Name of the Week: Winifred

Origin:

Winifred is the Anglicised form of the Old Welsh name Gwenfrewi via the Latinised form Wenefrida, a spelling which may have been influenced by the Old English name Winfrið (wine "friend" and frið "peace"). St Gwenfrewi (or more commonly, St. Winefride) was a 7th century Welsh virgin martyr, niece of St Beuno and abbess of Trefynnon & Gwytherin. According to legend, Gwenfrewi was the daughter of the chieftain of Tegeingl. When she decided to become a nun, her enraged suitor, Caradog, decapitated her , but she was brought back to life by her uncle, Saint Beuno. On the spot where her head fell sprung a healing spring which later became a shrine and pilgrimage site called St Winefride's Well in Holywell, Flintshire, Wales.  It is interesting to note the connection between shrines of early British saints and previous pagan Celtic shrines. It is very likely that St Winefride's Well was previously a sacred Celtic shrine and that Gwenfrewi herself was once a Celtic deity. As Kimberly Rachel Grunke points out, "sources of water were sacred to the pagan Celts. Offerings were often thrown into waters to become the property of the Celtic deities. [...] Lakes and rivers were thought of as places of healing. Almost every Irish, British, and Breton tradition has a holy well named after one or more of their saints. It’s clear that many of the holy wells existed well before the introduction of Christianity into the Celtic lands. Renaming these holy wells was a “monotheistic reinterpretation of the spirit that dwells within and guards the (often) healing waters.” These wells were usually natural springs that had buildings built over them for protection and into the Christian tradition, many of them were still believed to contain healing properties. Some wells reputedly sprang up when a saint was beheaded, such as the wells of St. Reina, St. Jutwara, St. Ludd, St. Noyala, and St. Gwenfrewi."* Gwenfrewi has traditionally been assumed to be from the Welsh gwyn "fair, white, blessed," and Old English frið "peace" (possibly thanks to confusion with the Old English name Winfrið). That a Welsh name would contain an Old English element is incredibly unlikely, so this definition has, in more recent times, popularly been bypassed, and instead you'll often find Gwenfrewi popularly derived from the Welsh gwyn and frewi "peace, reconciliation."  The major problem with this theory is that you'll be hard pushed to find frewi in a Welsh dictionary at all, let alone meaning "peace" (for that you need hedd or tanc). It seems that the old idea of the Saxon element  frið "peace" has just been erroneously reassigned as a Welsh element.  One Welsh word that does seem possible as a source is the Welsh ferwi, which derives from berwi "to bubble, to effervesce"* The move from ferwi to frewi could be an example of metathesis or simply scribal error. This word seems even more likely when we consider that St. Winefrede's Well in Holywell, Flintshire actually does bubble. Furthermore, the element berwi "to bubble, to effervesce" has precedence as a given name which we can see in the Celtic Bormanna, the goddess of spring waters and healing. She was the feminine equivalent to Bormo/Bormanus (Berw in Welsh) which itself is similar to the name of St. Winifrede's uncle, St. Beuno.  It is possible that gwyn could be an example of an epithet ("Blessed"), which eventually became attached to the name, giving Gwenfrewi the meaning of "Blessed Bormanna" or "blessed bubbling waters."  K.M. Sheard also points out the similarity of the name Gwenfrewi to Ffraid [an alternate name for the saint is Gwenffrwd], the Welsh form of Bridget. With gwyn "blessed" as an epithet, and -wy as a suffix (which was commonly attached to names associated with water), Sheard believes that Gwenfrewi may really represent "a survival of the cult of the great Brythonic Goddess Brigantia."* We do know that offerings were made to Brigantia (whose name means "the exalted/high one") in wells and springs across Europe* and several rivers were named after her.* St Winefrede's Well may have originally been one of these sites sacred to Brigantia.

Usage:

St Winifred's veneration dates at least to the 12th century, and was not uncommon in England. In 1138, her remains were brought to Shrewsbury Abbey, making it a major centre of pilgrimage. St. Winifred's Well in Holywell is also mentioned in the 14th century medieval poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight showing how well known it was as a sacred site. It is difficult to tell how early Winifred's use dates from as records are scant, but it was certainly in moderate use in the 16th century in England and Wales. Variants retaining the G of Gwenfrewi can also be found in the forms Gwenffrid, Ginnifret, Gwyniffrid, Gweenyfrid and Guinifritha.  Winifred was not uncommon among the peerage: notable early bearers include Winifred Maxwell, Countess of Nithsdale (c.1680–1749), who arranged the daring escape of her husband from the Tower of London in 1716 following the Jacobite Battle of Preston, and Winifred, Lady Strickland (1645–1725) who was a courtier and governess to James, Prince of Wales (1688-1766).  Smith Bannister's rankings of top 50 names from forty English parishes in each decade from 1538 to 1700 has Winifred ranking twice: #39 in 1538-49 and #49 in 1620-29.  It wasn't until the 19th century, however, that Winifred really started to become a mainstream name, rising rapidly by the end of the century. The short form Winnie also rose in use over the century and rose to #183 by 1900.  Records for Winifred as a first name in the England and Wales Birth Index: 1840: 1850:  1860:  1870:  1880:  1890: 1900:  1904: 1914: 1924: 1934: 1944: 1954: 1964: 1974: 1984: 1994: #124 #121 #138 #91 #58 #36 #18 #12 #10 #19 #48 — — — — — — By 1996, Winifred was firmly below the top 1000. By 2010, however, it began to see a rise and reached #842 (45 births) by 2014. In 2017, Winifred ranked #785 with 50 births.  Regional data for 2016 shows that Winifred is most common in the South West (#395), followed by the South East (#529). In contrast, it did not rank at all in Wales, Yorkshire and the Humber and the North East.  Originally less common, by 2011, the short form Winnie became the more common form, ranking #814 (47 births) in 2014. Winnie saw a huge jump in 2017 when it almost doubled in use, moving from #666 (63 births) to #394 (113 births).

Famous Bearers:

History: * Winifred, Lady Strickland (1645–1725), Jacobite courtier. * Winifred Maxwell, Countess of Nithsdale (c.1680–1749), Jacobite courtier. * Winifred Cavendish-Bentinck, Duchess of Portland (1863–1954), British humanitarian and animal welfare activist. * Winifred Edgerton Merrill (1862–1951), the first American female to receive a PhD in mathematics. * Winifred Lewellin James (1876–1941), Australian writer. * Winifred Brunton (1880–1959), South African painter.  * Winifred Mary Letts (1882–1972), British writer. * Winifred Greenwood (1885-1961), American silent film actress. * Winifred Lawson (1892-1961), British opera and concert singer. * Winifred Lamb (1894-1963), British pioneering archaeologist. * Winifred Holtby (1898–1935), British novelist and journalist. * Winifred Spooner (1900–1933), British aviator of the 1920s and 1930s. * Winifred Copperwheat (1905–1976), British violist. * Winifred Atwell (1914–1983), Trinidadian pianist who enjoyed great popularity in Britain in the 1950s ragtime hits. Contemporary: * Winifred "Winnie" Mandela (born 1936), former wife of Nelson Mandela. Literature and Other Media: * Winifred Banks, a character from Mary Poppins. * Winifred "Winnie" Sanderson, a character from Hocus Pocus (1993). * Winifred "Winnie" Foster, a main character from the American book and movie Tuck Everlasting (1975). * Winifred "Wendy" Torrance, a main character from the American book and movie The Shining.

Variants:

Winnifred, Gwenfrewi, Winifrede

Pronunciation:

WIN-ə-fred [key]

Possible  diminutives:

Winnie, Wenna, Freda, Freddy

Sibling Names:

Dorothy     Constance    Henrietta     Rosemary     Millicent     Cecilia      Leonard     Sidney     Reginald     Ernest     Montgomery     Benedict

Name Lists:

Terrifically Tudor  Victorian Darlings   Roaring Twenties Names   Funky-Clunky   Upright Elegance

 

If you like Winifred you may also like:   Gwendoline, Marigold, Rosanna, Olive, Margery, Wilhelmina, Blanche, Cassandra, Rowena, Elspeth

Thanks to Louise for requesting this name.