A historic name

Now most associated with P&O the name ORIANA is a actually a rarely used feminine name of European origin, its male equivalent is Orian and Dorian.

Although its exact origin is unknown its widely assumed that it came from Latin although it is also claimed that its comes from the Irish word for gold, Óir.
The name first came to prominence in the 16th century with the Spanish writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo in his first printed version of Amadis de Gaula,which he claimed was in fact originally created by the Portuguese Trovador João Lobeira.
In the story Oriana is the heir to the throne of Great Britain and Amadis's true love.

A depiction of the mythical Oriana.

Sometime later during the late 1500's the name would appear again as a nickname for Queen Elizabeth I as My fair Oriana.

Queen Elizabeth I

More recently the name would become familiar to Portuguese children from the fairytale book A fada Oriana written by renowned Portuguese writer and poet Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen written in 1958

In terms of ships there have been at least 3 previous ships to bare the name the first being the Pacific Steam Navigation Company's 1906 built ORIANA which was used on the company's UK to South America route

A postcard showing SS ORIANA (1906) at La Rochelle, France.

10 Years later the Royal Navy launched its HMS ORIANA one of its Moon class destroyers.

The ship had a short service life being sold for scrap in 1921.

HMS ORIANA.
Of course no history of ORIANA would be complete without mention of ORIANA's predecessor
Completed in 1960 the last ship to display the Orient Line livery she also holds the record for the fastest ship to have served P&O being able to achieve 30 knots in favorable conditions.

The launch of ORIANA November 1959.

The ship remained in P&O service until 1986 after which the ship changed owners many times before ending her days being scrapped in 2004.

ORIANA keeping both company tradition a and proud name alive.

The greatest ORIANA in Funchal.