V names

V is a slightly more popular letter for starting a name.. than the ones like X Y and Z. Vera used to be quite well liked, and it means truth. Verity also means truth, and was quite popular among the Puritans, who liked to give "virtue names" personifying the Christian virtues. Vanessa was a name invented by the writer Jonathan Swift, who used it for his woman friend Esther Vanhomrigh. He took the Van from her surname and Essa from Esther. It is still quite well used. Valeria is a Latinate name which means healthy and nowadays it is usually given as Valerie. It can be shortened to Val. Valentine can be used for men or women, it also means strong and healthy. It is the name of a saint. It was the name taken by the life partner of the novelist, Sylvia Townsend Warner, who wrote Lolly Willows. Her companion was born Mary Mcrory but took the name Valentine Ackland. Veronica means True Image, and is traditionally said to be the name of the woman who wiped Christ's face on his way to Calvary. Verena is a Swiss name of unclear meaning. It was used by Henry James in his novel The Bostonians. Vivian is a name which can be used for boys or girls. It means alive. It is mostly known as a girl's name nowadays. Variations are Vivien or Vivienne. Viola means violet and has been well liked since it appeared as the heroine of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. Vincent means Conquering and is quite popular for boys, especially in Catholic cultures.

Willa Cather

Willa was born in 1873 in Virginia, but her parents moved out west when she was a child. She grew up in the West, in the Great Plains.. Nebraska. Her family tried farming but her father gave up after a while and moved to a nearby town, and opened an insurance business. Willa was boyish and for a time called herself William. She was keen to go to University... but originally she wanted to study science, and become a surgeon. She began to write and when she graduated (after taking an Arts degree), she spent some time teaching. She was a successful teacher, but she eventually moved to New York to pursue her writing career. She wrote about the life on the Frontier, where many Swedish and German immigrants moved out to start farming on free land. She lived with a woman friend, Edith Lewis. One of her early novels was O Pioneers, about a girl called Alexandra, who takes over her father's land when he dies, and buys up more land.. Times are hard and most of the immigrants know little about farming. So they leave and sell their land, and Alexandra shrewdly buys it up. More Will Follow.

U names

U is also a letter which isn't very popular for names. One female name that was fairly popular in bygone days, beginning with U, was Ursula. It means "she bear" and was the name of a medieval saint. Una is an Irish name, meaning lamb... and was also quite popular in the past. Another rarely used name is Unity. It means oneness, but it is not popular, especially as it was the name of the fascist supporter and society girl, Unity Mitford. Another Irish name is Ulick, which is a variant of Uilliam, the Irish form of William. A name very rarely used is Ulric, which means Wolf rule. There is a feminine version, Ulrica.

The Kitten lady

I like to mention Hannah Shaw, the Kitten Lady, now and then to let people know of the wonderful work she does. She rescues all sorts of animals, but kittens are her special focus. You can find her on social media.

Dolly Parton

Dolly died the other day, of cancer at the age of 80. She lost her husband Carl, a year or so ago. Her health has been declining but she still had projects she wanted to pursue. She was a wonderful person and a loss to country music.

Patricia Avis, 1928-77

I've just come across a novel by a former mistress of the poet Philip Larkin. Her name was Patricia Avis. She was born in South Africa, in 1928 to a Dutch father and an Irish mother. She grew up in London and her father who was very well off, sent her to college. She studied medicine but when she qualified she never worked as a doctor. She married a lecturer, Colin Strang, and moved to Belfast where he had a job. She met Philip Larkin, who was a librarian at the University there, and they had an affair. They were in love for a time and she became pregnant but miscarried. Her marriage to Colin Strang did not last long.. she had other lovers, and left Strang. She wanted to be a writer and she wrote poems and edited magazines. But her novel writing was not all that successful. She married an Anglo Irish poet Richard Murphy in the 1950's, and they lived in Ireland. She did a lot of reading, especially of French literature, and tried to form a social circle of writers and intellectuals in Ireland. She and Murphy had a daughter and she then got a divorce, leaving her child with her father. She settled in Dublin and wrote a novel Playing the Harlot about her university days and friends... but her publisher felt it was too critical of the writers that they both knew. She became addicted to alcohol and went on trying to write. But her one novel is rather rambling and does not seem to have a point. She committed suicide in 1977.

Q Names

Q is one of the rarest letters for starting a name. There are almost none! One relatively well known name is Quentin which means fifth. In Roman naming practice, children were often named by their birth order, Primo or Prima for a first son or daughter, Secundo or Secunda for a second.. etc. These names are still occasionally used in Italy. Quintana is very rarely used but it is a rough female equivalent for Quintus or Quentin. Queenie is another name, a bit more commonly used. It was a nickname for girls named Victoria, during her long reign... and it can also be a nickname for Regina, which means queen. It has now gone out of fashion. In America, the name Quinn has become more popular for boys. It is not a Latinate name, but Irish. It comes from the surname O'Cuan, which means descendant of Conn. Quincy is another American name for boys. One of the early presidents was John Quincy Adams, named after a town from which his ancestors came.