Meade Family

The **Meade Family** is one of the main families in *The Vampire Diaries*. The Meade Family is not considered one of the Founding Families in the series. The family originally comes from both England and Ireland. The Meade has been linked with the **Salvatore**, **Gilbert**, **Lockwood**, **Fell**, and **Forbes** families since the mid 1800's. The Meade family also has a strange connection to the **Mikaelson Family**.

Like the Petrova family, the Meade family is also known for having a bloodline of Doppelgängers, known as the Meade Doppelgängers, starting from their earliest known ancestor, Ophelia.

As of now, Christine and her son Alexei are the last living members of the Meade family. Christine married Stefan making her a part of the **Salvatore Family**.

## Family Members

* **Sebastian Meade**: Sebastian Lysander Meade is the father of Ophelia Meade.
* **Lavinia Meade**: Lavinia Meade is the mother of Ophelia Meade and the wife of Sebastian Meade. She suffered five miscarriages before giving birth to Ophelia.
* **Ophelia Meade**: Ophelia is the daughter of Sebastian and Lavinia Meade. She is the first of the known Meade Doppelgängers.
* **Unnamed Husband of Ophelia**: Ophelia's husband is never named but referenced throughout the series. We can assume that they kept Ophelia's surname as all of Ophelia's descendants carry the name Meade.
* **Unknown Children of Ophelia**:
* **Adele Meade**:
* **Sydney Carton Meade**:
* **Christine Meade**: Christine is the daughter of Adele and Sydney Carton Meade. She was adopted into the Blake Family after her parents were murdered. She eventually married into the Salvatore Family by marrying Stefan Salvatore.
* **Alexei Salvatore**: Alexei is the son of Stefan and Christine. He is named after Stefan's best friend Lexi.

## Relatives

* **Stefan Salvatore**: Stefan is the husband of Christine Meade,

## Surname

* This interesting name, with variant spellings Meade, Mead, Meads and Medd, has two distinct possible origins, the first and most likely being an English topographical name from residence, in or by a meadow. The derivation in this case is from the old English pre 7th Century "moed", (Medieval English "mede"), a meadow and John Atemede, witness - the 1248 "Fine Court Rolls of Essex" is the earliest recorded name-bearer.
* The second possibility is that the name originated as a metonymic occupational name for a brewer or seller of "Mead", a fermented beverage made from honey and water, often with spices added, the derivation being from the old English "meodu", mead.

## Trivia

* The Meade family is known for giving their children names of characters from famous Literature
	+ All known members of the Meade Family have followed this tradition, even one of the women who married into the family:
		- Christine Lucie Meade was named after Christine Daáe  from *The Phanotom of the Opera* and Lucie Manette from Charles Dickens' book *A Tale of Two Cities*
		- Ophelia Viola Meade was named after the two Shakespearean characters: Ophelia from *Hamlet* and Viola from *Twelfth Night*
		- Sydney Carton Meade was named after the character of Sydney Carton from Charles Dickens‘ novel, *A Tale of Two Cities*.
		- Adele Josephine Meade was named after Adele Verans, the young French ward of Mr. Rochester in the novel *Jane Eyre* by Charlotte Brontë and Josephine March, the main character of Louisa May Alcott's novel *Little Women*
	+ Chris and Stefan break this tradition by naming their son after Stefan's best friend Lexi instead

## References

1. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine\_Daa%C3%A9
2. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The\_Phantom\_of\_the\_Opera
3. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucie\_Manette
4. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles\_Dickens
5. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A\_Tale\_of\_Two\_Cities
6. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William\_Shakespeare
7. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophelia
8. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamlet
9. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viola\_(Twelfth\_Night)
10. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelfth\_Night
11. ↑ https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney\_Carton
12. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane\_Eyre
13. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte\_Bront%C3%AB
14. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisa\_May\_Alcott
15. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little\_Women
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