Comments for the name Ianthe

It was revived by its use in 1656 in Sir William Davenant’s opera 'The Siege of Rhodes' (considered the first English opera), for the character of the heroic wife.

The name is occasionally found in use in the 19th century in England and the United States. In 1816, for example, Percy Bysshe Shelley named one of his daughters Ianthe.

I know someone who pronounces this "ai-ANN-thuh".

I think it's pronounced "Jan-thay" but I'm not sure, that may be just Latin.

I really like this name even though I prefer Xanthe. I believe the pronunciation is Ee-yan-they.

Ianthe was a lesbian in Greek mythology, so I wouldn't use this if you disapprove of homosexuality. And although I'm not a bigot, I don't particularly care for it as a name either.

(1) Ianthe was a Cretan girl who was betrothed to Iphis. Iphis was a woman raised as a man; she also fell in love with Ianthe and prayed to the gods to allow the two women to marry. She was changed by Isis into a man, and became Ianthe's husband.

(2) Ianthe, one of the 3,000 sons and daughters of the Titan Oceanus and Tethys, the Oceanids mentioned in homeric hymn to Demeter, who was one of the nymphs with the Goddess of Spring, Persephone when she was captured by Hades, the God of the Underworld.

(3) Ianthe, a young girl, so beautiful that when she died the Gods made purple flowers grow around her grave.

(4) Ianthe was the nickname the poet Lord Byron gave to his intimate friend, Lady Charlotte Harley, to whom Childe Harold's Pilgrimage is dedicated.

(5) In Percy Shelley's poem, "Queen Mab," the fairy queen visits a character named Ianthe. The fairy then takes the soul of the sleeping Ianthe and leads it across existence and uses the soul to highlight the good and pure in mankind. Shelley uses this to illustrate the evil in man's nature. Shelley also named his eldest daughter with Harriet Westbrook, Eliza Ianthe (born June 23, 1813).

The name is pronounced I-AN-THEE.

I really like this name, it somewhat reminds me of a Chinese paper lantern for some peculiar reason. Nice though. :)

A British friend of a friend is Ianthe - pronounced ee-AN-thee.