Velie's Personal Name List

From the Hebrew name אֲבִיגָיִל ('Avigayil) meaning "my father is joy", derived from the roots אָב ('av) meaning "father" and גִּיל (gil) meaning "joy". In the Old Testament this is the name of Nabal's wife. After Nabal's death she became the third wife of King David.

As an English name, Abigail first became common after the Protestant Reformation, and it was popular among the Puritans. The biblical Abigail refers to herself as a servant, and beginning in the 17th century the name became a slang term for a servant, especially after the release of the play The Scornful Lady (1616), which featured a character named Abigail. The name went out of fashion at that point, but it was revived in the 20th century.

Alternate transcription of Russian Анатолий or Ukrainian Анатолій (see Anatoliy), as well as the Georgian form.

Means "moonlight" in Khmer.

Form of Irene in several languages.

Feminine form of Isidore. This was the name of a 4th-century Egyptian saint and hermitess.

Means "skin of a tree or fruit" in Maori. This name has been brought to public attention by New Zealand opera singer Kiri Te Kanawa (1944-).

Swedish and Norwegian form of Matthew, used to refer to the evangelist and apostle also known as Levi.

Derived from the Slavic elements mirŭ "peace, world" and slava "glory". This was the name of a 10th-century king of Croatia who was deposed by one of his nobles after ruling for four years.

Derived from the Slavic element stati "stand, become" (inflected forms in stan-) combined with slava "glory". This name was borne by a few medieval saints (typically called by the Polish form Stanisław or Latinized form Stanislaus), including a bishop of Krakow who was martyred in the 11th century.

Feminine form of Valentinus (see Valentine 1). A famous bearer is the Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova (1937-), who in 1963 became the first woman to visit space.

Means "faith" in Russian, though it is sometimes associated with the Latin word verus "true". It has been in general use in the English-speaking world since the late 19th century.