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Monday, December 5, 2011

There's a Girl-Version?

(or in rare cases, a boy-version).
Most names that you can think of likely have both an established male & female version, or are considered unisex nowadays. To modern ears, some seem more than a bit old-fashioned or contrived (Adamina? Jamesetta?), while others are readily accepted (Alexandra, Charlotte).
There are quite a few names, though, where either the female versions are established elsewhere but haven't been imported into English usage, or have been forgotten entirely.

  • Alastriona (al-as-TREE-nah)--Irish, fem. of Alastar [Alexander]
  • Auda (AW-dah)-Germanic, fem. of Otto
  • Axelle (aks-EL-leh)--French, fem. of Axel/Aksel
  • Cassia (KASH-ah or KAS-see-ah)--Latin, fem. of Cassius
  • Damiana (dah-MYAH-nah)--Italian, fem. of Damian
  • Davina (dah-VEE-nah)--Scottish, fem. of David
  • Donella (don-EL-lah)--Scottish, fem. of Donald
  • Doriane (doh-ree-AHN)--French, fem. of Dorian
  • Edmée (ed-MAY)--French, fem. of Edmund
  • Erna (ER-nah)--German, fem. of Ernest
  • Enat (EHN-at)--Irish, fem. of Aidan
  • Finsha (FIN-sha)--Irish, fem. of Finn, Finnian
  • Finnat (FYIN-naht)--Irish, fem. of Finn, Finnian
  • Kenna (KEN-nah)--Scottish, fem. of Kenneth
  • Maura (MOW-rah)--Spanish, fem. of Maurice
  • Owena (oh-WEN-ah)--Welsh, fem. of Owen
  • Petra (PEH-trah)--Greek, fem. of Peter
  • Piera (PYEHR-ah)--Italian, fem. of Peter
  • Riona (REE-on-ah)--Irish, fem. of Ryan
  • Saveria (sah-VEHR-yah)--Italian, fem. of Xavier
  • Tamsin (TAM-zin)--Scottish, fem. of Thomas
  • Yonit (yo-NEET)--Hebrew, fem. of Jonah
  • Zaharina (zah-hah-REE-nah)--Bulgarian, fem of Zachariah/Zachary

  • Agathon (ah-GATH-on)--Greek, masc. of Agatha. Swedish form is Agaton.
  • Amé (ah-may)--French, masc. of Amy/Aimée.
  • Cătălin (cah-tah-LEEN)--Romanian, masc. of Katherine
  • Clarus (CLAIR-us)--Latin, masc. of Claire/Clara. French form is Clair.
  • Laurus (LAUR-us)--Latin, masc. of Laura

2 comments:

  1. Would you believe I actually have friends named Davina, Maura, and Kenna?

    ReplyDelete
  2. That's kind of awesome!
    I've known a couple Mauras, but until I started doing the research for this post, I just assumed it was a variant of Mary, like Maire/Moira/Maura in Irish.

    ReplyDelete