Middle name - strong woman

[Misslemon01]

We’ve pretty much settled on the first name for our baby girl - it’s a traditional Victorian name, begins with E.

Now we’re looking for a middle name, after a strong woman in literature or history. So far we’ve considered:

• Simone (de Beauvoir)
• Marie (Curie)
• Sylvia (Plath)
• Helen (of Troy) - though not very strong!

Any other thoughts? Also open to Shakespeare characters, but not the rubbish ones who are accessories to men!

[NoelNiki]

Alexandra. Meaning defender of
humankind

[mathanxiety]

Inspired by your post of Fri 08-Dec-17 07:13:07, Rosie the RIveter.
s.hswstatic.com/gif/rosie-riveter-1.jpg

[Agustarella]

Agree with Octavia! Best suggestion yet!

How about Diana rather than Artemis? Same goddess. Or is the Princess Di association unhelpful perhaps, IDK.

I like Valentina. Also the name of the heroine of Les Huguenots in its Italian version, Valentine in the original French. I can't decide if she's heroic for choosing martyrdom or a doormat for converting to Protestantism in order to marry the man she loves. Victorian era portrayals of virtuous femininity are complicated like that. Great name anyway.

[WhenLoveAndCakeCollide]

Millicent - after Millicent Fawcett. Would be quite fitting at this time, given that it was in the last couple of months, announced she would become the first woman to finally get a statue in Parliament Square.

[Misslemon01]

Hera, and of course Juno - I liked that she was empowered enough to challenge her husband (and brother...) Zeus when he played away, but c’mon, he was taking the p! That’s why Jupiter (Roman version) has so many moons. If ever there was a case for LTB...

[laelti]

Oh, and Octavia, as in Octavia Hill, a social reformer who was one of the founding figures of the National Trust.

(Sadly my other half veto-d everything but Grace!)

[laelti]

Some that I liked for similar strong women reasons (before being rather confidently told baby is a boy!)

Ada (Lovelace) - considered the first computer programmer (also daughter of the poet Byron and generally very interesting!)

Grace - very popular now but Grace Darling was always a local hero growing up in the North East. A lighthouse keepers daughter who rescued stricken sailors in a storm.

Hera - wife of Zeus/goddess of woman in Greek mythology. Admittedly a bit crazy but they all were in Greek mythology.

Minerva (McGonagall in Harry Potter, but I think the name is from the Roman goddess of Wisdom)

To agree with the others posted, any of the suffragettes.

Florence - as in Nightingale, though I have heard that is starting to be disputed? I'm also a massive Florence and the Machine fan though...

[undertheradarplease]

I respectfully disagree @annadale. Malala may be tender in age, but imo this only goes in her favour. She's current, relevant and a fabulous role model to young women throughout the world.

Her resilience, courage and maturity are characteristic of someone much older. She stands up for what she believes. Malala was raised to believe in education. Her father encouraged her to go to school. She was true to her deepest self and did not waiver in the face of opposition, but rather held fast to that which she knew to be true and right.

[annandale]

Ellen (wilkinson) Red Ellen, who raised the school leaving age, instituted free school milk, loved fashion, marched for Jarrow and published both political books and mystery novels.

Dorothy (Hodgkin) Nobel prize winner for chemistry

Margaret (Thatcher) who as a scientist accepted climate change was a real threat and used our EU membership to bring employers like Nissan to Britain

Not Malala - she's too young. She has big political ambitions and I hope she achieves them but who knows what the results will be.

[Misslemon01]

@ShizzleYoDrizzle you’re absolutely right, but I’ve loved reading everyone’s suggestions and learning about empowered women! 💪🏼

[ShizzleYoDrizzle]

Well what women in history do you personally admire? Seems more sensible to take a name from a woman in a field you're interested in rather than looking for any 'strong woman'.

[mathanxiety]

Your DH must have read Lytton Strachey's 'Eminent Victorians', Misslemon

[mathanxiety]

Maeve (feisty queen, terrific character from Irish saga)
Constance (Markiewicz) first women elected to Parliament; Irish Republican so did not take her seat, second woman in the world to hold a cabinet position (Minister for Labour 1919-22, Ireland), devoted her life to the poor in the tenements of Dublin, sister of...
...Eva Gore Booth, muse of the poet William Butler Yeats.
[From Wikipedia - fashion advice attributed to Countess Markiewicz was: "Dress suitably in short skirts and strong boots, leave your jewels in the bank and buy a revolver."]

Christabel (Pankhurst)
Adela (Pankhurst)
Mary (Woolstonecroft, Shelley and Astell). Shelley is nice too.
And of course there is the great Mary Beard.
Emily (Wilding Davison) suffragette, threw herself under the King's horse in the Derby 1913.

Jane (Addams) - reformer, focused on needs of women and children, pioneer social worker, suffragette, activist, and much more, including winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Susan (B. Anthony) - abolitionist, suffragette.
Alice (Paul) - author of the proposed Equal Rights Amendment - US.
Sojourner (Truth) - abolitionist, suffragette
Araminta (original name of Harriet Tubman, author of 'Uncle Tom's Cabin'). Also Harriet.
Rosa (Parks)
Eleanor (Roosevelt)

[HoratioNightboy]

"Strong woman" to me always conjures up Pansy Potter, the Strongman's daughter! Not what you had in mind, I'm sure, but would Pansy work?

[LongDivision]

Grace (Hopper)

[Muddywellies10]

Brontë sisters so Charlotte, Emily or Anne? Or Jane (Austen).

[BikeRunSki]

Mary (Anning or Seacole)
Florence (Nightingale)
Amy (Johnson)
Amelia (Earhart)
Boudicca ????

[Misslemon01]

Love the suggestions of Valentina! What a great name. Josephine (Josie) is also a great one but sounds really odd with the first name we’ve picked.

Tonight, my husband has tried to cast aspersions on Florence Nightingale’s credentials, saying her achievements were exaggerated by her own media machine... I still think she’s a great statistician and pioneer of modern nursing!

I don’t think I saw any suggestions of (Mother) Teresa - to a degree discredited these days and the name tainted by May too...

[wizzler]

Bess ( of Hardwick)
Edith (cavell)

[daisypond]

may I ask who Colette is in history?
She was a French writer, writing in the early half of the 20th century. She had an interesting life. Her real name was Sidonie Gabrielle

[kaytee87]

Katharine
Margaret
Elizabeth (if that's not the first name obv)
Victoria

[MikeUniformMike]

It has to be Olivia. You might get away with Olive though.

[Smoliver]

Annelies (Anne Frank's first name)
Emmeline (Pankhurst)
Mary (Anning)
Frida (Kahlo)
Diana (Princess Di & Wonder Woman's first name)
Rosa (Parks)
Beatrix (Potter)
Audrey (Hepburn)
Cleo (...patra)
Valentina (Tereshkova - first woman in space)
Bronte (the Bronte Sisters)

[undertheradarplease]

Congratulations on your near arrival. As a mother of a girls army I already LOVE this thread - I'm massively invested in it! Sorry if I repeat any previous suggestions.

Literary:
Josephine (March) from Little Women
Scarlet (O'Hara) from Gone With The Wind
Celie from The Color Purple
Hermoine (Granger) from Harry Potter

Historical/Current affairs:
Sophie (Scholl) The White Rose Movement
Malala (Yousafzai) Female Education Activist
Valentina (Tereshkova) Astronaut

[IVflytrap]

Rosalind (Franklin)
Harriet (Martineau)
Mary (Wollstonecraft, and also her daughter Mary Shelley)
Edith (Cavell)
Emmeline (Pankhurst)
Sylvia (Pankhurst)
Sophia (Duleep Singh)
Emily (Davison)