Imogen

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A feminine first name of English origin, famously borne by the heroine of Shakespeare's play Cymbeline
2. A girl's given name of English origin, popularized by Shakespeare's loyal and virtuous princess in Cymbeline
3. A female personal name of English origin, best known from the faithful princess who appears in Shakespeare's Cymbeline

Etymology: The name Imogen owes its existence to a printing error. Shakespeare wrote it into Cymbeline, but the form in the surviving text is a misprint for "Innogen," which is the spelling he seems to have intended. The name that readers have carried ever since comes from a slip in the typesetting, not from a deliberate coinage. Behind "Innogen" lies the Scottish Gaelic "inghean," meaning "girl" or "maiden." The root is shared with Irish and Scottish names built around the idea of a young woman, and it survives in the old Gaelic habit of attaching it to names. Shakespeare drew on the older tradition of Cymbeline's story, which had long been told in Britain, so the name carries a flavour of that legendary past. The name was a rarity before Shakespeare's play, and the misprint is the reason it became a name at all. Once the spelling "Imogen" took hold in print, it stuck, and the Gaelic meaning "girl" became the hidden core of a name that began as a typographical accident.