Belinda

Meaning: (Beautiful, Bright Serpent, Beautiful Snake, Bright Linden Tree, Serpentine, This name first arose in the 17th century, and was subsequently used by Alexander Pope in his poem 'The Rape of the Lock' (1712).

It has often been taken to mean 'Beautiful Snake', in reference to the snake as a sacred symbol of wisdom and immortality in medieval times.)

Origin: (Italian, Latin, Old German, English, Spanish)

Pronunciation:  (bə-LIN-də, Beh-LIHND-ah, buh-lIHn-duh)

Gender: Female

Though I don’t use names associated with witches in my novels as I’ve mentioned before this name is most famous for a witch, Belinda the Good Witch in The Wizard of OZ. the meanings are beautiful and the name most everyone’s heard of but it isn’t used too much. I first saw this name in a novel I was reading and at first I was on the fence with it but I do like it a little bit more now.

Of course I was thrown off at first by the meanings with Snake. I was like why would you name someone after a snake as I always associate them with poison and danger. I never knew the snake was a sacred symbol of wisdom and immortality in medieval times. Now that I know that I feel better about the meanings.

The last thing was the poem by Alexander Pope 'The Rape of the Lock' (1712). I was disappointed that the name was associated with the poem but after looking the poem up the poem is not what I thought and I am less upset about it now.

EDIT December 11, 2015:

Okay so I am a dork, lol! I was watching The Wizard of Oz a few weeks back and low and behold the good witch is not named Belinda but Glinda. I so thought it was Belinda. So it may not be a witches name in that movie but I keep thinking I saw it in that capacity some place, whether novel or movie, but maybe I am completely wrong there.

So instead of changing the details above I decided to own up to my stupid dorky mistake here in the edit and leave my stupidness above but do know as far as I know Belinda was not used in The Wizard of Oz.