The name is composed of the Old German elements, heri (army) and wig (battle).
German Diminutives
International Forms
The designated name-days are June 14, October 5th and December 5th.
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Hiltrud is a feminine Old High German name formed from hild, “battle,” and drud/þrūð, “strength.”
It was borne by two prominent eighth-century figures: Princess Hiltrud of the Franks, daughter of Charles Martel, who married Duke Odilo of Bavaria and later served as regent for their son Duke Tassilo III, and Saint Hiltrude of Liessies, a Frankish noblewoman venerated in northern France and Belgium.
The name remained in use throughout the medieval German-speaking world and saw a modest revival in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, though it is now rare and considered old-fashioned.
In Austria, the designated name-day is September 27th.
Traditional German diminutives and familiar forms include: Hilde, Hildi, Trude, Trudi, and Trudel.
Hiltrud has also occasionally been used in Scandinavian Countries.
Other forms include:
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The name appears in Greek mythology. It is connected to a woman who killed herself when her love for Demophon was not returned. She was transformed into an almond or hazelnut tree, depending on the legend. It comes directly from the Greek word, Φυλλίς, meaning, “leaves, foliage,” which shares a root with the words chlorophyll and phyllotaxis. Its Turkish form of Filiz comes from the same root but the meaning slightly changes to “sprout; root.”
It also appears as the name of a minor river god of Bithynia.
It came into widespread use in England in the 16th-century and later spread to the rest of the Anglosphere.
Early Puritan records occasionally include Phyllis/Phillis, reflecting classical learning even among settlers. Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784), the first published African-American female poet, is a striking historical bearer.
An 18th-century English short form was Lissie or Lissy.
It frequently appears in Elizabethan and Restoration poetry and drama. Poets such as Ben Jonson and Andrew Marvell used “Phyllis” as a stock name for a beloved in pastoral verse. Later modernists like Ezra Pound continued this tradition. This usage helped keep it familiar to English speakers for centuries.
It marked its presence in baroque operas (e.g., Handel’s Acis and Galatea includes a character named Phyllis) and in folk songs of the British Isles.
Victorian painters of the Pre-Raphaelite school sometimes chose the Phyllis and Demophon story for mythological canvases.
In the United States, it appeared in the Top 100 Female Names between 1915-1958, peaking at #24 in 1929. In the U.K., it came in at #14 in 1914, #4 in New Zealand in 1911, and #29 in 1922 in Canada.
Its Turkish offshoot of Filiz appeared in the Turkish Top 100 between 1980-1996, peaking at #11 between 1980-1982.
Today, the name is considered dated in the English-speaking world.
Phillyda, pronounced /ˈfɪl.ɪ.də/ in English is an alternate form.
Other forms include:
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The name is a modern form of the Old Norse by-name, Taki, which is derived from the Old Norse verb, taka (to take). The same word is related to the modern English verb, “to take.”
It has also been used as a translation of Tycho.
As of 2024, Tage was the 28th most popular male name in Sweden.
Another Swedish spelling is Thage.
Other forms include:
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The name is of uncertain origin or meaning, it is more than likely derived from the Latin, elitus (elite).
It has been used across Europe for centuries. It appears in records in France and Strasbourg during the 16th-century, and was not unheard of in 18th-century America. In the latter case, it may have been used among Calvinist families.
The name is also used in Latvia, likely introduced in the mid 18th-century and experienced popularity in the 1960s, peaking at #27 in 1965.
It was borne by American actress, Elita Proctor Otis (1861-1927); Latvian actress, Elita Kļaviņa (b. 1956); Latvian politician, Elita Krūmiņa (b. 1965) and Latvian journalist, Elita Veidemane (b. 1955).
Early French vernacular forms are Élita and Élite.
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The name is from the classical Greek, related to Apollo. It was borne by several early Christian saints. The most notable being St. Apollinaris of Ravenna, a Syrian Christian missionary to Ravenna who was martyred there and thereafter became the city’s patron saint.
The French form Apollinaire is linked to the Franco-Polish poet, Guillaume Apollinaire. He lived from 1880 to 1918. He was born Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki.
Apolinary was common in Poland during the late 19th-century and early 20th-centuries, it is now obsolete. Diminutives include: Apolinek, Apollinek, Apolin, Apollin, Polin, Polinary, Polinarek, Polinaruś, Poli, and Polik.
In Italy, Apollinare was mainly used in the Romagna region due to it being the name of their patrion saint, but it has since fallen out of use.
Apollinaire sporadically appeared in the French Top 1000 between 1900 and 1926 and peaked at #403 in 1923. In 2024, 5 babies were given this name.
Neither its masculine form nor its feminine form had much usage in the English-speaking world. It was mostly used in families of Greek or Eastern European background during the late 19th-century.
Designated name-days include July 20th, July 23rd, and September 12th
Other forms include
Its feminine form is Apollinaria, which is also borne by an early Christian saint.
Other feminine forms include:
A traditional feminine diminutive form in Russian is Polina. Polish diminutives include: Apollinka, Apollina, Apolinka, Apolla, Apola, Pola, Polka, Polcia, Polina, and Polinka. Modern Greek diminutives include: Nαρία (Naría), Πόλλα (Pólla), or Λίνα (Lina). Potential English short forms would include: Apple, Pollie, Polly, and Narey, or Narie.
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Derived from the Old Norse jór (horse) and fríðr (beautiful).
Other forms include:
The designated name-day in Norway is September 12.
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Bonaventure is the French and English form of the Medieval Italian male name, Bonaventura. It is ultimately made up of the Latin words, bonus “good” and venturas “the things that will come, the future.” A 13th-century Catholic Saint bore this name. He is considered a Doctor of the Church and known for authoring the biography of St. Francis of Assisi.
The name experienced widespread use throughout Catholic Europe until it fell out of use by the early 20th-century. It was the middle name of actor, Spencer Tracy (1900-1967).
The designated name-day is July 15th and September 11 in Croatia.
In recent years, it was the name of one of the ill-fated Lisbon sisters. This character appeared in Jeffrey Eugenides’ novel, The Virgin Suicides (1993). She is referred to as “Bonnie,” for short.
Other forms include
Italian short forms are Ventura, Venturo, and Venturino, also used as independent names.
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Zenobia is composed of the Greek elements, Zeus (Zeus) and bios (life). It was notably borne by a 1st-century Armenian queen of Georgian descent and later a 3rd-Century Queen of Palmyra who tried to expand into Roman territory but was defeated by Emperor Aurelian.
Zenobia of Palmyra’s name might have been a Hellenized form of her birth name, Bat-Zabbai, which is from the Aramaic meaning “daughter of Zabbai.” Zabbai itself is an Aramaic male name. It seems to be a theophoric name, meaning “gift of–.” The latter part refers to an unknown deity. It may have actually been an Aramaic form of the Hebrew female name, Bathsheba.
Speculation has also linked it with the Arabic female name Zaynab, which can either mean “father’s beauty” or be from the name of a type of flowering tree.
It was borne by the 3rd-century martyrs, Ss. Zenobia and Zenobius, two early Christians who were siblings and beheaded under Emperor Diocletian. Their feast and name-day is October 30.
In the English-speaking world, it is first recorded in Cornwall and Devon, England in the 16th-century. Early English forms of Synibie, Sinobie, Senobie, Cenobie, and Cenoby (Sen-e-bee; SIN-e-bee), would make interesting revivals in the spirit of Sydney and Willoughby. A common English diminutive was Nobby.
Zenobia appeared in the U.S. Top 1000 Most Popular Female names between 1881-1925, peaking at #669 in 1909.
Zenobia is no stranger to English literature, it is the name of a character in Nathaniel Hawthorn’s The Blithedale Romance (1852); Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome (1911); and is even used by Anne Rice in her the eighth book of her vampire series, Blood and Gold (2001).
Zenobia “Nobby” Hawthorne appears as a character in the P.G. Wodehouse series, Jeeves.
Tina Fey used this as the middle name of daughter, Alice Zenobia.
Other forms include
Diminutives
Masculine forms include
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The root name is the Frankish Audomar, which is composed of the elements aud (wealth, fortune), and mari (fame).
It was borne by an 8th-century saint and monk, an abbot of St. Gall, Switzerland and a 7th-century Frankish saint, after whom the French commune of St-Omer was named.
The designated name-day is September 8th.
Other forms include:
French feminine forms which had some use in the 19th-century are Amérine, Omère and Omérine
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