Skip to main content

Marcheline


Marcheline (MARSH-el-een) is French, meaning "warlike" or "little warrior." It is the French feminine variant of Marcel, which comes from the Roman god of war, Mars. It is also the name of Marcheline Bertrand (birth name Marcia Lynne), Angelina Jolie's mother, and the middle name of her daughter Vivienne.

I selected Marcheline for March because March would make a super cute nickname. Chella, Marla, Marly, Marline, and Shelly could also work. In the past decade or more there were no baby girls named Marcheline, but that is not the case for Marchella, only given since about 1956 and last seen on 5 baby girls in 2012 (and never given to more than 11 in a year) and Marchelle, which peaked in 1963 with 64 births and was last seen in 2013 on 6 girls. Marcelle, which has little difference in sound from the masculine Marcel, is doing well in France but was only given to 8 girls in the U.S. in 2015. The spelling Marcela ranked in 1991, 1992 and 1999, while Marcella ranked from 1900 until 2002, only missing a few years in between. Streamlined Marceline peaked in 1928 and is definitely back on the rise, jumping from only 6 girls given the name in 2010 to suddenly 143 in 2014. Feminissima Marcelina has gone from nonexistent in the 1880's to being used 33 times in 2015. Italian Marciana (mar-CHA-nah), used since the 1920's, finally peaked in 2009 with 14 girls given the name. Marcia fares better than all of the above, its height in 1951 when given to 5,299 baby girls.
Labels:

Comments

  1. Lou @ Mer de NomsApril 2, 2012 at 5:19 PM

    I kinda like the idea of March as a middle, and Marcheline is certainly pretty. She's like the next step on from Madeleine.

    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 ...
2 comments
Read more

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...
2 comments
Read more

Ancient Germanic Female Deities

Loki and Idun by John Bauer Here is a list of ancient Germanic goddess and personifications. There is some overlap with the goddesses of the Norse pantheon, and I've limited it to those names that I think would wear well today on modern babies. Of the following names, only the following were used in 2016. Sol was given to 91 girls, Ran to 5 girls, Saga to 9 girls, and Beyla to 6 girls. Beyla - as a possible agricultural personification, her name could mean "cow," "bean," or "bee," but she has been associated with bees and mead, so my guess is "bee." However, there's been a proposed connection to the reconstructed Proto-Norse name Baunila, which means "little bean." This is also a Spanish and Italian girls name. Fulla - possibly means "bountiful." Her other name is Volla, which I think is equally accessible as a name. She is a virgin goddess in Old Norse mythology. Gersemi - means "treasure." Sh...
Post a Comment
Read more