Talk:Heather (given name)

English or Scottish?[edit]

Apparently someone tagged it as being from Scottish some time ago, but left the link to English language. It not being clear which is the correct one, I've left it. —/Mendaliv/^2¢/_Δ's/ 10:32, 8 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Good question! According to this it is definitely not an originally Scottish name. However, the Scots have used English names for centuries, so it makes sense to add it as a Scotch name, in my opinion, since it is definitely in use today. MagnoliaSouth ^(talk) 17:47, 10 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Update: The Scots claim the name. See this page where it says "First names such as Hamish, Heather or Stuart are recognized world-wide as being from Scotland, but we have tons of other great names too."MagnoliaSouth ^(talk) 19:16, 10 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The name is very recent - it came in as a result of the Victorian popularity of flower names, and the fashion for Scottishness. The plant itself was not known as heather until the early 19th century (previously hather or ling). The first 'famous' Heather was probably Heather Firbank, sister of writer Ronald, early 20th century. Which means that Braveheart's wife could have been called many things, but Heather was not one of them. The name is considerably more popular in America than the UK, although it was used by her colleagues as Mrs Thatcher's nickname - an unflattering one, denoting her bullying qualities, and thus used only out of her hearing. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.159.84.16 (talk) 17:35, 24 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Interesting, but do you have a citation for that?MagnoliaSouth ^(talk) 17:47, 10 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I recently saw a film set in the U.S. in 1965, with the main character's being named "Heather." About 17-18. No one named their daughter Heather in the 1940's. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 205.173.37.116 (talk) 15:24, 19 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

You would be WRONG! The name Heather, by the Social Security Administration, lists it as #568 on the girl baby names list of the 1940s which puts it in the top 1000 names of the 1940s.MagnoliaSouth ^(talk) 17:47, 10 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Horrible article![edit]

This is just a list! Take Katherine for example. It is a true article and not trivia or almanac like content. I have updated the project banner above. I declare this mid-importance since Heather is a very common name for Generation X and Y. This is very clearly a stub since it contains next to no information on the name itself, except that it's a flower. MagnoliaSouth ^(talk) 17:38, 10 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I updated the page with some very basic information. One thing it lacks is its history. I see above some speculative comments but without any citations or references. Without spending a lot of time researching, I found the name appearing in the 1930s, but its very likely it was in use prior to that. Some research needs doing and I may do so if time allows.MagnoliaSouth ^(talk) 19:02, 10 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]