Geraldine

Geraldine is a girl's and boy's baby name of Germanic origin, a feminine form of Gerald — from the Old High German Gerwald, combining ger ("spear") and wald ("rule"), meaning "rule of the spear." It was coined as a feminine form in the 16th century by the Earl of Surrey in a poem for Lady Elizabeth Fitzgerald.

Geraldine was a U.S. top-25 girls' name from the 1920s through the 1940s. Comedian Flip Wilson's character Geraldine Jones — "The devil made me do it!" — gave the name a comedic energy that defined 1970s television. The nickname Geri or Jerry keeps it accessible; the full form has a stately old-world grandeur.