The name Queenie is an affectionate, or

pet A pet, or companion animal, is an animal kept primarily for a person's company or entertainment rather than as a working animal, livestock, or a laboratory animal. Popular pets are often considered to have attractive appearances, intelligence, ...

use, of the term queen - and is thought to be derived from the Old English word 'cwen', meaning 'woman' rather than a reference to the monarch or his

wife A wife (plural, : wives) is a female in a marital relationship. A woman who has separated from her partner continues to be a wife until the marriage is legally Dissolution (law), dissolved with a divorce judgement. On the death of her partner, ...

. As a first name it can also mean "Royal Lady" or "Ruler". In this sense the name is also used as a nickname or pet name for a girl who shares her first name with a

Queen Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...

. As such, it was popular name during Victorian times in the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...

. It was once very popular in London's East End.

Given name

Queenie Chu Queenie Chu (; Chu Wai Man born 22 April 1981 in British Hong Kong), is a Hong Kong television presenter and actress formerly affiliated with TVB. She was also Miss Hong Kong 2004 1st runner-up. Biography Chu studied in Rosaryhill School, the ...

(born 1981), Hong Kong television presenter and actress * Q. D. Leavis (1900-1982), English literary critic and essayist *

Queenie McKenzie Queenie McKenzie (Nakarra) (formerly Oakes, or Mingmarriya) (c. 1915 – 16 November 1998) was an Aboriginal Australian artist. She was born on Old Texas Station, on the western bank of the Ord River in the East Kimberley. Early life M ...

(circa 1930-1998), indigenous Australian artist *

Queenie Rosson Queenie Rosson (February 24, 1889 – December 19, 1978, West Palm Beach, Florida) was an early American silent film actress. She starred in 20 silent films between 1914 and 1916 in films such as The Love Hermit working with actors such as Char ...

(1889-1978), American silent film actress *

Queenie Smith Queenie Smith (September 8, 1898 – August 5, 1978) was an American stage, television, and film actress. Life and career Smith was born in Texas. Her family moved from Texas to New York shortly before Smith began studying at the Metropol ...

(1898-1978), American stage, film and television actress * Queenie Thomas (1898–1977), British actress *

Queenie Watts Queenie Watts (born Mary Spenton; 21 July 1923 – 25 January 1980) was an English actress of film and television, as well as an occasional singer.

(1926-1980), English actress and singer *

Queenie Ashton Ethel Muriel Ashton (11 November 190321 October 1999), known professionally as Queenie Ashton, was a character actress, born in England, who had a long career in Australia as a theatre performer and radio personality, best known for her radio ...

(1903-1999), stage name of British-born soprano and English and Australian character actress Ethel Muriel Cover (née Ashton)

Nickname

Mary Jane Cain Mary Jane Cain (1844–1929) was a community leader, a Gomeroi woman who lived in the Coonabarabran region of New South Wales. She was born in 1844 and was instrumental in the establishment of the Burra Bee Dee Aboriginal Reserve in 1912 and ...

(1844–1929), Aboriginal Australian human rights activist *

Queenie Newall Sybil Fenton Newall (17 October 1854 – 24 June 1929), best known as Queenie Newall, was an English people, English archery, archer who won the gold medal at the 1908 Summer Olympics in London. She was 53 years old at the time, still the oldes ...

(1854–1929), British archer *

Merle Oberon Merle Oberon (born Estelle Merle O'Brien Thompson; 19 February 191123 November 1979) was a British actress who began her film career in British films as Anne Boleyn in ''The Private Life of Henry VIII'' (1933). After her success in ''The Scarle ...

(1911–1979), Anglo-Indian actress *

Jimmy O'Rourke (baseball) James Stephen "Queenie" O'Rourke (December 26, 1883 – December 22, 1955) was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball for the New York Highlanders in 1908, primarily as a left fielder and shortstop. Biography ...

(1883–1955), American professional baseball player *

Stephanie St. Clair Stephanie St. Clair (December 24, 1897 in Guadalupe West Indies(French Caribbean) – December 1969) was a prominent black woman of African descent and racketeer who ran numerous enterprises in Harlem, New York, in the early 20th century. St. ...

(1886–1969), a French gangster who operated out of New York's Harlem

Stage names

Queenie Leighton Queenie Leighton (18 July 1874 – 19 November 1943) was a British music hall star of the Edwardian era. Leighton was born in Islington in London as Lilian Caroline Augusta Rickard, the youngest of three children of William Henry Rickard, a ...

(1874-1943), stage name of British music hall star Lilian Caroline Augusta Rickard *

Queenie Leonard Queenie Leonard (born Pearl Walker; 18 February 1905 – 17 January 2002) was a British actress. She was the last surviving cast member of ''And Then There Were None'' (1945) until her death in 2002. Biography She was born as Pearl Walk ...

(1905-2002), stage name of English character actress and singer Pearl Walker *Queenie, a performer in the English hip pop quintet

KING King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

Queenie Williams Queenie Williams (November 17, 1896 – June 9, 1962), also billed as Little Queenie Williams and later as Ina Williams, was an Australian child actress, singer, comedian, and dancer. Early life Alfreda Ina Williams was born in Footscray, ne ...

(1896-1962), stage name of Australian actress Alfreda Ina Williams

Animals

Queenie (Melbourne elephant) Queenie was an elephant who was used to give rides for children at Melbourne Zoo for 40 years. Queenie was a very popular exhibit, with large crowds of children often gathering around her enclosure even when she was not giving rides. She was of ...

(put down in 1944) *

Queenie (waterskiing elephant) Queenie (1952 – May 31, 2011) was a Captivity (animal), captive female Asian elephant. She was noted in the late 1950s and early 1960s for waterskiing for entertainment. Early life Queenie was born Wildlife, wild in 1952 in Thailand. She was ex ...

(1952-2011)

Fictional characters

* Queenie (''Blackadder''), a caricature of Elizabeth I of England in the British TV series ''Blackadder'' * "Queenie" (EastEnders) *Queenie Yoh, a character in the 2018 Japanese anime " Lost Hope" *the main character from ''Queenie'' (miniseries) *A character in the musical ''

Show Boat ''Show Boat'' is a musical with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It is based on Edna Ferber's best-selling 1926 novel of the same name. The musical follows the lives of the performers, stagehands and dock worke ...

'' *A character in '' The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'' *A character in the short story of the same name by Nobel Prize winning writer

Alice Munro Alice Ann Munro (; ; born 10 July 1931) is a Canadian short story writer who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013. Munro's work has been described as revolutionizing the architecture of short stories, especially in its tendency to move f ...

* Queenie Goldstein, a main character in the ''

Fantastic Beasts ''Fantastic Beasts'' is a film series directed by David Yates, and a spin-off prequel to the ''Harry Potter'' novel and film series. The series is distributed by Warner Bros. and consists of three fantasy films as of 2022, beginning with ...

'' film series. *A character on the show ''

American Horror Story ''American Horror Story'' is an American anthology horror television series created by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk for the cable network FX. The first installment in the '' American Story'' media franchise, each season is conceived as a ...

'' *The name of the dog in the short story "

A Christmas Memory ''"A Christmas Memory"'' is a short story by Truman Capote. Originally published in '' Mademoiselle'' magazine in December 1956, it was reprinted in ''The Selected Writings of Truman Capote'' in 1963. It was issued in a stand-alone hardcover edit ...

" *A character based on

Hester Maria Elphinstone, Viscountess Keith Hester Maria Elphinstone, Viscountess Keith, born Hester Maria Thrale (17 September 1764 – 31 March 1857), was a British literary correspondent and intellectual. She was the eldest child of Hester Thrale, diarist, author and confidante of Sam ...

in the Aubrey–Maturin book series *A character in

Joseph Moncure March Joseph Moncure March (July 27, 1899 New York City - February 14, 1977 Los Angeles, California) was an American poet and essayist, best known for his long narrative poems '' The Wild Party'' and '' The Set-Up''. Life After serving in World War ...

's poem " The Wild Party" and in two musicals of the same name by

Andrew Lippa Andrew Lippa (born December 22, 1964) is an American composer, lyricist, book writer, performer, and producer. He is a resident artist at the Ars Nova Theater in New York City. Early life Lippa was born in Leeds, England, to English parents. ...

and

Michael John LaChiusa Michael John LaChiusa (born July 24, 1962) is an American musical theatre and opera composer, lyricist, and librettist. He is best known for musically esoteric shows such as '' Hello Again'', ''Marie Christine'', '' The Wild Party'', and ''See Wha ...

* Magdalene "Queenie" Shaw, a character from the ''Fast & Furious'' franchise *Queenie Gibbons, younger daughter of Frank and Ethel Gibbons in the

Noel Coward Noel or Noël may refer to: Christmas * , French for Christmas * Noel is another name for a Christmas carol Places * Noel, Missouri, United States, a city *Noel, Nova Scotia, Canada, a community * 1563 Noël, an asteroid *Mount Noel, Britis ...

play ''

This Happy Breed ''This Happy Breed'' is a play by Noël Coward. It was written in 1939 but, because of the outbreak of World War II, it was not staged until 1942, when it was performed on alternating nights with another Coward play, ''Present Laughter''. The t ...

'' * Queenie Pickering, a character from Emma Carroll's book Letters From The Lighthouse

External links

"Queenie" entry on Nameberry
Given names Feminine given names Filipino feminine given names Lists of people by nickname {{given-name-stub