DEBORAH COLEMAN

Biblical name (meaning ‘bee’ in Hebrew), borne by the nurse of Rebecca (Genesis 35:8) and by a woman judge and prophet (Judges 4–5) who led the Israelites to victory over the Canaanites. It has always been popular as a Jewish name. It was in use among Christians by the mid 16th century and was taken up by the Puritans in the 17th century, in part because the bee was a symbol of industriousness. Since then it has enjoyed enormous popularity, peaking in the 1960s. Among other famous bearers is the actress Deborah Kerr (1921–2007).

Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Colmáin ‘descendant of Colmán’. This was the name of an Irish missionary to Europe, generally known as St. Columban (c.540–615), who founded the monastery of Bobbio in northern Italy in 614. With his companion St. Gall, he enjoyed a considerable cult throughout central Europe, so that forms of his name were adopted as personal names in Italian (Columbano), French (Colombain), Czech (Kollman), and Hungarian (Kálmán). From all of these surnames are derived. In Irish and English, the name of this saint is identical with diminutives of the name of the 6th-century missionary known in English as St. Columba (521–97), who converted the Picts to Christianity, and who was known in Scandinavian languages as Kalman.