Life Of A Blogger: 'Origin Of My Name'.

I've always been a big fan of Etymology, or the study of names so this topic very much excites me! My post on this will probably be a bit nerdy, but hey! That's what blogs are for, right?

So my name is Katrina. Google and various other websites have told me this:

1. Derived from the Dutch and German Katrine, a variant form of Katherine meaning pure or unsullied.

In fact, most websites lead me back to the name Katherine or Catherine, so I'll give you a short history of that name to give some context.  The etymology is debated, and either derives from the Greek 'Aikaterine' or 'Hekaterine' (related to the Goddess 'Hecate'). It has also been associated with the Greek 'Aikia' (meaning "torture") or from the Coptic name for "my consecration of your name". In the early Christian era it became associated with Greek 'Katharos' or "pure", and the Latin spelling was changed from Katerina to Katharina to reflect this. It has been common in England since the 12th century in many different spellings, with Katherine and Catherine becoming standard in the later Middle Ages.

Famous historical Catherine's or Katherine's include:

• Catherine of Siena, a 14th-century mystic.
• Catherine de' Medici, a 16th-century French queen. 
• Three of Henry VIII's wives, including Katherine of Aragon.
• Two empresses of Russia, including Catherine the Great.

But enough about Katherine's (which incidentally, was almost my name). Plenty of Katrina's have made history too (in good and bad ways), and we mustn't forget our fictional friends of the same name! Here are some examples:

• Katrina Leskanich, from the band 'Katrina And The Waves'. If I had a penny for the amount of times their famous songs have been sung when I have revealed my name, I would be a very rich girl.
• Hurricane Katrina. I'm sure most people reading will know all about this devastating storm and the many lives that it affected/took away. During that time period, I'm not joking when I say that people stopped singing 'I'm Walking On Sunshine' and started treating me with extreme caution and suspicion/ jokingly blaming me for the colossal chaos Hurricane Katrina brought. I didn't find it very funny.
• Katrina Van Tassel, a character from The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow. I've never read this book (though I'd like to) but I hear she causes a fair amount of trouble.
• My favourite, Katrina in the Inheritance Cycle. You guys have no idea how happy I was when I realised that Paolini had included me in his amazing book series! I was completely flabbergasted!