MONICA ECHEVERRI

Of uncertain ultimate origin. This was the name of the mother of St Augustine, as transmitted to us by her famous son. She was a citizen of Carthage, so her name may well be of Phoenician origin, but in the early Middle Ages it was taken to be a derivative of Latin monere ‘to warn, counsel’, since it was as a result of her guidance that her son was converted to Christianity.

Castilianized variant of Basque Etxeverri, a town in Navarre province, Basque Country, from a topographic name from the Basque elements etxe ‘house’ + berri ‘new’.