Name of the Week

 
A goddess, a queen, a saint, and a patron of Europe.
You'd be hard-pressed to find a name with more illustrious namesakes. 

 

Origin:

Brigitta started life as a Latinisation of Brigit. It is now more commonly used as a Scandinavian, German and Dutch form of the name.  Brigit's routes are, quite literally, ancient. To the Celts of Ireland, Brigit was a most revered goddess. She presided over many aspects, including fire, inspiration, learning, poetry, smiths and healing, and some even believe she was a sun goddess.  Her name, often translated as "exalted one" or "high goddess," comes from the Proto-Celtic *brig or *brigant meaning "high" (and related to *briga / *brigo "power," "might"). The same elements can be found in the name of the Brythonic goddess Brigantia, thought to be cognate with Brigit, who was worshipped by Celtic tribes across Europe.

Usage:

Brigit was a name borne by as many as fifteen early Irish saints. The most famous of whom was Brigid of Kildare, one of Ireland's most prominent saints. She shares many attributes with the ancient Celtic goddess and it is widely thought that much of the goddess' cult was transferred onto the saint during Christian assimilation of indigenous Pagan worship. Indeed, St Brigid's cult has been so prominent across Europe, she represents a highly successful transformation of a revered Pagan deity into a popular Christian saint.  Curiously, the name Brigit was not much used in Ireland until the 17th century, presumably because it was considered too sacred to use. It was, however, used in the early medieval names Gilla Brigte "servant of Brigit" and Mael Brigte "devotee of Brigit" as well a whole host of place names across Ireland and Britain (Kilbride, Kirbride, Brideswell). In Scotland and England the name was more commonly found as Bride, of which we can find some early medieval usage as a given name. The Welsh form of the name was Braint which, in its lenited form Ffraid, can found in several place names.  The anglicised form Bridget appears in occasional use in England as early as the 14th century, but doesn't significantly appear on the map until the 16th century, when it was one of the Top 20 most popular names. It gradually declined over the 18th and 19th centuries until it ranked #140 in 1900.  As early as the 12th century we find Brigitta (or Birgitta) used in Scandinavia. The King of Norway, Harald IV (d.1136), had a daughter named Brigida who went on to become Queen consort of Sweden. The name was quite prominent among medieval Scandinavian nobility, particularly after the early canonisation in 1391 of Birgitta Birgersdotter (1303—1373), now known as St Brigitta, or St Bridget of Sweden.  It is unclear when the name Brigit was taken to Sweden, but we can find earlier examples of St Brigit's cult in mainland Europe. Her worship in Alsace and Belgium can be dated back to at least the 8th century and churches dedicated to her can be found in Germany, Spain, Italy, France and Portugal. In 1999, Pope John Paul II named Saint Birgitta as a patron saint of Europe — highly appropriate, given the name's history and its usage, in various forms, across the continent. The spelling Birgitta is first attested in Sweden 1293 and became the more common spelling there through the following centuries. We can find early examples of both Brigitta and Birgitta*, demonstrating that the ri / ir changeover occurred through the process of metathesis. The spelling of Birgitta may also be partly thanks to its similarity to Birgir: a well used Scandinavian masculine name derived from the Old Norse bjarga "to help, to rescue" — it was the name of both St Brigitta's father, and the third husband of Brigida Haraldsdotter.  Brigitta has been in Hungary's Top 100 since 2003, however it has not had much usage in Britain. The spellings Brigita and Brigitte have had a birth count of between 1 and 6 in England and Wales since 1996. In 2011, 4 girls were called Brigita; 34 were named Bridget.

Famous Bearers:

History: * Brigida Haraldsdotter (c.1131—c.1208), Swedish queen consort of Magnus II. * St Brigitta "St Bridget of Sweden" (1303—1373), venerated mystic and saint; a patron saint of Europe. * Brigida Banti (1757—1806), noted Italian soprano in the 18th century. Contemporary: * Princess Birgitta of Sweden and Hohenzollern (b.1937), sister of King Carl XVI Gustaf. * Birgitta Haukdal (b.1979), Icelandic singer.  Literature, Stage and Other Media: * Brigitta Von Trapp, one of the Von Trapp daughters portrayed in The Sound of Music.  * Brigitta MacBridge is a character in Disney's Donald Duck universe.  * Brigitta (1843), a novella by Austrian author Adalbert Stifter.

Variants:

Bridget (Anglicised) Brigid, Brighid (Irish), Bride (Scottish), Ffraid (Welsh), Brigitte (French, German), Brigida (Italian, Spanish), Birgitta, Birgit, Birgitte, Birgita (Swedish)

Pronunciation:

brig-EE-ta (UK) brig-it-a* (German)  [key]

Possible  Nicknames:

Bea, Beetie, Bibi, Birdie, Bitta, Bree, Bride, Britt, Britta, Gitta, Gida

Sibling Names:

Magda     Claudia     Astrid     Emmeline     Anneliese     Gisela  August     Gregor     Magnus     Soren     Torsten     Eric

 

If you like Brigitta you may also like:   Beatrix, Annika, Marita, Eleanora, Louisa, Ingrid, Esther, Helena, Ottilie, Ursula

 

Thanks to Shelby for requesting Brigitta as this week's NotW.