Name Meaning
Willa
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: WIL-a
Willa is feminine for Will or William. From the Germanic name Wilhelm, which was composed of the elements wil “will, desire” and helm “helmet, protection”. The name was introduced to Britain by the Normans. It has belonged to several rulers of England, Prussia, and Germany, including William the Conqueror, the first Norman king of England. Other famous bearers were Willian Wallace, a 13th-century Scottish hero, and William Tell, a legendary 14th-century Swiss hero. In the literary world it has been borne by dramatist William Shakespeare and poet William Blake, as well as contemporary authors William Faulkner and William S. Burroughs.
Joanna
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, Polish, Biblical
Pronounced: jo-AN-a (English), yaw-AHN-nah (Polish)
Latinized form of Ioanna. This is the name of a follower of Jesus in the New Testament. Joanna is the feminine form of Ioannes, which is the Greek form of John. This name owes its consistent popularity to two New Testament characters, both highly revered as saints. The first was John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus Christ and a victim of beheading by Herod Antipas. The second was the apostle John, also supposedly the author of the fourth Gospel and Revelation. The name has been borne by 23 popes and eight Byzantine emperors, as well as kings of England, France, Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Portugal and Hungary. It was also borne by the poet John Milton and the philosopher John Locke.
Chance
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: English
Pronounced: CHANTS
Means simply “chance” from the English word. It is ultimately derived from Latin cadens “falling”.
Holland
A name given to a native of that country, which was so called from Hollow-land, because it abounds with ditches full of water. Bailey is of opinion that the Danes who conquered Holland, so called it from an island in the Baltic of the same name, from ol, beer, drink. Why not from Hold land, the land taken and kept, held, governed?
