View Message

I can't imagine that its resemblance to Delia is a coincidence. In the eighteenth century the members of Irish society who wanted to identify with the English (they were colonised at the time) found typically Irish given names an embarrassment, so they changed them to sound more posh, Latinate or mainstream. Since Delia was fashionable, it would make sense to take Biddy and graft it on. And for men, Patrick became Peter! Alexander Pope is cheeky about one Lord Peter or Petre (who broke the laws of man, and God, and metre!), and he had apparently started off as an Irishman named Patrick.

---

This is at best educated guesswork; but it seems convincing.