Portia is a feminine given name taken from the name of the Roman Porcia gens, which was ultimately derived from the Latin porcus, or pig. It is best known as a character who disguises herself as a man to act as a lawyer and save the life of the defendant in William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. Porsha is a modern spelling variant.[1]
 | |
| Gender | Female |
|---|---|
| Language(s) | Latin |
| Origin | |
| Meaning | Pig |
Women
- Portia (wife of Brutus) or Porcia, the wife of Roman senator Marcus Junius Brutus
- Portia Arthur (born 1990), Ghanaian author, writer and reporter
- Portia Dawson, American actress
- Portia de Rossi or Portia DeGeneres, Australian-born actress
- Portia Doubleday, American actress
- Portia Geach (1873–1959), Australian artist and feminist
- Portia Holman (1903–1983), Australian child psychiatrist
- Portia Mansfield (1887–1979), American dance educator and choreographer
- Portia Robinson (1926–2023), Australian historian
- Portia Holmes Shields, American academic administrator
- Portia Simpson-Miller, political leader of Jamaica's People's National Party and Prime Minister of Jamaica
- Portia White, Canadian singer
- Portia Zvavahera (born 1985), Zimbabwean painter
Pen name
- Portia, pen name of Abigail Adams (1744–1818)
- Portia, pen name of Grizelda Elizabeth Cottnam Tonge (1803–1825)
Fictional
- Portia (The Merchant of Venice), a character in William Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice
- Portia Quayne, the protagonist in The Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen
- Portia Gibbons, character on The Mighty B!
- Portia, a minor character in The Hunger Games
- Portia Copeland, a character in Carson McCullers' novel The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
- Portia Blake, the lead character in the American radio and television soap opera Portia Faces Life
- Portia, a spider protagonist in Children of Time, a novel by Adrian Tchaikovsky
- Portia, Door's mother in Neverwhere, a novel by Neil Gaiman
Notes
- ^ Hanks, Patrick; Hardcastle, Kate; Hodges, Flavia (2006). Oxford Dictionary of First Names. Oxford University Press. p. 60. ISBN 0-19-861060-2.
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