(male) Via Old French and Latin, from Greek Georgios (a derivative of geōrgos ‘farmer’, from gē ‘earth’ + ergein ‘to work’). This was the name of several early saints, including the shadowy figure who is now the patron of England (as well as of Germany and Portugal). If the saint existed at all, he was perhaps martyred in Palestine in the persecutions of Christians instigated by the Emperor Diocletian at the beginning of the 4th century. The popular legend in which the hero slays a dragon is a medieval Italian invention. He was for a long time a more important saint in the Orthodox Church than in the West, and the name was not much used in England during the Middle Ages, even after St George came to be regarded as the patron of England in the 14th century. Its use increased from the 1400s, and by 1500 it was regularly among the most popular male names. This popularity was reinforced when George I came to the throne in 1714, bringing this name with him from Germany. It has been one of the most popular English boys' names ever since.
Pet forms: Georgie, Geordie.
Cognates: Irish: Seoirse. Scottish Gaelic: Seòras, Deòrsa. Welsh: Siôr, Sior(y)s. German: Georg; Jörg (dialectal); Jürgen (Low German in origin). Dutch: Joris, Joren, Jurg. Danish: Jørgen, Jørn. Swedish: Göran, Jöran, Jörgen, Örjan. French: Georges. Spanish: Jorge. Catalan: Jordi. Portuguese: Jorge. Italian: Giorgio. Russian: Georgi, Yuri, Yegor. Polish: Jerzy. Czech: Jiří. Croatian: Juraj, Jure. Slovenian: Jure. Finnish: Yrjö. Hungarian: György. Lithuanian: Jurgis. Latvian: Juris.
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.
Translated form of cognate and equivalent names in other languages, such as German Weiss, French Blanc, Polish Białas (see Bialas), etc.
FOREBEARS Peregrine White (1620–1704), brother of Resolved, was born in Cape Cod harbor on board the Mayflower, thus becoming the first child of English descent to be born in New England. His father, William White, was the son of the rector of Barham, near Ipswich, Suffolk, England; he died in 1621 during the first winter at Plymouth Colony.John White, who came to Cambridge, MA, in 1632 and who was later one of the founders of Hartford, CT, is the ancestor of a noted American family, which included the architect Stanford White (1853–1906). The name was brought to North America from the British Isles independently by many other bearers from the 17th century onward.
