The Tiffany Problem

The “Tiffany Effect,” sometimes called the Tiffany Problem or Tiffany Paradox, refers to a conflict between our perception of history and historical reality.

This term was coined by a science fiction and fantasy author named Jo Walton, and further popularized by an historical romance author named Nicola Cornick to describe her frustration with names that are seemingly out of place within a given chronological setting, but which are actually historically accurate.

In this case, Tiffany is a name that feels quite modern (Breakfast at Tiffany’s re-popularized the name in the 1960s), but it was actually also semi-popular way back in 1600 when it started to arrive in the English-speaking world from Old French, though it was used in Greek as far back as the 12th century.