Talk:Claudia

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Claudia's age[edit]

Hi. The article states that the character is a five year-old. I'm not proud to say that I haven't read the book, I've only seen the movie. In it, Kirsten Dunst, who portrays Claudia, is 12 years old. Is the age mentioned in the article (five) coming from the book then? Perhaps the movie has altered this in order to be able to get the dramatic effect it wanted (being that it would be difficult to get a five year-old actress to portray convincingly the mature Claudia). If that was the case, this should be mentioned specifically in the article. Regards, Redux 02:20, 7 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Actually, reading the book I believed her age was 9...? Kendra 03:07, 4 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Lame? No. Protection (by enclosing something; fencing)[edit]

"The literal meaning of the name Claudia is "lame," due to the physical disability of the Emperor Claudius."

The name had been around for centuries before the emperor was born - Claudius appears to come from the word for lame 'claudus', but I don't think we can credit the emperor as the originator of this meaning.

It is factually inaccurate to say that the meaning of the word is due to the emperor Claudius. The fact is that the name and the meaning of the name had been firmly established well before. The sentence with the word due must be changed. I can not stress enough the fact that it was a coincidence that the emperor with the name Claudius (one name of many) just happened to suffer from several birth defects in effect making him lame. The surviving documents believed to have been writen by Claudius refer directly to this fact and its humor as felt by the emperor.

Hmmm...I agree. Indeed, I'm certain he was not the first with the name, aside from the fact that the phrasing existed. Michael 07:04, 24 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Exactly. The founder of the Roman Empire, Attius Clausus, romanized his Sabine name to Appius Claudius, being the first Claudius. He was not disabled at all and lived centuries before the famous disabled Claudius. It is quite intriguing that the confusion still exists, based on the popularity of the famous disabled Claudius, who certainly did not get his name from his disabilities (many noble men were named Claudius before him), and on the similarity between the words claudico and claudo. In fact, Claudius comes from Clausus which comes from claudo, which means to enclose, close, conclude or block. So the name Claudius probably appeared with a sense of land ownership that, back then, was strongly related to the ability to protect such land. That makes perfect sense with the exact timing of the birth of an empire (the Roman Empire, founded by Appius Claudius).

The name Claudius was such a desired name in the Roman Empire (hence, among Latin speakers who knew all the possible meanings of the word) that people who could not use it as a family name (first form of the name), began to use it as given name. Freed slaves would keep this name (given by their former owners) only for its status. For such a desperately desired name, the meaning of "lame" doesn't make any sense at all. The name Claudia comes from claudo, not claudico, and follows the meaning of enclosing, "fencing" (sealing an area with a barrier; for example, fenced land) and could even be related to the English "to close". Claudia means "enclose" in the sense of keeping/protecting, originally wealth/land, as it was the name of the elite during the birth and growth of an empire. If we are looking for the meaning of Claudia, it is related to protection, especially land/home delimitation and protection.