Angelica - Origin and Meaning of the name

[ 4 syll. an-ge-li-ca, ang-el-ica ] The girl name Angelica is pronounced aeNJHEHLihKah or AENJHahLIYKah ^KEY. Angelica is of Old Greek and Latin origin. It is used mainly in the German, English, Italian, and Romanian languages. Latin origin, English, Italian, and Romanian use: Derived from angelicus meaning 'angelic, like an angel' ; angelos meaning 'angel, messenger' ; angelus meaning 'angel'. The Latin 'angelicus' is ultimately of the Greek 'angelo'; thus the name is sometimes considered a variant of Angela. It was introduced to England from Italy in the 17th century. In literature, the name appeared in Italian poet Ariosto's epic Orlando Furioso (1532) which deals with the love of Charlemagne's paladin Orlando for Angelica. Angelica was also Juliet's nurse in Shakespeare's tragedy Romeo and Juliet (1595), and the name of the saucy, independent young woman in William Congreve's play Love for Love (1695).

Variant forms of the name include the German and Polish Angelika, the German Angelike, the Greek Angeliki, the English Angelique, the Spanish Angélica, the French Angélique, the Hungarian Angyalka, the English Anjelica, and the Dutch Lieke. Another variant of Angelica is the English pet form Angie.

In addition, Angelica is a German variant form of the Dutch, English, German, Italian, Romanian, Russian, and Slavic Angela.

Angelica is popular as a baby girl name. The name rose in popularity from the 1950s up to the 1990s; prior to that, it was of only sporadic use. At the modest peak of its usage in 1996, 0.178% of baby girls were given the name Angelica. It was #97 in rank then. The baby name has experienced a decline in frequency since then. In 2007, it ranked at #234 with a usage of 0.071%, but it was nonetheless the 2nd most popular after the Dutch, English, German, Italian, Romanian, Russian, and Slavic Angela, out of all girl names in its family. It was 82% more widely used than Angelica in 2007.

Baby names that sound like Angelica include the German and Polish Angelika, the Spanish Angélica, the Slavic Andjelija, the Greek Angeliki, the English Anjelica, the Slavic Andjelka, the English Angeles, the German Angelike, the English Angelique, and the French Angélique.

^KEY: Pronunciation for Angelica: AE as in "at (AE.T)" ; N as in "knee (N.IY)" ; JH as in "gee (JH.IY)" ; EH as in "Ed (EH.D)" ; L as in "lee (L.IY)" ; IH as in "it (IH.T)" ; K as in "key (K.IY)" ; AH as in "hut (HH.AH.T)" ; AE as in "at (AE.T)" ; N as in "knee (N.IY)" ; JH as in "gee (JH.IY)" ; AH as in "hut (HH.AH.T)" ; L as in "lee (L.IY)" ; IY as in "eat (IY.T)" ; K as in "key (K.IY)" ; AH as in "hut (HH.AH.T)"

A famous person named Angelica is Painter, Angelica Kauffmann, born Maria Anna Angelika 30 October 1741 - 5 November 1807, Graub�nden, Switzerland.

Popularity Trend
for Angelica
from 1900 to 2007

Variant Popularity Chart
for Angelica
in 2007