Daphne - Meaning of Daphne
What does Daphne mean?
[ 2 syll. dap-hne, da-ph-ne ] The baby girl name Daphne is pronounced in English as DAEF-Niy or in Dutch as DAAF-Nah †. Daphne is mainly used in the English and German languages. It is of Old Greek origin. It is derived literally from the word 'daphne' which means laurel, laurel tree. The name was borne in Greek mythology by a nymph who was turned into a laurel tree by her father to escape Apollo's unwanted attention. The laurel became sacred to the heartbroken Apollo, who made a crown out of her leaves; thus the laurel wreath came into use as a victor's crown at the ancient Pythian Games held in Apollo's honor. The given name was first taken up among English speakers in the 18th century, and it was popular in the late 19th century when plant names were in vogue.
The name Daphne is widely used; it has 36 variant forms that are used in English and other languages. Variant forms of Daphne used in English include Daffi, Daffie, Dafnea, Dafneah, Dafnee, Dafneigh, Dafney, Dafni, Dafnie, Dafny, Danfy, Daphane, Daphanie, Daphany, Daphe, Daphine, Daphiny, Daphna, Daphnah, Daphnea, Daphneah, Daphnee, Daphni, Daphnit, Daphny, Daveney, and Davne. Other English forms include the contraction Daph, the diminutives Daff and Daffy, and the variant spellings Dafne (also used in German, and Italian), Daphney, and Daphnie. Foreign variant forms include Dafina (Albanian and Slavic), Dafna (Hebrew), and Daphné (French).
See also the related categories, crown (queen), tree (forest), sacred (holy), english, greek, escape, nymph (maid), vogue (cult), leaves, apollo, ancient, and german.
Daphne is a rather popular baby girl name. The name jumped in popularity from the 1930s up to the 1960s. Its usage peaked modestly in 1962 with 0.056% of baby girls being given the name Daphne. It had a ranking of #266 then. The baby name has experienced a fall in popularity since then. In 2018, its usage was 0.044% and its ranking #383, but it was nonetheless the most widely used among all girl names in its family.
Baby names that sound like Daphne include Dafne, Dafnea, Dafnee, Dafney, Dafni, Dafnie, Dafny, Daphnee, Daphney, Daphni, Daphnie, Daphny, Dabnea, Dabnee, Dabney, Dabni, Dabnie, Dabny, Dafna, and Dafneigh.
† Pronunciation for Daphne: D as in "day (D.EY)" ; AE as in "at (AE.T)" ; F as in "fee (F.IY)" ; N as in "knee (N.IY)" ; IY as in "eat (IY.T)" ; AA as in "odd (AA.D)" ; AH as in "mud (M.AH.D)"
A famous person named Daphne is Actress Daphne Zuniga, born 28 October 1962, San Francisco, California.
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