Sunday, November 6, 2011

Titania

Today's name: Titania

Arthur Rackham - The Meeting of Oberon and Titania

Pronunciation: ty-TAY-nee-ah

Potential nicknames: Ti, Tita, Tani, Tania, Tani, Nia

Origin: Greek, meaning "giant," from the word titan.

Popularity: In 2010 there were only 6 baby girls named Titania, and in 2011 it went back down to 0.

Fun fact: (1) Most widely known as Shakespeare's Queen of the Faeries in his play A Midsummer Night's Dream. Her husband (the King of the Faeries) name was Oberon. Titania and Oberon are also moons of Uranus. (2) Before Shakespeare gave this name to the faerie queen, "Titania" was a general name for daughters of titans. In Greek mythology the titans were a race of giants. The were the "older" gods, the ones the Olympian gods overthrew, and their myths go back further in time. Their leader was Chronos, a god of time (among other things), who was overthrown by his son Zeus. However, everything started with Gaia/Gaea, whose worship may have began even before any other god, as an "earth mother." (3) Titania Hotel in Athens, Greece. (4) Titania aka Mary MacPherran is a character in Marvel Comics, specifically known as the villain fighting She-Hulk. There was another Titania in the Marvel Universe who was a wrestler.

Frank Cadogan Cowper - Titania Sleeps in "A Midsummer Night's Dream"


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1 comment:

  1. I guess the obvious issue with this name is it's closeness to Titanic. That also means some people may same the name more like TY-tan-ee-ah.

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