Iris has also found currency as a modern girl's name. Like Irene, she was also a goddess and was in effect (quite literally) a personified rainbow. As such she carried the messages of the gods to men across a multicoloured bridge on a kind of celestial shuttle service
between sky and earth. She was the daughter of the Titan Thaumas and the Oceanid Electra. Her name actually means 'rainbow' (iris), and perhaps we should not overlook the significant name of her father (Thaumas means 'wonderful'). Twentieth-century Irises get their name not from the messenger of the gods but from the flower so called.
