Gladys’ Notebook: Personalized Journal for Gladys
Gladys' Notebook puts her name front and center, written in flowing script across a soft watercolor apple blossom design.
- 160 lined pages
- 6" x 9" paperback
- Watercolor apple blossom cover with "Gladys' Notebook" on the front
- Printed and shipped by Amazon
Gladys: meaning and origin
Gladys comes from the Old Welsh name Gwladus, probably from gwlad, “country”, Behind the Name explains, though it may also have been adopted as a Welsh form of Claudia. Saint Gwladys, a Welsh queen of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, was the mother of Saint Cadoc. Wikipedia says the name was popularized in the late 1800s by romance novels, from Gladys of Harlech (1858) to Ouida’s Puck (1870), and that it was considered pretty, exotic and unlike other names in use at the time.
Nicknames and variants
Gladys has no common nicknames in the sources, but it has spellings: Wikipedia gives Gladis, and Behind the Name lists the Welsh Gwladys and the Old Welsh Gwladus. Australians had their own pet form for one famous bearer: singer Gladys Moncrieff was known as “Our Glad”.
Famous people named Gladys
Gladys Knight, the “Empress of Soul”, recorded hits for three decades with her family group Gladys Knight & the Pips, topped the Billboard Hot 100 with “Midnight Train to Georgia”, and has won seven Grammy Awards. Mathematician Gladys West worked on models of the shape of the Earth and on satellite geodesy models that were later incorporated into GPS, and was inducted into the US Air Force Hall of Fame in 2018. And Gladys Moncrieff was “Australia’s Queen of Song”, famous as Teresa in The Maid of the Mountains, which she first performed in Melbourne in 1921.
Is Gladys a popular name?
Gladys peaked in the early 20th century. US Social Security data has it at its best rank, 14th, in the 1900s, 21st in the 1910s, and with its biggest count in the 1920s, when more than 72,000 American girls were named Gladys. It fell to 68th in the 1930s and 143rd in the 1940s before leaving the top 200.
Gladys trivia
Gladys is often linked to a flower it has nothing to do with. Wikipedia notes that the name has often been associated with the gladiolus, and that some sources point to its similarity in sound to glad and gladiolus, even though the words are etymologically unrelated.
Gift ideas that suit a Gladys
- For a soul music fan. Lyrics and playlists, in honor of Gladys Knight.
- For a math or science student. Equations and maps, for a name shared with GPS pioneer Gladys West.
- For a gardener. A notebook for a name long linked to the gladiolus.
- For a Welsh family. Gladys comes from the Old Welsh Gwladus.
How Gladys can use it
Any Gladys, of any age. The 6" x 9" size is roomy enough for proper writing and small enough for a handbag or school bag. With 160 plain lined pages there’s no fixed layout, so it can be a diary, a gratitude journal, a study notebook, a recipe book or a home for to-do lists. Notebooks tend to multiply in drawers, but one with her name on the front is instantly hers.
The little things that make it hers
There’s something about seeing your own name in print. It makes a notebook feel like it belongs to you, which is a good reason to fill it. It also means Gladys can pick hers out of a pile in a second, at school, at work or on the kitchen counter.
Frequently asked questions
How big is Gladys’ Notebook? About the size of a trade paperback book: 6 x 9 inches (15.2 x 22.9 cm), 160 lined pages.
Where do I buy it? It’s sold on Amazon in the US, Australia and the UK. Amazon prints and ships each copy and handles delivery and returns.
Do you have other names? Yes, the same apple blossom design comes in hundreds of girls’ names. Start at all name notebooks or our personalized name notebooks guide.
Get Gladys' Notebook on Amazon
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