Imogen

English

Alternative forms

• Imogene

Etymology

First used by William Shakespeare in Cymbeline, a misprint for Innogen, from Gaelic inghean (“girl, maiden”)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɪməd͡ʒɪn/

Proper noun

Imogen

1. (chiefly British) A female given name from the Celtic languages.
   • 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene v], page 385, column 1:

     Ile write to my lord ſhe's dead: O Imogen! / Safe mayſt thou wander, ſafe returne agen.

   • 2010, Kate Atkinson, Started Early, Took My Dog, Doubleday, →ISBN, pages 83–84:

     She would have to change her own name as well, she'd never liked Tracy. Imogen or Isabel, something feminine and romantic. She supposed she didn't look like an Imogen. Imogens were middle-class Home Counties girls with long blonde hair and vaguely Bohemian mothers.

Anagrams

• Geonim, geonim, goemin