Name of the Week

An elegant name of a beautiful Italian city and
celebrated noble beauties.

 

Origin:

Venetia is the Latinised name for Venice, the beautiful city of canals in Northern Italy.  Venice (Venezia in Latin) was named for the Pre-Roman Veneti people who lived in the area, most likely of Illyrian origin. As very little has been reconstructed of the Illyrian languages, the meaning of Veneti (who the Greeks called Ouenetoi) is unknown.  According to the indomitable C.M.Younge, Venetia was used in Britain as a Latinised form of the Welsh name Gwyneth, itself derived from Gwynedd, the name of an ancient Welsh kingdom which became Caernarfonshire. The name is most likely an elaboration of gwyn "white, shining, fair."

Usage:

The name Venetia was certainly popularised by Venetia Digby (1600–1633)  though examples do predate it. In this list of names from the Index to Administrations in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury covering the years 1581-1595, there is a record of one Venetia. It is interesting to note that there are other examples of Anglicised Welsh names -- such as Howell (Hywel), Meredith (Maredudd), Rees (Rhys) and Gwenhoivar (Gwenhwyfar) -- so this Venetia may have been used to render Gwyneth. Venetia Digby was born Venetia Anastasia Stanley in 1600, the daughter of Sir Edward Stanley and Lady Lucy Percy, who herself was the daughter of the Earl of Northumberland. Young Venetia was a celebrated beauty of her age who married Kenelm Digby: scientist, adventurer, philosopher and writer. When she died in 1633, Kenelm was heartbroken and continued to write letters to her post-mortem which were later published. Venetia's fame lived on, and the name continued to be used in peerage families over the following centuries (and still is!). Indeed, some children in the 19th century were named "Venetia Stanley" as given names.  Later Venetia was used by Prime Minister and author Benjamin Disraeli for his romantic novel Venetia (1837), giving his central character the name.  Venetia has never been a common name, however, as births from the England and Wales Birth Index shows: 1840s: 3 births 1850s: 4 births 1860s: 13 births 1870s: 14 births 1880s: 18 births 1890s: 31 births 1900s: 16 births 1910s: 17 births 1920s: 35 births 1930s: 87 births 1940s: 120 births 1950s: 114 births 1960s: 205 births There was an interesting spike in usage in 1938. The name went from 6 births in 1935, 5 births in 1936, 9 births in 1937 to 25 births in 1938, particularly in the April-June quarter. The name then increased in usage in the following decades.  Aberdeen Journal - 10 May 1938 The 1938 spike may have been influenced by the 1936 film Under Two Flags which featured Rosalind Russell in the role of Lady Venetia Cunningham, but was also more likely influenced by the birth of Joanna Venetia Invicta Stevenson in March 1938, daughter of film director Robert Stevenson and actress Anna Lee. Pictures of mother and baby appeared widely in newspapers from April to May and always with the name "Joanna Venetia." Later, Joanna Venetia would grow up to become an actress herself, calling herself simply Venetia Stephenson. There was a brief dip in the name's usage in the early 1950s, but it picked up again in the late 1950s into the 1960s. This again may be partly thanks to Venetia Stevenson, who by then was making a name for herself in Hollywood. In 1958, Georgette Heyer released her novel Venetia, featuring a beautiful Venetia Lanyon as the principle character.  click to enlarge Since 1996, Venetia has continually been below the top 1000 in England and Wales. It peaked in 1997 at #1176 with 16 births. In both 2013 and 2014 Venetia was not registered for three or more girls, and therefore did not rank in the official data.  In Scotland, the name has only been registered for 10 girls from 1974 to 2003, with no more than one birth in any given year.  The name has not ranked in Northern Ireland at all from 1997 to 2014.

Famous Bearers:

History: * Venetia Didby (1600-1633), Elizabethan beauty and wife of Kenelm Digby. * Venetia Stanley (1887–1948), British aristocrat and socialite. * Venetia Burney (1919-2009), the girl who named the planet Pluto. Contemporary: * Venetia Stevenson (b. 1938), English-American actress. * Venetia Williams (b. 1960), British racehorse trainer. * Venetia Dearden (b. 1975), British photographer and filmmaker. Literature: * Venetia (1837), a novel by Benjamin Disrael. * Venetia Lanyon, principle character in Georgette Heyer's novel Venetia (1958).  Other: * 487 Venetia, a type S asteroid orbiting the Sun

Variants:

Venezia

Pronunciation:

ven-EE-shə [key]

Possible  Diminutives:

Eva, Evie, Vena/Vina, Neesha, Neva, Via, Nia

Sibling Names:

Cressida     Octavia     Xanthe     Rosamund     Delphine     Allegra  Tristram     Maximilian     Crispin     Evander     Ambrose       Lucian

Name Lists:

Upright Elegance

 

If you like Venetia you may also like:   Araminta, Perdita, Sabina, Cosima, Seraphina, Illyria, Corisande, Aurora, Thessaly, Avalon

 

Thanks to Penelope for requesting this post.