Mavis
Mavis is a female given name. Its usage was initiated by Marie Corelli's 1895 novel The Sorrows of Satan which featured a character named Mavis Clare whose first name is said to be "rather odd" but suitable for Miss Clare as "she sings quite as sweetly as any thrush".[1] Corelli patently was utilizing the common noun mavis[2] which refers to the song thrush and was long obsolete by the 19th century, but known from its poetic use, as in Robert Burns's Ca' the Yowes ("Hark the mavis evening sang/Sounding Clouden's woods amang") written in 1794;[3] also the popular love song "Mary of Argyle", written circa 1850 by lyricist Charles Jefferys features the line "I have heard the mavis singing its love-song to the morn."[4]
Mavis had its height of popularity between the 1920s and 1940s. Its usage declined thereafter, and the name has become rather unfashionable since the 1960s.[5]
Notable persons with the first name Mavis include:
- Mavis Adjei, Ghanaian actress
- Mavis Doering (1929–2007), Cherokee Nation basket weaver
- Mavis Fan (born 1977), Taiwanese singer
- Mavis Freeman (1918–1988, American swimmer who competed in the 1936 Olympic Games
- Mavis Gallant (b. 1922), Canadian writer
- Mavis Gray née Beckett (b. 1944), Australian sportswoman
- Mavis Hee (b. 1974), Singaporean singer
- Mavis Hutchinson, first woman to run across the United States
- Mavis Jukes (b. 1947), American children's author
- Mavis Leno (b. 1956), American feminist and wife of Jay Leno
- Mavis Nicholson (b. 1930), Welsh broadcaster
- Mavis Pugh (1914–2006), English actress and comedian
- Mavis Smitheman, local body councillor for Ardwick, Manchester
- Mavis Staples (b. 1939), American rhythm and blues singer
- Mavis Taillieu (b. 1952), Canadian politician
- Mavis Tate (1893–1947), British Conservative Party politician and feminist; though born before The Sorrows of Satan's publication, she only assumed the first name "Mavis" as an adult, her actual first name of birth being Maybird.
- Mavis Taylor (1915–2007), Australian humanitarian
- Mavis Villiers, an actress
- Mavis Wilson (fl. 1980–90s), Canadian politician
Fictional characters include:
- Dark Mavis, recurring character in English rock band Mansun's debut album Attack of the Grey Lantern
- Mavis, a controversial personification of viewers of daytime shopping television, made by Katie Hopkins of the third series of the UK television reality programme The Apprentice; Mavis is said to have an ample bosom and to be single and lonely, among other things.
- Mavis, two fictional characters who first appeared in the DC Comics universe
- Mavis, from the BBC comedy Open All Hours
- Mavis, a diesel locomotive character from The Railway Series books by the Rev. W. Awdry and from the derived children's television series Thomas & Friends
- Mavis Anderson, a secondary character in Dallas, best friend to Miss Ellie Ewing
- Mavis Beacon, the eponymous African-American typing instructor of the Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing software
- Mavis Bramston, from The Mavis Bramston Show (1964–1968), an Australian television satire
- Mavis Buckey, an anthropomorphic animal character from the Funny Farm series
- Mavis Clare, a popular author who resists the temptation of the Devil in The Sorrows of Satan by Marie Corelli
- Mavis Cruet, an obese young fairy incapable of flight, from the British children's animated series Willo the Wisp (1981/2005)
- Mavis Davis, a pseudonymous singer in the British comedy Bring Me the Head of Mavis Davis (1997)
- Mavis DeVere, one version of the actual name of Bubbles DeVere, a character in the BBC comedy series Little Britain
- Mavis Dracula, a 118-year-old vampire and the daughter of Count Dracula in the 2012 animated film Hotel Transylvania
- Mavis Freestone, a singer in the ...in Death series of detective novels
- Mavis Gary, an emotionally unavailable author and the main character of Young Adult (2011)
- Mavis Madling, in the situation comedy series Designing Women
- Mavis Ming, title character of Michael Moorcock's The Transformation of Miss Mavis Ming, part of his Dancers at the End of Time series
- Mavis Munro, office manager in the comic book series Supernatural Law and Supernatural Law Secretary Mavis
- Mavis Neff, a girlfriend of Andy Griffith in The Andy Griffith Show
- Mavis Newkirk, Corporal Newkirk's sister on Hogan's Heroes
- Mavis Pike, in the British situation comedy Dad's Army
- Mavis Rae, main character in the situation comedy Whoopi
- Mavis Vermillion, founder and first master of the same-named guild in manga-anime Fairy Tail
- Mavis Wilton, in the British soap opera Coronation Street
See also
References
- ↑ Marie Corelli The Sorrows of Satan 2006 Adamant Media Corporation p. 127
- ↑ Old French mauvis
- ↑ "Traditional Scottish Songs - Ca' the Yowes". rampantscotland.com. Retrieved 28 January 2017.
- ↑ "Here in the Bonny Glen: Poetry Friday: Bonny Mary o' Argyle". typepad.com. Retrieved 28 January 2017.
- ↑ Campbell, Mike. "Meaning, origin and history of the name Mavis". behindthename.com. Retrieved 28 January 2017.
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