Name of the Week

Elegant Arabella is similar to Top 100 Annabel
but with added frills and drama.

 

Origin:

Arabella started life in Scotland in the Middle Ages and was often recorded in the forms Arabella, Arabel, Arable, Arbella, Orabel or Arbell.  The most likely source of the name is Orabilis, derived from the Late Latin orabilis "invokeable, exorable, to be entreated" and by extension "benevolent." One of the earliest bearers was Orabilis, daughter of Ness of Leuchars in Scotland who was born c.1135. Tellingly, other forms of her name included Orabella, Orabilia and Orabilla. Some scholars point out that around the time when Orabilis was born, the chanson de geste, The Chanson de Guillaume, which was highly popularised, featured a beautiful Queen of Arabia named Orable.  Reaney and Wilson list several forms of Orabilis dating from the 13th century, such as Orabella, Orabilia, Orable, Orabla, Orabell and Arable, and while Orabilis was the Latinised form, it seems that Orabel was the vernacular form used. Orabilis of Leuchars' also had at least one granddaughter named in her honour. This Orabilis (b. c.1186) was also recorded as Orabel and Arabella. Arabella is also possibly a variant of Annabel, itself a Scottish variant form of Amabel (from the Latin amabilis "lovable"), which was also used in Scotland from the 12th century. The move from the 'n' to 'r', as Withycombe points out, can also be seen in the change from Dunholm to Durham.

Usage:

Though the spelling Arabella didn't become established until the 16th century, Orabella, Orabel and Arabel etc were in use from the 13th century in Scotland and, notably, Kent and Cambridgeshire. The surnames Orable, Orbell and Orbel derive from these names.  Arabella Stuart (1575–1615) was a cousin of James I and common descendant of Henry VII, placing her next in line to Elizabeth I's throne after James. Though she was of Scottish nobility, her birth in England was seen by some as preferable to James and was a potential candidate for the throne. She was raised mostly by her grandmother, Bess of Hardwick, one of the most influential and richest women of that Age after Elizabeth I herself. Arabella's name is often spelt Arbella in records, and to her family and contemporaries she was known as Arbell.  Arabella was in good use by the 17th century and by the 18th century had become a firmly established Georgian favourite, often appearing in popular literature. Arabella Churchill (1648–1730), daughter of Sir Winston Churchill was a favourite mstress of James II. Her name passed down through her descendents which include not only the famous Churchill family but also our current royal family via Lady Diana Spencer. It remained steady in use over the following century, even peaking a little in the mid-19th century, but began to decline afterwards, as we can see from the birth record numbers each decade for England and Wales.  1840s: 719 1850s: 885 1860s: 817  1870s: 733 1880s: 560 1890s: 324 1900s: 206 It ranked #170 in 1870, but by 1880 had dropped below the Top 200, remaining so through 1890 and 1900. Data from The Surname Atlas (click to enlarge) Usage of the name was quite wide across Britain, as we can see from the map (right) of the 3252 women bearing the name on the 1881 census. The highest numbers were in Middlesex, Lancashire and Yorkshire (the counties with the highest population) however per 100,000 it was more evenly distributed. Notable concentrations occured in North Wales and the South East of England. Curiously, as a name of Scottish origin, it was less used in Scotland than England and Wales.  In the 20th century, Arabella continued its decline, becoming positively rare in the 1930s and 40s. It saw a turn however, in the 1950s. 1910s: 112 1920s: 46 1930s: 16 1940s: 15 1950s: 76 Since 1996, Arabella, like many other 'bel' names, has been on a steady incline in England and Wales. In 1996 it ranked #519 with 49 births. By 2005 it was #390 (101 births) and in 2011 was #208 (242 births). In 2012, Arabella joined the Top 200 once more when it ranked #177 with 286 births. In its native Scotland, Arabella has been in low use between 2005 and 2012 when it had an annual birth count ranging from 1 (#1421) to 8 (#388). In 2013, Arabella reached its highest rank of #319 with 12 births.

Famous Bearers:

History: * Lady Arbella Stuart (1575–1615), a possible successor to Queen Elizabeth I of England. * Arabella Churchill (1648-1730), mistress of King James II. * Arabella Hunt (d. 1705), vocalist and lutenist. * Arabella Denny (1707–1792), Irish philanthropist * Arabella Buckley (1840-1929), writer and science educator. * Arabella Mansfield (1846-1911), first female lawyer in the United States. Contemporary: * Arabella Weir (b. 1957), British comedian, actress and writer. * Arabella Kiesbauer (b. 1969), TV presenter, writer and actress. * Arabella Field (b. 1970), American actress. Literature and Media: * Arabella (1933), an opera by Richard Strauss. * Arabella, heroine in The Female Quixote (1752) by Charlotte Lennox. * Arabella, a character in The Vicar of Wakefield (1766) by Oliver Goldsmith. * Arabella (1949), a Regency romance novel written by Georgette Heyer. * Arabella Figg, a character in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series.  Other: * 841 Arabella, an asteroid.

Variants:

Arbella, Arabelle, Arabel, Orabella

Pronunciation:

a-rə-BEL-ə [key]

Possible  Diminutives:

Abi, Ara, Ari, Bella, Belle, Ella, Elle

Sibling Names:

Henrietta     Beatrix     Clementine     Juliette     Ophelia     Hermione  Frederick      Edmund     Willoughby     Sebastian     Benedict     Maximilian

Name Lists:

Vintage   Upright Elegance   Gorgeously Georgian   Dickensian Names   Names from Jane Austen   Names from Harry Potter

 

If you like Arabella you may also like:  Araminta, Venetia, Camilla, Estella, Cressida, Allegra, Christabel, Aurelia, Mirabella, Lavinia

 

Thanks to Linda for requesting this post.