ty_firmin's Personal Name List

Annie
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, French, Dutch
Pronounced: AN-ee(English) A-NEE(French) AH-nee(Dutch)
Rating: 63% based on 8 votes
Diminutive of Anne 1.
Bridget
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Irish, English
Pronounced: BRIJ-it(English)
Rating: 60% based on 7 votes
Anglicized form of the Irish name Brighid, Old Irish Brigit, from old Celtic *Brigantī meaning "the exalted one". In Irish mythology this was the name of the goddess of fire, poetry and wisdom, the daughter of the god Dagda. In the 5th century it was borne by Saint Brigid, the founder of a monastery at Kildare and a patron saint of Ireland. Because of the saint, the name was considered sacred in Ireland, and it did not come into general use there until the 17th century. In the form Birgitta this name has been common in Scandinavia, made popular by the 14th-century Saint Birgitta of Sweden, patron saint of Europe.
Daisy
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: DAY-zee
Rating: 70% based on 6 votes
Simply from the English word for the white flower, ultimately derived from Old English dægeseage meaning "day eye". It was first used as a given name in the 19th century, at the same time many other plant and flower names were coined.

This name was fairly popular at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th. The American author F. Scott Fitzgerald used it for the character of Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby (1925). The Walt Disney cartoon character Daisy Duck was created in 1940 as the girlfriend of Donald Duck. It was at a low in popularity in the United States in the 1970s when it got a small boost from a character on the television series The Dukes of Hazzard in 1979.

Frances
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: FRAN-sis
Personal remark: Frankie
Rating: 40% based on 6 votes
Feminine form of Francis. The distinction between Francis as a masculine name and Frances as a feminine name did not arise until the 17th century [1]. A notable bearer was Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini (1850-1917), a social worker and the first American to be canonized.
Harper
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: HAHR-pər
Rating: 20% based on 6 votes
From an English surname that originally belonged to a person who played or made harps (Old English hearpe). A notable bearer was the American author Harper Lee (1926-2016), who wrote To Kill a Mockingbird. It rapidly gained popularity in the 2000s and 2010s, entering the American top ten for girls in 2015.
Hazel
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: HAY-zəl
Rating: 37% based on 6 votes
From the English word hazel for the tree or the light brown colour, derived ultimately from Old English hæsel. It was coined as a given name in the 19th century and quickly became popular, reaching the 18th place for girls in the United States by 1897. It fell out of fashion in the second half of the 20th century, but has since recovered.
Lucy
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: LOO-see
Personal remark: Lula
Rating: 75% based on 6 votes
English form of Lucia, in use since the Middle Ages.
Maeve
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Irish, English, Irish Mythology
Pronounced: MAYV(English)
Personal remark: Evie
Rating: 66% based on 7 votes
Anglicized form of the Irish name Medb meaning "intoxicating". In Irish legend this was the name of a warrior queen of Connacht. She and her husband Ailill fought against the Ulster king Conchobar and the hero Cúchulainn, as told in the Irish epic The Cattle Raid of Cooley.
Margaret
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: MAHR-grit, MAHR-gə-rit
Personal remark: Margot
Rating: 35% based on 6 votes
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).

Nora 1
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, Irish, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Latvian, German, Dutch, Italian, Spanish
Pronounced: NAWR-ə(English) NO-ra(German, Dutch, Spanish)
Rating: 28% based on 6 votes
Short form of Honora or Eleanor. Henrik Ibsen used it for a character in his play A Doll's House (1879).
Rosalie
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French, German, Dutch, English
Pronounced: RAW-ZA-LEE(French) ro-za-LEE(German, Dutch) RO-sa-lee(Dutch) ro-sa-LEE(Dutch) RO-za-lee(Dutch) RO-zə-lee(English)
Personal remark: Rosie, Ro
Rating: 62% based on 6 votes
French, German and Dutch form of Rosalia. In the English-speaking this name received a boost after the release of the movie Rosalie (1938), which was based on an earlier musical.
Stella 1
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, Italian, Dutch, German
Pronounced: STEHL-ə(English) STEHL-la(Italian) STEH-la(Dutch)
Personal remark: Ellie
Rating: 63% based on 6 votes
Means "star" in Latin. This name was created by the 16th-century poet Philip Sidney for the subject of his collection of sonnets Astrophel and Stella. It was a nickname of a lover of Jonathan Swift, real name Esther Johnson (1681-1728), though it was not commonly used as a given name until the 19th century. It appears in Tennessee Williams' play A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), belonging to the sister of Blanche DuBois and the wife of Stanley Kowalski.
Vivian
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish
Pronounced: VIV-ee-ən(English)
Personal remark: Viv, Vivi
Rating: 37% based on 6 votes
From the Latin name Vivianus, which was derived from Latin vivus "alive". Saint Vivian was a French bishop who provided protection during the Visigoth invasion of the 5th century. It has been occasionally used as an English (masculine) name since the Middle Ages. In modern times it is also used as a feminine name, in which case it is either an Anglicized form of Bébinn or a variant of Vivien 2.
behindthename.com   ·   Copyright © 1996-2024