Joan of Arc

Etymology
Appellativisation of (Jeanne d'Arc), the name of a 15th century French folk heroine revered as a martyr.

The name itself is a. According to surviving signatures, her given name was, feminine form of  (cognate in English to ). In the English language, her first name has been repeated as Joan since the fifteenth century because that was the only English equivalent for the feminine form of during her lifetime,  not being attested until later. She did not come from a place called Arc; d'Arc was attributed because of her father's surname, which was most likely. Apostrophes were never used in fifteenth-century French surnames, which sometimes leads to confusion when analyzing such names. See Wikipedia for more.

Noun

 * 1)  A brave, visionary, or martial woman.