Henrietta (given name)

Henrietta is a feminine given name, derived from the male name Henry. The name is an English version of the French Henriette, a female form of Henri. A short version of the name is Harriet, which was considered the "spoken form" of Henrietta, much as Harry was considered the "spoken form" of Henry in medieval England.

Henrietta
Henrietta Maria of France was the queen consort of England, wife of Charles I of England. The name Henrietta came into wider use in England due to her.
GenderFemale
Origin
Word/nameGermanic
Meaning"home ruler"
Other names
Related namesHarriet, Heinrich, Henry, Heiko, Heike, Henrik

All these names are derived from Henrik, which is ultimately derived from the Germanic name Heimiric, derived from the word elements heim, or "home" and ric, meaning "power, ruler." The male name Henry was first used in the Kingdom of England by Normans.[1] Henrietta Maria of France, baptized as Henrietta Maria, in Latin, but called in French Henriette-Marie, the queen consort of Charles I of England, first inspired wide use of the name in England in the 17th century. In 2006, an authority on given names noted that Henrietta was one of the most "thoroughly upper-class names" in use in England.[2]

Henrietta is no longer a widely used name in English-speaking countries, although its shorter form, Harriet, was the 73rd most popular name for baby girls born in England in 2007, and in 2005 Henrietta was the 85th most popular given name for girls born in Hungary, perhaps inspired by the fame of Henrietta Ónodi, a top-ranked Hungarian gymnast. Both Henrietta and Harriet were ranked in the top 1,000 most popular names for girls in the United States during the 1960s. Henrietta was the 446th most common name for females in the United States in the 1990 census.[3]

Royal bearers

Henrietta

Henriette

See also

Versions of the name

Notes
  1. Behind the Name
  2. Rosenkrantz and Satran (2006), p. 209)
  3. Behind the Name
  4. Behind the Name

References
  • Rosenkrantz, Linda and Satran, Pamela Redmond (2006). Beyond Jennifer and Jason, Madison and Montana. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-312-94095-9
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