Brenda

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A feminine given name that became popular in English-speaking countries during the middle of the twentieth century
2. A female first name of Scandinavian origin that was widely given to girls in the mid-1900s
3. A personal name borne by many women, especially common among those born in the decades around 1950

Etymology: Brenda is a given name, and as a common noun it is slang, which is the surprising part. In the 1990s it became a nickname for Queen Elizabeth II, and the usage started in the satirical magazine Private Eye. The joke was aimed at a perceived effort by the royal family to seem less distant and more ordinary, and the nickname mocked that effort by giving the monarch a homely, middle-class name. A 1997 article by Andrew Sullivan in The New York Times, "God Help the Queen," helped bring the nickname to wider attention. The name itself is less certain. It may come from Old Norse "brandr," meaning "sword," though that link is only a possibility. Many people today assume it is simply a feminine form of Brendan, the Irish saint's name, and that folk etymology has become widely accepted, so the two names are now linked in popular understanding even if their histories are separate.