I have a book that records most of the given names used in a small area of my home country, from the Middle Ages to modern times. It’s always a delight to flip through it, and it’s where my spouse and I actually discovered one of our children’s names. Occasionally I stumble across names that fall into the ‘Tiffany problem’ category, in case you’re unfamiliar with this here’s a short explanation.
When history doesn’t match our perception of history, it is called the Tiffany Problem. The term was coined by author Jo Walton and describes how reality can sometimes be too unrealistic to be believable. One of the best examples of the Tiffany Problem is exactly how the phenomenon got its title – the name Tiffany. To the people of the 21st century, the name Tiffany is a relatively modern name. It is often associated with Tiffany diamonds and the 1961 film starring Audrey Hepburn Breakfast At Tiffany’s.The name actually originated in the Middle Ages, dating as far back as the 12th century.
My recent “Tiffany” name finds are:
boys
Hero - recorded in the 12th century
Noa - recorded in the 16th century
Julian - recorded in the 17th century
Louis - recorded in the 16th century
Tate - recorded in the 16th century
girls
Lucca, Luca, Luka - recorded in the 16th century lots of spelling variations
Elina - recorded in the 16th century
Sophia - recorded in the 15th century
Billie - recorded in the 16th century
Liana - recorded in the 18th century
I’m from central Europe and interested if you would consider these names Tiffany names too, or are they not surprising to you at all? What are some Tiffany names you know of?
I am from North Italy, and I don’t find Louis modern at all. It reminds me of noble houses in France.
I associate Sophia to names like Maria, Anna, Elisabeth. Names that are very old, even Ancient. Surprising you find it modern. Sophia reminds me of Byzantine imperial houses, early Christians, and the names of the daughters of that Syracusan chief who were born before Jesus. It reminds me also of German and British royal families.
Luca feels such a bland classic name for me, even boring. Reminds me of the person in the Bible. And also of Ancient Rome a bit, I don’t know why, but mostly I don’t have an impression on Luca, just that it is so classic bland… It was the name of my father though.
Other names:
Zoe (I find it an old Byzantine name, but most names find it modern)
I come from Central Europe myself and I have found a lot of your listings very “Tiffany” too
Especially the names [name_u]Hero[/name_u], [name_u]Noa[/name_u], [name_u]Tate[/name_u] & [name_u]Billie[/name_u]
it’s lovely that you have the access to this database, I can hardly find any data about the name listings from my home country anywhere, the only one that I managed to find is about the surnames recorded in the 16th century however that report did not list any “Tiffany” name sightings and it seemed very realistic
That’s very cool! I can across [name_f]Tiffany[/name_f] when reading a medieval text yesterday and was surprised haha - it definitely seems to stand out alongside the usual romance names like Triamour and Floriant.
Not a specific name but the ‘trend’ of giving ‘masculine’ names to girls was actually common in medieval [name_u]England[/name_u]. Eg the name [name_f]Philippa[/name_f] exists because historians in later centuries saw records of medieval women named [name_m]Philip[/name_m] and decided to feminise it! In fact women were often named after fathers or old family surnames to confer status and show off their lineage.
This was actually common in my home country too, specifically the area the book records! Giving boy’s feminine names for matronymic reasons was also a thing but less common.
[name_u]Hero[/name_u], [name_u]Tate[/name_u], [name_u]Noa[/name_u], [name_u]Luca[/name_u], [name_u]Billie[/name_u]! and [name_f]Liana[/name_f] surprise me, [name_f]Sophia[/name_f], [name_m]Louis[/name_m] and [name_u]Julian[/name_u] less so, where I am, as they feel quite classic.
These are from books, but they’ve always felt ‘unexpected’ or out of place to me:
[name_u]Camden[/name_u] (m) - used in [name_u]George[/name_u] Eliot’s Middlemarch, published 1872, set in 1829-32
[name_m]Chad[/name_m] - used in [name_u]George[/name_u] Eliot’s [name_m]Adam[/name_m] [name_m]Bede[/name_m] - published 1859, set 18th century
[name_f]Lillia[/name_f] - used in Where Angels [name_f]Fear[/name_f] to Tread by E.M [name_m]Forster[/name_m] - published 1905
[name_f]Monica[/name_f] - used in The Odd Women by [name_u]George[/name_u] Gissing published in 1893 - feels very F.R.I.E.N.DS
[name_u]Noa[/name_u], [name_u]Julian[/name_u], [name_m]Louis[/name_m], [name_f]Elina[/name_f], and [name_f]Sophia[/name_f] do not surprise me at all.
[name_u]Hero[/name_u], [name_u]Billie[/name_u], and [name_u]Tate[/name_u] are mildly surprised.
[name_u]Luca[/name_u] isn’t, depending on the location. It’s an established feminine name in Hungary.
[name_f]Liana[/name_f] isn’t, depending on the location.
Some surnames that have been commonly used as masculine middle names in the past can produce the [name_f]Tiffany[/name_f] effect - is this [name_u]Madison[/name_u], [name_u]Taylor[/name_u], [name_u]Jordan[/name_u], or [name_u]Cameron[/name_u] a teenaged American girl born in the 90s, or a 19th century [name_f]British[/name_f] man?
None of these names surprise me at all my in-laws are archivists and I’ve helped them scan documents and enter the metadata on bigger jobs a few times over the years. I think its been said already, but “masculine” names were a big thing in the “dark ages”, and the more feminized spellings aren’t seen until the renaissance or later. [name_u]Tate[/name_u] specifically I’ve seen attributed to girls more often than boys (that’s a very recent find for me).
I have seen names that have surprised me, like:
[name_u]Madison[/name_u] for a girl in some letters from the 1800s
[name_u]Jordan[/name_u] for a girl in the 1700s
Savanna/h being in semi regular use since the 1700s (possibly coinciding with the naming of the town in Georgia)
[name_u]Tate[/name_u] for a girl from 14th century records about an abbey
[name_u]Dylan[/name_u] being used far earlier than I like considering (this form being found a lot in the 1600s, and too me this is the name that makes me the most “uncomfy” with the usage going that far back!)
None of these particularly surprised me, aside from [name_u]Tate[/name_u].
However, I read an article several years ago about a Swedish family in the 1800s that tried to name their kids after the alphabet. I remember that it really changed my perception on how people named their kids historically. (I used to think they were really proper and formal about it.)
Obviously they hadn’t planned for the last one :3 Still kinda weird that they didn’t use the opportunity to give him a V-name to make up for skipping it. Especially since [name_m]Valentin[/name_m] is not typically spelled with a W.
While googling to find it again, I came across another family that did the same thing, but I couldn’t find individual birth years for those but apparantly it was 1849-1866:
[name_u]Axel[/name_u] [name_m]Bernhard[/name_m] [name_m]Conrad[/name_m]
[name_m]Dagobert[/name_m] [name_m]Edvard[/name_m] Frithiof
[name_m]Gustaf[/name_m] [name_m]Harald[/name_m] [name_m]Julius[/name_m]
[name_m]Knut[/name_m] [name_m]Leonard[/name_m] Matildus
[name_u]Nelly[/name_u] [name_f]Olivia[/name_f] [name_f]Paulina[/name_f]
Qwelia [name_f]Rosalia[/name_f] [name_f]Sofia[/name_f]
[name_f]Theresia[/name_f] [name_f]Urania[/name_f] [name_f]Vilhelmina[/name_f]
Xecia [name_f]Yrsa[/name_f] Zefonia
Åberta Ägir Östgötha
Detolfta [name_f]Johanna[/name_f] [name_u]Maria[/name_u]
Bror Tretton Methodius
Notably, they skipped the I and the W for these kids. I will give them a pass for the W because it’s basically Schödinger’s letter in Swedish. The last two kids are named for the number in the birth order. Detolfta means “the twelth”. Bror Tretton means “Brother Thirteen”, which honestly feels really mean as a combination. There’s also something to say about Brother Thirteen being child number 11
