Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/288

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. i. MARCH 19,

once proper names now serve as Christian names, as Salome, Miriam, Kezia, Jesse, Ruth, Adah, &c. Greek names occur, such as Anastasia (resurrection), Eunice (happy victory), Irene (peace), Rhoda (a rose), Zoe (life), Agatha (good). Celtic: Gyneth (blessed), Gwendoline (white-browed). Others that occur are Eulalie, Ellice, Juanita, Mima, Una, Ina, Bona, Joyce, Vida (the feminine, I think, of David), Eva, Edna, Leotine, Gozida, lanthe, Eudoia, Eda, Lolp, Azena, Anstice (? Anastasia), Amanda, Aline, Averil, Coca, Clio, Enda, Etta, Guinevere, Hildegarde, lone, Ion a, Justine, Leila, Mysie, Mora, Medea, Nydia, Oona, Olga, Ora, CEnone, Ondine, Quetta, Thisbe, Verena, Zuleika, Zaidee, Alma, Wanda, Zera, Xora, Xera, Frida, Ebba, Isa, Use, Else (? Elsie), Irma, Mira, Hulda, Selma, Thecla, Corali, Angela, Isadora, Gustava, Iva, Estelle, Inez, Nona (ninth child), Elma, Otha, Ernestine, jElia, Carina, Cleta, Cora, Dia, Gina, Lera, Lselia, Myra, Rena, Tltia, Unca, Joyce (joyous), Monica (adviser).

J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL.

Some curious Christian names have come under my notice in a Shropshire village. Several girls are christened Arena, which is always pronounced Rayna. It seems that the grandmother of the original Arena had been maid at a great house in the neighbour- hood where one of the daughters was Irene, and Arena was apparently a shot at this. The child of a travelling hawker was christened in our church Sybaretta, and there is also a Bolina. Scripture names are common. We have Jonathan, Deborah, Enoch, Levi, Manoah, Art, and Birsha. At first I concluded Art to be a diminutive of Arthur, but found the name was taken from one of the genealogies in the Old Testament ; and Birsha, I was told by his grandmother, was called after a King of Sodom ! Quilla (masculine), so christened, must, I fancy, have been intended for Aquila. I am one of the minority who have known Imogen in the flesh. She was a stout, many-childed matron. [ also know Gundred, Ermengarde, and Ingaret, which last I at first took to be a corruption of Ankaret, an old name in the Le Strange and Talbot families; but it appears to have some connexion with the ancestor of the Swedish kings, or the name- father of the Angles Ing, who is the parent of so many Norse names. A housemaid in i friend's house was Thyrza Heaven, and { Cheshire carpenter was Julius Csesar. Mor wenna the Cornish, and Modwenna the Warwickshire saint, have living represents tives. Myfanwy, the pretty old Welsh name

now so nearly extinct, is Birsha's sister. On* a Devon tombstone I have seen Philadelphia,, and I know Fortune and Yvonne (a Breton, name). Beata a beautiful old name, now nearly extinct is on a brass of 1726 in a neighbouring church ; and a woman I know s Medora, of which no explanation appears n Miss Yonge's ' History of Christian Barnes.' I should be very glad to know if it s an invention of Byron's or a genuine Eastern name, and if the latter, what is its signification. Two girls born at sea were christened respectively Oceana and Indiana the name of the ship). One of my husband's ancestors under Queen Elizabeth was Her- cules. At that date Parnel, a variation of Pernel or Perronel, a feminine of Peter, was
 * ommon in a North Shropshire town ; and

Petronel, another form, is borne by a Devon- shire maiden to day. The growing popularity of flower-names is noticeable : Marigold, Rosemary, Iris, Ivy, Primrose, Hazel,. Heather, and Gloxinia (given to a girl baby very recently). The giving of surnames in baptism to girls is curious, and is at least two centuries old. Two ladies of the seven- teenth century were called respectively Essex and Dodington, the former being Countess of Leicester; and we have to-day Montagu, Countess of Glasgow. In the ' Coronation Book' the name of one peeress I forget which is given as Adora. If this is not a misprint for Annora or Aurora, it is a name, I believe, not hitherto known. I have seen somewhere "si non e vero e ben trovato" that a harassed parent insisted on- number thirteen being named Enough.

The meaning of some of the curious names given by MR. C. B. WILSON may be interest- ing : Bohumil, God's love (Theophilus literally translated into Czech) ; Folger, almost certainly a Scandinavian variation of the German Folker=people's guard ; Ilonka, probably a diminutive of Ilona, Magyar for Helena ; Jaime, a Spanish or Portuguese form of James, commonly spelt Jayme ; Vilhjalmr, the Icelandic form of William ; Zillah, Hebrew=shadow.

The meaning of names is unfortunately not much attended to in these days. If people understood that Cicely meant blind* Gladys lame, Portia pig, and Julia downy- bearded, would they be anxious to bestow the appellations on their children 1

HELGA.

Prothasey with its variants is a name that occurs in Devon. Sir Thomas Bodley, of Bodleian Library fame, had a sister Prothesia. There was a Pertesia Midwinter of St. Petrock's, Exeter, if I mistake not, temp.