Tamsin Meaning — Origin & Biblical Significance

Tamsin is a medieval English feminine of Thomas, contracted from Thomasina and preserved chiefly in Cornwall and Devon, where the parish registers are full of it from the sixteenth century onward. Its meaning is therefore Thomas's meaning: from the Aramaic te'oma, 'twin,' which the Gospels translate for Greek readers as Didymus.

That translation is given three times in John, and each time Thomas is about to do something characteristic. It is Thomas who says, when Jesus resolves to go back to Judea where they had just tried to stone him, 'Let us also go, that we may die with him' (John 11:16) — courage, not doubt. It is Thomas who admits he does not know where Jesus is going, prompting 'I am the way, the truth, and the life' (John 14:6).

And it is Thomas who refuses second-hand testimony about the resurrection until he is invited to put his finger into the print of the nails — and then gives the highest confession in the Gospel: 'My Lord and my God' (John 20:28). The man remembered for doubting produced the sentence the whole book was written to establish.

Tamsin in use is light and modern-sounding despite being five centuries old. Tam and Tammy are the short forms, though Tamsin is short enough to need neither. Thomasina is the formal version; Tamzin a common British spelling.