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ArchivesCaroline meaning
I've had some trouble figuring out what my name actually means. I've found several different meanings for it. 'Little womanly one', 'Woman', 'A song'. Also, on this sight it takes you back to Charles which means 'Man'. I assumed since Caroline was the feminine form of Charles, it would mean 'woman', but someone on the other message board said that they thought it just meant 'man', What do you think?
Thanks a lot.
Thanks a lot.
1
Replies
Hi Caroline,
Caroline is a French/English/German/Scandinavian form (depends on the pronunciation) of the name Carola.
Carola is a feminine version of Carolus which is the latinized form of Karl.
Carola can be a direct latinization of Karla as well, which is the female version of Karl.
Karl (m) -> Karla (f) -> Carola (f) -> Caroline (f)
or
Karl (m) -> Carolus (m) -> Carola (f) -> Caroline (f)
-------
By the way - on this site Karl is said to be a form of Charles, but actually it is the other way round:
Karl (m) -> Carolus (m) -> Charles (m)
-------
Karl is an Old Norse and Old German name meaning "man, free man". Originally it was used as a kind of epithet and later as a first name.
The English word "churl" has got the same Germanic root (originally there wasn't anything negative about the meaning ;) )
As Miranda puts it - there's no change of meaning. A form of Karl would never mean "woman" even if it's a female version of Karl.
You mentioned that you found the meaning "a song" somewhere. Maybe the author of that idea thought of the vocabulary word "chorale" which looks and sounds quite close to Carole, which is another form of Caroline...?
Regards, Satu
Caroline is a French/English/German/Scandinavian form (depends on the pronunciation) of the name Carola.
Carola is a feminine version of Carolus which is the latinized form of Karl.
Carola can be a direct latinization of Karla as well, which is the female version of Karl.
Karl (m) -> Karla (f) -> Carola (f) -> Caroline (f)
or
Karl (m) -> Carolus (m) -> Carola (f) -> Caroline (f)
-------
By the way - on this site Karl is said to be a form of Charles, but actually it is the other way round:
Karl (m) -> Carolus (m) -> Charles (m)
-------
Karl is an Old Norse and Old German name meaning "man, free man". Originally it was used as a kind of epithet and later as a first name.
The English word "churl" has got the same Germanic root (originally there wasn't anything negative about the meaning ;) )
As Miranda puts it - there's no change of meaning. A form of Karl would never mean "woman" even if it's a female version of Karl.
You mentioned that you found the meaning "a song" somewhere. Maybe the author of that idea thought of the vocabulary word "chorale" which looks and sounds quite close to Carole, which is another form of Caroline...?
Regards, Satu
1
I can help with the "man"/"woman" meaning thing.
According to BtN, Caroline is a French feminine form of Carolus, which is the Latinate form of Charles, meaning "man". Now, when a name is feminised, the meaning doesn't change. Ever. Charlotte and Caroline, which both derive from Charles, still mean "man" even though they're feminine forms.
You might be tempted to say that the meaning automactically changes to "woman" because Charlotte / Caroline are feminine forms, but that'd be wrong since the meanings of names don't change.
People are now claiming that Mackenzie means "daughter of" instead of the proper "son of" indicated by the Mac- prefix.
*DISCLAIMER: The following is purely Miranda's pet theory. This is only Miranda's theory, and isn't meant to imply that the following theory is in fact true in any way.*
This is because, imo, people may be justifying using a male name for their daughters.
Anyway, I myself have wondered about the "little and womanly" meaning, so I look forward to the experts' explanation.
Miranda
According to BtN, Caroline is a French feminine form of Carolus, which is the Latinate form of Charles, meaning "man". Now, when a name is feminised, the meaning doesn't change. Ever. Charlotte and Caroline, which both derive from Charles, still mean "man" even though they're feminine forms.
You might be tempted to say that the meaning automactically changes to "woman" because Charlotte / Caroline are feminine forms, but that'd be wrong since the meanings of names don't change.
People are now claiming that Mackenzie means "daughter of" instead of the proper "son of" indicated by the Mac- prefix.
*DISCLAIMER: The following is purely Miranda's pet theory. This is only Miranda's theory, and isn't meant to imply that the following theory is in fact true in any way.*
This is because, imo, people may be justifying using a male name for their daughters.
Anyway, I myself have wondered about the "little and womanly" meaning, so I look forward to the experts' explanation.
Miranda
1