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Does anyone know where Lurlene comes from? The only info I could find claimed it was a form of Lorelei. Is this true? How does one get to Lurlene from Lorelei? TIA.
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“Violence, in truth, recoils upon the violent, and the schemer falls into the pit he has dug for another." - Sherlock Holmes, The Speckled Band
BTN's Resident Historian
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“Violence, in truth, recoils upon the violent, and the schemer falls into the pit he has dug for another." - Sherlock Holmes, The Speckled Band
BTN's Resident Historian
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Replies
Partial Answer
I did a little more research and the earliest use of the name I've come across was in an opera by William Vincent Wallace called "Lurline" from 1860. The subject of the opera was the Lorelei, whose name he changed. The Wikipedia entry for Lorelei says the name was derived from the Rhenish word "lureln" which means "murmuring", and Wallace supposedly came up with the idea for his opera while sailing the Rhine. I wonder if Lurline was derived from "lureln"? At any rate, this explains the Lurline-Lorelei connection.
I did a little more research and the earliest use of the name I've come across was in an opera by William Vincent Wallace called "Lurline" from 1860. The subject of the opera was the Lorelei, whose name he changed. The Wikipedia entry for Lorelei says the name was derived from the Rhenish word "lureln" which means "murmuring", and Wallace supposedly came up with the idea for his opera while sailing the Rhine. I wonder if Lurline was derived from "lureln"? At any rate, this explains the Lurline-Lorelei connection.
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That's really interesting. Thanks for posting your research. The spelling "Lurline" (rather than Lurlene) makes me suspect Wallace was pronouncing the name lur-line, not lur-leen. Lur-line sounds a lot more like Lorelei than Lurlene does. (It would also rhyme with the English pronunciation of the Rhine river).
I rechecked the Social Security lists and while Lurlene never appears, Lurline goes off and on the top 1000 between 1887 and 1926. So it looks like Lurline is the original form and was almost certainly taken from the opera, instead of being an invented name as I guessed.
Then, Lurlene could have been a natural development from Lurline some time later when names like Marlene had become popular.
I rechecked the Social Security lists and while Lurlene never appears, Lurline goes off and on the top 1000 between 1887 and 1926. So it looks like Lurline is the original form and was almost certainly taken from the opera, instead of being an invented name as I guessed.
Then, Lurlene could have been a natural development from Lurline some time later when names like Marlene had become popular.
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Lurlene doesn't look much like Lorelei to me either. I'd have to see some convincing evidence of how that came about.
Lurlene looks to me more like an invented name from the heyday of Marlene, Darlene, etc., so maybe 1920s-40s. The first syllable may have been from Lura, which was not exactly a common name at that time, but was regularly used.
I've seen a few rhyming names like Shirlene, Myrlene, Pearlene.
Lurlene looks to me more like an invented name from the heyday of Marlene, Darlene, etc., so maybe 1920s-40s. The first syllable may have been from Lura, which was not exactly a common name at that time, but was regularly used.
I've seen a few rhyming names like Shirlene, Myrlene, Pearlene.
This message was edited 6/1/2014, 1:28 PM
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The Lura connection sounds promising. Do you know what that name means?
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Hmmm...good question. Lura is not listed on this site or in any of the name dictionaries that I consider reliable. Yet it appeared on the US Top 1000 from 1880 to 1949, and ranked as high as #202. If I had to guess, I'd surmise that it is a dialectal variant of Laura.
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I've never found a convincing explanation either! All the sources that link it to Lorelei fail to give an example of it which predates the early 19th-century date of the Lorelei story. And I can't think why anyone wanting to use the name of a story character would instead use a form of it which didn't appear in the story.
For what it's worth, the closest I've ever come to a guaranteed sighting was of a South African woman born in about 1945-1950; her name was Lurlyn.
For what it's worth, the closest I've ever come to a guaranteed sighting was of a South African woman born in about 1945-1950; her name was Lurlyn.
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