Skip to main content

Eulalia & Eulalie (& Euphemia)

Today's name: Eulalia & Eulalie (Eulalie is the variant of Eulalia)
Alternate spellings: Eulalee, Eulaylee, Eulaylie, Eulaylia, Olalla

Pronunciation: Eulalia: yu-LAH-lee-ah or yu-LAY-lee-ah; Eulalie: yu-LAH-lee or yu-LAY-lee

Potential nicknames: Eula, Eulala, Eulie, Eulia, Lala, Lalie, Lalia, Lia, Lila, Leila, Laia, Lily, Lalita, Allie, Ellie

Origin: Old Greek, meaning "well-spoken," although you can say "eloquent" or "articulate" as well. The "well spoken" meaning of this name comes from the Greek eu (well) lalein (speak), translating to "articulate." The Greek baby name Euphemia (pronounced yu-FEE-mee-uh) also means "well-spoken, fair speech." Euphemia's most popular nickname is Effie, which became popular in the 19th century.

Popularity: Surprisingly, there were only 40 baby girls named Eulalia in 2010 in the U.S., and no baby girls born named Eulalie, even though these names are gaining in interest on baby name websites. In 2011 I predicted a slight rise in the amount of births for this name, but it turns out there were only 25 baby girls named Eulalia in 2011, no Eulalie, and 5 Euphemia.

Fun fact: Eulalia was the name of a 4th century virgin martyr Spanish saint, known as the patron saint of Barcelona. Her feast day is February 12, although it is August 22 in the Orthodox Church. After reading about what had been done to this little girl (she was only 12) I think this would be a beautiful way to honor a child who died for her beliefs. If you were to do a little research on Eulalia the saint, you would find out it was said that a dove flew from her body as she died. A middle name meaning "dove" might be perfect. There was also a Saint Eulalia of Merida, Spain, whose story is very similar. Saint Euphemia might be a completely different saint, martyred in Chalcedon. She bravely took her torture as a young girl, and that fact made her famous. Euphemia Ross was another woman, queen of Scotland and wife of Robert II.

Eulalie is also a poem by Edgar Allen Poe.

A woman named Euphemia Allen invented "chopsticks" for piano.

Fun link: Check this out for the names of Eulalia's and Eulalie's born in 1911 in England and Wales
http://britishbabynames.typepad.com/blog/1911-census-eulalia-eulalie.html

.

Comments

  1. I find it slightly ironic that a name which means well-spoken is such a tongue twister for me to say. I do find her charming, however.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Is this where the word euphemism comes from or vice versa? Reminds me of Saint Amabilis becoming the name Amable, becoming Amabel, becoming Mabel and obviously also the word amiable. The history of language and names is always so interesting!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Galician Baby Names

I grew up on a street that was named an Italian variant of Roger. When I got married and we bought our first house, it turned out to be on Roger Street. Once noting that coincidence, I started searching for other variants of the name. However, female variants turned out to be pretty nonexistent. Save for Roxeria, which I later discovered was the Galician female form, possibly pronounced rohz-AIR-ee-uh. That led me to a few lists of female Galician names, ranging from common to rare. Here is a sampling of names not often heard here in the states... Albina Alda Alma Alodia Aloia Amada Amadora Amalia Amparo Anisia Antia Araceli Aranzazu Artemisa Avelina Azucena Baia Balbina Baltasara Beatriz Benvida Berenice Bieita Branca Braulia Caetana Carola Casilda Casimira Ceferina Celsa Cipriana Cira Clorinda Coralia Cornelia Cosima Davinia Delfina Desideria Dionisia Dominga Dorinda Dorotea Dositea Edelmira Edenia Elba Elvira Emiliana Etelvina ...

Elowen

Elowen is a recent Cornish baby name meaning "elm." It may not take off in America like the last Cornish hit, Jennifer, but it's certainly pretty. She's part of a "linguistic revival," as Appellation Mountain puts it  here . Her nickname could be Ellie, Elle or Ella, or a more unusual choice, Wendy. The pronunciation of Elowen is "ell-LOH-en," though most Americans will probably stick with "ELL-oh-wen." Please note that it is not spelled Elowyn. There is a similar name, Eowyn, but if you spell it Elowyn it will no longer be the Cornish name meaning elm tree, just some creative name. Other great Cornish names include Penrose, Chesten (the Cornish form of Christine), Demelza, Denzel, Hammitt, Kerensa/Kerenza, Meraud (very similar to French gem name Emeraude, both meaning emerald, but Meraud is pronounced "meh-row"), Merryn, Morwenna, Tremain, Emblyn, Jory, Massen, Treeve and Cotton. Here's 's a link to a post on Cornish n...

Massimo

Today's name: Massimo (male) Pronunciation: MAH-see-moh Potential nicknames: Masi, Simo, Max Origin: Along with Massimiliano, Massimo is the Italian variant of the Latin name Maximilian (which was the name of three Roman emperors and a few saints), meaning "greatest." Popularity: Massimo did not rank on the top 1000 baby names in 2010, but there were 148 baby boys born named Massimo and 5 named Massimiliano. In 2011 there were 107 named Massimo. Fun fact: (1) The name Maksim is also a variant of Maximilian. (2) Massimo has been the surname of many powerful Roman families. (3) Saint Massimo, a 5th century bishop. (4) Massimo D'Alema, Italian Prime Minister. (5) Massimo Capra, Canadian celebrity chef. .