during WWI. The Alabama city of Enterprize has a street named Ouida. I am aware of the writer Ouida, whose name was a nickname for Louise .

Any additional information would be appreciated.

#Ouida

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- barbara lewis (guest)

8/6/2004, 6:23 PM

I, too, am researching Ouida, since my aunt (my paternal grandmother's only daughter, hence her "eldest")was named that (she was born around 1922);she was named after my grandmother's eldest sister's given name, also "Ouida" (born 1886 in the furthest county in Maryland's Eastern Shore, Somerset County, in an oystering town called Dames Quarter where my great-grandfather was a Lighthouse Keeper!) Now, in the Scottish tradition (apparently which they followed)there was an order to naming the children, in which case the 1886 Ouida (as first born girl) would have been named after her maternal grandmother, which will link the name back even further. If I find out anything more I'll let you know! Sorry I don't have my own e-mail/'puter.

- Michele Herron (guest)

1/9/2004, 10:10 PM

As far as I know, the meaning of Ouida is Warrior Woman. My grandmothers name was Ouida and I believe that we are of Choctaw ancestry - Choctaw's were primarily in Oklahoma.

- Nanaea

6/23/2001, 5:58 AM

That's an interesting bit of info on the name, that in addition to it having been popularized by the French writer Marie Louise de la Ramée, it's also a Native American name. I haven't come across it as being Native American, but it would be interesting to find out what it means in the Native American language from which it comes.

-- Nanaea

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