| Pamela | |
|---|---|
| Pronunciation | PAM-eh-lah |
| Gender | Female |
| Meaning | "all sweetness" |
| Related names | Pam |
| Popularity | Popular names page |
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Look up Pamela in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
Pamela is a feminine given name.
Contents |
Background
Sir Philip Sidney invented the name Pamela for a character in Arcadia written in the late 16th century. It's widely thought that Sidney intended the name to mean "all sweetness" having in mind the Greek words pan ("all") and meli ("honey").[1][2] .
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 is Lady Edward FitzGerald (c.1773-1831) and although she went by the name Pamela her true name was Stephanie Caroline Anne Syms.[3]
The name's popularity may have been hindered by the tendency to pronounce it pa-MEE-lah which was not fully superseded by the standard PAM-eh-lah until the start of the 20th century.[4]
Pamela is commonly abbreviated to "Pam".[5]
Pamela is infrequently used as a surname.[2]
People with the name or its variants include:
Given name
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[6]
- Pam Halpert, a character in The Office
- Dr. Pamela Lillian Isley or Poison Ivy
- Pamela Voorhees
- Pamela Barnes Ewing, a character in TV series Dallas
- Pam (vampire) 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
References
- ^ "Pamela". Behind the Name. http://www.behindthename.com/php/view.php?name=pamela.
- ^ a b c "Pamela - name meaning and origin". Think Baby Names. thinkbabynames.com. http://www.thinkbabynames.com/search.php?g=0&t=1&s=Pamela. Retrieved 2008-03-24.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "Pam". Behind the Name. http://www.behindthename.com/name/pam.
- ^ "Pamela of the jungle". digilander.libero.it. http://digilander.libero.it/mupis/pamela.html.
See also
- Pam (disambiguation)
- List of Wikipedia articles starting with Pamela
- List of Wikipedia articles starting with Pam
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