Origin | |
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Word/name | English, Irish |
Meaning | location name, reference to the holly tree |
Holly is an English-language surname and given name.
Holly is known as an English or Irish surname (variant Holley) it is either locational, ultimately derived from the Old English hol lēah "[dwelling by] the clearing by the hollow", or descriptive, from hol-ēage "hollow-eyed". In Ireland, it was also used as a translation of the name Mac Cuilinn, which is derived from cuileann , the Gaelic name of the holly tree, and by extension sometimes of the similar-sounding McQuillan surname of Ulster. [1] The masculine names Holly, Hollie were derived from the surname, but have mostly fallen out of use since the mid 20th century due to the rise in popularity of the feminine name. Hollis is an English surname derived from a Middle English holis "[dwelling by] holly trees"; it was also used as a masculine given name.
Holly (variants Hollie, Holley) was first used as a feminine given name in the 20th century, as a "botanical" name given to girls, in reference to, or at least secondarily associated with, the holly tree. While the feminine name is on record in the United States since the 1930s, its surge in popularity was due to Holly Golightly, the socialite protagonist in Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's (1958), which was made into a film starring Audrey Hepburn in 1961. The name of this character is stated to be short for Holiday (rather than a reference to the plant). [2] The name peaked in popularity in the United States in the 1970s and 1980s, and has declined since, ranking at No. 380 in the United States as of 2009. [3] It was popularly given in England and Wales during the 2000s, staying in the top 30 girls' names throughout 1996 to 2012, with a peak at rank No. 12 in 2002 (and dropping to rank No. 33 as of 2013). [4] A tendency to give the name to girls born on or near Christmas has also been observed. [5] It has been the most popular name given to girls in Ireland who were born on Christmas Day and has also been more popular for girls there born in December than at other times of the year. [6] More recent eccentric spellings of the feminine name include Holli (1970s), Holleigh, Hollee, and Hollye. [7]
Gender | feminine |
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Origin | |
Word/name | plant name |
Gender | masculine |
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Origin | |
Word/name | from the surname |
Sharon, also spelled Saron, is a given name as well as a Hebrew name.
Holly is a genus of about 400 species of flowering plants in the family Aquifoliaceae.
Bonnie is a Scottish given name and is sometimes used as a descriptive reference, as in the Scottish folk song, My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean or Bonnie Dundee about John Graham, 7th Laird of Claverhouse. It comes from the Scots language word "bonnie", or the French bonne (good). That is in turn derived from the Latin word "bonus" (good). The name can also be used as a pet form of Bonita.
Hilary, Hilarie or Hillary is a given name and surname, derived from the Latin hilarius meaning "cheerful", from hilaris, "cheerful, merry", which comes from the Greek ἱλαρός (hilaros), "cheerful, merry", which in turn comes from ἵλαος (hilaos), "propitious, gracious". Ilaria is the popular Italian feminine form, while Ilario is the Italian masculine one. Other male forms are Hilarion, Ilarion, and Illarion.
Noel or Noël is a given name, often given to both girls and boys born over the Christmas period.
Siobhán is a female name of Irish origin. The most common anglicisations are Siobhan, Shavawn,Shevaun and Shivaun. A now uncommon spelling variant is Siubhán.
Elspeth or Elspet is a feminine given name, which is the Scottish form of Elizabeth. It means "chosen by God" or "consecrated by God".
Breakfast at Tiffany's is a novella by Truman Capote published in 1958. In it, a contemporary writer recalls his early days in New York City, when he makes the acquaintance of his remarkable neighbor, Holly Golightly, who is one of Capote's best-known creations. In 1961 it was adapted into a major motion picture of the same name.
Hollister is an English family name from the Gloucestershire region of England, now most numerous in the United States. In 1992, it was estimated there were 2204 households in the US, 94 in Canada, 81 in Australia, 21 in New Zealand, 3 in Denmark and 371 in Great Britain.
Ashley is a given name which was originally an Old English surname. It is derived from the Old English (Anglo-Saxon) words æsċ (ash) and lēah and translates to "Dweller near the ash tree meadow".
Angela is a female given name. It is derived from the Greek word ángelos (ἄγγελος), meaning angel from Greek belief systems. In the United States, the name "Angela" was at its most popular between 1965 and 1979, when it was ranked among the top 10 names for girls. Between 1922 and 2021, in the United States, the name was ranked in the top 35 names for girls.
Alina is a feminine given name with multiple origins in different cultures. It might be a form of Aline, which originated as a shortened form of Adeline, meaning noble. It has been used in Scotland as a feminine version of Alistair, the Scottish form of Alexander, and as an English version of the Scottish Gaelic álainn, meaning beautiful. In some instances, it might have Arabic origins. The name has also been well-used in German-speaking countries. It is sometimes regarded as a form of the name Helen, meaning to shine. Alina was one of the top 10 most popular names in Switzerland and one of the top 50 most popular names in Finland, Norway, Germany, Austria and Pakistan in 2020.
Miranda is a feminine given name of Latin origin, meaning "worthy of admiration", deriving the feminine name from the Latin word mirandus. Although it existed as a surname prior, held by, for example, Giovanni Miranda and Juan Carreño de Miranda, William Shakespeare originated use of the name as a forename for a character in his play The Tempest. In the play, the character is addressed as “Admired Miranda! Indeed the top of admiration! Worth what’s dearest to the world!” People named their daughters after the Shakespearean character beginning in the 1700s. The name was more popular in the United States than elsewhere in the Anglosphere, possibly due to its similarity in sound to Amanda, a name also more common for American girls by the 1800s. The name declined in use after 1900 but was revived in the United Kingdom due to the popularity of the 1948 British fantasy film Miranda about a mermaid named Miranda. The name also increased in usage in the United States when the film began airing on television there in the 1950s. Other media influences also increased usage of the name through the early 2000s. The name has recently declined in usage in the United States due to negative associations with the satirical character Miranda Sings.
Emily is a feminine given name derived from the Roman family name "Aemilius", and is the feminine form of the name Emil.
MurielMURE-ee-əl is a feminine given name in the English language.
Una is a feminine given name with various origins. As used by Edmund Spenser in The Faerie Queene, the name is derived from the Latin unus, meaning one. The Filipino word "una" meaning "first" is also derived from this Latin root. This is also the meaning implied for the given name of Star Trek character Una Chin-Riley, commonly called Number One.
Golightly is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
The name Queenie is an affectionate, or pet use, of the term "queen", and is thought to be derived from the Old English word "cwen", meaning 'woman' rather than a reference to the monarch or his wife.
Holly Golightly may refer to:
Holley is an English surname. It is either locational, ultimately derived an Old English hol lēah "[dwelling by] the clearing by the hollow", or descriptive, from hol-ēage "hollow-eyed".