Baby names inspired by nurses (Namestorm #12)

Here are some names inspired by nurses and nursing (an excellent topic suggested by C in DC last week).

Florence
English nurse Florence Nightingale established the first scientifically-based nursing school at St. Thomas’ Hospital in London in 1860.

Linda
American nurse Linda Richards became the first professionally trained nurse in the U.S. in 1873.

Lillian (and Henry)
American nurse Lillian Wald founded Henry Street Settlement in New York City 1893.

Mary

  • American nurse Mary Eliza Mahoney became the first professionally trained African American nurse in 1879.
  • American nurse Mary Breckinridge founded the Frontier Nursing Service in 1925.

Clara (or Clarissa)
American nurse Clarissa “Clara” Barton founded and became the first president of the American Red Cross in 1881.

Agnes
English nurse Agnes Hunt opened Florence House, a convalescent home for crippled children, in 1900.

Ellen
New Zealand nurse Ellen Dougherty became the world’s first registered nurse in February, 1902. (New Zealand had become the first country to regulate nurses nationally in 1901.)

Lina and Lenah

  • American nurse Lina Struthers became the first school nurse in North America (specifically, New York City) in late 1902.
  • Canadian-born nurse Lenah Higbee was awarded the Navy Cross in 1918.

Edith
British nurse Edith Cavell, after helping hundreds of Allied soldiers escape from German-occupied Belgium during World War I, was executed on October 12, 1915.

Hildegard
American nurse Hildegard Peplau emphasized patient-nurse relationships in Interpersonal Relations in Nursing, published in 1952.

Cicely
English nurse and physician Cicely Saunders established St. Christopher’s Hospice in South London in 1967.

Can you come up with any other names inspired by nurses or nursing?

(And, what interests/activities should we namestorm about next?)

Sources: American Nurses Association, Wikipedia

3 thoughts on “Baby names inspired by nurses (Namestorm #12)

  1. Margaret-
    Margaret Sanger, a nurse in the poor neighborhoods of New York City, who founded the first birth control clinic in the U.S. in 1916.

    Elizabeth-
    Elizabeth” Sister Kenny”, Australian nursing sister who pioneered a method of treatment for polio.

    Ruby-
    Colonel Ruby Bradley, army nurse and one of the most decorated women in United States military history.

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