Elizabeth

The Walton name with a special place in my heart-- and everywhere else, actually, because it's my middle name. I get a lot of mileage out of it when explaining to people that in my case, "Susan" is shortened to "Su"-- if you add an 'e' to the end of my nickname, I will presume that you're using my middle initial. Incidentally, I went by Elizabeth for many years, just because I liked it so much more than my first name. Now that I've settled on "Su", though, I like my first name a lot more.

Some days I feel like half the women I know have Elizabeth as a middle name.

Elizabeth
From the Hebrew name Elisheva, which means "my God is an oath" or "my God is abundance". Since record-keeping began in 1880, Elizabeth has never been out of the top 25 most popular names for girls in the US-- which is probably why she's walking around with every second person I know. Currently #10 in the US and #26 in British Columbia, Canada. She's also hanging in the top 100 in other Commonwealth countries, although it's considered more an old woman's name in places where Her Majesty is on all the money.

Famous Elizabeths: Elizabeth I; Elizabeth II; lots of other queens of assorted countries; Elizabeth, the Biblical mother of John the Baptist; quite a few other saints; Tina Fey, actress (I was surprised, too!); Elizabeth Barrett Browning, poet; Elizabeth Gilbert, writer (Eat, Pray, Love); Elisabeth Sladen, actress (Doctor Who, The Sarah Jane Adventures); Elizabeth Montgomery, actress (Bewitched); place-names all around the world; I'm just going to stop here.

I just watched the BBC miniseries of
Pride and Prejudice a few weeks ago.
Holy wow. Source.

Fictional Elizabeths: Elizabeth Bennet, Pride and Prejudice; Elizabeth Bartlet, The West Wing; Beth March, Little Women; Liz Lemon, 30 Rock; Elizabeth Wakefield, Sweet Valley High; Elizabeth Swann, Pirates of the Caribbean; Elizabeth, The Swiss Family Robinson; Elizabeth Walton (obviously); better stop this one, too.

My Elizabeths: Like I said, I know bunches of people with Elizabeth either as a first or middle name. The one I've known the longest is the woman I was named after, although I don't know her well, but I think the second-longest is a high school classmate I first met when we were about 8 or 9. We were never more than really good acquaintances throughout school, but she was one of the first people I went looking for when I got my Facebook account a few years ago. There really is something to be said for staying connected to the people you have that much time in common with. And I also have a couple of characters called Elizabeth-- one of them is pally with my MC and will probably get more screen time, so to speak, as I go along.

Are you an Elizabeth? Do you know an Elizabeth? Are you happy I've reached the end of the Walton family and their many names? (Seriously, I don't know what I'm going to do next.)

Source:
Behind the Name