Name of the Day: Millicent
Overheard at ApMtn HQ this morning:
“Are you writing about Thoroughly Modern Millie?”
“No, I’m writing about virtuous and pure Millicent.”
“Can’t she be both?”
Thanks to Katharine for suggesting today’s Name of the Day.
Millicent is sweet as sugar. Maybe it’s her sound-alike qualities with the word innocent, or just her impossibly old-fashioned vibe. We hear the name and picture a pale girl in turn-of-the-century dress, possibly drifting about a mansion in one of those America’s Spookiest Places specials. But her nickname, Millie, is eminently wearable, and feels just right on a playground packed with girls called Maddie.
Millicent would be rare circa 2008, and indeed she’s never been terribly popular. The name left the US Top 1000 rankings back in 1965, but never charted higher than #434, back in 1927. Millie fared slightly better, charting in the Top 200 for most of the 19th century, before beginning her fall from the rankings at the same time as Millicent.
The name fell out of fashion just as it hit the silver screen. The Thoroughly Modern Millie mentioned earlier was a 1967 Oscar and Golden Globe-winning film - and then a Tony-award winning 2002 musical - about the jazz-age adventures of a small-town Kansas girl who moves to Manhattan, bobs her hair and dons a flapper dress in order to find love and fortune. Contrary to the exuberant title, most parents found the name hopelessly dated - the #1 name in 1967 was Lisa.
It’s hard to argue that Millicent is modern. Her roots run deep. She’s most likely based on a very old Germanic name - Amalswinth or Amalswind. The amal bit means work, and the swinth element means strength. The Franks used the slightly more wearable Malasintha, and by the 1000s, the Normans had transformed it to the very pretty Melisende - or Melisent, from which we derive our version of the name. A second theory disregards the obsolete Amalswinth and notes that the Germanic element mel meant gentle and in Gothic German, sinps meant gait or walk. We suspect that the first explanation is the stronger claim, but if you don’t like the idea of your daughter’s name meaning “strong in work,” then you can make a case for the “she who walks prettily” meaning, too.
Speaking of pretty, Millicent is the middle moniker of the Barbie doll - Barbara Millicent Roberts. If that puts you off the name, it’s also been worn by late 19th and early 20th century activist Millicent Fawcett, who helped opened higher education to women in Britain; Australian feminist leader Millicent Preston-Stanley, one of the first women to hold elected office down under; and American feminist and civil rights advocate Millicent Fenwick, a four-time member of the US House of Representatives in the 1970s.
Millicent sounds smart and capable. Her predecessor, Melisende, was worn by a 12th century queen of Jerusalem. Lisa Yee’s literary tween heroine is Millicent Min, Girl Genius. Sure, she does sound good as gold - but so do Emily, Abigail, Hannah, Grace, Claire, Faith, Molly and plenty of other top choices for daughters. Parents who love Charlotte and Madeline, but fear they’re too common, could certainly consider reviving Millicent.
It’s worth noting that the nickname Millie is about as fashionable as it gets in the UK these days. She’s been a Top 25 choice for the past few years. Of course, you might put Amelia or even Milla on the birth certificate and still arrive at the nickname, and with Poppy and Molly big as independent names, perhaps we’ll simply meet a lot of girls wearing the diminutive.
But we rather like Millicent, and think she’d be an interesting little sister for Harriet or Hazel. The nickname makes her, yes, thoroughly modern, but she still retains the grace and dignity of an age gone by.
Filed under: Names for Girls, Names of the Day |
Tags: Millicent
Lovely! I find Millicent thouroughly charming. She’s remarkably upbeat for being so old-fashioned, and awfully mellifluous for as dowdy as she is. Just the right combination for a lot of folks today.
Where are you getting the spelling for Melisende? This is a name I personally love, and have seen so many spellings, Melisande, Melissande, Melisanthe, that I’m not sure if one is more proper or has wider historical use. What did you find?
One more note: I’ve seen others show a distaste for this meaning, “strength in work”, but why? The people I know who work hard of their own volition usually have the nicest lives and a good deal of self-confidence. I think hard work is a valuable virtue to pass on.
Millicent! I love it! It’s sweet, yes, but it’s got a strength that just can’t be hidden. It’s formidable, in a way. And so hyperfeminine in this androgynous climate of naming today. Millie is fashionable and the full name is one to contend with. As well, it gives you the pretty sound with strong meaning. A lot of girls’ names have so much to do with being pretty and frou frou and “she walks prettily…” Pah! I’m glad to see something meaning strength or anything to do with it. I really do love Millicent.
Put this one with Matilda, please. I’m not naming my daughter Millicent. To me, Millicent is a stern librarian; a one-room-schoolteacher; a long skirt, buttoned up to the chin blouse, tight bun sourpuss. I like a nice friendly name, but Millicent is a shut door-go away type of name.
I find Millicent very pretty. The sounds are so smooth and feminine. Interesting that you made the allusion to 1000 Spooky Places or whatever, because there’s something witchy about this name for me. More good witch than bad, but witchy nonetheless.
I also think Millicent deserves kudos for being a much more attractive way to Millie than tired old Mildred. I’ve got a Mildred nn Millie in my family tree and, while I would never consider Mildred or even Millie to honor her, I would use Millicent in a heartbeat.
So on the whole, its a thums up for Millicent then?! I just love her numerical, old fashioned femininity. I’m pleased to hear though, that Millicent means something as substantial as ’strength in work’ - it adds some more weight to her I think.
As was mentioned, Millie is a very popular choice in the UK, but of all the Millie/Milly’s I’ve heard, I’ve never once come across a Millicent. To me, the name Millicent gives you so much more flexibility than Millie as you can decide for yourself which you prefer to be known as and not got through life with nothing more than a nickname…
Completely off topic, today I heard a mother calling her toddler back to her with a name that most certainly stands out from the crowd of Emily’s, Ellie’s, Sophie’s and Chloe’s - Tallulah! This was my first real life encounter with a Tallulah - a name I thought was reserved for celebrities! All I can say is give me Millicent any day!
Millicent is not a name I’d use myself but I find her pleasantly charming and entirely feminine. I just re-watched “Flushed Away” with my daughter The main character “Roddy” is mistaken for Millicent (instead of Innocent bystander, he’s called Millicent Bystander by another rat therough the entire movie. (it’s a a fun flick, loaded with great voices Hugh, Jackman, Kate Winslet, Ian McKellen, Bill Nighy& Andy Serkis are a few you hear quite often) And hearing Bill Nighy say Millicent fairly often has made me warm up to it faster then I normally would.
I do find Millie completely charming and while Millicent’s not my favorite way to get to her (that’s Pomeline) but I do like Millicent and would be very pleased to meet some.
I never thought to like Millicent before — it’s always seemed like Barbie’s middle name to me, and maybe part of the naming inspiration for Sleeping Beauty’s Maleficent.
Your post has won me over, though! Millicent IS pretty! Why didn’t I realize it before?
I do think I slightly prefer Melisende, for it thoroughly medieval vibe.
I don’t think I can use Millicent either. It can be quite pretty, and the meaning of strength is lovely as well, but I do think Millicent is a tad old fashioned. Plus, Barbara Millicent being Barbie’s given name doesn’t do much for me either.
I love the cute nickname Millie, but I’d rather use Matilda or Amelia (both favourites of mine) to get there instead.
While I like the name objectively, I couldn’t get past a bad association but I couldn’t remember what is was: It’s Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty!! (Thank you, Emmy Jo!!) That’s too bad because it’s a lovely name.
Elisabeth, I think “strength in work” makes me squirm because of the similarity to “abeit macht frei” - “work brings freedom” from the gates to Auschwitz. Except for that reference, hard work is a good virtue to express in a name … but I think it trips something deep in our memories that makes for a pretty big “except.”
Katharine, so cool that you met a Tallulah! I always want to rush up to parents and congratulate them in circs like that.
And Emmy Jo, Millicent won you over? High praise indeed!
As for Melisende and her variant spellings, I think this is one of those very tricky situations. While Melisande is clearly the modern French - and related to the Debussy opera and also sometimes taken as a translation of Melissa - the rest is difficult to pin down. Melisende/Melisanthe/Melissande was out of regular use (in favor of Millicent) by the time most spellings became formalized, so the same *person* probably had her name written multiple ways, much less different people in different regions.
I tend to stick with Melisende because it is the spelling preferred for Melisende of Jerusalem, the 12th century queen of Jerusalem mentioned above. But I’ve also seen her name spelled Melisent, so even royalty weren’t necessarily excused from ambiguity in their given names.
Melisende’s family tree is pretty rich, though - her parents were Baldwin and Morphia, and her sisters were Alice, Hodierna and Ioveta. She married a man named Fulk and had two sons: Baldwin and Amalric. Melisende was named after her paternal grandmother and had a niece who was given her name, so it must’ve popped up in noble circles throughout the era.
But I’ll bet that original source documents call each of those women by at least two or three spellings of the name … but that’s a guess, not based on specific research.