Morven

Morven is a variant of Morvern, the name of a peninsula and district in western Scotland. It’s the anglicized form of Scottish Gaelic A’ Mhorbhairne meaning “the big gap”, made up from Scottish Gaelic mòr (big, large, great) and beàrn (gap; space, opening; notch). However, I’ve seen other sites list the first element as meaning…

Badoura

Badoura is a variant (Latinized or anglicized) form of Badr al-Badourبدر البدور, the name of the princess in the story of Aladdin from the One Thousand and One Nights. The name means “full moon of full moons”, the moon representing female beauty in Arabic literature. Origin: Arabic Meaning: “full moon of full moons” Usage: Arabic…

Almira

Almira is the name for the title character Almira, Queen of Castile (1705), an opera by George Frideric Handel, a German-British Baroque composer. He may have coined it as a variant of Elmira, a name of uncertain etymology. It could have been inspired by Edelmira, the Spanish feminine form of Adelmar, which itself derives from…

Araminta

Araminta is an English female given name. Its first recorded use was in English playwright’s William Congreve’s The Old Bachelor (1693). The origin of the name is obscure; it could be a combination of Arabella (an English and Scottish female name of uncertain origin. It may be derived from Latin orabilis meaning “yielding to prayer” from Latin orare (to…

Shasta

Shasta is a name with many backgrounds: Origin: unknown; Sanskrit Meaning: unknown, though it’s the name of a mountain in California, the name of a Native American tribe, and the name of a daisy; also the name of a Hindu god “teacher, guide” Usage: English (as a given name)

Othello

Othello is the name of the title character in Shakespeare’s Othello (1603), a tragedy in which Othello, a Moor, is manipulated by trusted friend Iago into killing his wife Desdemona. The play itself was based on a story written by the Italian author Cinthio (Giovanni Battista Giraldi), though the character is only known as the…

Liwen

Liwen is a Chinese unisex name with a variety of meanings depending on the characters used, such as: There are likely other meanings depending on the characters used. Liwen is also a Mapuche word meaning “dawn, morning”, the Mapuche being an indigenous people of Chile and Argentina. From what I can tell, it seems to…

Caliban

Caliban is the name of a half-human, half-monster character in Shakespeare’s play The Tempest (1610-11), the son of the witch Sycorax. After the island he lives on is occupied by Prospero and Miranda, he becomes a slave of Prospero’s, who defends his harsh treatment of Caliban by relating how the monster had tried to rape…

Villette

Villette is the name of an 1853 novel by Charlotte Bronte, the name of a fictional Belgian town where the main action takes place. It’s also the name of several places in France and is also a French surname, likely originating as a locational name. The name means “small village” composed from Latin villa (country…

Ornella

Ornella is an Italian female name first coined by Italian author Gabriele D’Annunzio for his play The Daughter of Iorio (1904). It seems to have been based on the Italian word ornello “flowering ash tree”, referring to the Fraxinus ornus. It comes from the Latin word orno < Latin ornus (mountain ash)which ultimately derives from…

Osric

Osric is an Anglo-Saxon male name, the name of several Anglo-Saxon kings the 7th and 8th century England. It’s also the name of a courtier used in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The name is composed of Old English elements ōs (god) and ric (power, rule), so the name would essentially mean “god’s power” or “rule of god”….

Trilby

Trilby was first used as a name in the in the 1894 eponymous novel Trilby by cartoonist and writer George du Maurier (the grandfather of English author and playwright Daphne du Maurier). Trilby O’Ferrall is an artist’s model who is tone-deaf though she later falls under the hypnotic influence of a musician named Svengali, who…

Christabel

Christabel is a female given name popularized by English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge for his poem Christabel (1816). It’s a combination of Christina meaning “Christian” combined with the suffix -bel (inspired by Latin bella meaning “beautiful”). Christina is the feminine form of Christian, referring to someone who followed Christianity. Christian comes from Ancient Greek Khristos meaning “anointed” or “the…

Rhyme

Rhyme comes from the English word referring to words that sound similar to each other, often used within poems or songs. The origin of the word comes from Middle English rime, ryme (number, rhyme, verse) which may be related to latin rhythmus (rhythm) < Ancient Greek rhuthmos (measure, movement, rhythm; proportion, symmetry) derived from PIE…