The more English “Easter” had a longer survival, but this arose from its having become confounded with Esther. To this mistake it owes the fact that it lived till the commencement of the present century:
“April, 1505. Christened Easter, daughter of Thomas Coxe, of Wapping.”—Stepney.
“May 27, 1764. Buried Easter Lewis, aged 56 years.”—Lidney, Glouc.
“July 27, 1654. Married Thomas Burton, marriner, and Easter Taylor.”—St. Peter, Cornhill.
Epiphany, or Theophania (shortened to Tiffany), was popular with both sexes, but the ladies got the chief hold of it.
“Megge Merrywedyr, and Sabyn Sprynge,
Tiffany Twynkeler, fayle for no thynge,”
says one of our old mysteries. This form succumbed at the Reformation. Tyffanie Seamor appears as defendant about 1590, however (“Chancery Suits: Eliz.”), and in Cornwall the name reached the seventeenth century:
“1594, Nov. 7. Baptized Typhenie, daughter of Sampson Bray.
“1600, June 21. Baptized Tiffeny, daughter of Harry Hake.”—St. Columb Major.
The following is from Banbury register: