It Means What?!

Enough rhetoric. Here, in alphabetical order, are some of the various names with interesting and sometimes startling meanings. Meanings and histories were culled from Behind the Name, an excellent source for the etymologies of first names, and Teresa Norman’s book A World of Baby Names.

Boys
Blaine One of its meanings is “the groin”.
Brennan/Brent Brennan comes from the name Burnand, meaning “burnt hand”, and Brent is “burnt”. Both come from the medieval practice of branding criminals. Over time, the pronunciations changed, and the associations fell away. These are names often chosen for their sound.
Brody A ditch.
Byron At the cowsheds
Cade Of uncertain meaning: either “a young animal deserted by its mother and raised by hand”, or “cask, barrel”.
Cameron This currently unisex name means “crooked nose”.
Claude Lame.
Cole Coal.
Soren severe, strict, stern
Tupper Ram, with the suffix ‘er’, suggesting very poor grammar
Wyatt English form of the French Guyot, literally, “little Guy”.

Girls
Bailey A bailiff
Barbara Derived from the Latin barbarus, meaning “foreign, or strange”, the same root word from which we get barbarian.
Brandy The alcoholic liquor distilled from wine that bears the same name
Carlie a peasant
Cecilia Blind.
Drew The short form of Andrew, “manly”, now commonly bestowed on girls.
Leah A Hebrew name meaning either “weary” or “wild cow”.
Madison Matthew’s son
Morrigan Nightmare queen.
Paige A young male attendant
Rebecca A noose.

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