Female Name History

When my sister was pregnant with her first child, we were all very excited to find the perfect name for the child. At that time, we didn't know the sex of the baby because during the ultrasound, the baby was in a sideview position and the doctor can't see the genitals. We made a bet about the child's gender for five dollars. I bet that my sister's child is female because it's in our genes to have female siblings. Others bet that it's a boy because of the shape of my sister's baby bump. After the gender-betting, my sister asked us to give a name for her child since she can't think of any. I gave the name Naima, after the famous America's Next Top Model cycle four winner Naima Mora. The name is very beautiful and pleasant to the ears.

My sister and I love to watch America's Next Top Model. Although we like Kahlen Rondot than Naima, we were happy when the latter won the model search competition. From the bios I've read abut Naima, I found out that she used to work as a waitress in a coffee shop. Naima was named after the song of John Coltrane's Naima. She even has a twin sister named Nia who looks exactly like her. One of the striking features of Naima is her mohawk hair and multiracial appearance. She's part black, part Irish, part Mexican, and part Indian. She is America's Next Top Model winner and has appeared in several TV guestings and shows.

When I suggested to my sister that she should name her baby Naima, if ever it turns to be a girl, my sister was ecstatic. She also likes that name because it's unique. Using our dsl broadband internet, we researched about the meaning of the name. We searched everywhere but we found nothing. We only discovered that the name Naima is a title of a song that we haven't heard yet. My sister wants to know the meaning of the name because there's a belief that the meaning of the name will determine the persona of your child. I assure my sister that Naima is a fine name. Just look at the model's credentials.

Some people surmise that the oldest stories of incest have been written by the Greeks. Some believe they have originated in the Christian Bible, written by the Jewish prophets. But the story of a legendary Casanova has already been written in what is supposed to be the oldest novel in the world: the Tale of Genji. It was a long, complex yarn of intimate relationships of the Prince Genji of 11th century Japan. Strangely enough, it was scribed by a female novelist and diarist, no other than Murasaki Shikibu.

The woman's name was derived from one of renowned Prince Genji's lovers (and later wife). No one really knows who Lady Murasaki really is, since during the Empress Joto mon'in, ruled, it was forbidden to call people by their real name. Instead, they addressed them in such aristocratic titles such as "Her Excellency", etc. Lady Shikibu Murasaki was the first woman novelist in history who made a detailed and consistent account of life and love in the elegant royal society of Japan, circa 1001.

Oedipus and Elvis would have paled in comparison to Prince Genji's adventures with innumerable women during his lifetime. He married Empresses, he fell in love with her aunt, she took her niece as his concubine, and his wife bore a son that later stole his lover. Why did Lady Murasaki write this novel in the first place? It was intended to entertain the ladies in the Empress' court. No one would have thought it was going to be the most romantic work of genius ever written in Japanese history and the whole world.

Television had made political history as a woman takes over the Oval Office. ABC Television Network brings "Commander In Chief", a drama series about the first woman president of the United States. The show stars Academy Award winner Geena Davis, as Vice President Mackenzie Allen who takes control of the White House after the President suffered health failure. The name Mackenzie sounds very fitting, is it not, for such a role? Anyway, Mackenzie or Mac finds few allies in Washington and must sail through the treacherous waters of the political world, as she balances being a mother and leader of the free world.

Mac's husband has to come to terms with his new role as the First Gentleman, while her three children deals with the situation. Emmy winner Donald Sutherland plays Speaker of the House Nathan Templeton, Mac's toughest nemesis who has a very different political philosophy than Mac and watches her every move. Geena Davis recently won the Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series and Drama. Likewise, "Commander In Chief" garnered a Golden Globe nomination for Best Television Series, Drama, and a People's Choice Award nomination for Favorite New TV Drama. Not bad for a show that features a female United States President, huh?

Prince Albert II of Monaco is to legally recognize a second lovechild, a 14-year-old girl named Jazmin, to a former waitress from California. Tamara Rotolo met the playboy prince on the Cote d’Azur in July 1991 where Tamara had come with her husband on holiday. "She was married and Albert was careless" were the words from a friend of the Prince. Tamara became pregnant after a brief liaison with the Prince during a holiday in 1991 and told the Prince about her condition. Jazmin Grace was born on March 1992 in Palm Springs, California and was described as a mature, pleasant and intelligent young girl whose second name appears to be a reference to the Prince's late mother, Princess Grace, the former Hollywood film star Grace Kelly.

When Jazmin was born, Tamara filed a paternity suit in a California court citing the Prince as the father, but the court ruled that it had no jurisdiction in the affair. The 48-year-old Europe's most eligible bachelor Prince Albert is preparing to confirm his paternity in the coming weeks, and his lawyer is in negotiations with the girl’s mother. Last year after inheriting the throne from his late father, Prince Rainier, Prince Albert confirmed that he is the father of a boy, Alexandre, who was born in August 2003 to Nicole Coste, an air hostess from Togo. Under a 2002 succession law, Monaco’s royal throne will pass to Princess Caroline if Prince Albert dies without legitimate offspring, for an illegitimate child cannot accede to power in Monaco, unless the Prince marries the child's mother.

She had inspired millions of women and men alike in every corner of the world where her show is on, and is continuing to take part in social works and activism. Oprah Winfrey surely knows how to give back to the world the success it gave her over the past 20 years. Despite being one of the richest people in the world, her feet are still on solid ground.

Born in Kosciusko, Mississippi on January 29, 1954, Oprah Gail Winfrey began her broadcasting career at age 17, when she was hired by WVOL radio in Nashville, and two years later signed on with WTVF-TV in Nashville as a reporter/anchor. In January 1984, she came to Chicago to host WLS-TV's "AM Chicago," a less-succesful local talk show, which a year later was reformatted to be "The Oprah Winfrey Show." When the show was broadcasted all over America on September 8, 1986, the face of television changed dramatically.

Aside from doing TV works, Oprah also did movies like Native Son, Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple, and Beloved. She was named one of the 100 Most Influential People of the 20th Century by Time Magazine, and in 1998 received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for her phenomenal talk show.

She is the mother of all tough chics. Long way before Buffy was slaying vampires and Uma Thurman killed Bill, Nikita had been kicking bad asses. She was the title character in Luc Besson's (Leon, The Fifth Element) Le Femme Nikita.

Nikita is a street junkie who is sentenced to life imprisonment for the murdering a cop. Impressed with her killer instincts, Nikita is offered a pardon if she joins an elitel undercover government operation which seeks craft Nikita into the perfect ruthless assassin working undercover for the Government. Three years later, Nikita is given her freedom as a sleek and sassy deadly weapon. With a new identity, Nikita embarks on a new life and finding love. But the honeymoon was disrupted when one day the phone rings and Nikita's mission begun, which left her torned between her two separate lives.

Nikita is the symbol of women empowerment. From a life of deprivation, neglect, and drugs, she is awakened by her violent act and its unexpected outcome. It inspired a lot of Hollywood flicks that featured beautiful women firing huge guns, doing back flips, and saving the day. It showed how women in our modern day can make change and have a place in the society.

Their tandem had been the epitome of feminism and control in the 1990s. The power of two of Thelma and Louise inspired a lot of women to stand up and fight for their rights and freedom. This movie was directed by Ridley Scott (Alien, Gladiator, and Black Hawk Down) and starred Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon.

Thelma Dickinson (Davis), a housewife to a man from hell named Darryl, has rarely been out of her little town and her messy house, and is dying to run away with her waitress pal Louise (Sarandon). Thelma’s husband is a controlling, chauvinistic pig, and Thelma acts like his little girl, too afraid to ask him to go with her friend fishing for a day. She runs away, leaving a note and his food in the microwave oven. Louise laughs at her friend’s timidity in the face of her spouse. Thelma is allowed to let her hair down for the first time.

The movie very enjoyable watch as you see the two friends metamorphose into different people in a few of days in a very long road trip. Louise, who used to be the brain of the duo, is revealed in all her human frailties while Thelma, once the little girl, is now a free spirit. But their freedom came with a high price as they resorted to crime and violence. The movie showed us how a woman can have a disastrous nature.

The name had been associated with statutory and pedophilia and have been colloquial for sexually attractive or precocious young girl, but still, no one can deny that Lolita is one of the best novels ever written in the 20th century. Written by Russian novelist Vladimir Nabokov and was published in 1955, it tells the profound sexual obsession of narrator and main character Humbert Humbert to a twelve-year-old girl he called Lolita. Because of the subject matter, Nabokov had difficulty finding a publisher, eventually resorting to Olympia Press which publishes "erotica" in Paris. English author Graham Greene praised the work which led to widespread critical admiration, and its eventual US publication on August 18, 1958. The story has been filmed twice: the first adaptation was made in 1962 by Stanley Kubrick, and starred James Mason, Shelley Winters, Peter Sellers and, as Lolita, Sue Lyon; and a second adaptation in 1997 by Adrian Lyne, starring Jeremy Irons, Dominique Swain, and Melanie Griffith.

The term Lolita has come as reference to an adolescent girl considered to be very seductive, especially if she's below the age of consent. Pornography refers to Lolita as any attractive woman who has only recently reached, or is still younger than, the age of consent, or sometimes to refer to women who only appear to be younger than the age of consent. The infamous Amy Fisher was dubbed as the "Long Island Lolita."

For I never saw a true beauty 'till this night --- If you are a sucker for classic literature I bet you already know who is the beauty being referred to in that line. No love had been immortalized and had touched the heart of the world throughout history than that of Juliet for her Romeo as told in the timeless play by William Shakespeare.

Romeo and Juliet is a tragic love story Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet is best remembered for the famous balcony scene. Romeo and Juliet are teenagers who fall deeply in love but their families are bitter rivals. Their love faced all the unrelenting forces against them and yet they stayed true to each other as the "pair of star-crossed lovers take their life."

The story was based on real lovers who lived in Verona, Italy who died for each other in the year 1303 at which time the Capulets and Montagues were among the inhabitants of Verona. The drama had been acted countless times all over the world for the past 500 years both on stage and on screen and had inspired millions of other love stories. For the MTV generation, the story is best remembered as a 1996 MTV-type feature film by Baz Luhrman that showcased Leonardo DiCaprio and Clare Danes in the title role.

One of the most unforgettable stories popularized by Disney is that which tells the adventures of a young and spirited native American girl including her fabled romance with colonist John Smith. Many tales have been written about her. Yet until now, a part of her still remains as a mystery among historians. Perhaps this is due to the fact that she never learned to write. As such, the only knowledge that we know about her is that which has been passed through generations from the people who knew her.

Today, the depictions about her are as varied as the many names attributed to her. Based on native American lore, she was called "Amonte" by her parents. Though she was secretly known as "Matoaca" among her close kinsfolk. After her conversion to Christianity, she took the name of Lady Rebecca. Many people have regarded her as the mother of our country thus being the female counter part of George Washington. Still, to most Americans, she is simply know as Pocahontas, the legendary and brave Indian princess.

Pocahontas was the daughter of Powhatan, a powerful Chief ruler of more than 25 Indian tribes. Although she lived a short life (She died at the age of 21.), she is well remembered for being instrumental in the peaceful relationship between the colonists and native Americans. Until now, her life continues to inspire new legends including movies.

A handicap such as blindness and deafness was has been thought to limit the capacity and possibilities of a person. Yet, Helen Keller's remarkable life stands as a proof against such untruth or prejudice. She was born a healthy baby girl in 1880. She could still see and hear then. Unfortunately, Helen suffered from an unknown illness when she was 18 months old. This resulted to the loss of both her seeing and hearing abilities.

From the moment she became blind and deaf, many people thought that only little hope and future were left for her. Yet with the few people who believed in her, Helen worked hard to prove that even people like her could accomplish as much. Like Helen, people who are blind and deaf could also learn, finish college, write several books, and make a difference in the world.

During her time, Helen Keller was respected by US presidents from Cleveland to Kennedy. Not only that, she also went on to meet other important personalities around the world. More than anything else, Helen traveled around the world in order to visit and inspire the blind and the deaf. She died in 1968 at the age of 88, a life long enough to leave a lasting legacy and inspiration in the world. Though Helen Keller lost her sight, she changed the people's perspective and way of looking at the handicapped through her very own example.

The name Therese reminds people especially Catholics of two very important saints namely: St. Teresa de Avila and St. Therese of Lisieux. The saints lived the same holy and exemplary life although in distinct and opposite manners. One hand, St. Teresa de Avila was already popular during her time not only for her pious examples and mystic experiences, but also for her profound writings and the religious order she founded. On the other hand, St. Therese of Lisieux otherwise known as St. Therese of the Child Jesus, followed a holy, yet a more quiet life confined in the convent walls of Carmel.

St. Therese of Lisieux was born on January 2, 1873 in Alencon, France. Her father raised her along with her older sisters after the early death of their mother. She entered the convent at the young and tender age of 15 due to her calling and zeal for religious life. St. Therese of the Child Jesus lived quietly behind the convent walls until her death at the age of 24 from tuberculosis. It was through her famous autobiography "Story of a Soul" that the whole world came to know of a great life lived at such a short time.

Some say, that when St. Therese was still a little girl, she asked with excitement and eagerness to her father at how her name was written by God across the evening sky. At that time, the father and the child were gazing at the Little Dipper on their way to mass. This account perhaps may just be another of the legends usually told about saints. Yet anyone who has read her autobiography would understand how God carefully and lovingly formed and called a young girl in order to live such simple and quiet, yet very holy and exemplary life. He picked a young rose out of the world in order to plant in his garden and be more pleasing to his sight.

I know, your parents know The Carpenters, and perhaps some women were named after the lady singer, Karen. Probably, in our parents' younger times, they were included in the long list of Karen Carpenter's fanatic fans.

Karen loved to play drums; she was actually a good drummer. When she was in high school, she, her brother Richard, and Wes Jacobs formed a group called "Richard Carpenter Trio." They joined in "The Battle of Bands" at the Hollywood Bowl, and the success continued. However, the group was dissolved when no commercial was released. After a long trial to the world of music, the Carpenter siblings successfully formed The Carpenters duo.

The songs "Top Of The World", "Close To You", "Yesterday Once More", and other classic songs of the two are still being played in the air. They became one of the most popular singers in the world. Karen became one of the favorite female singers of many people. But, Karen died in 1983 due to heart failure; a result of her anorexia nervosa. The death of Karen was a big loss to music industry.

The Latin for 'bright' is Clare, and many believe that the origin of the name came from this ancient, defunct language. Clare was a name used in Ireland in honor of Saint Clare of Assisi (1193-1253). The alternative spelling Claire is, however, rarely found in Ireland. The Irish county of Clare in Munster is hardly related to the name. Instead, it seems to derive either from clar, 'plain', or from the Anglo-Norman noble family of de Clare.

Now why did I begin the history of this beautiful name from Ireland? This country is an amalgam of cultures that it is difficult to take for granted how so many English names have come from it. Clare has its many variations when it passes from one European country to another. Clare becomes Clara in Spain, Claire in France, and so on.

The genealogy of this name could always be found in the name-generating sites such as http://www.last-names.net/. The site provides useful information such as census records, family trees, immigration, birth, marriage, and death records for names that most notably came from Europe. However you look at it though, it's still clear to us that Clare is a name that endures through cultures and still remains pretty despite a long history behind it.

Have you ever wondered where the Nike shoe company got its name? They actually got its name from the Greek goddess known as Nike, and she was considered as the victory goddess. Legend has it that she was Okeanos' and Pallas' daughter. Ancient storyteller Hesiod also said that she had three very powerful siblings Kratos the strength god, Zelos the rivalry god, and Bia the force god.

During her time, he fought beside the gods of Olympus to beat the Titans. With her help, the gods were able to win the war against their enemies. As such, her companions considered her as the manifestation of victory for Olympian gods. However, this does not automatically mean that her powers were only used to win at wars and other fights. It could also be applied to other aspects of Greek life. She represented victory in other field such as contests as well as athletics or sports. Maybe this is the reason why there is a Nike shoe company today. When you think about it, Nike has been successful with its business and has enough money. Maybe they have the favor of this victory goddess. Until now, her image is still used to symbolize people's victory.

The famous british rock band, the Beatles, made a song about her. She is also the the chimpanzee sucessfully taught with the sign language. Let's not forget that her skeleton is the most complete set of remains found by any archeologist in the history. She is also the central character of a famous 50's sitcom.

Lucy has been one the top ten list of most popular girl's name for several years. In the ancient times, Lucy is the name given to babies born at dawn, for the Latin meaning of the name means "light.

Jane is of Hebrew origin meaning "the Lord is gracious" and was originally the feminine form of the name "John". Although it is not a royal name, a 16th century Queen of England, Lady Jane Gray who was uniwillingly proclaimed queen, possessed this name.

The use of the name in the 19th century because of the central character in Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre." Jane is also used as a second element in name combinations such as: Mary Jane, Sarah Jane among others. Much like John, Jane also has many different versions around the world.

My all-time favorite film is Breakfast at Tiffany's! It's a classic, wonderful film with the most fabulous actress Audrey Hepburn. The first time I heard this, I wondered, who is Tiffany? Just so happens Tiffany is a designer-empire for elegant silverware, jewelries, and diamonds.

Now, what does the name Tiffany really stands for? Its Greek meaning is "the appearance of God." It's also French for Epiphany, coming from the original French word "Tifinie." There are so many women in the French History that were named Tiffany and it is still being used by parents as name for their daughters.