Browse Names - Behind the Name

Arwen f Literature
Means "noble maiden" in the fictional language Sindarin. In The Lord of the Rings (1954) by J. R. R. Tolkien, Arwen was the daughter of Elrond and the lover of Aragorn.

Dornröschen f Literature
From German Dorn "thorn" and Rose "rose" combined with the diminutive suffix -chen. This is the name of Sleeping Beauty in the Brothers Grimm telling of the fairy tale.

Guendolen f Arthurian Cycle
Variant of Gwendolen, used by Walter Scott in his poem The Bridal of Triermain (1813) for a queen who became the mother of Gyneth by King Arthur.

Madicken f Literature, Swedish (Rare)
Used by the Swedish author Astrid Lindgren for the heroine of her series of books of the same name, first published in 1960. She is called Maggie, Meg or Mardie in English translations. In the books the name is a diminutive of Margareta, though the inspiration for the character was Lindgren's childhood friend Anne-Marie, whose nickname was Madicken.

Morgen f Arthurian Cycle
Earlier form of Morgan 2.

Olwen f Welsh, Welsh Mythology, Arthurian Cycle
Means "white footprint" from Welsh ol "footprint, track" and gwen "white, blessed". In the Welsh tale Culhwch and Olwen she was a beautiful maiden, the lover of Culhwch and the daughter of the giant Yspaddaden. Her father insisted that Culhwch complete several seemingly impossible tasks before he would allow them to marry.

Rumpelstilzchen m Literature
Original German form of Rumpelstiltskin.

Schneeweißchen f Literature
Means "snow white" in High German, thus a cognate of Low German Sneewittchen (see Snow White). This is the name of a peasant girl in the German folktale Snow-White and Rose-Red, recorded by the Brothers Grimm in 1837. Her sister is Rosenrot, translated into English as Rose-Red. This story is distinct from the Grimms' earlier tale Snow White.

Schneewittchen f Literature
German form of Snow White.

Sneewittchen f Literature
Older form of Schneewittchen (see Snow White). This was the Low German form originally used by the Brothers Grimm for their adaptation of the folktale Snow White.

Urien m Arthurian Cycle
From the Old Welsh name Urbgen, possibly from the Celtic root *orbo- "heir" and the suffix gen "born of". This was the name of a 6th-century king of Rheged. Passing into Arthurian tales, he became the king of Gore, the husband of Morgan le Fay, and the father of Owain.

Vivien 2 f Literature, Hungarian
Used by Alfred Tennyson as the name of the Lady of the Lake in his Arthurian epic Idylls of the King (1859). Tennyson may have based it on Vivienne, but it possibly arose as a misreading of Ninian. A famous bearer was British actress Vivien Leigh (1913-1967), who played Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind.

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