Musidora

"My Musidora" by Vanitas Mori

I was watching the first episode of a 1997 TV show called 'The Hunger' when the name of one of the characters caught my attention - Musidora (pronounced mews-EE-dora). It has a lovely musical sound to it, and I hadn't heard it before.

At first, I thought maybe this was a made-up name, a cross between Muse (as in the mythical Greek muses that provided great artists with inspiration); and Dora (meaning gift). Turns out that I was on the right track - Musidora is a Greek name meaning "gift of the Muses".

Musidora is a rarely used name, with the best known namesake being the French silent movie actress. Her real name was Jean Roques, but she adopted the name Musidora to convey a more mysterious and exotic image to suit the vampy persona she portrayed on film. Her on screen presence was often compared to the likes of Theda Bara. There is also a lesser known Harry Potter character (one of the famous witches on the Chocolate Frog cards); a town in Alberta Canada; a British Group 3 Horse race (known as the Musidora stakes); and a song by Isidore that share the name Musidora.

Like Jean Roques, I feel that this name is beautifully exotic. I tend to like Dora names - especially since Dora itself has such a lovely meaning - and this is one of the rarer ones, which I also like. I've seen Musidora mentioned a couple of times in various forums, and it seems that people feel this name is dark, odd and interesting. Some people would see this as a negative, but if you find these qualities attractive in a name then this could be a great option worth considering!