New Post
Search
Help
ArchivesTift, Matraca, Pae
Tift Merritt and Matraca (ma-TRAY-sa) Berg are musicians. Pae White is an artist. (BTW, they are all female). Does anyone know anything about their first names?
1
Replies
Thanks for your help! :)
nm
nm
1
Matraca
Matraca is the name of a type of wooden rattle called a "ratchet" from Latin America
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/matraca
Perhaps that could have inspired Matraca. However the pronunciation would probably be ma-TRA-ka rather than ma-TRAY-sa.
Matraca is the name of a type of wooden rattle called a "ratchet" from Latin America
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/matraca
Perhaps that could have inspired Matraca. However the pronunciation would probably be ma-TRA-ka rather than ma-TRAY-sa.
1
A short article about Pae White in the alumni magazine of the college she graduated from, Scripps College, gives her name as Cynthia "Pae" White. The use of quotes around Pae probably indicates that it is a nickname or professional name which is not on her birth certificate, but it doesn't say how she chose it.
http://www.scrippscollege.edu/alumnae/distinguished-pae-white.php
Information online about Pae White's graphic design company gives her name as "Cynthia A. White", with "Pae White" as a "business name":
http://www.buzzfile.com/business/Pae-White-323-222-1936/
http://www.scrippscollege.edu/alumnae/distinguished-pae-white.php
Information online about Pae White's graphic design company gives her name as "Cynthia A. White", with "Pae White" as a "business name":
http://www.buzzfile.com/business/Pae-White-323-222-1936/
1
According to an online biography of Matraca Berg, she was born to an unwed mother and her name is "exotic hillbilly." I would guess that best interpretation of that information is that her mother simply created the name herself.
http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Matraca-Berg-Biography/BD7F7A0727BFF1CB482569340029E6FE
http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Matraca-Berg-Biography/BD7F7A0727BFF1CB482569340029E6FE
1
Tift Merritt's full name is Catherine Tift Merritt. Tift has been used as a given name for both males and females within her family:
http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/music/2012/10/04/tift-merritt-seizes-moment-with-traveling-alone/gcMcF0FCdXHjz2SasitvvL/story.html
Tift is almost certainly from a surname. There is a Tift County in Georgia named after a man who had Tift as a last name. I have found a webpage which claims that the surname Tift is a form of Toft or Taft:
http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Tift
According to Reaney & Wilson's A Dictionary of English Surnames, Toft and Taft are from an English place name which meant "crofts" or "homestead". However, that dictionary does not include Tift as a variation of Toft and Taft, so I have no knowledge one way or the other whether the idea that Tift is from the same source is correct.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/music/2012/10/04/tift-merritt-seizes-moment-with-traveling-alone/gcMcF0FCdXHjz2SasitvvL/story.html
Tift is almost certainly from a surname. There is a Tift County in Georgia named after a man who had Tift as a last name. I have found a webpage which claims that the surname Tift is a form of Toft or Taft:
http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Tift
According to Reaney & Wilson's A Dictionary of English Surnames, Toft and Taft are from an English place name which meant "crofts" or "homestead". However, that dictionary does not include Tift as a variation of Toft and Taft, so I have no knowledge one way or the other whether the idea that Tift is from the same source is correct.
1