Everyday LifeGreek → English
Damaris
/ˈdæmərɪs/noun
A woman's given name, taken from an Athenian convert named in the Acts of the Apostles.
The Greek roots
Δάμαρις
Dámaris
an Athenian woman's name
Literally: “sense disputed: heifer, or wife”
Follow a root:Δάμαρις1 word
The story of the word
Acts 17 lists her among the handful of Athenians who followed Paul after his speech on the Areopagus, and she appears nowhere else. The derivation is not settled: δάμαλις, a heifer, and δάμαρ, a wife, have both been proposed, and neither carries the day. The name reached English through Protestant Bible reading, when families began taking obscure New Testament names in preference to saints' days.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 16th century
In a sentence
Damaris was the only one of four sisters to escape a name from the Old Testament.
The parish book has three girls called Damaris in a single decade.