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[Facts] Mathilia / Mathilie
Hi there!I've recently stumbled across the names Mathilia and Mathilie and now I'd love to find out more about them.
I assume they are variants of each other, but I don't know for sure. In any case, they seem to have been in use (mainly) up until the mid (or possibly late) 1800s: I have found Mathilia in French, German, Dutch, Norwegian and American (mostly from Louisiana) geneaologies, Mathilie in French and Norwegian geneaologies.
Both names seem to be all but extinct today, although I did find out that in 2010 there were still about five women in Norway who answered to this name.So, does anyone happen to have any information regarding this name's origin and meaning?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
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There's a Breton name, Matilin / Mathilin, which is apparently a derivation of Mathurin. May be related:
http://www.behindthename.com/submit/name/mathurin
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-ilie/-ilia was a fashionable name ending in the 19th century (with names like Ottilie, Emilie/Emilia, and similar names ending in -alie/-alia like Nathalia or Amalia). The motivation of the inital Mat(h) is more difficult to pin down---in fact impossible without additional information about parent names or godfather names. Besides Mathilde, candidate source names include Matthias, Magdalena (c.f. Maddalena), Martin or Martha (in regions where a pre-consonantal r is dropped).

This message was edited 11/6/2014, 1:11 AM

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Quote-ilie/-ilia was a fashionable name ending in the 19th century (with names like Ottilie, Emilie/Emilia, and similar names ending in -alie/-alia like Nathalia or Amalia).

And that was without regard for the aforementioned Latinate endings?
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I can't seem to find much information. Perhaps it has a connection to Nathilie and Nathilia? The latter actually seems well used in some areas.
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Contrasting the two feminine endings, |-a| is usually Latin, Italian or Spanish where |-e| is usually French.I see a likely connection to MATILDA.
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