Dolly Varden

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There are a number of things named Dolly Varden:

  • Dolly Varden was a character in Charles Dickens' novel Barnaby Rudge. Dolly was a vain, flirtatious girl who wore colorful clothes, with a distinctive calico pattern.
  • A Dolly Varden is also a large hat trimmed with flowers (named after the Dickens character)
  • The character also gave her name to a kind of flowered muslin dress for women, with a pointed bodice and tucked-up skirt, as well as to the calico mauve-and-green-spotted fabric associated with this style of dress.
  • There are three species of "trout" (actually technically char fish) which are (or have been) named Dolly Varden (Salvelinus confluentus - the first species to bear the name), (Salvelinus alpinus alpinus), and three subspecies of the same species (Salvelinus malma malma), (Salvelinus malma miyabei), and (Salvelvlinus malma krascheninnikova), originally named because their colorful appearance was reminiscent of the calico dress fabric pattern associated with the Dickens' character.
  • A suburb of Porirua in New Zealand was also briefly called Dolly Varden.
  • There is also a type of wooden siding called Dolly Varden, more accurately referred to as "rabbetted bevel" siding.
  • A "Dolly Varden" or "Doally Varden" is a name given to a cherry topped, icing covered current bun (Belgian bun) in the Cumnock Muirkirk area of Ayrshire Scotland