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Virginia (given name)
Encyclopedia
Virginia is a feminine given name
derived from the Ancient Roman family name Virginius, a name probably derived from the Latin word virgo
, meaning "maiden
" or "virgin." According to legend, Virginia was a Roman girl who was killed by her father in order to save her from seduction by a corrupt government official.
The name was the 34th most common name for American
women and girls, according to the census of 1990. It was the 545th most popular name given to baby girls born in the United States
in 2007. Virginia
is the name of a state in the United States, derived by an expedition sent by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1584 who recorded the name of a Native American
regional "king", "Wingina," modified later that year by Queen Elizabeth I to "Virginia", perhaps in part noting her status as the "Virgin Queen." It is the oldest surviving English place-name in the U.S. not wholly borrowed from a Native American word, and the fourth oldest surviving English place name, though it is Latin in form.
Virginia Dare
was the first child born to English
parents in North America
. Virginia O'Hanlon wrote a letter that prompted the famous "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus
" editorial in the September 21, 1897 edition of the New York Sun
.
Given name
A given name, in Western contexts often referred to as a first name, is a personal name that specifies and differentiates between members of a group of individuals, especially in a family, all of whose members usually share the same family name...
derived from the Ancient Roman family name Virginius, a name probably derived from the Latin word virgo
Virgo
-Astronomy:* Virgo Cluster, a cluster of galaxies in the constellation Virgo* Virgo , a constellation* Virgo Stellar Stream, remains of a dwarf galaxy* Virgo Supercluster, a galactic supercluster-Surname:* Virgo...
, meaning "maiden
Maiden
Maiden or Maidens may refer to:* A female virgin; see virginity* Maiden name, the family name carried by a woman before marriage; see married and maiden names* Maiden, the first of the three aspects of the Triple Goddess...
" or "virgin." According to legend, Virginia was a Roman girl who was killed by her father in order to save her from seduction by a corrupt government official.
The name was the 34th most common name for American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
women and girls, according to the census of 1990. It was the 545th most popular name given to baby girls born in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in 2007. Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
is the name of a state in the United States, derived by an expedition sent by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1584 who recorded the name of a Native American
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
regional "king", "Wingina," modified later that year by Queen Elizabeth I to "Virginia", perhaps in part noting her status as the "Virgin Queen." It is the oldest surviving English place-name in the U.S. not wholly borrowed from a Native American word, and the fourth oldest surviving English place name, though it is Latin in form.
Virginia Dare
Virginia Dare
Virginia Dare was the first child born in the Americas to English parents, Eleanor and Ananias Dare. She was born into the short-lived Roanoke Colony in what is now North Carolina, USA. What became of Virginia and the other colonists remains a mystery...
was the first child born to English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
parents in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
. Virginia O'Hanlon wrote a letter that prompted the famous "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus
Is There a Santa Claus? was the title of an editorial appearing in the September 21, 1897, edition of The New York Sun. The editorial, which included the famous reply "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus", has become an indelible part of popular Christmas folklore in the United States and...
" editorial in the September 21, 1897 edition of the New York Sun
New York Sun
The New York Sun was a weekday daily newspaper published in New York City from 2002 to 2008. When it debuted on April 16, 2002, adopting the name, motto, and masthead of an otherwise unrelated earlier New York paper, The Sun , it became the first general-interest broadsheet newspaper to be started...
.
Variants
- Gigi (FrenchFrench languageFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
) - Gina (SpanishSpanish languageSpanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
) - Ginata (SpanishSpanish languageSpanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
) - Ginger (EnglishEnglish languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
) - Ginia (SpanishSpanish languageSpanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
) - Ginna (EnglishEnglish languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
) - Ginnie (EnglishEnglish languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
) - Ginny (EnglishEnglish languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
) - Jenna (EnglishEnglish languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
) - Jinny (EnglishEnglish languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
) - Vegenia (HawaiianHawaiian languageThe Hawaiian language is a Polynesian language that takes its name from Hawaii, the largest island in the tropical North Pacific archipelago where it developed. Hawaiian, along with English, is an official language of the state of Hawaii...
) - Virgee (EnglishEnglish languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
) - Virgie (EnglishEnglish languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
) - Virginia(ItalianItalian languageItalian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
) - Virginie (FrenchFrench languageFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
) - Wilikinia (HawaiianHawaiian languageThe Hawaiian language is a Polynesian language that takes its name from Hawaii, the largest island in the tropical North Pacific archipelago where it developed. Hawaiian, along with English, is an official language of the state of Hawaii...
)
People with the given name
- Virginia Centurione BracelliVirginia Centurione BracelliSaint Virginia Centurione Bracelli is a saint in the Roman Catholic Church from Genoa, Italy.Virginia was born on April 2, 1587, in Genoa, Italy to a noble family...
, Roman Catholic saint - Virginia Clinton, mother of former United States President Bill ClintonBill ClintonWilliam Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
- Virginia DareVirginia DareVirginia Dare was the first child born in the Americas to English parents, Eleanor and Ananias Dare. She was born into the short-lived Roanoke Colony in what is now North Carolina, USA. What became of Virginia and the other colonists remains a mystery...
, the first child born to English parents in the Americas - Virginia EriksdotterVirginia EriksdotterVirginia Eriksdotter , was a Swedish noble. She was the daughter of King Erik XIV of Sweden.Virginia Eriksdotter was the issue of King Erik and Agda Persdotter...
, Swedish noble - Virginia HamiltonVirginia HamiltonVirginia Esther Hamilton was an award-winning author of children's books. She wrote 41 books, including M. C. Higgins, the Great, for which she won the National Book Award in 1974 and the 1975 Newbery Medal....
(1936-2002), American author - Virginia MadsenVirginia MadsenVirginia Madsen is an American actress and documentary film producer. She came to fame during the 1980s, having appeared in several films aimed at a teenage audience...
, American actress - Virginia McKennaVirginia McKennaVirginia A. McKenna OBE is a British stage and screen actress, author and wildlife campaigner.-Early career:McKenna trained as an actress at the Central School of Speech and Drama then worked on stage in London's West End theatres before making her motion picture debut in 1952...
, British actress and author - Virginia MillerVirginia MillerVirginia Miller-Johnson is a world class heptathlete and former US champion.-Collegiate career:...
, American heptathlete - Virginia RidleyVirginia RidleyVirginia Ridley was a woman from Ringgold, Georgia, whose death made headlines when her husband, Alvin, was arrested and charged with imprisoning her for almost three decades, then killing her....
, a woman who was imprisoned by her husband - Virginia SatirVirginia SatirVirginia Satir was an American author and psychotherapist, known especially for her approach to family therapy and her work with Systemic Constellations...
, American author and psychotherapist - Virginia SheheeVirginia SheheeVirginia Kilpatrick Shehee is a Shreveport businesswoman and civic leader and the first female state senator from District 38. She won her seat in the 1975 general election by 23 votes over incumbent Cecil K. Carter, Jr. and served a single term until 1980. She was defeated in 1979 by fellow...
, Louisiana businesswoman and former state senator - Virginia WadeVirginia WadeSarah Virginia Wade, OBE is a former English tennis player. She won three Grand Slam singles championships and four Grand Slam doubles championships. She won the women's singles championship at Wimbledon on 1 July 1977, in that tournament's centenary year, the last time any Briton has won a...
, British tennis player - Virginia WoolfVirginia WoolfAdeline Virginia Woolf was an English author, essayist, publisher, and writer of short stories, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century....
, English novelist and essayist - Virginia Euwer WolffVirginia Euwer WolffVirginia Euwer Wolff is a prize-winning American author of children's literature, born in Portland, Oregon 25 Aug 1937. She attended an all-girls' school called St. Helen's Hall , before attending Smith College. She married Arthur Richard Wolff in 1959...
, American author - Virginia ZakianVirginia ZakianVirginia Zakian is an American biologist and professor of life sciences at Princeton University.A graduate of Upper Darby High School, Zakian received the A.B. in 1970 from Cornell University and the Ph.D. in 1975 from Yale University....
, American scientist and professor at Princeton University