Laurea's Personal Name List

Italian form of Zenaida.

Apparently a Greek derivative of Ζηναΐς (Zenais), which was derived from the name of the Greek god Zeus. This was the name of a 1st-century saint who was a doctor with her sister Philonella.

Derived from the Old German element wolf meaning "wolf" combined with hram meaning "raven". Saint Wolfram (or Wulfram) was a 7th-century archbishop of Sens. This name was also borne by the 13th-century German poet Wolfram von Eschenbach, the author of Parzival.

Dutch and German feminine form of Wilhelm. This name was borne by a queen of the Netherlands (1880-1962).

Means "faith" in Russian, though it is sometimes associated with the Latin word verus "true". It has been in general use in the English-speaking world since the late 19th century.

Means "little bear", derived from a diminutive form of the Latin word ursa "she-bear". Saint Ursula was a legendary virgin princess of the 4th century who was martyred by the Huns while returning from a pilgrimage. In England the saint was popular during the Middle Ages, and the name came into general use at that time.

From the name of the flower. Ultimately from Persian dulband, "turban", from the shape of the opened flower.

As a given name, it has been occasionally used from the 19th century onwards.

Feminine form of Tiziano.

Feminine form of Theodosius.

Transferred use of the surname Thayer.

From the name of the state located in the Southeastern region of the United States, possibly derived from Cherokee ᏔᎾᏏ (tanasi), believed to mean "winding river", which was originally the name of a village in present-day Monroe County, Tennessee. Alternatively, it could be derived from Yuchi Tana-tsee-dgee, meaning "place of brother waters" or "where the waters meet".

Derived from Middle English strange meaning "foreign", ultimately from Latin extraneus.

French feminine form of Sidonius.

German variant form of Robert, from the Old German variant Hrodperht. It was borne by the 7th century Saint Rupert of Salzburg and the 8th-century Saint Rupert of Bingen. The military commander Prince Rupert of the Rhine, a nephew of Charles I, introduced this name to England in the 17th century. A notable bearer is the Australian-American businessman Rupert Murdoch (1931-).

Variant of Rhoswyn.

Possibly derived from the Old English elements hroð "glory, fame" and friþ "peace, happiness". It was mentioned by the 12th-century English historian Reginald of Durham as belonging to a 7th-century Christian woman from Hawick who, with Seigiv, had worshiped at the lost chapel of Saint Cuthbert in the Slitrig Valley.

James A. H. Murray, founder of the Oxford English Dictionary, gave this name to his fourth daughter in 1884.

Presumably an altered form of Rhodanthe, using the Latin element rosa (compare Rose) as opposed to the Greek rhodon (compare Rhoda). The name was (first?) used by Welsh writer Ann Julia Hatton for a character in her popular Gothic novel 'Deeds of Olden Times' (1826). It was also used by Eliza Rennie in her poetic sketch 'The Myrtle Branch' (1828).

Breton and Anglicized form of Rónán.

Contracted form of Rudolf and/or Roelof.

From the name of the French city La Rochelle, meaning "little rock". It first became commonly used as a given name in America in the 1930s, probably due to the fame of actress Rochelle Hudson (1914-1972) and because of the similarity to the name Rachel.

Feminine form of Renatus.

Dutch form of Rayner.

Means "dove, pigeon" in Spanish.

Variant of Oswin.

From the Old English elements os "god" and wine "friend". Saint Oswin was a 7th-century king of Northumbria. After the Norman Conquest this name was used less, and it died out after the 14th century. It was briefly revived in the 19th century.

From the eponymous flowering plant. The plant's name derives from Latin orchis, borrowed from Ancient Greek ὄρχις (orkhis), meaning "testicle" (the name was given to the plant because of the testicle-shaped subterranean parts of some European orchids).

Derived from Greek ὠφέλεια (opheleia) meaning "help, advantage". This was a rare ancient Greek name, which was either rediscovered or recreated by the poet Jacopo Sannazaro for a character in his poem Arcadia (1480). It was borrowed by Shakespeare for his play Hamlet (1600), in which it belongs to the daughter of Polonius and the potential love interest of Hamlet. She eventually goes insane and drowns herself after Hamlet kills her father. In spite of this negative association, the name has been in use since the 19th century.

Feminine form of Olympos.

Short form of names that end in nina, such as Antonina or Giannina. It was imported to Western Europe from Russia and Italy in the 19th century. This name also nearly coincides with the Spanish word niña meaning "little girl" (the word is pronounced differently than the name).

A famous bearer was the American jazz musician Nina Simone (1933-2003).

Variant of Nico and diminutive of Niek.

From an English surname meaning "Gumarich's mountain" in Norman French. A notable bearer of this surname was Bernard Montgomery (1887-1976), a British army commander during World War II.

Variant of Madge.

Dutch diminutive of Maria.

Diminutive of Maria. In the case of the American actress Mariel Hemingway (1961-), the name was inspired by the Cuban town of Mariel.

Dutch form of Margaret. This is also the Dutch word for the daisy flower (species Leucanthemum vulgare).

Derived from Latin Margarita, which was from Greek μαργαρίτης (margarites) meaning "pearl", a word that was probably ultimately a borrowing from an Indo-Iranian language. Saint Margaret, the patron of expectant mothers, was martyred at Antioch in the 4th century. Later legends told of her escape from a dragon, with which she was often depicted in medieval art. The saint was popular during the Middle Ages, and her name has been widely used in the Christian world.

As an English name it has been very popular since the Middle Ages. It was the top name for girls in England and Wales in the 1920s, 30s and 40s, but it declined in the latter half of the 20th century.

Other saints by this name include a queen of Scotland and a princess of Hungary. It was also borne by Queen Margaret I of Denmark, who united Denmark, Sweden, and Norway in the 14th century. Famous literary bearers include American writer Margaret Mitchell (1900-1949), the author of Gone with the Wind, and Canadian writer Margaret Atwood (1939-). Others include American anthropologist Margaret Mead (1901-1978) and British prime minister Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013).

Variant of May. A famous bearer was the American actress Mae West (1893-1980), whose birth name was Mary.

Swedish feminine form of Louis.

From the name of a flower, also known as the twinflower. The Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus named it after himself, it being his favourite flower.

Variant of Linnéa.

Romanian and Spanish form of Ligeia.

Derived from Greek λιγύς (ligys) meaning "clear-voiced, shrill, whistling". This was the name of one of the Sirens in Greek legend. It was also used by Edgar Allan Poe in his story Ligeia (1838).

Transferred use of the surname Lemon.

From the English word for the type of songbird.

From an English surname, itself from a place name, derived from Old English lang "long" and stan "stone". A famous bearer was the American author Langston Hughes (1901-1967).

Feminine form of Laelius, a Roman family name of unknown meaning. This is also the name of a type of flower, an orchid found in Mexico and Central America.

Anglicized form of Lachlann, the Scottish Gaelic form of Lochlainn. In the English-speaking world, this name was especially popular in Australia towards the end of the 20th century.

From the English word "kindred" meaning "family".

Possibly from Greek ἰσμή (isme) meaning "knowledge". This was the name of the daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta in Greek legend.

Cognate of Isetta.

French form of Iphigenia.

Derived from the Germanic element id possibly meaning "work, labour" (Proto-Germanic *idiz). The Normans brought this name to England, though it eventually died out there in the Middle Ages. It was strongly revived in the 19th century, in part due to the heroine in Alfred Tennyson's poem The Princess (1847), which was later adapted into the play Princess Ida (1884) by Gilbert and Sullivan.

Though the etymology is unrelated, this is the name of a mountain on the island of Crete where, according to Greek myth, the god Zeus was born.

Derived from Greek ὑπέρ (hyper) meaning "over". In Greek myth this was the name of a Titan who presided over the sun and light. By Theia he was the father of the sun god Helios, the moon goddess Selene, and the dawn goddess Eos.

Derived from Greek ὕπατος (hypatos) meaning "highest, supreme". Hypatia of Alexandria was a 5th-century philosopher and mathematician, daughter of the mathematician Theon.

Named after the plant and flower, the honeysuckle, as borne by British actress Honeysuckle Weeks.

Derived from Greek ἑστία (hestia) meaning "hearth, fireside". In Greek mythology Hestia was the goddess of the hearth and domestic activity.

French form of Hercules. It was used by the British writer Agatha Christie for the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, the protagonist in many of her mystery novels (debuting 1920).

Scandinavian and German adoption of Héloïse.

From the Roman cognomen Hadrianus, which meant "from Hadria" in Latin. Hadria was the name of two Roman settlements. The first (modern Adria) is in northern Italy and was an important Etruscan port town. The second (modern Atri) is in central Italy and was named after the northern town. The Adriatic Sea is also named after the northern town.

A famous bearer of the name was Publius Aelius Hadrianus, better known as Hadrian, a 2nd-century Roman emperor who built a wall across northern Britain. His family came from the town of Atri in central Italy.

Diminutive of Griet, as it contains the Dutch diminutive suffix -je.

In literature, Grietje is the name used for Gretel in the Dutch translations of the Brothers Grimm's fairy tale Hänsel und Gretel (1812).

Dutch and Frisian form of Gerard.

Derived from the Old German element ger meaning "spear" combined with hart meaning "hard, firm, brave, hardy". This name was borne by saints from Belgium, Germany, Hungary and Italy. The Normans introduced it to Britain. It was initially much more common there than the similar name Gerald [1], with which it was often confused, but it is now less common.

Refers to a member of the ethnic group, the Frisians, a Germanic tribe of northwestern Europe. Friesland in the Netherlands is named for them.

Derived from Latin flos meaning "flower" (genitive case floris). Flora was the Roman goddess of flowers and spring, the wife of Zephyr the west wind. It has been used as a given name since the Renaissance, starting in France. In Scotland it was sometimes used as an Anglicized form of Fionnghuala.

From Everardus, the Latinized form of Eberhard. The Normans introduced it to England, where it joined the Old English cognate Eoforheard. It has only been rarely used since the Middle Ages. Modern use of the name may be inspired by the surname Everard, itself derived from the medieval name.

Means "rich protection", from the Old English elements ead "wealth, fortune" and mund "protection". This was the name of two Anglo-Saxon kings of England. It was also borne by two saints, including a 9th-century king of East Anglia who, according to tradition, was shot to death with arrows after refusing to divide his Christian kingdom with an invading pagan Danish leader. This Old English name remained in use after the Norman Conquest (even being used by King Henry III for one of his sons), though it became less common after the 15th century.

Famous bearers of the name include the English poet Edmund Spenser (1552-1599), the German-Czech philosopher Edmund Husserl (1859-1938) and New Zealand mountaineer Edmund Hillary (1919-2008), the first person to climb Mount Everest.

Derived from the Old English elements ead "wealth, fortune" and gar "spear". This was the name of a 10th-century English king, Edgar the Peaceful. The name did not survive long after the Norman Conquest, but it was revived in the 18th century, in part due to a character by this name in Walter Scott's novel The Bride of Lammermoor (1819), which tells of the tragic love between Edgar Ravenswood and Lucy Ashton [1]. Famous bearers include author and poet Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), French impressionist painter Edgar Degas (1834-1917), and author Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875-1950).

Derived from Spanish dulce meaning "sweet". This name was (first?) used by Miguel de Cervantes in his novel Don Quixote (1605), where it belongs to the love interest of the main character, though she never actually appears in the story.

From the name of the flower, ultimately derived from Dutch de affodil meaning "the asphodel".

From French chosette meaning "little thing". This is the nickname of the illegitimate daughter of Fantine in Victor Hugo's novel Les Misérables (1862). Her real name is Euphrasie, though it is seldom used. In the novel young Cosette is the ward of the cruel Thénardiers until she is retrieved by Jean Valjean.

Short form of Nicolette. Saint Colette was a 15th-century French nun who gave her money to the poor. This was also the pen name of the French author Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (1873-1954).

Diminutive of names beginning with Co, influenced by the word cocoa. However, this was not the case for French fashion designer Coco Chanel (1883-1971; real name Gabrielle), whose nickname came from the name of a song she performed while working as a cabaret singer.

Feminine form of Clodomiro, which is the Italian, Spanish and Portuguese form of the ancient Germanic name Chlodomer.

A notable bearer of this name is the Cuban revolutionary Clodomira Acosta Ferrales (1936-1958).

Latinized form of Kleodora. In Greek mythology, Cleodora was a nymph of Mount Parnassos in Phokis. She was one of the prophetic Thriai, nymphs who divined the future by throwing stones or pebbles. She was loved by the sea god Poseidon and had a son called Parnassos by him. This name was also borne by one of the Danaids (i.e., the 50 daughters of Danaus).

From the name of the bird, Canary.

Diminutive of Elizabeth.

Variant of Bernhard.

Contracted form of Bernhard, first recorded in the 1500s and still in occasional use today.

The meaning of this name is uncertain at this time. Its best known bearer was American actress Avonia Jones (1839-1867), whose parents may possibly have named her after the village of Avonia (in Pennsylvania, USA), or after the genus of plants of the same name. It is uncertain what the village and the plant genus derived their name from. The village's name may be of the same etymology as the many places named Avon in the United States, while the plant genus' name may be a corruption of Greek ἀνομία (anomia) meaning "lawlessness, wickedness" (that is, if the plant genus is not named after its discoverer, about whom I can't find any information). The term 'avonia' is found several times in Biblical Greek (with the meaning of "lawlessness"), as one will see if one googles the words 'avonia' and 'lawlessness' at the same time. Finally, for the plant genus, an other possibility is that it is derived from Latin avus "grandfather", in which case it would be a reference to the plant's white, old-looking stipular scales.

Transferred use of the surname Auden, which is derived from the Germanic given name Aldwin (its Old English equivalent is Ealdwine). Also compare Alden, which is a surname-turned-given name that has the same etymological origins. The surname Auden was probably formed during the time of the Norman French occupation of England, as Germanic names containing -al- usually became -au- in Norman French. Examples of this are Auberon and Aubrey (both of which came from Alberich), but also the medieval French names Baudry (ultimately from Baldric) and Gaudry (ultimately from Walderic).

The use of Auden as a given name probably started in the 20th century, in honour of the famous English poet W. H. Auden (1907-1973). A known bearer of Auden as a given name is the American climate activist and businessman Auden Schendler (probably born sometime in the 1970s).

French variant of Albert.

From a diminutive form of Auberi, an Old French form of Alberich. It is the name of the fairy king in the 13th-century epic Huon de Bordeaux.

Old Judeo-Spanish form and Judeo-French variant of Esther via Greek aster, "star". It was already used in Judeo-Latin.

Feminine form of Artemisios. This was the name of the 4th-century BC builder of the Mausoleum, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. She built it in memory of her husband, the Carian prince Mausolus.

French and Catalan form of Herman.

French and Italian form of Aristides.

Dutch and German variant of Arnold. This is also the Dutch word for "eagle".

From an English surname, originally taken from various place names, which were derived from a Celtic word meaning "high".

Meaning unknown. This name was (first?) used by William Congreve in his comedy The Old Bachelor (1693) and later by John Vanbrugh in his comedy The Confederacy (1705). This was the original given name of abolitionist Harriet Tubman (1820-1913), who was born Araminta Ross.

Feminine form of Apollonios. This was the name of a 3rd-century saint and martyr from Alexandria.

Derived from the Old German elements ansi "god" and helm "helmet, protection". This name was brought to England in the late 11th century by Saint Anselm, who was born in northern Italy. He was archbishop of Canterbury and a Doctor of the Church.

Swedish diminutive of Anna.

Meaning unknown, perhaps a derivative of Amis. Alternatively, it may come from a surname that originally indicated that the bearer was from the city of Amiens in France. Edmund Spenser used this name for a minor character in his epic poem The Faerie Queene (1590).

Variant of Amyas.

Variant of Adelissa.