Pamela (name)
| Pamela | |
|---|---|
| Pronunciation | /ˈpæmələ/ PAM-ə-lə |
| Gender | Female |
| Origin | |
| Word/name | unknown |
| Region of origin | England, 16th century |
| Other names | |
| Related names | Pam |
Pamela is a feminine given name. Pamela is often abbreviated to Pam.[1] Pamela is infrequently used as a surname.[2]
History
Sir Philip Sidney invented the name Pamela for a pivotal character in his epic prose work, The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia, written in the late 16th century and published posthumously. The name is widely taken to mean "all sweetness", formed on the Greek words παν pan ("all") and μέλη meli ("honey"),[2][3] but there is no evidence regarding what meaning, if any, Sidney intended for it.[4]
The Samuel Richardson novel Pamela in 1740 or 1741 inaugurated the use of Pamela as a given name but it was not in common usage until the 20th century.[2] A rare early bearer of the name: Lady Edward FitzGerald (c.1773–1831), although known by the first name Pamela was born Stephanie Caroline Anne Syms.[5]
The name's popularity may have been hindered by the tendency to pronounce it /pəˈmiːlə/ pə-MEE-lə which was not fully superseded by the now-standard /ˈpæmələ/ PAM-ə-lə until the start of the 20th century when the name finally entered general usage.[6] Pamela was very popular in Great Britain from the 1930s through the 1950s with the tallies of the most popular names for British newborn girls for the respective years 1934, 1944 and 1954 ranking Pamela at respectively #20, #17 and #24. Evidently less popular from the 1960s - being ranked on the respective 1964 tally at #67 - the name Pamela has grown increasingly unfashionable, with a reported total of eleven newborn girls in Britain given the name in 2009.[7]
Given name
People with the name or its variants include:
Surname
Fictional characters
- Pamela Andrews, heroine of Samuel Richardson's novel Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded (1740–41)
- Pamela of the Jungle, a comic-book jungle girl created by Italian author Enrico Teodorani[8]
- Pam Halpert, a character in The Office
- Dr. Pamela Lillian Isley or Poison Ivy
- Pam, from the film The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
- Pamela Voorhees, a character in the Friday the 13th films
- Pamela Barnes Ewing, a character in TV series Dallas
- Pam, a vampire bouncer from The Southern Vampire Mysteries/Sookie Stackhouse Series by author Charlaine Harris and an American television drama series True Blood.
- Pamela Abbott, one of the Abbot sisters and Doug's love interest (Joaquin Phoenix) in the movie, Inventing the Abbotts
- Pamela "Pam" James, from the TV series Martin
- Pamela Douglas a character from Soap Opera The Bold and the Beautiful
- Pamela Ibis, a recurring character from the Atelier series of video games.
- Pam Beesly, a main character in The Office.
See also
- Pam (disambiguation)
- List of Wikipedia articles starting with Pamela
- List of Wikipedia articles starting with Pam
References
- ↑ "Pam". Behind the Name.
- 1 2 3 "Pamela – name meaning and origin". Think Baby Names. thinkbabynames.com. Retrieved 2008-03-24.
- ↑ "Pamela". Behind the Name.
- ↑ Hanks, Patrick; Hardcastle, Kate; Hodges, Flavia (2006). A Dictionary of First Names. Oxford University Press.
- ↑ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: Pamela Fitzgerald
- ↑ Norman, Teresa (2003). A World of Baby Names. New York: The Berkley Publishing Group. p. 141. ISBN 0-399-52894-6.
- ↑ http://www.britishbabynames.com/blog/2011/06/top-100-drop-outs-where-are-they-now-.html
- ↑ "Pamela of the jungle". digilander.libero.it.