ROXANE BROWN

From Latin Roxana, Greek Roxanē, recorded as the name of the wife of Alexander the Great. She was the daughter of Oxyartes the Bactrian, and her name is presumably of Persian origin; it is said to mean ‘dawn’. In English literature it is the name of the heroine of a novel by Defoe (1724), a beautiful adventuress who, deserted by her husband, enjoys a glittering career as a courtesan but eventually dies in a state of penitence, having been thrown into prison for debt. In modern use, the variant forms are more frequent.

English, Scottish, and Irish: generally a nickname referring to the color of the hair or complexion, Middle English br(o)un, from Old English brūn or Old French brun. This word is occasionally found in Old English and Old Norse as a personal name or byname. Brun- was also a Germanic name-forming element. Some instances of Old English Brūn as a personal name may therefore be short forms of compound names such as Brūngar, Brūnwine, etc. As a Scottish and Irish name, it sometimes represents a translation of Gaelic Donn. As an American family name, it has absorbed numerous surnames from other languages with the same meaning.