Brenda

Brenda (f) A popular name in Scotland in the 1950’s
(it ranked 63rd in 1958). It was in vogue in England and
North America rather earlier. Helena Swan mentioned
Brenda in her Girls’ Christian Names (1900), relating it to
the Old Norse personal name Brand, ‘sword.’ She com-
plained that ‘the modern craving for unhackneyed names’
had led it to gain ground steadily with the English
public. She also suggested that Sir Walter Scott was
responsible for introducing to a wider public what had
previously been an exclusively Scottish name. Brenda is one of the heroines in his novel The Pirate (1821).

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