Gladys (given name)

It has sometimes been regarded as the Welsh form of the name Claudia, though that association has been debated.

An increase in usage after 1990 is associated with the popularity of Argentinean singer Gladys Nelly del Carmen Jiménez, who performs under the stage name Gladys, la Bomba Tucumana.

[2] The name was also well-used in African and South American countries and elsewhere in the middle and late 20th century.

Other feminine names ending in the letter s were also in vogue in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Some sources have also noted the similarity in sound between Gladys and the etymologically unrelated words glad and gladiolus flower.

An illustration from an edition of Gladys the Reaper , an 1860 romance novel by Anne Beale .
Gladys Deacon (1881–1971) by Giovanni Boldini , in 1901.
Gladys Vanderbilt (1886–1965) , an American heiress and socialite, painted by John Singer Sargent in 1906.
Gladys Cooper (1888–1971), a British actress, photographed c. 1910.
American actress Gladys Hulette (1896–1991), and the dog Panthus in a scene from Prudence the Pirate from the October 21, 1916 issue of Moving Picture World .
Gladys Leslie (1899–1976), American actress, pictured in a role in 1921.
American actress Gladys Walton (1903–1993), in 1921.
Gladys Zender (born 1939), Peruvian model and beauty queen, pictured in 1957.
Gladys Knight (born 1944), an American soul singer, pictured in 1969.
Argentinean singer Gladys Jiménez (born 1965), who performs under the stage name Gladys, la Bomba Tucumana, in 2014.