My name, Gabrielle was given to me in honor of Gabriel Péri, a prominent French Communist journalist and politician.
Péri distinguished himself as an expert in the field of diplomatic and international relations and was a strident anti-fascist. He denounced both Benito Mussolini’s invasion of Ethiopia and France’s non-intervention in the Spanish Civil War. Péri was also a prominent opponent of the Nazi regime in Germany.
My nickname Gabi was originally spelled Gaby by my parents. When I was a teenager and it was my time to rebel, rather than become a conservative fundamentalist warmonger I changed the spelling of my nickname to Gabi with an i.
My middle name is Nora, after the play’s protagonist in A Dollhouse, the 1879 play by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. Nora is considered an early feminist character in a play which criticizes the traditional roles of men and women in Victorian marriage.
For some related background family history, see Encircled by My Heritage, which I wrote in 1988 when I was a senior in college.