Tiffany: A 3,000-Year-Old Name

Tiffany, is a very neon 80s name, and not without reason,

it exploded in popularity during the decade. But despite Tiffany's modern sound the name

wasn't born in the 80s. Tiffany is at least, 80 decades old.

["OMG that's like, positively medieval." "How is that? And then why is this?"]

Well, let me tell you the tale of tracking Tiffany through time.

It starts in the year 300, with this guy, Eusebius.

A historian and bishop in the Holy Land. He wrote a treatise *On The Divine Manifestation,*

and the word for that in the Greek he wrote was *Theophania*.

In ye olden days religious virtue names were totally a thing

and Theophania became a name given to children born on the feast of The Epiphany.

Though no five syllable name can go unnicked, so for some rhyming sage a Tiffany Epiphany

was inevitable. The name, thus born in the Holy Land,

then spread with the Greek language. The most famous example appears in 972

with the Empress of the Holy Roman Empire, who's name is written this way and

probably pronounced *tay-off-ahnu*. Ancient pronunciation is…

a whole other thing that we are going to skip (becauseit'sunknowable)

and it doesn't help that the Empress's name is listed in different ways,

so it's impossible to know if she want by [Tay-off-ahnu or Theophania, or Tee-o-phania]

which are all close to Tiffany, but not quite. Who knows. Maybe she shortened it and her

title was [Tiff, Empress of the Empire. The top Tiff.]

But that's just speculation. When this word first became a Tiffany name

precursor isn't exactly known.

[Spoiler for History] Pre-printing press, there's not a lot of written

evidence, for anything and lot's of documents that did exist got

lost. So to tell the totality of the tale takes

trusses of trust betwixt islands of evidence.

It's time to try to find the true old-time Tiffs.

By working backwards through hundreds of years of census books,

and if you did that in English, you wouldn't find much,

thanks for nothing *Doomsday Book*. But if you also looked in French you could

find Tiphaine Raguenel, born 1335, about whom all information is delightful.

A noble lady astrologer who lived in France's fairy tale castle Mont St Michael

and used her astrological powers to predict the outcome

of her husband's knighting battles. [Hey honey, maybe don't go to that one.]

And she was righter than wronger because he survived to ascend to become the

[Grand Constable of France, First Officer of the Crown.]

On the island there's still a little museum to her, and her husband.

Though the one thing you won't find in that museum is her skull,

which was turned up just a few years ago in a reliquary box in town of Dinan

with a note on it saying *this is the skull of Tiphaine Raguenel*

and given anonymously to the local library. So, that's a thing that happened.

Wait, why are we talking about this? Oh right, because this is oldest Tiffany,

that's pretty much spelled Tiffany, and about whom details of her life are known.

But were you to keep going backwards through the census books

you'd also strike a Trio of Tiffanies in Paris in 1313,

but all that is known about them is their listed professions:

wax maker, washer woman and spinster. A woman who spins wool into thread.

Thus this foursome of French Tiffany's written records are the proof

that Tiffany is totally neon medieval. Though you might be wondering exactly

how did a Greek name from here, end up on a Fancy French Tiffany over here?

ME TOO! So if you kept looking through every old document

that might be a list of names for, hundreds of hours.

If you were lucky you would eventually stubble on the

*Transcripts of Charters relating to Gilbertine Houses* from 1161

containing a single Tiffany, well Tephany with an e p h,

but that's close enough to count, who lived in Fotherby, England.

How did she get there? Well, we must across another Truss of Trust,

but Tephany had a Grandfather named Hugh, who was at just the right time and place

to travel to the Holy Land in the First Crusade.

And going through the surviving records of Crusaders from the time

there are candidate Hughs, and while I can't prove the Tephany/Hugh connection

100%, which *kills* me.

I'm still calling it that Grandpa Hugh on his travels

came across an Epiphany Tiffany and brought the name back to middle England,

and the English language. As did also French Crusaders to France.

It all fits! But it does leave the question,

if Tiffany in its modern form is near a millennia old,

why don't we think of it that way? Probably just historical happenstance.

A lack of famous Tiffany's. There were no queens born on the Epiphany

to be named Tiffany leaving Theophanu as the most prominent Tiffany,

except not exactly a Tiffany, and Tiphanie Raguenel isn't particularly famous,

until hopefully now, that is. If you go on your own french Tiffany Crusade,

be sure to tell 'em Grey sent you. So, aside from these two, the name never landed

on fame to pop in popularity like it would later.

Just sporadically showing up in written records in the late 17 and 1800s.

Which, as an alternate history side note, it does mean that at the time when

Jane Austen was writing *Emma*, the name Tiffany was infrequently around

with its exact modern spelling. So if the authoress was looking for an underused

name with literary potential,

she could have picked Tiffany and turned the Georgian and Victorian eras

neon as well. And, I mean, come on, the name Tiffany Woodhouse

is tots perfect for the character. But sadly, it didn't happen,

and Tiffany remained a name, without fame. She would get there,

but jumping backwards, she first she needed to transform.

In 1629, Tiffany does appears on an English census,

*finally* this time, for the *first* time

as a last name with one Mr. Henry Tiffany, who lived and died in Hackney London.

Ok, so he wasn't born a Tiffany. Were you to track down his christening,

you'd find he was Henry Tiffin at the time, but once grown up and married,

the record now shows him as the first of the family of Tiffany.

Why the name change? It probably wasn't one.

Consistent spelling in the English language totally wasn't a thing back then.

None other than Tiffen/Tiffany's contemporary William Shakespeare

never spelled his signature the same way twice. English was [and still kind of is] very

*whatever* with the written word. So Henry Tiffan became Tiffany randomly,

and because the world is just too perfect sometimes,

I'm *also* calling it that this Mr. Tiffany, the first to appear with the last name in

English language, is directly responsible for *this* explosion

of Tiffany's 400 years later.

Come with me. So Henry Tiffany had a son in 1630,

Humphrey Tiffany who moved to the shiny New England

sometime before 1660. Humphry Tiffany took the name to America,

and simultaneously removed it from England as a last name

as he was Henry Tiffany's only surviving son who would also have a son.

James Tiffany in 1666. From there James Tiffany Jr., 1697

to Ebineezer Tiffany, 1734 to Comfort Tiffany, 1777

to 1812 Charles Lewis Tiffany. Which has caused some bulbs in the audience

to light. But to follow though.

Charles Lewis Tiffany, with some friends, established a stationary and fancy goods emporium

shop named Tiffany, Young and Ellis, in 1837.

Charles Lewis Tiffany eventually took control of the company,

changed the name to *Tiffany & Co* to focus on jewelry exclusively,

well except for that period during the Civil War

when he switched to manufacturing swords as the Tiffany's Experience,

but after that, back to jewelry. From the late 1800s this New York City store,

for Tiffany was her most prominent placement, since the Empress or the Astrologer,

and it remained so until 1958 when Truman Capote walked by.

The name caught the author's attention as underused with literary potential.

And he wrote and published the Novella *Breakfast at Tiffany's*.

Prior to this moment Tiffany as a first name was holding on, but barely.

Averaging under ten babies a year. After the Novella, there's a slight uptick

in the name, but that could be a coincidence,

but what definitely isn't is in 1961, the novella became a movie staring Audrey

Hepbun, and it would not be understatement to say

that this role turned her into time-transcending Hollywood

icon, forever connected with the name in the title.

Tiffany had found her fame. And the following year the Tiffany's, quintupled!

Setting a solid base for an exponential explosion, and grew over the next twenty years

as children grew, having seen the movie, to have children of their own.

Bringing us to 1979 and there are almost 10,000 Tiffany's a year.

Now, we are still on a Truss of Trust for this Tiffany Theory,

maybe isn't wasn't the store, turned story, turned movie.

It could have been a coincidence. If you look at enough random events

you can always draw some convincing correlations. But, remember, that in ye olden days of the

60s and early 70s movies could only be seen in theaters.

But by the late 70s there was a new invention. VHS.

The video home system So you could watch movies, any time in glorious

480 pixels. And well, guess what?!?

*Breakfast at Tiffany's* happens to be the first

Audrey Hepburn movie released on VHS in, wait for it,

1979. And one year later total Tiffany's doubled.

Rolling into the 80s torrent of Tiffanies, where the name was Top Twenty for nine out

of ten years. The Tiffany ascendancy that had started with

Theophany, in prehistory. And that is the tale of Tiffany.

She's carried her neon torch though the ages. And long make she carry it into the future.

To Tiffany.