Sabrina (given name)
 Audrey Hepburn, pictured with co-star William Holden, portrayed Sabrina Fairchild in the 1954 film Sabrina | |
| Gender | Female |
|---|---|
| Language(s) | Romano-British |
| Origin | |
| Meaning | From the name of River Severn |
Sabrina is a feminine given name derived from Proto-Celtic *Sabrinā.
Etymology
[edit]The name of the river Severn was recorded as early as the 2nd century in the Latinized form Sabrina.[1] The reconstructed British form is *Sabrinā. The modern Welsh form is Hafren or Habren.
Its Arabic equivalent is صابرينا ṣābrīnā, resulting from a folk etymology from the root ص ب ر "patience", although there is another variant سابرينا sābrīnā, its use mostly limited to non-Arabs.
Welsh legend
[edit]According to a legend recounted by Geoffrey of Monmouth in the 12th century, Habren was the daughter of a king named Locrinus (also known as Locrin or Locrine in English) by his mistress, the Germanic princess Estrildis. Locrinus ruled England after the death of his father, Brutus of Troy, the legendary second founder of Britain. Locrinus cast aside his wife, Guendolen, and their son Maddan and acknowledged Sabrina and her mother, but the enraged Guendolen raised an army against him and defeated Locrinus in battle. Guendolen then ordered that Sabrina and her mother be drowned in the river. The river was named after Sabrina so Locrine's betrayal of Guendolen would never be forgotten.[2] According to legend, Sabrina lives in the river, which reflects her mood. She rides in a chariot and dolphins and salmon swim alongside her.[3] The later story suggests that the legend of Sabrina could have become intermingled with old stories of a river goddess or nymph.[4]
Fletcher refers to the legend in The Faithful Shepherdess (1608). Milton adopted the legend in his Comus (1634), using the Latin form Sabrina.
Popularity
[edit]The use of Sabrina was very rare as a given name in Britain prior to the 19th century, with the singular exception of Sabrina Sidney (1757–1843), an English foundling girl, named for her orphanage overlooking River Severn.[5] Its popularity rose, at first in the United States, following the release of the film Sabrina (1954), a romantic drama-comedy based on Samuel Taylor's Sabrina Fair, in which the protagonist Sabrina Fairchild was played by Audrey Hepburn. It was boosted by the popularity of the comic book character Sabrina the Teenage Witch, who debuted in 1962. Additional peaks in usage followed its use for characters on the American television series Charlie's Angels, which aired from 1976 to 1981, and Sabrina the Teenage Witch, based on the comic book character, which aired from 1996 to 2003.[6]
It was the 789th most popular name for females born in the United States in 1954, and rose to the 245th most popular name in 1955, immediately following the release of the film Sabrina. [7] According to Dunkling (1983), "[i]n the U.S. Sabrina has tended to displace Sabina since [the 1950s]."[5]
The name had peaks in popularity in 1970 (rank 107) and 1977 (rank 63). The 1996 television series resulted in a renewed peak in 1997 (rank 53). The name was ranked as the 412th most popular name for American-born females in 2022.[7] The name peaked in popularity in France in 1979–1981 (rank 8) and in Italy in 2001 (rank 35). In Germany, it peaked in popularity at rank 8 in 1987 and 1989.[8]
People
[edit]- Sabrina Agresti-Roubache (born 1976), French film producer and politician
- Sabrina Bartlett (born 1991), English actress
- Sabrina Le Beauf (born 1958), American actress
- Sabrina Benaim (born 1992), Canadian writer, performance artist and slam poet
- Sabrina Brazzo (born 1968), Italian ballet dancer
- Sabrina Brier (born 1994), American actress and comedian
- Sabrina Bryan (born 1984), American dancer, choreographer, actress and singer
- Sabrina Carpenter (born 1999), American singer and actress
- Sabrina Chairunnisa (born 1992), Indonesian model, actress, and YouTuber
- Sabrina Claudio (born 1996), Puerto Rican, Cuban American singer
- Sabrina Cruz (born 1998), Canadian YouTuber and producer
- Sabrina Dawood, Pakistani philanthropist and educational activist
- Sabrina Dhowre (born 1989), Canadian model and media personality
- Sabrina Dornhoefer (born 1963), American middle-distance runner
- Sabrina Erdely (born 1971/1972), American journalist and magazine reporter
- Sabrina Ferilli (born 1964), Italian actress
- Sabrina Goleš (born 1965), Croatian tennis player
- Sabrina Cohen-Hatton (born 1983), British firefighter, psychologist and writer
- Sabrina Ho Chiu-yeng (born 1990), Hong Kong businesswoman, heiress and philanthropist
- Sabrina Impacciatore (born 1968), Italian actress
- Sabrina Ionescu (born 1997), American basketball player
- Sabrina Lloyd (born 1970), American actress
- Sabrina Mahfouz, British-Egyptian poet
- Sabrina Pretto (born 1985), Italian ballet dancer
- Sabrina Ricciardi (born 1968), Italian politician
- Sabrina Richard (born 1977), French weightlifter
- Sabrina Salerno (born 1968), Italian singer-songwriter, record producer, model, actress and television presenter
- Sabrina Sato (born 1981), Brazilian television presenter
- Sabrina Scharf, American actress, lawyer, real estate developer, and activist
- Sabrina Seara (born 1985), Venezuelan telenovela actress
- Sabrina Sebaihi (born 1981), French politician
- Sabrina Sidney (1757–1843), British subject of a 'perfect wife' experiment by Thomas Day
- Sabrina Singh (born 1988), American government administrator most recently serving as the Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary
- Sabrina Washington (born 1978), British singer
Pseudonyms:
- Sabrina Jeffries, pen name of Deborah Gonzales (born 1958), American author
- Sabrina Sabrok, Argentine-Mexican model, pornographic actress and host Lorena Fabiana Colotta (born 1976)
Fictional characters
[edit]- Hafren or Sabrina, a mythical nymph
- Sabrina, a character in John Milton's masque Comus
- Sabrina, the Gym Leader of Saffron City in the Pokémon franchise, first appearing in 1996
- Sabrina Duncan, played by Kate Jackson on the 1976 television series Charlie's Angels
- Sabrina Fairchild in Samuel A. Taylor's Sabrina Fair (1953), played by Audrey Hepburn in the 1954 adaptation Sabrina and by Julia Ormond in the 1995 remake
- Sabrina Grimm, a main character in The Sisters Grimm series of novels (2005 to 2012) written by Michael Buckley
- Sabrina Costelana Newman, played by Raya Meddine in the American soap opera The Young and the Restless
- Sabrina Raincomprix, a character in the animated series Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir
- Sabrina Santiago, played by Teresa Castillo in the American soap opera General Hospital
- Sabrina Spellman, an Archie Comics character who debuted in 1962 and also starred in various television series
See also
[edit]- Sabrina (disambiguation) for other uses
- Sabreena McKinnon
References
[edit]- ^ Hanks, Patrick (2003). "Severn". Dictionary of American Family Names. Retrieved 10 December 2012.
[T]opographic name from the river Severn, which flows from Wales through much of western England to the Bristol Channel. The river name is recorded as early as the 2nd century ad in the form Sabrina. This is one of Britain's most ancient river names; the original meaning is uncertain, but it may have been 'slow-moving'.
- ^ The Legend of Sabrina
- ^ Tidal Bore Research Society
- ^ Liam Rogers (1999), Sabrina and the River Severn
- ^ a b Dunkling, Leslie; Gosling, William (1983), The Facts on File Dictionary of First Names, New York: Facts on File Publications, p. 247, ISBN 0-87196-274-8
- ^ Evans, Cleveland Kent (2007), "The Tsunami Curve and Popular Culture: Influences on Given Names", Names: A Journal of Onomastics, 55 (4)
- ^ a b "United States Social Security Administration". Archived from the original on 2018-02-02. Retrieved 2008-05-11.
- ^ Behind the Name
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