Message: "The meaning of Portia"

The meaning of Portia

by Raven Briar (Constant)

6/27/2018, 2:50 PM

The meaning of the name Portia has been discussed before, but I haven't heard a satisfying explanation as to why the definition of Portia is given as 'pig' (from Latin porcus) rather than 'gateway' (from Latin porta).

Porta > Portia appears a lot more intuitive than porcus > Porcius > Porcia > Portia.

I can understand how Porcia can have evolved from the family name Porcius, but Portia seems to have more in common with the Latin porta. How does Behind the Name decide which etymology to deem authentic? When a name has multiple possible meanings, what is the procedure for determining which meanings are valid and should be included?

#Portia

This message was edited 6/27/2018, 2:57 PM

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- elbowin +1

6/28/2018, 6:22 AM

It is because Portia and Porcia are homophonous (sounding the same) in English. The Portia occurring in Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" is clearly the same person as Porcia, the wife of Brutus in history, so we know for sure about the identification of the names.

--elbowin

- thegriffon

6/30/2018, 12:21 AM

If you're wondering why anyone would name a girl "Pig", they didn't. Strictly speaking Porcia is the feminine version of her clan (gens) name — her fathers and brothers would be (Marcus) Porcius etc.. The nomen Porcius belongs to a class of gentilicia (Roman clan names) derived from the names of common animals and objects, such as Asinius (ass), Ovinius (aheep), Caprarius (goat), and Taurus (ox). For quite some time Roman women were not known by their own praenomen, and it is generally thought they weren't given one during this period, but were merely referred to by their clan and family names, the equivalent of "the Clinton girl". If there was more than one in the same family they might be known as "the elder" and "the younger" or "first", "second", and "third" etc..

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