I am so thrilled to bring something totally new and exciting to BBN: our first Guest Post!
A little while back, a request came in for a list inspired by scientists for a daughter. Dedicated and erudite reader Chamali Samarasekara, who always gives excellent support and advice to other BBN readers, has kindly agreed to share her expertise on the subject and has written this excellent post of scientific namesake ideas for girls.
by Chamali Samarasekara
This list, while no means exhaustive, celebrates notable examples of women who have contributed to science over a span of nearly 3000 years. While some have seen their work unrecognised in their lifetime, others were not only acknowledged but publicly lauded. To distill their remarkable achievements into a few sentences is not enough to do them justice, so please read more about the scientists that interest you (Bibliography). I have also suggested the use of some of their middle names or surnames, but please do not feel restricted to my suggestions! Where one name is shared by several scientists, they are grouped together for convenience:
Ada
for Ada, Lady Lovelace, born Augusta Ada Byron (1815-1852). The only legitimate child of poet Lord Byron, Lovelace is referred to as the world’s first computer programmer due to the notes she wrote on Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine.
Agnes
for
1) Agnes Pockels (1862-1935) German chemist, specialising in the developing field of the surface science of liquids and solids.
2) Agnes Robertson Arber (1879-1960), the first woman botanist to become a Fellow of the Royal Society.
Anna
for Anna Atkins (1799-1871). English botanist remembered for her cyanotypes (blueprint photographs) of algae, the first of which was published in 1843.
Arber
for Agnes Robertson Arber (please see above)
Augusta
for Ada, Lady Lovelace (please see above)
Bassi
for Laura Bassi (please see below)
Caroline
for Caroline Herschel (1750-1848). A German astronomer, discovering eight comets in her lifetime and the first woman to ever do so. She was also the first woman to have her work published by the Royal Society.
Dorothea
for Dorothea Klumpke-Roberts (1861-1942). German-American astronomer. One of six children, her sisters all went on to become known in their own right: Anna (artist), Mathilda (pianist), Julia (violinist), and lastly, the neurologist who gave her name to Klumpke’s palsy, Augusta.
Dorothy
for Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin. Awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1964"for her determinations by X-ray techniques of the structures of important biochemical substances”.
Henrietta
for Henrietta Swan Leavitt (1868-1921). American astronomer who discovered the relationship between the period and luminosity of stars of the “Cepheid” type. This marked the start of our ability to calculate the distance of stars from the Earth. Her story is an inspiring one, as she pursued her scientific aspirations despite losing her hearing as a young adult.
Hertha
for Hertha Marks Ayrton (1854-1923). Born Phoebe Sarah Marks, she changed her first name as a teenager. She is remembered for her research into the electric arc and in 1899 became the first woman to become an elected member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers.
Hypatia
for Hypatia of Alexandria (c. AD 350-415). A great mathematician and philosopher of the Alexandrian age, who became head of the Platonist school at Alexandria.
Irène
for Irène Joliot-Curie (1897-1956). French-Polish daughter of Marie Curie, awarded the 1935 Nobel Prize in Chemistry “in recognition of… synthesis of new radioactive elements"
Laura
for Laura Bassi (1711-1778), a celebrated Italian teacher of Physics. She is dubbed the world’s first female professional scientist, perhaps due to being the first woman to ever be appointed at a European university.
Lindsay
for Margaret Huggins (please see below)
Lise
for Lise Meitner (1878-1968), an Austrian Jewish woman who despite fleeing from Germany in WW2 continued her research in collaboration with her nephew Otto Frisch. Her research led to the development of the atomic bomb, in response to which she is famously quoted as saying: “You must not blame us scientists for the use which war technicians have put our discoveries.”
Loredana
for Loredana Marcello, an Italian duchess who was also a botanist. Once Upon a Time Baby Names has written a very interesting feature on the name Loredana if you wish to know more.
Lovelace
for Ada, Lady Lovelace (please see above)
Margaret
for Margaret Huggins,née Lindsay Murray (1848-1915), an Irish astronomer who together with her husband William Huggins performed work using spectroscopy. They discovered the Doppler shift, a spectroscopic phenomenon used to gauge the motion of stars towards or away form the Earth.
Margarethe
for Maria Margarethe Winkelmann (1670-1720), German astronomer. She was one of the most celebrated astronomers of her lifetime due to her documentation of several planetary conjunctions.
Maria
for:
1) Maria Margarethe Winkelmann (please see above)
2) Maria Sybilla Merian (1647-1717). German-born illustrator. Her published depiction of the metamorphosis of the butterfly led to her being considered a significant contributor to the field of entomology.
3) Maria Mitchell (1818-1889). American astronomer, who received global acclaim for seeing a a comet through her telescope in 1847. She went on to become the first woman to become a professor of Astronomy in the USA.
4) Maria Goeppert Mayer (1906-1972). Awarded the 1963 Nobel Prize winner for discovering the shell structure of the nucleus.
Marie
for Marie Curie (1867-1934), one of the people I admired most as a child. Born Marya Salomea Sklodowska in Poland, she won the Nobel Prize twice, in 1903 with her husband Pierre for their research into the “radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel”; and alone in 1911 for her discovery of polonium and the discovery and isolation of radium.
Mary
for Mary Fairfax Somerville (1780-1872). Scottish mathematician and astronomer, a contemporary of Caroline Herschel and tutor of Ada Lovelace (see above). Somerville College of Oxford University was named in her honour.
Marya
for Marie Curie (please see above).
Merian
for Maria Sybilla Merian (please see above).
Phoebe
for Hertha Marks Ayrton (please see above)
Salomea
for Marie Curie (please see above)
Sarah
for Hertha Marks Ayrton (please see above)
Swan
for Henrietta Swan Leavitt (please see above).
Sybilla
for Maria Sybilla Merian (please see above).
Theano
for the Greek mathematician of the same name (c. 6th century BC), who ran a school with her husband Pythagoras.
Finally, for further delectation, here is a list of names inspired by male scientists that would make lovely girls’ names. Some are already in use; others are just too pretty not to consider:
Alcala
for Angel Alcala (1929- present), an inspirational Philippean scientist who rose from humble beginnings to be recognised for his contribution to herpetology and marine life research. His parents’ given names were Porfirio and Crescenciana.
Angel
for Angel Alcala (please see above)
Bell
for Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922). Scottish-born American inventor, famous for his invention of the telephone.
Bessemer
for Henry Bessemer (1813-1898). The Bessemer process of metallurgy, the first known way of mass-producing steel, is named for him. Possible nicknames include Bess, Emer or Merry.
Dana
for James Dwight Dana (1813-1895), American geologist
Evangelista
for Evangelista Torricelli (1608-1947). Italian physician celebrated for his research into the motion of fluids and inventor of the mercury barometer.
Faraday
for Michael Faraday (1791-1867); celebrated British scientist for his pioneering research into electricity and magnetism. The scientific term “faraday” denotes the electric charge of one mole of electrons.
Holly
for Arthur Holly Compton (-), awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1927 for the discovery of the Compton scatter effect.
Kinsey
for Alfred Kinsey, American biologist who is remembered for his groundbreaking research into human sexuality.
Nikola
for Nikola Tesla (please see below)
Sagan
for Carl Sagan (1934-1996). Trying to summarise this very versatile man’s accomplishments is impossible! Of note, he was an American astronomer and novelist, who may be known to international readers as presenter of the long-running TV series Cosmos.
Tesla
for Nikola Tesla (1856-1943). While he is widely remembered for the development of the alternating current electrical system, his other innovations are just too numerous to list. It is fair to say that life as we know it today would be very different without the achievements of this remarkable individual. Tesla was born in Croatia and later became an American citizen. The SI unit of magnetic field strength, the tesla, is named in his honour. I love the use of Tesla as a girls’ name. Any eager-eared Glee fans will have seen it being used for one of Mercedes’ backing singers. I also enjoy seeing conventional nicknames used with unexpected longer first names e.g. Tess for Tesla, or Lori for Loredana (please see above)
Volta
for Alessandro Volta (1745-1827). Italian physicist and electricity pioneer, lending his name to the volt, a unit of electricity.
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