Blanche

See also: blanche

Translingual

Blanche

A botanical plant name author abbreviation for botanist Emanuel Blanche (1824-1908).

From Old French blanc "white". The surname originated as a nickname, or as a matronymic.

Blanche

1605 William Camden, Remains Concerning Britain, John Russell Smith (1870), page 55:
But the Ambassadours enquiring each of their names, took offence at Urraca, and made choice of the Lady Blanche, saying, That her name would be better received in France than the other, as signifying fair and beautiful, according to the verse made in her honour,
"Candida, candescens candore, & cordis & oris."
1878 Margaret Laurence Jones, Every Day: A Story, Remington and co., pages 61-62:
Dorothy averred that Miss Potter was the second person with so little taste, as to appropriate the royal name of Blanche to a waiting-maid. An acquaintance, having a housemaid, whose full name was Catherine Blanche, always addressed her by her surname, Blanche, considering Catherine too romantic a name for a servant.
1994, Barbara Neely, Blanche Among the Talented Tenth, St Martin's Press, →ISBN, page 27:
"To the irony of the person who named you - although you must catch hell, Blanche White." Blanche couldn't remember the last time anyone had spoken to her directly about the contrast between her color and her name.

female given name

Blanche f

Blanche f (plural Blanches)