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Delia

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Delia
A statue of the Delian-born goddess Artemis, found on the sacred island of Delos
GenderFeminine
Origin
Meaninggenerally "woman from the island of Delos"
Other names
Related namesDelio (masculine equivalent); Adelia, Bedelia, Cordelia, Fidelia, Odelia

Delia is a feminine given name, either taken from an epithet of the Greek moon goddess Artemis, or else representing a short form of Adelia, Bedelia, Cordelia or Odelia.[1]

Meanings and origins

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According to records for the 1901 Irish census, there were 6,260 persons named Delia living that year in all 32 counties of Ireland, with 256 more bearing the full forename Bedelia (plus 59 other persons with the variant spelling Bidelia, and 361 Biddy, 529 Bride and 153984 Bridget). These related names originated as English renderings of the Irish name Brighid (or Bríd) meaning "exalted one", which originally belonged to a pagan fertility goddess (later, to an important medieval saint).

Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Tibullus at Delia's

In most cases, however, the name Delia refers to the tiny Greek island of Delos (Ancient Greek: Δῆλος), the birthplace of Artemis and her twin brother Apollo, given because they were born on the island of Delos. The name was used by Roman poet Tibullus as the pseudonym of his lover Plania in very popular love poems[2] and thanks to him "Delia" later appeared in several poems of the 16th and 17th centuries, and it has occasionally been used as a given name since that time.

People

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Fictional characters

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References

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  1. ^ "Delia". behindthename.com. behind the name. Retrieved 2022-08-24. Means "of Delos" in Greek.
  2. ^ Kennedy, Duncan F. (May 2017). "What's In a Name? Delia in Tibullus 1.1". The Classical Quarterly. 67 (1): 193–198. doi:10.1017/S0009838817000118. ISSN 0009-8388. S2CID 171924992.
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