Doré

Historical scholarship

Passages quoted verbatim from public-domain reference works. They reflect the scholarship of their time, not current consensus, and may use obsolete spellings.

• 1884From the archives

  Dore— “lover”

  The old English Amicia, so often found in old pedigrees, is probably a Latinizing of Aimée. The most notable instance of it is Amicia, the daughter of the Earl of Leicester, who brought her county to the fierce old persecutor, Simon de Montfort, and left it to the warlike earl, who imprisoned Henry III. His sister carried Amicie into the Flemish family of De Roye, where it continued in use, and it descended again into Amice in England. Amadore was in use in Florence, cut into…

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  The old English Amicia, so often found in old pedigrees, is probably a Latinizing of Aimée. The most notable instance of it is Amicia, the daughter of the Earl of Leicester, who brought her county to the fierce old persecutor, Simon de Montfort, and left it to the warlike earl, who imprisoned Henry III. His sister carried Amicie into the Flemish family of De Roye, where it continued in use, and it descended again into Amice in England. Amadore was in use in Florence, cut into Dore.[76]

  Yonge, History of Christian Names (1884), Part IV, Chapter VI (Modern Names From The Latin), Section I (From Amo) · Public domain (Project Gutenberg)

• 1884From the archives

  Dore— “gift of God”

  …Dorothea’s popularity as a patroness was in Germany; but the name was likewise in great favour in England, where Massinger composed a drama on her story. Dorothy was once one of the most usual of English names; and ‘Dolly’ was so constantly heard in every household, that it finally became the generic term for the wooden children that at least as late as the infancy of Elizabeth Stuart, were called babies or puppets. In the days of affectation, under the House of Hanover,…

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  …Dorothea’s popularity as a patroness was in Germany; but the name was likewise in great favour in England, where Massinger composed a drama on her story. Dorothy was once one of the most usual of English names; and ‘Dolly’ was so constantly heard in every household, that it finally became the generic term for the wooden children that at least as late as the infancy of Elizabeth Stuart, were called babies or puppets. In the days of affectation, under the House of Hanover, Dorothy fell into disuse, but was regarded as of the same old Puritan character as Abigail or Tabitha. Probably from the influence of German literature, the German contraction Dora, or more properly Dore, has come in as almost an independent name, which, perhaps, ought to be translated as simply a gift, though often used as a contraction for Dorothea. The fashion has again come round, and Dorothy has become the favourite name. In the last century, Dorinda was a fashionable English fancy embellishment, Doralice a French one—perhaps from the German Dorlisa—Dorothea Elisa.…

  Yonge, History of Christian Names (1884), Part III, Chapter V (Christian Greek Names), Section II (Names from Theos) · Public domain (Project Gutenberg)