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Baby names

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Names of strong and interesting women in history?

51 replies

snowrevolution · 18/02/2012 21:44

Fishing for ideas really, in case DC2 is a girl. Possible contenders include:

Emmeline (Pankhurst)
Florence (Nightingale)
Agatha (Christie)

Any other suggestions in this vein? Not so much into more obviously traditional names like Elizabeth.

OP posts:
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snuffy143 · 18/02/2012 21:50

Rosalind (Franklin) - very important in discovery of DNA but found it really hard being a scientist in the "boys club" of the 1950s. Didn't win a Nobel Prize as died (from cancer as a result of exposure to radiation while doing her experiments) and the Nobel Prize is not awarded post-humously.

StrawberrytallCAKE · 18/02/2012 21:51

Audrey (Hepburn)

beatricequimby · 18/02/2012 21:59

Sylvia (my favourite of the Pankhursts)
Mary (Wollestonecraft)
Octavia (Hill - a Margaret Drabble character called her daughter Octavia for that reason I think)

HolyNoSheDittantBatman · 18/02/2012 22:02

Helen (Keller)
Louisa (May Alcott)
Victoria (Queen)
Joan (of Arc)
Jane (Austen)
Amelia (Earheart)
Anne (Frank)
Marie (Curie)
Catherine (The Great)
Cleopatra
Pocahontas (wildly under-used imo and it supposedly means 'my favourite daughter)

icapturethecastle · 18/02/2012 22:20

Eleanor of Aquitaine
Matilda of Boulogne

NotAnotherNewNappy · 18/02/2012 22:42

ROsa (Parcs - civil rights movement)
Sojourner (Truth - anti slavery protestor)

LizzieChickens · 18/02/2012 23:50

Ada (Lovelace - first computer programmer)

pressingbuttons · 19/02/2012 04:38

Great thread :)

Mother Teresa - humantarian
Erin Brockovich - environmental activist
Dr Fiona Wood - plastic surgeon; patented invention of spray on skin for burn victims, Australian of the Year 2005 AND mother of 6!
JK Rowling (Joanne Kathleen)
Dame Judi Dench -great actress
Dame Helen Mirren - as above
Indira Gandhi - former pm of India
Margaret Thatcher - sure this one has a mixed reaction!... Blush
Amy Johnson - first woman to fly single handed from England To Australia
So many more I'm sure....

pressingbuttons · 19/02/2012 05:07

I forgot Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders...

PipTrillPip · 19/02/2012 05:25

Mary (Seacole)
Elizabeth/Betsy (Fry)
Emily (Davison)
Annie (Rogers)
Constance (Markievicz) - first female MP

snowrevolution · 19/02/2012 07:34

Some great suggestions here, including some women I hadn't heard of before.

OP posts:
TruthSweet · 19/02/2012 10:33

Not real history but Jewish mythology - Lilith was the first woman and the first feminist. DD1 was named after her.

jandymaccomesback · 19/02/2012 19:16

Caroline (Chisholm)

AKissIsNotAContract · 19/02/2012 19:23

Clementina Black - author of Married Women's work in 1915

chilihotdog · 19/02/2012 19:31

Simone (de Beauvoir)
Clementina (Black)
Leonora (O'Reily)
Alice (Paul)
Mary (Wollstonecraft)

karatekimmi · 19/02/2012 19:38

lizzie you said mine!! Would love to call a dd this.

SilentMammoth · 19/02/2012 19:44

Frida (Kahlo)

WyrdMother · 19/02/2012 19:44

Edith (Cavell) - wiki link
Violette (Szabo)link
Dorothy (L Sayers) link
Lettice (Curtis) link
Dian (Fossey) link

Raahh · 19/02/2012 19:48

Millicent Fawcett- suffragist, major force in getting women the vote.

Her sister, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson was the first woman in the uk to quaify as a doctor.

(dd1 is Millicent Elizabeth- but this is purely coincidentalGrin)

DesperatelySeekingSedatives · 19/02/2012 19:54

Grace (Darling)
Rosa (Parks)
Katharine (Hepburn)
Anna (Pavlova)

LikeAnAdventCandleButNotQuite · 19/02/2012 20:08

'Historical'
Boudicca - leader of the Britons
Coco (Chanel) - created difinitive classic female fashion
Grace (Kelly) - Actress
Annie (Oakley) - female gun-slinger

Inventors
Martha (Coston) - invented maritime signal flares
Mary (Phelps Jacob) - invented the bra
Patsy (Sherman) - invented Scotchgard

More Current
Anita (Roddick) - british buisiness woman and human rights activist, founder of the Body Shop

StrawberrytallCAKE · 19/02/2012 20:24

I love Grace! ttc in 2 months and that is now top of my girls list, thank you!

Anita Roddick's book is amazing, she didn't get enough recognition imo.

Louplet · 19/02/2012 20:26

Aphra (Behn)

benne81 · 20/02/2012 19:15

Doris (Lessing)

hmc · 20/02/2012 19:20

Emily (Hobhouse), raised awareness of British led Boer concentration camps link