Kimberly (given name)
Kimberly (also Kimberley[1]) is a male and female given name of Old English origin. John Wodehouse, 1st Earl of Kimberley, a place in Norfolk, England, popularised the name by giving it to a town in South Africa and a region in Australia. The first element, Kimber, reflects various Old English personal names; in the case of the Earldom in Norfolk this first appeared as Chineburlai in 1086 and seems to mean "clearing of a woman called Cyneburg (Cyneburga in Latin)". The second element is the Old English leah or leigh "meadow, clearing in a woodland".[2]
Pronunciation | /ˈkɪmbərli/ /kɪmˈbɛərli/ |
---|---|
Gender | unisex |
Language(s) | English |
Origin | |
Language(s) | Old English |
Word/name | Combination of Kimber and leigh |
Meaning | "From the meadow of the royal fortress" |
Other names | |
Variant form(s) | Kimberlee, Kimberleigh, Kimberley[1] |
Short form(s) | Kim, Kimmie or Kimmy |
See also | Kimberley (surname) |
Origin of the given name
The given name Kimberley is derived from place of Kimberley, in Northern Cape, South Africa. This South African place name was named after a Lord Kimberley in the 19th century.[1] At the end of the 19th century, this place was the scene of fighting and a British victory during the Second Boer War, and consequently the given name was popularised in the English-speaking world.
The name of Lord Kimberley's title is derived from Kimberley, in Norfolk, England. This place name is derived from two Old English elements: the first is the feminine personal name Cyneburg, which means "royal fortress"; the second element is lēah, which means "woodland" or "clearing".[1][3] The place name roughly means: the "woodland clearing of the royal fortress." This place name was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Chineburlai.[3]
Variants
Kimberly is a given name with many variants. Kimberley is used for males and females, while Kimberlee, Kimberleigh, and Kimberli are common feminine variant forms.[1]
The common Korean surname Kim is not related to Kimberley.
People
- Lil' Kim (born 1974), singer
- Kimberly Anyadike (born 1994), Nigerian-American aviator
- Kim Appleby (born 1961), British singer
- Kim Barnett (born 1960), English cricketer
- Kim Basinger (born 1953), American actress
- Kitty Brucknell (born Kimberley Dayle Edwards, 1984), English singer-songwriter
- Kim Campbell (born 1947), first and only (to date) female Canadian Prime Minister
- Kim Carnes (born 1945), American singer
- Kim Cattrall (born 1956), Canadian-British actress
- Kimberley Chen (born 1994), Australian-born, Taiwanese singer of Malaysian descent.
- Kim Chiu (born 1990), Filipino actress, singer
- Kim Clijsters, Belgian tennis player
- Kimberly Davis (born 1974), Rett syndrome advocate and wrestler who goes by the stage name "Amber O'Neal"
- Kim Deal (born 1961), American musician
- Kimberly Elise (born 1967), American actress
- Kim Fields (born 1969), American actress
- Kim Gevaert (born 1978), Belgian sprint athlete
- Kim Grant (tennis), South African tennis player
- Kim Green (born 1961), British-Australian racing team owner and promoter
- Kim Gordon (born 1953), American musician
- Kimberly Goss (born 1978), American singer of Korean descent
- Kim Guadagno (born 1959), New Jersey politician
- Kimberly Guilfoyle (born 1969), American TV news reporter
- Kim Hughes (born 1954), Australian cricketer
- Kimberly "Kim" Kardashian (born 1980), American entertainer
- Kimberly Keeton, American computer scientist
- Kim Lip (born 1999), Korean singer, dancer, member of Loona
- Kym Marsh (born 1976), English actress
- Kim Matula (born 1988), American actress
- Kimberley Nixon (born 1986), Welsh actress
- Kim Novak (born 1933), American actress
- Kimberly A. Novick, American environmental scientist
- Kim O'Brien, American model/actress
- Kymberly Pine (born 1970), State of Hawaii House of Representatives
- Kimberly Powers, American epidemiologist
- Kimberly “Kim” Rhode (born 1979), American double trap and skeet shooter
- Kim Shattuck (1963-2019), American musician
- Kimberly Ann Voltemas (born 1992), Thai actress and model
- Kimberley Walsh (born 1981), English singer in the girl band Girls Aloud
- Kimberly Williams-Paisley (born 1971), American actress
- Kimberly Wyatt (born 1982), member of The Pussycat Dolls
- Kim Zolciak (born 1978), American singer and reality star from The Real Housewives of Atlanta
Fictional characters
- Kimberly Bauer, a character in the television series 24
- Kimberly Corman, a character in the film Final Destination 2
- Kimberly Hart, a character in the Power Rangers franchise
- Kimberly Hyde, a character in the television series Home and Away
- Kim Pine, a character in the series of graphic stories Scott Pilgrim
- Kim Possible, a character in the television series of the same name
- Kimberly Shaw in the television series Melrose Place
- Kimberly Andrews in the television series One Life to Live
- Kimberly Cougar "Kimmy" Schmidt, a character in the television series Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
- Kimberly Wexler, a character in the television series Better Call Saul
References
- Hanks, Patrick; Hardcastle, Kate; Hodges, Flavia (2006), A Dictionary of First Names, Oxford Paperback Reference (2nd ed.), Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 159, ISBN 978-0-19-861060-1
- "Kimberley", Online Etymology Dictionary
- Kimberley, Encyclopedia.com, retrieved 8 December 2010 which cited: Mills, A. D. (2003), A Dictionary of British Place-Names, Oxford University Press