A female name. Greek Κασσάνδρα, the name of the prophetic d. of Priam and Hecuba. The Trojan war was a favourite theme of medieval poets and romancers, and medieval sympathies seem to have been entirely with the Trojans; we thus find Cassandra, like Hector q.v., a common christian name in the 13th and 14th C. It is first recorded about 1207, and though it became less common in the 15th and subsequent centuries, it never quite died out. In the 17th C it is found in Lincs, sometimes in the form Cassandry; in the 18th and early 19th C it is found in Hants, the most notable example being Cassandra Elizabeth Austen, the elder sister of Jane Austen. The surnames Cash, Cass, Case, Casson are derived from the diminutive Cass.

Cassandra Curia Regis Rolls 1207, 1210-13, Feudal Aids 1302-3, Hundred Rolls 1273. Casse Hundred Rolls 1273. Cassander Poll Tax of West Riding of Yorkshire 1379 1379.

In Greek, ‘helper of men’: cf. Alexander. Now rare, it appeared in England in the middle of C16; Jane Austen’s sister bore it (Yonge). From that figure in Classical mythology of whom Sir Paul Harvey treats thus:—‘Cassandra, daughter of Priam, King of Troy, received the gift of prophecy from Apollo, who was enamoured of her. But as she slighted him, the god contrived that no trust should be placed in her predictions. After the fall of Troy she fell to the lot of Agamemnon, who took her back to Greece and to whom she foretold the calamities that awaited him. She was murdered by Clytemnestra.’ Fig., Cassandra is used in much the same pejorative manner as Jeremiah.

Mr. Arthur translates this name ‘inflaming one with love.’ It is the feminine of Κασσανδερ, from κασσα a harlot, ανηρ, ανερος, ανδρος, a man.

A Greek name, meaning: Who excites love. Legendary proph­etess whose predictions, always realized, always were discredited when made.