A whole fucking WORLD made up of Katherines

When I was emerging from my chrysalis of adolescent self-loathing, somewhere in the middle of my junior year of high school I was asked to read something. I have no idea what it was, but it had a character named Katherine in it. "Gawd! Why are people named Katherine always such total bitches?" I said to anyone willing to listen. It was mostly a joke, but over the years my idea of the literary Katherine stuck with me. She is a sort of... demi-archetype, if you will... of bitchy self-centeredness, who undergoes a change in character that is generally brought about by good lovin'. The obvious example is Kate from "Taming of the Shrew."

There the thought sat for years... basically "Dammit, Shakespeare, you're ruining everything." But it often occurred to me that the idea may be older, especially since Shakespeare is mostly the Lord God King of telling old stories. I did turn it into a sort of running theme in my life. I mentioned it as a possible dissertation topic during a presentation (read as: I was trying to impress a boy) and every so often I tried compiling a list.

For some reason, school isn't really the best time to do personal research. I needed a jump start, and this is where we really begin.

Last week I was thinking about anime and the tsundere archetype. I don't know much about it, but after a few minutes of thought I realized that my Katherines fit this archetype. Boom - good morning, your project just became multi-cultural. I may have actually skipped a class to look into it, which is a shame because my research here sort of fell flat! (Expect this kind of transition often.) We don't really have much access to Japan. Anime and manga are great, but I have no idea how much they reflect older traditions. Very likely, this is another project for another time.

However, at the same time I tried looking into the origin of the name. You have no idea how difficult it is to research the origin of a name. It is such a popular thing to do!! There are a million websites devoted to it, and it is impossible to find a reputable source. However, when I stumbled upon this site, I was shocked.

The etymology is debated: it could derive from the earlier Greek name ‘Εκατερινη (Hekaterine), which came from ‘εκατερος (hekateros) "each of the two"; it could derive from the name of the goddess HECATE; it could be related to Greek αικια (aikia) "torture"

The bold is my emphasis. And holy shit. HECATE? I have NEVER seen that before. I have to find where this kind of debate happens! If Katherine is connected with Hecate, this could be a much deeper trend than I imagined. So far I have no leads. Eventually I will find where all these stupid little sites get their research. Most of them... probably get it from other stupid little sites. If anyone who reads this knows, I'd love your help.

Coming up soon: The OED and St. Catherine of Alexandria, a summary of my research on Hecate, and a list of Katherines