Name of the Week

A feisty Cornish name which spiked in the 70s
thanks to flame-haired actress Angharad Rees.
With a new lavish adaptation, will Demelza have her day again?

 

Origin:

Demelza is the name of a hamlet in St Wenn, Cornwall. It was adopted as a given name by Winston Graham for the name of his heroine Demelza Carne in his Poldark novels (1945-2002). Perhaps in an attempt to find a more poetic meaning, the most popular etymology for Demelza is "Maeldaf's fort." Dinas is the Cornish word for 'fort' or 'castle'; the idea being that Demelza is a contraction of Dinas Maeldaf. Maeldaf itself is an obscure Welsh name derived from mael "prince." The problem with this theory is that Maeldaf is an extremely rare name, not found outside of Wales.  In the novels, Demelza's name is given to mean "thy sweetness." Apparently, Graham took this definition from an 18th century book on the Cornish language called Archaeologia Cornu-Britannica : or, an essay to preserve the ancient Cornish language by Dr William Pryce.*  The internet will tell you that (according to Graham and Pryce) de means "thy" and melza means "honey, sweetness" in Cornish.  This neat cod-etymology, however, is simply not accurate. The Cornish word for "sweetness" — which Pryce himself correctly cites* — is melder. If Graham did use this source for the etymology of Demelza, he must have taken melder as its source.  Most likely, Reverend John Bannister, author of A glossary of Cornish names, ancient and modern, local, family, personal, &c (1871), was correct in his assertion that Demelza derives from ty "house" and malsai "eel," especially when we consider the importance of the fishing trade in Cornwall (of which, conger eel was one of the biggest exports*). A place named the "eel house" in Cornish is perfectly logical for this location.

Usage:

Demelza only came into use as a given name after the publication of Winston Graham's first three novels in his Poldark series: Ross Poldark (1945), Demelza (1946) and Jeremy Poldark (1950) The first real Demelza that appears on the Birth Index of England and Wales is a Demelza Cotterell in the Oct-Dec quarter in 1951 in Penzance, Cornwall. However, in his autobiography Poldark's Cornwall, Winston Graham claimed that the first child named Demelza (after his character) was the daughter of British writer Denys Val Baker, born in 1951.  The name came into uncommon but fairly consistent use after that, with most of the births situated in Cornwall. With the emphasis on Cornish revival in the 1960s and 1970s, Demelza was naturally picked up as a "Cornish" given name to reflect this revival.  The name received further exposure from 1975 to 1977 when the BBC adapted the novels into a wildly popular television drama which ran for two series (1975 and 1977). The Downton Abbey of its day, Poldark, starring Angharad Rees in the starring role of Demelza, was watched by millions of viewers in Britain, and shown in over 40 countries world wide. It is widely regarded as Britain's most successful television adaptation of all time next to the BBC's 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.   click to enlarge Births in England and Wales (selected years): 1950s - 12 births overall 1960s - 13 births overall 1970s:     1971 - 1 birth     1972 - 6 births     1973 - 8 births     1974 - 4 births     1975 - 17 births     1976 - 72 births     1977 - 68 births     1978 - 81 births     1979 - 44 births 1980s:     1981 - 26 births     1985 - 15 births     1989 - 7 births Even in other countries, the popularity of the television show saw a Demelza spike. In Spain, both Demelza and variant Demelsa can be found in Spanish birth records in the late 1970s and 1980s. Since 1996, Demelza has had consistent usage each year of between 2 and 11 births, putting it well below the top 1000. In 2013, Demelza ranked #5742 with 3 births.  The new 2015 BBC adaptation of Poldark starring Eleanor Tomlinson and Aidan Turner returned to British screens on March 8th and has already gained a popular following. Could more little Demelzas be on the horizon?

Famous Bearers:

Contemporary: * Demelza Fellowes (b. 1980), Australian netball player. * Demelza Reveley (b. 1991), Australian model.  Literature and other Media: * Demelza Carne, the heroine of Winton Graham's Poldark novels (1945-2002). * Demelza Robins, a Griffindor Chaser in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling. Other: * Demelza, a hamlet in Cornwall.

Variants:

Demelsa (Spanish)

Pronunciation:

də-MEL-zə [key]

Possible  Diminutives:

Demi, Mel, Dezzi, Missy, Melzi

Sibling Names:

Morwenna      Finola     Lamorna     Tamsin     Rhiannon     Bronwyn  Trevelyan      Jago      Orlando     Fergus     Perran     Alistair

Name Lists:

Cornish Names   Clunky Celtic

 

If you like Demelza you may also like:   Angharad, Fenella, Zennor, Rowena, Bryony, Minerva, Kerenza, Gwyneth, Constanza, Esperanza

 

Thanks to meerkat for requesting this post.