What's in a Name? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Christopher and David

Christopher means 'Christ-bearer' and David means 'Well-beloved'. Christian means exactly what it says, while John means 'God is gracious'. The Hebrew name from which the anglicized John is derived is Yochanan. Andrew means 'Warrior', and Curtis is an Old English surname that comes from the Old French 'corteis', meaning 'courteous'. Cain derives from the Hebrew 'qanah', meaning 'to acquire', and Abel derives from the Hebrew 'havel' meaning 'breath' or 'vapour'.

Modern Biblical scholars, however, tend to agree that the two names have their roots in the pre-Christian South Arabian words 'qyn' and 'ibil', meaning 'metalsmith' and 'herdsman' respectively. I should imagine that very few people who follow the Judeo-Christian or Islamic traditions would be likely to name a son Cain, because according to Genesis and to the Qur'an, Cain was the world's first murderer.

Answer: Eunice

My mother's name was Eunice, the anglicized version of the Greek Eunike, meaning 'good victory' - in ancient Greek 'eu' meant 'good' and 'nike' meant 'victory'. (Nike was also the Greek goddess of victory and, nowadays, athletic shoes). How did my very Welsh mother get a Greek name, and the anglicized version at that? According to family history, my grandmother had a difficult time bringing my mother into the world and the baby almost died in the process (obviously she didn't, because I'm here to tell the tale). My maternal great-grandfather, who was something of a classical scholar, named her Eunice to celebrate her survival.

He could have named her Victoria, the Latin word for 'victory'. Valerie wouldn't have been a choice at the time because Valerie is the anglicized version of the feminine form of the Latin 'valerius', meaning 'healthy and strong'.

Answer: Tudor

Twdr is the Welsh spelling of Tudor and it's pronounced Tiddir, with the stress on the first syllable. Theodore also means 'gift of God' in Greek, from 'theos'- god and 'doron' - gift. Joshua is a Hebrew name meaning 'God is salvation' and it is the anglicized form of Yesh'ua (Jesus is another anglicized form of Yesh'ua). Joachim, another Hebrew name, means 'God will judge'.

Answer: Helen

Helen derives from the Greek word for torch (lampas) or the Greek word for moon (selene). I'm not sure how lampas becomes Helen, but I can see the connection between selene and Helen. In Greek mythology, Helen is the daughter of Leda and Zeus and the wife of King Menelaus of Sparta. She ran off with Paris, son of Priam, King of Troy, and started that whole mess called the Trojan War.

Selena obviously derives from the Greek word for moon, while Lucia has its roots in the Latin lux, lucis, meaning light.

Melissa is a Greek name meaning honey-bee.

Answer: Heather

Eric is the masculine version of the name, as is Heath. Calluna vulgaris, the most common species (the purple and white heather) is native to western Europe. Seeds transported to Nova Scotia in the bedding of Scottish troops in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries took root and have become naturalized in that part of the world.

This common heather can be grown in North American gardens in Zone 4.

Answer: Harold

The most famous Harold in history is, of course, the royal chappie who got hit in the eye with a Norman arrow at the famed Battle of Hastings. Hastings was the watershed battle that effectively ended Anglo-Saxon rule in England and replaced it with Norman domination.

Despite his loss at Hastings, Harold lived up to his name. Prior to the fracas with William the Conqueror, Harold had proved himself time and again as a fine military strategist. It was sheer bad luck for Harold that (a) he got hit by that arrow and (b) William was an even better military strategist!

Answer: Irene

Eirene was the Greek goddess of peace (the Greeks pronounced her name Ee-Ray-Nay). In England, where I was born, it's pronounced Eye-Ree-Knee, and in North America it's more often pronounced Eye-Reen. I prefer the English pronunciation, thank you.

Answer: Edith

Edith is of Anglo-Saxon origin and is a compound name with its roots in 'ead', the Anglo-Saxon word for 'rich' or 'blessed', and 'gyo', which was Anglo-Saxon for 'war'. Aeoel (with a tilde over the o) was the Old English word for 'noble' or 'righteous'.

The name Ethel was not known until the nineteenth century when it was coined during a period of interest in all things mediaeval. Victoria is the Latin feminine form of Victorius, which means 'winner'. Phyllis is of Greek origin and means 'leafy' or 'foliage'.

Answer: Foliage or leafy

When I told Phyllis what her name meant, she was relieved. Someone had told her that her name was the female form of Philip, which means 'lover of horses', and she isn't overly-fond of equines, having broken her leg in a fall from a horse when she was young. If you want to name your baby daughter the feminine form of Philip, by the way, it's Philippa.

The unusual name Phyllida is a version of Phyllis but it wasn't known until the 16th century.

Answer: John

Dad's name is John, which is the anglicized version of the Hebrew Yochanan, meaning 'God is gracious'.