How popular is the baby name Horsa in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Horsa.

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Popularity of the baby name Horsa


Posts that mention the name Horsa

Unusual baby names: Hengist & Horsa

Legendary brothers Hengist and Horsa
Hengist and Horsa

I recently skimmed through a 19th-century book about personal names “either in every-day use or lingering in the literature of Great Britain and Ireland.”

I found a lot of fascinating names, but the one that made me the most curious was Hengist.

The entry said, in part:

Found as a male name at the present day. From [Anglo Saxon] hengest, which Lye renders ‘cantherius, caballus,’ i. e. gelding, horse.

Other sources define the name as “stallion.”

According to English historian/theologian Bede, Hengist and his brother, Horsa, were the leaders of the first Anglo-Saxon settlers in Britain during the 5th century. (Today, the brothers are considered legendary figures.)

Interestingly, both of their names essentially mean the same thing: “horse.”

Looking through old vital records for England (from the 1800s and 1900s), I do indeed see about a dozen people with the first name Hengist, and about a dozen more named Horsa.

One baby was given both names: Hengist Horsa Terry, born in West Ham in 1908. (Sadly, he died the following year.)

Another Hengist was (very fittingly) born into the Horsey family of Windsor in 1864. (He lived until the late 1940s.)

Sources:

Baby name story: Invicta

Rearing horse and the word "Invicta"

I recently discovered that Axl Rose (the vocalist for the rock band Guns N’ Roses) was briefly married to a woman with the interesting name Erin Invicta Everly. Invicta is a form of the Latin word invictus, which means “unconquered.”

What’s the story behind her middle name?

Well, Erin was born in 1965 to musician Don Everly (of The Everly Brothers) and actress Venetia Stevenson — full name Joanna Venetia Invicta Stevenson.

Venetia, in turn, was born in 1938 to director Robert Stevenson and actress Anna Lee (best known for portraying Lila Quartermaine on General Hospital).

Anna Lee is the one who came up with Invicta. Here’s what she said in her memoir:

Venetia’s middle name, Invicta, meaning “invincible,” came from a childhood memory. I used to watch the street being repaired, and I loved the smell of the thick, black tar as it was poured over the gravel and then flattened and smoothed by a giant steamroller. It was the huge, formidable steamroller that fascinated me. On the front of this piece of machinery was a brass plaque of a horse, rearing up, with the word “Invicta” beneath it.

Interesting, isn’t it? Certainly one of the most vivid baby name stories I’ve seen in a while.

The steamroller would have been an Aveling-Barford steamroller.

The company, established as Aveling and Porter in the 1860s, was based in Kent (which is where Anna Lee was born). It used Kent’s motto, “Invicta,” and the rearing horse from Kent’s coat of arms on its steamrollers and other equipment.

Flag of Kent
Flag of Kent

Anna Lee’s memoir also mentions that Venetia’s first name was inspired by a portrait of Venetia Stanley (1600-1633) that Anna had seen at Sherborne Castle in Dorset.

P.S. The “White Horse of Kent” dates back to the early medieval Kingdom of Kent. Some say it was originally the emblem of Horsa (of the legendary brothers Hengist and Horsa).

Sources:

Image: Adapted from 1871 Aveling and Porter traction engine 04 by Oxyman under CC BY 2.5.