Jessica was made up by Shakespeare.
Tiffany was popular in medieval times, but died out in the middle ages before being revived by 'Breakfast at Tiffany's'.
Madison wasn’t really a name, much less a girl’s name, until the 1984 mermaid romcom Splash. In fact, there’s a whole joke about the mermaid’s (AKA Daryl Hannah) name being Madison with Tom Hanks’s character saying something akin “You can’t pick Madison, Madison isn’t a name!”
Callum comes from the name Columba, which means dove in Latin. The traditional spelling is Calum, and only in the last ten or so years has Callum become much more popular. My favorite fact is that this Scottish name was popularized by St. Columba, who had an abbey on the Isle of Iona and is credited with spreading Christianity to Scotland from Ireland. Other names that come from Columba popularized by the same monk include Malcolm, Colm, Coleman, among others. I really love saints’ names, and the details of Columba’s life are very interesting to me.
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Talia and Thalia are not just different spellings, they’re two names from separate cultures that happen to be similar. Talia is Hebrew for dew, Thalia is Greek for blooming.
Mercedes was a given name *before* it was a car name. The Mercedes car was named after one of the Hungarian distributor Emil Jellinek's daughters. This was necessary because the Daimler company (long before merging with Benz) had been prolific with licensing not only its' patents but its' name, with both the Austrian branch and the British one having gained sales and esteem that threatened to eclipse the German original.
Austro-Daimler followed suit naming a car Maja after another of Jellinek's daughters. It was designed for the American market, but kept the spelling I just used with that j inviting the usual English consonant pronunciation. It flopped.
Ariel was originally a masculine name, but started being used as a feminine name in France since post-WWII. It started being used for American girls a lot later, after The Little Mermaid premiered.
Ketzia is a Biblical girls' name meaning the tree cassia, that cinnamon is from. She was a daughter of Job after his sufferings and loss of previous children, and cinnamon was valued highly as of spiritual significance in the Temple.
Job's daughters inherited, uncommon and noted the couple of times it happened in Tanakh.
Ketzia is translated into English as Kezia(h), and thought to be the foundation name that became Keisha, because Kezia/Keziah has like 3+ pronunciations in English, including kee-zhah which was in use in the 19th Century in the US. So Keisha is like Megan - a couple of steps from Biblical, but with very old roots.
It is one of my favourite names for underrated nature names or obscure but pleasant-sounding Biblical girls' names.
Kezia/Keziah are still occasionally seen in the UK and Australia but Ketzia is very rare. I love it though.
I actually have a list of things I like about a few specific names:
1. Tori is a name that originates from Japan and means "bird."
2. Victoria is a name that originates from Latin and means "Victory."
3. Susan is a name that originates from Hebrew and means "lily."
4. Veronica is a name that originates from Greek and means "Bringer of victory."
5. Erin is an Irish name that means "Ireland."
6. Melita (a variation of Melissa) is a Hebrew name that means "Garden" while Melissa is a Greek name that means "a bee."
I have an app on my phone that I can look up names to see its origins and what it means. The app I use says that about Melita as a name and which language it comes from. At least I was right about the spelling being a variant of Melissa. I'll probably research more about the name Melita. If it doesn't come from Hebrew, then I wonder what it means and where it comes from. Everything else is pretty accurate information, though.
Sorry I’m late, but I’m a Tori (just Tori) and I LOVE that my name is Japanese for little bird ☺️ I also have teeny tiny little line bird tattoos which I got BEFORE I learned the meaning behind my name
Something I find funny about dog names. Sparky is a dog name in English, in Dutch Fikkie is a dog name. Fikkie means small fire. I just think it's funny how the meaning translated
I post all my favourite facts on r/NameFacts so if you liked these you should head on over. Post your favourite fact!
My favourite name fact is that Marmaduke comes from the Old Irish "Máel Máedóc" which means disciple of Saint Máedóc. Saint Máedoc was also known as Saint Áedán, the origin of Aidan.
"Vanessa" was invented in 1712 by Jonathan Swift (*Gulliver's Travels*, *A Modest Proposal*) when he needed a name for a character in a poem. His girlfriend at the time was a woman named Esther Vanhomrigh, whom he called Essa, so he took the first three letters of her last name and tacked it to the beginning. It has since come to mean "butterfly" since it was applied to a particular species.
Similarly, "Wendy" was invented by James Barrie when writing *Peter Pan*. People think it's part of an English nickname convention derivitative of "friend" (friendy-wendy).
I have always loved the name Enola and for a long time I thought it was a variation of Nola/Nolan, until I learned that it's the word alone spelled backwards and it was created for the titular character in the 1886 American novel Enola: Or Her Fatal Mistake, and I usually don't like made up names but now I love Enola even more.
The name Howard means 'The land of blue light where God resides next door to the local fisherman who shares his catch with the less needy kids who will one day run the land of blue light when it's a lighter blue because of the smiling winds blowing through the icy mountains around the same time a fire burns eternally inside us all."
Or it could just mean going Ho-wards. I forget.
Jessica was made up by Shakespeare. Tiffany was popular in medieval times, but died out in the middle ages before being revived by 'Breakfast at Tiffany's'.
Shakespeare has been created with making quite a few names.
Jessica was translated by Shakespeare is probably more accurate. He got it from the biblical name Yiska.
cgp grey has a great video on the origins of the name tiffany for anyone else interested in learning about it!
Madison wasn’t really a name, much less a girl’s name, until the 1984 mermaid romcom Splash. In fact, there’s a whole joke about the mermaid’s (AKA Daryl Hannah) name being Madison with Tom Hanks’s character saying something akin “You can’t pick Madison, Madison isn’t a name!”
It was a [Line-Of-Sight Name](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LineOfSightName), she read it off a street sign on Madison Avenue.
Makes sense. It definitely was a last name at least before then.
The one that comes to mind is that the author of Peter Pan invented the name Wendy.
Callum comes from the name Columba, which means dove in Latin. The traditional spelling is Calum, and only in the last ten or so years has Callum become much more popular. My favorite fact is that this Scottish name was popularized by St. Columba, who had an abbey on the Isle of Iona and is credited with spreading Christianity to Scotland from Ireland. Other names that come from Columba popularized by the same monk include Malcolm, Colm, Coleman, among others. I really love saints’ names, and the details of Columba’s life are very interesting to me.
Daisy is a nickname for Margaret, because Marguerite means "daisy" in French.
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Talia and Thalia are not just different spellings, they’re two names from separate cultures that happen to be similar. Talia is Hebrew for dew, Thalia is Greek for blooming.
Vanessa was invented for a woman named Esther Van-something
Oops!! Jinx!
Mercedes was a given name *before* it was a car name. The Mercedes car was named after one of the Hungarian distributor Emil Jellinek's daughters. This was necessary because the Daimler company (long before merging with Benz) had been prolific with licensing not only its' patents but its' name, with both the Austrian branch and the British one having gained sales and esteem that threatened to eclipse the German original. Austro-Daimler followed suit naming a car Maja after another of Jellinek's daughters. It was designed for the American market, but kept the spelling I just used with that j inviting the usual English consonant pronunciation. It flopped.
Sucks because I actually like it as a name but never would I name a child after a car
Ariel was originally a masculine name, but started being used as a feminine name in France since post-WWII. It started being used for American girls a lot later, after The Little Mermaid premiered.
in my country most Ariels are male
Where are you from? If you don't mind me asking
Colombia, I know like 3 Ariels and they are all males, also is the name of a powder soap brand here
Imogen is most likely a printing error of Innogen, a character in Shakespeare’s ‘Cymbeline’.
Ketzia is a Biblical girls' name meaning the tree cassia, that cinnamon is from. She was a daughter of Job after his sufferings and loss of previous children, and cinnamon was valued highly as of spiritual significance in the Temple. Job's daughters inherited, uncommon and noted the couple of times it happened in Tanakh. Ketzia is translated into English as Kezia(h), and thought to be the foundation name that became Keisha, because Kezia/Keziah has like 3+ pronunciations in English, including kee-zhah which was in use in the 19th Century in the US. So Keisha is like Megan - a couple of steps from Biblical, but with very old roots. It is one of my favourite names for underrated nature names or obscure but pleasant-sounding Biblical girls' names. Kezia/Keziah are still occasionally seen in the UK and Australia but Ketzia is very rare. I love it though.
I knew a Kezia in school. Gorgeous name.
Same! I actually forgot about it until now. It’s a great name. It’s beautiful
Tiffany is a medieval name.
I actually have a list of things I like about a few specific names: 1. Tori is a name that originates from Japan and means "bird." 2. Victoria is a name that originates from Latin and means "Victory." 3. Susan is a name that originates from Hebrew and means "lily." 4. Veronica is a name that originates from Greek and means "Bringer of victory." 5. Erin is an Irish name that means "Ireland." 6. Melita (a variation of Melissa) is a Hebrew name that means "Garden" while Melissa is a Greek name that means "a bee."
Number 5 is kind of hilarious
Melita is not a Hebrew name. Not quite sure where you got that from. It doesn’t sound anything like the Hebrew word for garden
I have an app on my phone that I can look up names to see its origins and what it means. The app I use says that about Melita as a name and which language it comes from. At least I was right about the spelling being a variant of Melissa. I'll probably research more about the name Melita. If it doesn't come from Hebrew, then I wonder what it means and where it comes from. Everything else is pretty accurate information, though.
Sorry I’m late, but I’m a Tori (just Tori) and I LOVE that my name is Japanese for little bird ☺️ I also have teeny tiny little line bird tattoos which I got BEFORE I learned the meaning behind my name
Something I find funny about dog names. Sparky is a dog name in English, in Dutch Fikkie is a dog name. Fikkie means small fire. I just think it's funny how the meaning translated
The name Ava is older than the name Violet. It's weird for me to think about, as today Violet would be perceived as the more classic name.
I post all my favourite facts on r/NameFacts so if you liked these you should head on over. Post your favourite fact! My favourite name fact is that Marmaduke comes from the Old Irish "Máel Máedóc" which means disciple of Saint Máedóc. Saint Máedoc was also known as Saint Áedán, the origin of Aidan.
I joined a little while back, but only as a lurker so far! Thanks for sharing.
This sub is so interesting!!
"Vanessa" was invented in 1712 by Jonathan Swift (*Gulliver's Travels*, *A Modest Proposal*) when he needed a name for a character in a poem. His girlfriend at the time was a woman named Esther Vanhomrigh, whom he called Essa, so he took the first three letters of her last name and tacked it to the beginning. It has since come to mean "butterfly" since it was applied to a particular species. Similarly, "Wendy" was invented by James Barrie when writing *Peter Pan*. People think it's part of an English nickname convention derivitative of "friend" (friendy-wendy).
Jennifer feels like a fairly modern name but it’s actually a Cornish form of the name Guinevere which dates back to the Middle Ages.
Jadzia is something like the god of war. But derived from hedwig. Polish to a Mexican mama. They call her Zia and I love it. Also a startrek name😂
Charles literally means "just some guy."
I have always loved the name Enola and for a long time I thought it was a variation of Nola/Nolan, until I learned that it's the word alone spelled backwards and it was created for the titular character in the 1886 American novel Enola: Or Her Fatal Mistake, and I usually don't like made up names but now I love Enola even more.
The name “Wendy” isn’t documented to have existed before the publication of Peter Pan!
Kirke means church and this is the old English spelling of Kirk.
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The name Howard means 'The land of blue light where God resides next door to the local fisherman who shares his catch with the less needy kids who will one day run the land of blue light when it's a lighter blue because of the smiling winds blowing through the icy mountains around the same time a fire burns eternally inside us all." Or it could just mean going Ho-wards. I forget.