MELISSA THOMAS

From the Greek word melissa ‘honey bee’. It is the name of the good witch who releases Rogero from the power of the bad witch Alcina in Ariosto's narrative poem Orlando Furioso (1532). The name was fairly popular in the 1990s, along with other girls’ names sharing the same first syllable.

English, French, German, Dutch, Danish, and South Indian: from the medieval personal name, of Biblical origin, from Aramaic t’ōm’a, a byname meaning ‘twin’. It was borne by one of the disciples of Christ, best known for his scepticism about Christ's resurrection (John 20:24–29). The th- spelling is organic, the initial letter of the name in the Greek New Testament being a theta. The English pronunciation as t rather than th- is the result of French influence from an early date. In Britain the surname is widely distributed throughout the country, but especially common in Wales and Cornwall. The Ukrainian form is Choma. It is found as a personal name among Christians in India, and in the U.S. is used as a family name among families from southern India.