Desdemona originates in Greek language and means "afraid of God". It is the name of a famous character in William Shakespeare's play Othello. Desdemona is a beautiful woman from Venice, Othello's wife, who is eventually suffocated by her husband, who mistakenly believed she was an adulteress. The name has been used frequently as a fictional character ever since, but it has never become overly popular as a feminine given name in reality.