Where the name comes from

Ancient Greek root: the Greeks named the bird pelekan (used by Aristotle) because its long, heavy, hooked bill was thought to resemble the shape of an axe or hatchet (pelekys).

• Latin and Old English: the word passed into Late Latin as pelecanus. It then entered Old English as pellicane before shifting into Middle English and modern English as “pelican”.

Old English root: “queen” comes from Old English cwēn, “woman, wife, queen”, from Proto-Germanic kwēniz and the ancient root gʷēn, “woman”. The same root gave Greek gynē, so the first queens were simply “the woman”: the lady of the house who rules it.

• Through the ages: cwēn became Middle English quene and then modern “queen”. Its old sister word cwene (“woman”) went another way, which is why “queen” alone kept the crown.

Queens of Africa: in Egypt, Hatshepsut ruled as pharaoh in her own right (about 1479 to 1458 BC) and built the great temple at Deir el-Bahari; Nefertiti, Great Royal Wife of Akhenaten, gave the world its most famous royal portrait; Nefertari was so loved by Ramesses II that he carved her a temple at Abu Simbel; and Cleopatra VII was the last pharaoh of Egypt.

• Kandake: the title of the warrior queens of Kush (the “Candace” of the Bible). Kandake Amanirenas fought Rome to a standstill around 25 BC.
• Makeda: in Ethiopian tradition, the Queen of Sheba who travelled to King Solomon and founded a line of kings.
• Nzinga of Ndongo and Matamba (Angola) out-negotiated and out-fought the Portuguese for forty years; Amina of Zazzau led Hausa armies; Yaa Asantewaa, Asante queen mother, led the 1900 War of the Golden Stool.

Put them together: PeliQueen = pelekan + cwēn, “the axe-billed woman who reigns”. The hatchet-beaked lady of the bayou, pearls on and magnolias in her feathers. Long live the Queen. 👑