Mavis

Mavis is a female name. Its usage was initiated by Marie Corelli's 1895 novel The Sorrows of Satan1 which featured a character named Mavis Clare whose first name is said to be "rather odd" but suitable for Miss Clare as "she sings quite as sweetly as any thrush". Corelli patently was utilizing the common noun mavis2 which refers to the song thrush and was long obsolete by the 19th century but known from its poetic use as in Robert Burns' Ca' the Yowes ("Hark the mavis evening sang/Sounding Clouden's woods amang") written in 1794; also the popular love song "Mary of Argyle", written circa 1850 by lyricist Charles Jefferys features the line: "I have heard the mavis singing its love-song to the morn."