Name of the Week

An exotic spice that is quite
literally worth its weight in gold.

 

Origin:

Saffron is a spice that comes from the saffron crocus (crocus sativus). The name saffron originates from the Persian za-faran, cognate with the Arabic asfar "yellow," which became safranum in Medieval Latin; safran, zafferano, and azafran in Old French, Italian and Spanish; and saffron in English from the 12th century.  Saffron is the most expensive spice in the world. It takes around 80,000 hand picked stigmas to yeild just half a kilogram of saffron. Not simply an expensive cooking spice, the saffron has been used for ornamental, aromatic and medicinal purposes for millennia. It is highly fragrant. In Classical times was strewed on floors as a perfume by the wealthy, and women used it to adorn themselves. It is mentioned also in the bible as one of the incenses of the garden.  Most ancient cultures, from the Sumerians, Assyrians, Egyptians, Chinese, Greeks and Romans, heralded the saffron for its medical properties — a quality it is still prized for to this day. It was used to promote fertility, as a stimulant, and to cure a multitude of ailments from minor cuts to plague.  One of the plant's basic ingredients, crocin, is a powerful colourant, and so it was the saffron that was the principal yellow dye of the ancient world. Wealthy Roman ladies used it to die their hair and create yellow eye-shadows, while a red-yellow saffron-dyed ceremonial robe was worn by their priestesses and brides. The Greek's associated it with Artemis, and so was used to symbolise purity; girls would wear saffron-coloured robes in sacred rituals.  Both Homer and Ovid describe the goddess of dawn (Eos / Aurora) as being saffron-haired, wearing saffron robes and having saffron coloured wheels on her chariot. She is also referred to as the 'saffron mother' or 'the saffron-robed' (Krokopeplos).

Usage:

In the ancient world, saffron cultivation declined steeply with the fall of the Roman Empire. It was reintroduced when the Islamic civilisation spread to Spain, France, and Italy, and from there into Britain. It was a huge business. Several towns who cultivated the plant were elevated to cities on the back of the saffron trade, and the offence of adulterating saffron was so serious it was punished by being burned or buried alive. When, in 1374,a consignment of goods bound for Basle was ambushed, it sparked the fourteen-week long Saffron War.  European saffron was traded in Britain from around the 12th century. There was huge demand for its medicinal properties during the Black Death (1347–1350) and it was also prized for its fragrance and culinary taste. In the Pardoner's Prologue (14th century), Chaucer uses the saffron as a verb; his phrase "to saffran with my predicacioun" means 'to adorn my sermons with'.  Saffron became cultivated in Britain in the 15th century. It was grown particularly in Essex and Cambridgeshire and became an extremely important commodity for that area. The centre of its trade was the town of Walden, which was renamed Saffron Walden by Henry VIII in its honour. The British saffron trade flourished up until the late 18th century. Saffron was also notable in Cornish cuisine as the saffron trading came from Spain to the coast of Cornwall. Most notable is the Cornish Saffron Cake. There are a few very rare examples of Saffron in use as a first name in Britain from the 17th century: a man named Saffron Wandell was maried in Greenwich in 1632; a woman named Saffron Dallan was married in Cornwall in 1680. There are also a small handful of examples of the use of Saffron during the Victorian era, a trend which could be explained by the Victorian love of botanical names. A man named Saffron Crow was born in 1849, Saffron Lees in 1878 and a girl named Enid Saffron Cunliffe in 1891.  For the most part, Saffron did not come into proper use as a given name until the late 1940s. There was one birth registration for the name in England and Wales in the years 1947, 1948, 1950, 1952, 1953, 1956, 1958, 1960 and 1966. However, 1967 saw 19 registrations of the name, followed by 15 in 1968, 11 in 1969 and 23 in 1970. The reason for this sudden uptake was thanks to the song Mellow Yellow, containing the words "I'm just mad about Saffron / Saffron's mad about me / I'm just mad about Saffron / She's just mad about me," which reached number 8 in the UK music chart in early 1967. Perhaps thanks in part to popular British comedy Absolutely Fabulous, Saffron steadily rose in popularity for girls in England and Wales in the 1990s, peaking at #133 in 2000. From that point on, it has been on a downwards decline: 1996: #239 (166 births) 1998: #168 (258 births) 2000: #133 (345 births) 2002: #152 (288 births) 2004: #205 (225 births) 2006: #248 (189 births) 2008: #321 (142 births) 2010: #370 (123 births) 2011: #352 (136 births) 2012: #468 (96 births) Between 2005 and 2011 in Scotland, between 1 and 6 girls recieved the name each year. In 2012 the name ranked #426 with 8 births.

Famous Bearers:

Contemporary: * Saffron Aldridge (b.1968), British fashion model, freelance journalist and social activist . * Saffron Burrows (1972), British actress. Literature and Other Media: * Saffron "Saffy" Monsoon, a character in BBC sitcom Absolutely Fabulous (1992-2004). Other: * Saffron Walden, a town in Essex, England, named after the spice.

Variants:

Safran

Pronunciation:

SAF-rən [key]

Possible  diminutives:

Saf, Saffy, Ronnie, Fifi

Sibling Names:

Leila     Romilly    Juniper     Calla     Arya     India  Ruben     Milo     Flynn     River     Zane     Rio

Name Lists:

Yellow Names   Butterfly Names

 

If you like Saffron you may also like:   Scarlet, Tamsin, Ebony, Juno, Seren, Rowan, Yasmin, Lilah, Farrah, Dahlia

 

Thanks to Alannah for requesting this post.