jackofalltrades's Personal Name List

Feminine form of Ulric.

Swedish feminine form of Ulrich. This was the name of two queens of Sweden.

German feminine form of Ulrich.

Norwegian and Danish feminine form of Ulrich.

Feminine form of Ursus. This is the name of two constellations in the northern sky: Ursa Major and Ursa Minor.

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.

Diminutive of Ursula.

Derived from Albanian valë "wave".

From the English word meaning "wide river valley".

Feminine form of Valentinus (see Valentine 1). A famous bearer is the Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova (1937-), who in 1963 became the first woman to visit space.

From the Roman cognomen Valentinus, which was itself a derivative of the cognomen Valens meaning "strong, vigorous, healthy" in Latin. Saint Valentine was a 3rd-century martyr. His feast day was the same as the Roman fertility festival of Lupercalia, which resulted in the association between Valentine's Day and love.

As an English name, it has been used occasionally since the 12th century. It is the name of a central character in Shakespeare's play The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1594).

Feminine form of Valerius. This was the name of a 2nd-century Roman saint and martyr.

English and German form of Valeria, as well as a Czech variant of Valérie.

Form of Valeria in several languages.

Means "valuable" in Esperanto.

Variant of Valerie.

Invented by author Jonathan Swift for his 1726 poem Cadenus and Vanessa [1]. He arrived at it by rearranging the initial syllables of the first name and surname of Esther Vanhomrigh, his close friend. Vanessa was later used as the name of a genus of butterfly. It was a rare given name until the mid-20th century, at which point it became fairly popular.

Modern Greek feminine form of Basil 1.

From the English word for the soft fabric. It became used as a given name after the main character in Enid Bagnold's book National Velvet (1935) and the movie (1944) and television (1960) adaptations.

Form of Venus, from the genitive form Veneris.

From the Latin name of the Italian region of Veneto and the city of Venice (see the place name Venetia). This name was borne by the celebrated English beauty Venetia Stanley (1600-1633), though in her case the name may have been a Latinized form of the Welsh name Gwynedd [1]. Benjamin Disraeli used it for the heroine of his novel Venetia (1837).

Means "love, sexual desire" in Latin. This was the name of the Roman goddess of love and sex. Her character was assimilated with that of the Greek goddess Aphrodite. As the mother of Aeneas she was considered an ancestor of the Roman people. The second planet from the sun is named after her.

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.

Possibly related to Latin verus "true". This might also be a Coptic form of the Ptolemaic name Berenice. Saint Verena was a 3rd-century Egyptian-born nurse who went with the Theban Legion to Switzerland. After the legion was massacred she settled near Zurich.

French form of Verena.

From the English word meaning "verity, truth", from Latin verus "true, real". This was one of the virtue names adopted by the Puritans in the 17th century.

Feminine form of Vernon, sometimes associated with the Latin word vernus "spring". It has been in use since the 19th century.

Latin alteration of Berenice, the spelling influenced by the ecclesiastical Latin phrase vera icon meaning "true image". This was the name of a legendary saint who wiped Jesus' face with a towel and then found his image imprinted upon it. Due to popular stories about her, the name was occasionally used in the Christian world in the Middle Ages. It was borne by the Italian saint and mystic Veronica Giuliani (1660-1727). As an English name, it was not common until the 19th century, when it was imported from France and Scotland.

Means "of the evening", derived from Esperanto vespero "evening", ultimately from Latin vesper.

Probably a Roman cognate of Hestia. Vesta was the Roman goddess of the hearth. A continuous fire, tended by the Vestal Virgins, was burned in the Temple of Vesta in Rome.

Derived from the Old Norse elements víg "war" and dís "goddess".

Feminine form of Viggo.

Italian, Russian and Hungarian form of Violet.

Feminine form of the Roman family name Verginius or Virginius, which is of unknown meaning, but long associated with Latin virgo "maid, virgin". According to a legend, it was the name of a Roman woman killed by her father so as to save her from the clutches of a crooked official.

This was the name of the first English baby born in the New World: Virginia Dare in 1587 on Roanoke Island. Perhaps because of this, the name has generally been more popular in America than elsewhere in the English-speaking world, though in both Britain and America it was not often used until the 19th century. The baby was named after the Colony of Virginia, which was itself named for Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen. A more recent bearer was the English novelist Virginia Woolf (1882-1941).

French form of Virginia.

Means "maiden, virgin" in Latin. This is the name of a constellation and the sixth sign of the zodiac.

From Estonian virves meaning "sprout, shoot" or virve meaning "ripple, shimmer".

Feminine form of Vitus.

Feminine form of Vitale.

French form of Viviana, as well as a Portuguese variant. It is also the French form of Vivien 2.

French form of Viviana.

Diminutive of Vivienne. William John Locke used this name for the title character in his novel Viviette (1910).

Feminine form of Vratislav.

Possibly from a Germanic name meaning "a Wend", referring to the Slavic people who inhabited eastern Germany. In Polish legends this was the name of the daughter of King Krak, the legendary founder of Krakow. It was introduced to the English-speaking world by the author Ouida, who used it for the heroine in her novel Wanda (1883).

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

Feminine form of William.

From the name of the flowering plant, which was named for the American anatomist Caspar Wistar.

From the English word for the small songbird. It is ultimately derived from Old English wrenna.

Derived from Greek ξανθός (xanthos) meaning "yellow, blond, fair-haired". This was the name of a few minor figures in Greek mythology.

Means "hospitality" in Greek, a derivative of ξένος (xenos) meaning "foreigner, guest". This was the name of a 5th-century saint who is venerated in the Eastern Church.

From Chinese 雅 (yǎ) meaning "elegant, graceful, refined" combined with 雯 (wén) meaning "cloud patterns". This name can be formed of other character combinations as well.

Russian form of Elizabeth. This was the name of an 18th-century Russian empress.

From the medieval French name Yolande, which was probably a form of the name Violante, which was itself a derivative of Latin viola "violet". Alternatively it could be of Germanic origin.

This name was borne by a 12th-century empress of the Latin Empire in Constantinople, who was originally from Flanders. It was also used by her descendants in the royal families of Hungary (spelled Jolánta) and Spain (sometimes spelled Violante). The Blessed Yolanda of Poland was a daughter of Béla IV of Hungary who married a Polish duke. It was also borne by Yolanda of Vianden, a 13th-century countess from Luxembourg who joined a convent against her parents' wishes, later becoming the subject of medieval legend. Another notable bearer was a 15th-century duchess of Lorraine, the subject of the opera Iolanta (1892) by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

From Japanese 優 (yū) meaning "excellence, superiority, gentleness" and 花 (ka) meaning "flower, blossom". It can also be composed of different kanji that have the same pronunciations.

Canarian Spanish name of recent origin, derived from the Guanche word yruene meaning "demon, evil spirit". This word was first recorded incorrectly as yurena by the French naturalist Jean-Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent in 1803.

From Japanese 百合 (yuri) meaning "lily". Other kanji or combinations of kanji can also form this name.

French feminine form of Yves.

French feminine form of Yvon. It has been regularly used in the English-speaking world since the late 19th century.

Feminine form of Zahi.

Meaning unknown, possibly an invented name. It arose in the 19th century.

Meaning unknown, possibly of Romani origin. This name was (first?) used by Aleksandr Pushkin in his poem The Gypsies (1827).

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.

French form of Zenaida.

Ancient Greek variant of Zenaida.

Means "shade" in Hebrew. In the Old Testament she is the second wife of Lamech.

From the name of the flower, which was itself named for the German botanist Johann Zinn.

Feminine form of Ziv.

Means "life" in Greek. From early times it was adopted by Hellenized Jews as a translation of Eve. It was borne by two early Christian saints, one martyred under Emperor Hadrian, the other martyred under Diocletian. The name was common in the Byzantine Empire, being borne by a ruling empress of the 11th century.

As an English name, Zoe (sometimes with a diaeresis as Zoë) has only been in use since the 19th century. It has generally been more common among Eastern Christians (in various spellings).

Means "dawn, aurora" in the South Slavic languages, as well as Czech and Slovak.

Diminutive of Zuzana.

Possibly means "forever, always" in Zapotec. It appears in the novel Aztec (1980) by the American author Gary Jennings.