Everyday LifeGreek → English
Isadora
/ˌɪzəˈdɔːrə/proper noun
A female given name, the counterpart of Isidore.
The Greek roots
Ἶσις
Îsis
the goddess Isis
δῶρον
dôron
gift
Literally: “gift of Isis”
The story of the word
Greek speakers in Egypt built the name on the same pattern as Theodora, gift of god, but with the goddess whose cult had spread across the whole eastern Mediterranean by the Hellenistic period. It is a Greek name honouring an Egyptian deity, and it survived the change of religion intact: Isidore of Seville, the great encyclopaedist, was a bishop with a pagan goddess in his name. Isadora Duncan gave the spelling with an a its modern currency.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
Same family
IsidoreTheodoreDorothyPandora
In a sentence
They called her Isadora after the dancer, and she has spent her life spelling it out.