Pamela

Pamela (f) Pamela was first used by Sir Philip Sidney
in his Arcadia (1590). Already familiar at that time was
the name Pamphilus, ‘beloved of all,’ which occurred in a
popular twelfth-century Latin poem. It was well enough
known to lead eventually to the word pamphlet. There had earlier been several martyrs named Pamphilus, and modern French ecclesiastical authorities regard Pamela as a feminine version ofthat name. Samuel Richardson named his servant- girl heroine Pamela in his novel of that name (1740), thus making it a working-class name for centuries. This stigma disappeared by the 1950’s, when the name became generally, but quietly, popular throughout Britain. It remains in steady use in Scotland.

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