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Quince

Quince_name


A quince is a bright yellow fruit from a small deciduous tree, the only member of the Cydonia genus Rosaceae which also contains most edible fruits such as apples, cherries and pears, as well as almonds and ornamental trees like roses. In Greek the quince is called Kydonia malon, and Kydonia was also an ancient city-state now known as Khania. Legend says Kydonia was founded by Cydon - the son of Hermes and Akakallis, daughter of King Minos.

One would think, being a fruit name, that Quince would be more popular as a girls name - yet it is really only given to boys. Maybe that's because Shakespeare used it as a character name for a carpenter, Peter Quince, in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Or possibly because of Quince Duncan, a novelist from Costa Rica. It is also the Spanish word for the number fifteen. There were 11 boys given the name in 2013, the most it was given since 1985, then down to 5 boys in 2016, and no girls were ever given the name (at least not more than 4 in any given year). Quincy remains a far more popular option, given routinely to both sexes and ranking at #603 for boys.
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