Skip to main content

Claudine

Claudine seems to have been forgotten. In the 1920's it was very popular, leading up to 1930 when it was at its all-time high of 208 births that year. She's been used since at least 1881 in the U.S., but in 2015 this name was only given to 8 girls and is considered "endangered." This French take on Claudia, meaning "lame," came from the Roman family name Claudius. Claudia currently ranks at #741 in the U.S. and pretty high in other countries, whereas Claudine last ranked in 1971. Claudette is another rare variant, and neither make the top 500 in France. There's also the Russian variant of Claudia, Klava, which is exotic and mysterious.

Regardless of her current popularity, most people have heard this name before. 20th century French writer Colette gave this name to one of her heroines. More recently she was a fairy in the Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris. There's a Bond Girl named Claudine Auger, an Enid Blyton character, and a Moliere character. In real life there is French chemist Claudine Picardet, Irish beauty queen Claudine Palmer, French singer Claudine Longet, and many more.

There's also Claudine Rhédey von Kis-Rhéde. This Hungarian Countess was born in Transylvania and died in 1841. She was born Klaudia but called Klaudina, was married to Duke Alexander of Württemberg and her grand daughter became Queen Consort of George V.

Further back you'll find Claudine Guerin de Tencin, Baroness of Saint-Martin-de-Re. She was known to participate in conversations in salons, and was an author.

In the 1600's there was Claudine Francoise Mignot, who received three large fortunes through marriage and may have used her funds to go on adventures.

Another noteworthy Claudine was Lady regnant and then Lady consort of Monaco. Her father was Catalan Grimaldi and her grandmother was Pomelline Fregoso. There are several other namesakes for Claudine.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Sailor Moon Baby Names

As a long-time fan girl of Sailor Moon, I was thrilled to hear about a potential reboot of the series, which was supposed to be in 2013 and has now been pushed to 2014. It's been over 20 years since Sailor Moon first aired, but many still get a warm fuzzy feeling when they think of the show. What is not often mentioned is how well researched Takeuchi's name choices were. She covered gems, minerals, astrology, mythology and creative word choices. Today I'll talk about Sailor Moon names. Usagi Tsukino- Bunny - Serena - Princess Serenity - Sailor Moon Usagi means "rabbit" in Japanese, referring to the Japanese legend of the rabbit on the moon, and Tsukino means "moon." In the translation of the comics, Usagi was renamed Bunny appropriately. Keeping with the mythological aspects of the moon and both Greek and Roman moon goddesses, Usagi's character was given the concept of "serene," which gave her the name Serena in the American TV series (a...

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 ...

Witchy Baby Girl Names!

Circe Invidiosa by John William Waterhouse Have a little girl due in October? Looking to name a character? Here's my [seemingly endless] list of witchy-sounding baby names. Most of them also fit in the "clunky but cool" category, or "vintage." Most plants, trees, herbs, spices, flowers, gems, space and nature names fit the bill, because in stories and current practice these things are useful to witches. I've put any actual witch names from legend, myth, literature, movies, etc in bold and up front. I have not considered the names of actual, living people or their Pagan names, and I've left out any characters that only have a surname, or truly ridiculous given names. In the second half you'll see a list of names that, to my knowledge, have not been used for witch characters. Please know that this is not a complete list. Wikipedia has an almost complete list you can view  here . Tabitha, Samantha, Endora, Clara, Serena  (Bewitched) Katrina...