Names

Short form of Gabriella.

Anglicized diminutive of Bríd.

Variant of Bridget.

Anglicized form of the Irish name Brighid meaning “exalted one”. In Irish mythology this was the name of the goddess of fire, poetry and wisdom, the daughter of the god Dagda. In the 5th century it was borne by Saint Brigid, the founder of a monastery at Kildare and a patron saint of Ireland. Because of the saint, the name was considered sacred in Ireland, and it did not come into general use there until the 17th century. In the form Birgitta this name has been common in Scandinavia, made popular by the 14th-century Saint Birgitta of Sweden, patron saint of Europe.

From an English surname that originally indicated a person who lived near or worked on a bridge.

Anglicized form of Bríd.

Modern form of Brighid.

Latin form of Brice, probably ultimately of Gaulish origin.

From the name Bricius, which was probably a Latinized form of a Gaulish name meaning “speckled”. This was the name of a 5th-century saint, a disciple of Saint Martin of Tours.

From the English word for the thorny plant.