DORIS WHITE

From the classical Greek ethnic name meaning ‘Dorian woman’. The Dorians were one of the tribes of Greece; their name was traditionally derived from an ancestor, Dōros (son of Hellen, who gave his name to the Hellenes, i.e. the Greek people as a whole), but it is more likely that Dōros (whose name could be from dōron ‘gift’) was invented to account for a tribal name of obscure origin. In Greek mythology, Doris was a minor goddess of the sea, the consort of Nereus and the mother of his daughters, the Nereids or sea-nymphs, who numbered fifty (in some versions, more). The name was especially popular from about 1880 to about 1930, and was borne by the American film star Doris Day (b. 1924 as Doris Kappelhoff), among others.

English, Scottish, and Irish: from Middle English whit ‘white’, hence a nickname for someone with white hair or an unnaturally pale complexion. In some cases it represents a Middle English personal name, from an Old English byname, Hwīt(a), of this origin. As a Scottish and Irish surname it has been widely used as a translation of the many Gaelic names based on bán ‘white’ (see Bain 1) or fionn ‘fair’ (see Finn 1). There has also been some confusion with Wight.