“Yorkshire Couple Named Baby Diot Coke – in 1379
Naming your child after a popular soft drink could be seen as a little bit faddish but the parents of young Diot Coke might be forgiven – they gave their baby daughter the name way back in 1379.
Researchers at the National Archives believe that the little girl, born in the West Riding of Yorkshire, was the unfortunate victim of the corruption of the name Dionisia. One of the diminutives derived from that name on its path to the modern day Denise was Diot.” Scotsman.com News, March 9, 2004
Thanks for the tip, Wordlab. But really, who writes these stories? Why was the little girl an “unfortunate victim”? Is that supposed to be funny? OK, maybe it’s funny to non-Americans. The most interesting part of the story is at the end, where we learn that “names such as Godelena, Helwise, Idony, Avice and Dionisia were more popular than some of the names now considered traditional, such as Mary.” Now those are beautiful names! (BTW, I think “Helwise” would be the “full” version of “Samwise”.)
