Last name origins & meanings:
- English: from a medieval male personal name (from Latin
Hilarius, a derivative of hilaris ‘cheerful’, ‘glad’,
from Greek hilaros ‘propitious’, ‘joyful’). The Latin name was
chosen by many early Christians to express their joy and hope of
salvation, and was borne by several saints, including a 4th-century
bishop of Poitiers noted for his vigorous resistance to the Arian
heresy, and a 5th-century bishop of Arles. Largely due to veneration
of the first of these, the name became popular in France in the forms
Hilari and Hilaire, and was brought to England by the
Norman conquerors.
- English: from the much rarer female personal name
Eulalie (from Latin Eulalia, from Greek eulalos
‘eloquent’, literally well-speaking, chosen by early Christians as a
reference to the gift of tongues), likewise introduced into England by
the Normans. A St. Eulalia was crucified at Barcelona in the reign of
the Emperor Diocletian and became the patron of that city. In England
the name underwent dissimilation of the sequence -l-l- to
-l-r- and the unfamiliar initial vowel was also mutilated, so
that eventually the name was considered as no more than a feminine
form of Hilary (of which the initial aspirate was in any case
variable).
This name appears in the following lists:
First Ladies,
Pioneers/Explorers
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