Alice

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A female given name of English origin, often associated with nobility and characterized by its melodious sound
2. A name that connotes a playful and adventurous spirit, frequently appearing in literature and popular culture
3. A popular choice for girls, symbolizing curiosity and determination, notably embodied by the character from Lewis Carroll's writings

Etymology: Long before Lewis Carroll made it famous, "Alice" was a plain medieval name with a distinctly noble pedigree. It descends from Old High German "Adalheid", which is usually reconstructed from Proto-Germanic roots meaning "noble" and "character" or "kind", so the name roughly meant "of noble kind". It passed into Middle English through Old French "Alys" and "Alice", and it is a doublet of "Adelaide", the same name that took a different path through French and reached English in a more regal form. The name's modern sense of playful adventure owes nothing to its etymology. That character comes almost entirely from Carroll's 1865 book "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland", whose heroine tumbled down a rabbit hole into a world of nonsense. Her curiosity and good manners in absurd situations turned an ordinary, somewhat staid name into a byword for a spirited, imaginative girl, and later stories such as "Through the Looking-Glass" reinforced that image.