For the wine lovers: Oenone & Oeneus

wine glasses

Ok, first things first:

  • Oenone (Œnone) is a female name pronounced ee-NOH-nee.
  • Oeneus (Œneus) is a male name pronounced EE-nee-us.

Both names come from Greek mythology:

  • Oenone was a mountain nymph who was the first wife of Paris of Troy. (Paris later left her and took up with Helen — a move that eventually led to the Trojan War.)
  • Oeneus was a mortal king who, after learning how to make wine from the god Dionysus, introduced it to the region of Aetolia.

And, of course, both names are based on the same word: the ancient Greek oinos, meaning “wine.” (The modern words oenology and oenophile are also based on oinos.)

Since it’s St. Valentine’s Day, and I bet many of us will end up having a glass of wine at some point, I thought today would be the perfect day to talk about wine-based names.

I first spotted Oenone while reading about English author Daphne du Maurier, who had a research assistant named Oenone Rashleigh around the time she was writing her bestselling book The King’s General (1946). Interestingly, Daphne’s grandfather was George du Maurier, writer of Trilby (1894).

In terms of real-life usage, I’ve found very few people named Oeneus, but dozens named Oenone, mainly in England and America. I would have assumed that the usage of Oenone was kicked off by the poem “The Death of Oenone” (1829) by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, but records suggest that usage didn’t pick up until the last decades of the 19th century.

So now for the question of the day. Oenone (ee-noh-nee) and Oeneus (ee-nee-us) are clearly unique, and they have a meaning that would appeal to many…but they’re also very difficult to pronounce and spell. Do you think either one is a usable first name for a modern baby?

Image: Adapted from Red Red Wine by Faisal Akram under CC BY-SA 2.0.

[Latest update: Sept. 2024]

3 thoughts on “For the wine lovers: Oenone & Oeneus

  1. I think Oeneus could work. Oenone makes me think of sea anemones and my mouth gets tangled around stressing the 2nd syllable.

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