Marjorie

Part of speech: noun, proper noun

Definitions

1. A feminine given name derived from a variation of Margaret, often used as a personal identifier
2. A common female first name originating from the medieval form of Margaret, typically employed to denote an individual woman
3. An English personal name for females, historically linked to a variant of the name Margaret and used to specify a woman by that title

Etymology: Marjorie is a variant of Margery, the medieval English vernacular form of Margaret. The name Margaret itself goes back to the Greek "margarites", meaning pearl, which was borrowed into Latin and then spread across Europe, so a given name that sounds like a flower or a jewel turns out to mean a gem from the sea. Margery was the everyday English shape of that name in the Middle Ages, and Marjorie is the later spelling that took its place. The "-ie" ending is a familiar pet-form ending in English names, so the variant reads as a softer, more affectionate version of the older name. Its spread through the English-speaking world owes much to Scotland, where it became especially common in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.