How do you spell sybil

The image of the lovely Lady Sybil, tragic youngest daughter of the Crawley family on Downton Abbey is likely to go a long way towards reviving this almost forgotten name, off the list since and most popular in the s and '30s.

Sybil is currently Number on Nameberry; Sybil is the most common spelling of a name which the ancient Greeks used as the generic word for a prophetess--a woman who claimed to be able to interpret the wishes of the gods through their oracles. Benjamin Disraeli wrote an influential political novel titled Sybil , which increased the popularity of the name in Victorian times.

Later, the name was severely undermined by the eponymous book and movie based on the character of Sybil-- played by Sally Field-- whose multiple personalities have now been confessed as fake.

Learn More About sybil. Statistics for sybil Look-up Popularity. Style: MLA. Get Word of the Day daily email! Test Your Vocabulary. Test your vocabulary with our question quiz! Need even more definitions? Homophones, Homographs, and Homonyms The same, but different. Merriam-Webster's Words of the Week - Nov. To be fair, Ethel is definitely a name that sounds a little old lady-ish, but there's no reason it wouldn't be make an awesome name for a baby.

Interestingly, Ethel literally means "noble woman," which is not a bad standard to set for your hypothetical child. I know many of us still associate the name Sebastian with The Little Mermaid. However, the name is actually rooted in Latin and means " person from the city of Sebastia.

If you want your child's name to make a splash, I say go all-in with a name like Tobias. It's Hebrew in origin and literally means " God is good ," so if your faith or religion are important to you, a name like Tobias might be right up your alley. It also easily becomes "Toby," which is possibly one of the cutest nicknames for a child ever. If you want to be really unique, a slight variation of the name is actually "Tobiah," the name of a Hebrew rebel king.

How cool is that? Originally of Greek origin, Sybil means "seer" or "oracle. In Downtown Abbe y, Sybil is a total feminist and basically breathes the socioeconomic revolution of the time into the plot of the show, which is pretty awesome.