Comments (Usage Only)
Gender: Masculine & Feminine
Usages: Literature, English (Rare), Afro-American (Slavery-era)
Meaning: As an English feminine name, this was previously a short form of Frideswide, dating from the 17th century (note, Frideswide was recorded in various forms such as Fridayweed, Fridaysweede and Frydiswide). This can also come directly from the name of the day of the week, which derives from Old English frigedæg meaning literally "Frigga's day", from Frige (genitive of *Frigu) and dæg. In literature, this was used for a male character in Daniel Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe (1719). He was one of the local inhabitants of the island on which Robinson Crusoe was stranded, and Friday was rescued by Crusoe after being attacked, only to be enslaved. According to Crusoe, he was rescued on a Friday. The term man Friday - a skilled and loyal assistant - refers to him. Less notably, this name was also used for a female character, Friday Caliban, in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events; while she is a relatively important character, she only appears in the final book (2006). This was also an African American name, as with all the other weekdays. Naming children after the weekday on which they were born is common in some African cultures, notably Akan. Early slaves in America continued the day-naming practice with the English translations.
- https://web.archive.org/web/20180218194345/http://www.slaverebellion.org/index.php?page=africanisms-in-names
- 'Llewellyn's Complete Book of Names' (2011) by K. M. Sheard, pages 237-8; page 238 available at https://books.google.com/books?id=FVyHTUQnnBgC&pg=PA238&lpg=PA238&dq=Friday
- https://www.britishbabynames.com/blog/2014/12/frideswide.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_(Robinson_Crusoe)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_A_Series_of_Unfortunate_Events_characters
(Information from name #17417 originally submitted by user deerskulls)
4
Usages: Literature, English (Rare), Afro-American (Slavery-era)
Meaning: As an English feminine name, this was previously a short form of Frideswide, dating from the 17th century (note, Frideswide was recorded in various forms such as Fridayweed, Fridaysweede and Frydiswide). This can also come directly from the name of the day of the week, which derives from Old English frigedæg meaning literally "Frigga's day", from Frige (genitive of *Frigu) and dæg. In literature, this was used for a male character in Daniel Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe (1719). He was one of the local inhabitants of the island on which Robinson Crusoe was stranded, and Friday was rescued by Crusoe after being attacked, only to be enslaved. According to Crusoe, he was rescued on a Friday. The term man Friday - a skilled and loyal assistant - refers to him. Less notably, this name was also used for a female character, Friday Caliban, in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events; while she is a relatively important character, she only appears in the final book (2006). This was also an African American name, as with all the other weekdays. Naming children after the weekday on which they were born is common in some African cultures, notably Akan. Early slaves in America continued the day-naming practice with the English translations.
- https://web.archive.org/web/20180218194345/http://www.slaverebellion.org/index.php?page=africanisms-in-names
- 'Llewellyn's Complete Book of Names' (2011) by K. M. Sheard, pages 237-8; page 238 available at https://books.google.com/books?id=FVyHTUQnnBgC&pg=PA238&lpg=PA238&dq=Friday
- https://www.britishbabynames.com/blog/2014/12/frideswide.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_(Robinson_Crusoe)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_A_Series_of_Unfortunate_Events_characters
(Information from name #17417 originally submitted by user deerskulls)
4
Comments are left by users of this website. They are not checked for accuracy.
According to the USA Social Security Administration, 7 girls and 0 boys in the USA were recorded with the name Friday just as recently as 2022.
https://www.names.org/n/friday/about
https://www.nancy.cc/baby-name/friday/
https://forebears.io/forenames/friday
https://www.popular-babynames.com/name/friday