Mercedes (Was: Brand naming kids)

[Peter A. McGraw]

As far as I know, it's a fairly common name in Spain, and probably
elsewhere in the Spanish-speaking world as well.  I've known one Spanish
woman named Mercedes, and I've heard of others.  There's certainly nothing
new about it.  According to my old AHD, it's a shortened form of Maria de
Mercedes, 'Mary of Mercies'.

Peter Mc.

--On Tuesday, March 30, 2004 5:20 PM -0500 Nathaniel Thomas
<nathanielt at AIRPOST.NET> wrote:

> Well, there is the love interest of "The Count of Monte Cristo" by
> Alexandre Dumas who is named Mercedes.  So perhaps girls named Mercedes
> prior to the car company becoming prominent were named after her.  I've
> no idea if it was a traditional or popular name anywhere, though
> perhaps in Monte Cristo :-) (haven't read the book, I just remembered
> the reference from "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" in one of
> Stephen Dedalus' fantasies, and quickly checked the Gutenberg version
> of "Count")
>
> Nathaniel Thomas
> nathanielt at airpost.net
>
> On Mar 30, 2004, at 3:43 PM, James A. Landau wrote:
>
>> Also, about the name "Mercedes":  The German automobile pioneer
>> Gottlieb
>> Daimler  set up an automobile company aaround 1890, which he named
>> "the Mercedes
>> Company" after his daughter.  Eventually his company merged with one
>> founded by
>> Karl Benz to create Mercedes-Benz.  [L. Sprague de Camp _The Heroic
>> Age of
>> American Invention_ Garden City NY: Doubleday, 1961, no ISBN, page
>> 217].
>>
>> The only other woman I know of named "Mercedes" is Mercedes Lackey,
>> who is
>> not a porn star but rather a science fiction writer who was born in
>> 1950.
>> (Aside to Mark Mandel---she is also a filksinger and filk writer).



*****************************************************************
Peter A. McGraw       Linfield College        McMinnville, Oregon
******************* pmcgraw at linfield.edu ************************