Munch; Roscoe; Keightley; Marryat, _Jutland_.
SECTION VIII.—_Louis._
With the throne of the Franks, the Karlingen took their favourite prefix
of the old Salic line, _hlod_.
This word, the same in root as the Sanscrit _çru_, Greek κλύω (kluo),
Latin _cluo_, Anglo-Saxon _hlowan_, may possibly have been originated by
the cow, to whose voice, in our own language, the verb _to low_ is now
restricted. All mean to make a noise; and the dignity of that noise
increased, for κλυτός (klutos) was Greek for renowned, κλέος, fame, as
we saw when dealing with Cleomenes, Cleopatra, &c.; and in Latin,
_clueo_, was to be famous, _clientes_ or _callers_ beset the honoured
man, and _laus_ was praise or fame; and so not only have we _loud_ in
English, _lyde_ in the North, for the ordinary adjective, but _hlod_ or
_hlud_ was the old German term for renown, and _los_ for which French
knights afterwards fought and bled, and a score of other words, less
relevant to our purpose, will easily suggest themselves as current in
every European tongue, first cousin words from _laus_ or from _hlod_.
The rough aspirate at the beginning was once an essential portion of the
word, and among the Franks it must have been especially harsh, since
their contemporary Latinists always render it by _ch_.
Chlodio, as they call him, is numbered as the second of the long-haired
Salians, the father of ‘Meroveus,’ and leader of the incursions of the
Franks about 428. His grandson married the Burgundian maiden, called by
the Valkyr title of Hlodhild, or Chlodechilda, as the Latin civilization
of her day called her, when it hailed her with delight as the converter
of her husband to Christianity. Although canonized, her name was not in
great use for a good many generations, and to this she probably owes it
that, when it was revived as belonging to a royal saint, for the benefit
of the daughter of the good dauphin, son of Louis XV., it had not been
shorn of its aspirate like all the cognate ones. It has since become a
favourite with French ladies.
┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐
│ French. │ Italian. │ German. │
│Clotilde │Clotilda │Klothilde │
└───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘
The husband of Clotilda was known to his own fierce Franks as Hluodowig,
or famous war, or consecration; but when his success after his prayer to
the God of Hluodhild had brought him to abjure his Teuton gods, and
receive baptism from St. Remi, the pope accepted the only orthodox
sovereign of Europe as most Christian king and eldest son of the Church
by the appellation of Chlodovisus, or Clovis, the retranslation into
French.
Among his successors was found many a _fainéant_ who had nothing of him
but his prefix and his long hair, and one who is counted as Clovis II.
When these had passed away, Charles the Great gave the name of the great
founder of the former line to one of his younger sons, the only one who
lived to succeed him.
What Hlodwig Haman’s War was called in his own day may be seen by the
curious barbaric Latin poem sung by his soldiers in honour of their
exploit in setting him at liberty, when he had been treacherously made
prisoner by Adelgis, Duke of Beneventum, a song that shows Latin in its
first step towards the tongues of southern Europe.
‘Audite omnes fines terre errore cum tristitia,
Quale scelas fuit factum in civitas Beneventum
Lluduicum comprenderunt, sancto pio Augusto.’
‘Lluduicus’ is now known to the French as Louis le Debonnaire, a title
that some ascribe to his piety, others to his weakness. The Germans took
him as Ludwig, and thenceforth these two varieties held a double course,
while the softer Provençals made him Aloys, which is now regarded, owing
to a saint of its own, as a separate name. Three monarchs of the Karling
line bore this favourite name, and the fifth descendant of Hugh Capet
brought it in again, to come to its especial honour with the saintly
Crusader, ninth king so called, from whom it became so essentially
connected with French royalty, that after the succession of the
Bourbons, no member of the royal family was christened without it.
Indeed, hardly any one of rank or birth failed to have it among their
many names, till its once-beloved sound became a peril to the owners'
heads in the Revolution, and it has in the present day arrived at
sharing the unpopularity of François.
Elsewhere it is chiefly a French importation; the Welsh use Lewis as an
Anglicism of Llewellyn, and the Irish of Lachtna; and the Scots make
rather more use of it from their old alliances and connection through
the Scottish guard. The Scottish Lodowick is probably taken from the
northern form of the original word; just as with the Italians, Luigi is
the mere Italian version of Louis, Lodovico the inheritance from the
Lombards or Germans, and in this shape was long current in northern
Italy, belonging in particular to the unfortunate Sforza, of Milan, who
perished in the first shock between France and Italy.
┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐
│ English. │ Breton. │ Scottish. │ French. │
│Ludovick │Loiz │Lodowick │Clovis │
│Lewis │Loizik │ │Louis │
│Louis │ │ │Looys │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│ Provençal. │ Italian. │ Spanish. │ Portuguese. │
│Aloys │Lodovico │Clodoveo │Luiz │
│Chlodobeu │Luigi │Luis │ │
│Lozoic │Aloïsio │ │ │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│ German. │ Swiss. │ Swedish. │ Dutch. │
│Ludwig │Ludi │Ludwig │Lodewick │
│Luz │ —————— │ │Lood │
│Lotze │ Bavarian. │ │ │
│ │Wickl │ │ │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│ Polish. │ Bohemian. │ Slovak. │ Hungarian. │
│Ludvik │Ludvik │Ludvick │Lajos │
│Ludvis │ │Ljudevit │ │
└───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘
The Provençal Aloys apparently was the first shape that threw out a
feminine, the Aloyse or Heloïse, whose correspondence with Abelard was
the theme of so much sentiment, and whose fame, brought by the archers
to Scotland, no doubt was the origin of the numerous specimens of Alison
found in that romantic nation. According to Dugdale, the wife of the
Norman William Mallet was Hesilia or Helewise, no doubt the same as
Heloïse. Heloïse had nearly died away in France when Rousseau’s romance
of _La Nouvelle Heloïse_ brought it as well as Julie into fashion again.
The votaresses of St. Louis had, however, chosen to come much nearer to
his name, and by the end of the fifteenth century Louise was in great
vogue at the French court; it travelled everywhere with French
princesses, came to us with the House of Hanover, and has now a thorough
hold of all ranks.
┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐
│ English. │ French. │ Italian. │ Spanish. │
│Louisa │Louise │Luisa │Luisa │
│Louie │Lisette │Eloïsa │ ————————— │
│ ————————— │Loulou │ │ Portuguese. │
│ Scotch. │Heloise │ │Luiza │
│Leot │Louison │ │Luizinha │
│Alison │ │ │ │
│Ailie │ │ │ │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│ German. │ Swedish. │ Polish. │ Lettish. │
│Ludowicke │Ludovica │Ludvika │Lusche │
│Luise │Lovisa │Ludoisia │Lasche │
│ │Lova │Lodoiska │ │
└───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘
The eldest son of the great Clovis was Hlodmir, or Clodomir, great fame,
made more euphonious in German as Ludomir, and furnishing such surnames
as Luttmer and Lummers.
All his sons were murdered by their uncles, except one, who was shorn of
his long locks to save his life, and was put into a convent, where he
became a holy man, was canonized, and his harsh name of Hlodowald, or
Clodvald, became the pleasant one of St. Cloud, best known for the sake
of the palace near Paris. Another St. Chlodvald, of Metz, is commonly
called St. Clou.
One of the uncles who killed the poor boys was Hlodhari, or Chlotachari,
famous warrior, a terrible savage, but the last survivor of the
brothers, and counted in the Frank history as Chlother, or Clotaire.
Others of his race likewise were so baptized, and when the name passed
to the Karlingen it was as Lothar. So was called the son of Louis le
Debonnaire, whose portion, known at first as Lotharingen, came to be in
Latin Lotharingia, and still remains Lorraine. Lothar did not pass away
from Germany; one emperor, after the separation, was so called; and it
fell into many forms of surnames, in especial into Luther; and when
Martin Luther had rendered this almost saintly to his countrymen, they
over-hastily explained it by _lother_, pure; while the Bohemians found a
similar word in their own tongue, meaning a swan. Oddly enough, Huss
signified a goose, and the saying arose that the Bohemian goose had let
fall a quill, which had been picked up by a swan of far more distant
flight.
Luther has a few namesakes in his own country on his own account, but,
in general, Chloter has died out of Christian nomenclature.
┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐
│ English. │ French. │ German. │ Spanish. │
│Lothario │Clotaire │Lothar │Clotario │
│Lowther │Lothaire │Luther │ ————————— │
│ │ │ ———————— │ Lettish. │
│ │ │ Italian. │Lutters │
│ │ │Lotario │ │
└───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘
Chlodoswintha, or famous height, was a Frank princess, without namesakes
beyond her own race; in fact, the use of this prefix seems to have been
exclusively Frank.[144]
-----
Footnote 144:
Sismondi, _Histoire des François_, _Littérature du Midi de l'Europe_;
Friedrich Pott; Michaelis; Thierry, _Récits des Temps Mérovingiens_.
CHAPTER VI.
DESCRIPTIVE NAMES.
SECTION I.—_Nobility._
The names connected with any great cycle of interest have been nearly
exhausted, and only those remain that seem to have been chosen more for
sense than connection, though afterwards continued for the sake of their
owners. Several of our own truly English or Anglo-Saxon names are among
these, and in especial those with the prefix meaning noble, Æthel,
Athel, Adel, Edel, or in High German, Adal. It is thought to come from
the universal word _atta_, a father, and thus to convey that the owner
has forefathers, the essence of nobility, as with the _pater_ and
patrician of Rome, and the _hidalgo_, the son of something, of Spain.
Adel, or Æthel, is a favourite prefix in all the Teutonic branches
except the Scandinavian, where it does not occur at all. It is
essentially Gothic,—witness Athalaric, the formidable but gentle
conqueror of Rome, who well deserved his name of Noble-King. He is
generally, however, called Alaric, and his name has been deduced from
_al_, all; but the right reading seems to be that which identifies his
appellation with our own English Æthelric, and the Uadalrich of Germany.
Udalrich, archbishop of Augsburg till the year 973, is notable as the
first person canonized by the pope according to the present forms, which
could not, however, have included the half-century of posthumous
probation, as he was placed in the calendar only twenty years after his
death. Contracting his name to Ulrich, Germany made him a favourite
national saint; and we find him and his feminine spread throughout the
countries influenced by the empire, and the feminine particularly
prevalent in Denmark, whither it was carried by German queens. Though
the ensuing table places all the forms of Athalaric together, it should
be kept in mind that the forms beginning with _A_ are the modern
namesakes of the great Goth, those with _U_ and _O_ the votaries of that
saint, and Adelrich is considered as a different name from Ulrich.
┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐
│ English. │ French. │ Italian. │ German. │
│Æthelric │Alaric │Alarico │Adelrich │
│Alaric │Ulric │Ulrico │Alarich │
│Ulrick │Olery │ │Uadalrich │
│ │ │ │Ulrich │
│ │ │ │Alerk │
│ │ │ │Oelric │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│ Bavarian. │ Swedish. │ Frisian. │ Swiss. │
│Rickel │Alarik │Ulrik │Uoli │
│ │Ulrik │Olrick │Ueli │
│ │ │Ulerk │Uerech │
│ │ │Ulk │ │
│ │ │Ucko │ │
│ │ │Ocko │ │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│ Polish. │ Bohemian. │ Slovak. │ Lettish. │
│Ulryk │Ulric │Ureh │Uldriks │
│ │Oldrich │Ulrih │ │
├───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┤
│ FEMININE. │
├───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┤
│ German. │ French. │ Roman. │ Polish. │
│Ulrike │Ulrique │Ulrica │Ulryka │
└───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘
The successor of Alaric, who laid him in his river-grave, is known to us
as Ataulfus. In his own time he was Athaulf, the Noble-Wolf, and his
likeness stands in our own roll of English kings as the father of
Alfred, namely, Æthelwulf; but this good old name was dropped in
England, while its German cousin, in honour of a sainted bishop of Metz,
of the ninth century, became very common in the principalities of the
empire, and was imported with the house of Hanover in the barbarous
Latin form of Adolphus. Its feminine, coined in Germany, is Adolfine,
usually called Dofine, and now extremely common. This may possibly be
the source of the Dolphine given as the name of one of the daughters of
Waltheof, Earl of Northumbria, as the habit of making barbarous
feminines was just beginning in her time.
┌────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┐
│ English. │ French. │ Italian. │ German │ Finn. │
│Ethelwolf │Adolphe │Adolfo │Adolf │Ato │
│Adolphus │ │Udolfo │Odulf │Atu │
│Dolph │ │ │ │ │
└────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┘
Athanagild, or Athalagild, Noble Pledge, was another of these early
Goths, and afterwards we meet the same meaning in Adelgis, or Adelchis,
the brave son of the last Lombardic king, whose noble spirit, under his
misfortunes, is the subject of a fine tragedy of Manzoni. The duke of
Beneventum, who made Louis le Debonnaire prisoner, was Adelgis; but it
is curious to find the soldiers in the dog-latin poem above alluded to,
terming him Adalfieri. Odelgis was old High German.
Æthel was so much used by the royal families of Kent and Wessex, that
the diminutive, Ætheling, was latterly applied to designate the heir to
the crown, and was thus continued even after the Conquest to the son of
Henry I., who perished in the white ship.
Æthelbryht, or Noble Splendour, named our first Christian king of Kent,
also a brother of King Alfred’s, and a missionary of the royal blood of
Northumbria, who preached in southern Germany, and died about the year
700, at Egmond, where, as St. Adelbrecht, he became patron. His name was
taken at baptism by one who became archbishop of Magdeburg, who, in his
turn, bestowed it on his pupil, the Bohemian Woyteich, Army-Help. This
convert was afterwards bishop of Prague, and was martyred near Dantzic
while preaching to the heathen Prussians in 997. Adelbrecht could not
fail to become national wherever the saint had set his foot; and when
shortened to Albrecht, was adopted by Italy, and thence sent to
Jerusalem with a Latin patriarch, who, being beatified, rendered Alberto
freshly popular in the South. Albrecht, and the feminines Alberta and
Albertine, were, however, almost entirely German, until the late Prince
Consort brought the name to England, where it bids fair to become one of
the most frequent of national names. Some fancy it comes from Allbright;
but the German saints, whence it was taken, are evidently direct from
our English Æthelbryht, though in Germany Adelbert and Albrecht are now
treated as two separate names. Bela, which belonged to an excellent
blind king of Hungary, is believed to be the Magyar form of the name.
┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐
│ English. │ French. │ Provençal. │ Italian. │
│Ethelbert │Albert │Azalbert │Albert │
│Albert │Aubert │ │Albertino │
│ │Albret │ │ │
│ │Aubertin │ │ │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│ German. │ Wallachian. │ Finn. │ Danish. │
│Adalbert │Averkie │ │Albert │
│Albrecht │ ————————— │Alpu │Bertel │
│Ulbricht │ Polish. │ │ │
│ │Albert │ │ │
│ │Olbracht │ │ │
└───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘
Æthelred, Noble-speech or counsel, the brother of Alfred, was almost
canonized by his subjects, and is sometimes called Ethered, whence the
Scottish Ethert. The nickname of our last Ethelred was a play on his
name “onreade,” not meaning so much tardy as without counsel—Noble-rede
the Un-reedy. Ethelred must not be confused with Etheldred, the feminine
name, properly Æthelthryth, meaning in Anglo-Saxon the Noble-threatener,
connected with the German Ediltrud, or noble maiden. Most likely names
ending in _trut_ had been brought to England, and as the Valkyr sense
was forgotten, the native meaning of _threat_ was attached to the word,
and the spelling adapted to it. St. Æthelthryth was a queen who must
have been a very uncomfortable wife, and who, finally, retired into a
monastery, getting canonized as St. Etheldreda, and revered as St.
Audry. From the gewgaws sold at her fairs some derive the term tawdry;
and, at any rate, Awdry has never been extinct as a name among the
peasantry, and has of late been revived, though with less popularity
than the other more modern contraction, Ethel, which is sometimes in
modern times set to stand alone as an independent name. Addy is the
common Devonian short for Audrey.
Germans do, however, seem to have used the word without another
syllable, for Adilo, or Odilo, was an old name, and Ado and Addo are
still current in Friesland, no doubt, the same as the Ade of the
Cambrian registers. Adela and Adèle, too, occur very early; indeed,
there is reason to think that just as in England the son was the
Ætheling, in Frankland the daughter was the Adalheit, or the Adelchen.
This word _heit_ is translated as the root of the present German
_heiter_, cheerful, and thus would mean noble cheer; but I suspect it is
rather _heid_, condition, answering to the _hood_ or _head_ at the end
of our abstract nouns, _e. g._ hardihood, and that the princess royal of
each little Frankish duchy or county was thus the ‘Nobleness’ thereof.
All the feudal princes of the tenth and eleventh centuries seem to have
had an Adelheid to offer in marriage, and to have Latinized her in all
manner of ways, while practically they called her Alix (or Alisa in
Lombardy), a name that was naturalized in England, when _Alix la Belle_
married Henry I. Alice is our true English form, though it has been
twisted into Alicia, and then referred for derivation to the Greek
Alexios, so as often to appear in Latin documents of the later middle
ages in the form of Alexia; whereas in earlier times, before its origin
was forgotten, it is translated by Adelicia, Adelisa, or Adelidis.
┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐
│ English. │ French. │ Provençal. │ Italian. │
│Adelaide │Adelaide │Azalaïs │Adelaïda │
│Adeline │Adeline │ │Alisa │
│Adeliza │Adelais │ │ │
│Adela │Adèle │ │ │
│Alice │Alix │ │ │
│Alicia │Aline │ │ │
│Elsie │ │ │ │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│ German. │ Netherlands. │ Slovak. │ Lettish. │
│Adelheid │Adelheid │Adelajda │Audule │
│Adeline │Adelais │ │Addala │
│Adele │ │ │ │
│Else │ │ │ │
│Ilse │ │ │ │
└───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘
The French made great use of all the forms of the name; the Germans, in
honour, perhaps, of the Italian Queen Adelaide—whose adventures before
her marriage with the Emperor Otho were so curious—preferred that
variety, and from them we received it again with our good Queen
Adelaide, from whom it is becoming frequent amongst us. The German Alice
is Else, a favourite old peasant word. This same contraction is common
in northern England, but gets confused with Elizabeth, as in Scotland,
with Alison; and in Ireland, the prevalent Alicia is, perhaps, meant for
Aileen, or Helen.
The Adeleve of early Norman times is probably meant for Æthelgifu,
Noble-gift, a frequent Saxon lady’s name, which we generally call
Ethelgiva.
Æthelwold, the Saxon historian of royal blood, is Noble-power.
Æthelheard, or noble resolution, answers to Adelhard, a cousin of
Charlemagne, and abbot of Corbie, whom his contemporaries glorified as
at once the Augustin, the Antony, and the Jeremiah of his day, and who,
being canonized, left Alard and Alert to Friesland, and Aleardo, Alearda
to Provence.
Æthelstan, the Noble-stone or jewel, was second only to Alfred in
ability and glory, and his name lived on to the Conquest, when it is set
down as Adestan and Adstan.
Adelhelm, the Noble-helmet, named the excellent and poetical Aldhelm,
bishop of Sherborn, from whom the headland on the Dorset coast was once
called St. Aldhelm’s head, but is now corrupted into St. Alban’s head.
Adelgar, or Noble-spear, was chiefly continental, first figuring in the
beautiful Scottish ballad of _Sir Aldingar_, but better known in
Lombardy, where Allighero sprang from it, and gave his patronymic to
Dante Alighieri. Algarotti was another Italian derivative; and in
France, Augier and Augereau; in Germany, Oehlkar, show that it once must
have been much in use. It is not always easy, however, to separate
between the words from Adel and from Hilda. The remaining varieties are—
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Ger. Adelar—Noble eagle │
│ Ger. Adelbar, Alpero—Noble bear │
│ Ger. Adelbold; Eng. Æthelbald—Noble prince │
│ │
│ Ger. Odelburga } │
│ Eng. Æthelburg } Noble defence │
│ │
│ Eng. Æthelburh—Noble pledge │
│ │
│ German. │
│ Adelfrid } │
│ Adalfrid } │
│ Ulfrid } Noble peace │
│ Ulfert } │
│ Olfert } │
│ │
│ Eng. Æthelfledh—Noble increase │
│ Ger. Adelgard—Noble protection │
│ Ger. Adelgund; Fr. Adelgonde—Noble war │
│ │
│ Ger. Adelhild—Noble heroine │
│ Ger. Udalland, Uland—Noble land │
│ Ger. Adelinde, Odelind; Eng. Ethelind (_mod._)—Noble snake │
│ Ger. Adelmann, Ullman—Noble man │
│ Ger. Adelmund; Eng. Edelmund (_Domes._)—Noble protection │
│ Ger. Adelmar; Eng. Ethelmar; Fr. Ademar, Adhemar—Noble │
│ greatness │
│ Ger. Adelschalk—Noble servant │
│ │
│ Ger. Adelswind—Noble strength │
│ Ger. Adeltac—Noble day[145] │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Footnote 145:
Pott; Michaelis; Lappenburg; Butler; Palgrave; Turner.
SECTION II.—_Command._
The Gothic _bidyan_ has resulted in our verb _to bid_, the German
_baten_, the Danish _byde_, besides _bote_, a messenger, and the
_budstick_, bidding-stick, or summons to the muster.
All these were in the sense of command; but from the same root grew the
race of entreating words, the Scandinavian _bede_, German _bitten_, and
English _beg_. When these entreaties were devotional, the Germans made
the verb _beten_, and our term for prayer, _bede_, passed on to the
mechanical appliance for counting beads—the _beads_ of the rosary, while
the pensioner bound to pray for his benefactor was his _bedesman_.
It is doubtful whether this, or the Welsh _bedaws_, life, gave his name
to the Venerable Bæda, but no doubt to himself and his contemporaries it
suggested the idea of prayer. There is no doubt, however, in the case of
Baudhildur, or Bathilda (the commanding heroine), the daughter of king
Nidudr, the lady whom Volundr carried off with him when he fled from her
mother’s cruelty. After her was called Bathilda, an Anglo-Saxon slave,
who was elevated to be the wife of the second Hluodwig, and lived so
holy a life, and exerted herself so much to obtain the redemption of
slaves, that she was canonized, and, as _la reine Bathilde_, was greatly
venerated in the believing days of France. Denmark also used this name,
having probably taken it from England. There ‘Dronning Bothild,’ the
wife of king Ejegod, spread the name among the maidens, so that it
passed to Norway as Bodild, Bodil, and even to the contraction Boel.
Of English birth, too, was the Commanding-wolf—Bedvuolf, or Bodvulf—who,
with his brother, St. Adolf, went, about the end of the sixth century,
to seek religious instruction in Gallia-Belgica. Adolf became bishop of
Maestricht, and eponym to the Adolphuses. Bodvulf came home, and founded
the monastery of Ikano, where he died in 655, and was canonized. The
monastery was destroyed by the Danes, and the situation forgotten, but
the saint’s relics were carried away by the fugitive monks, and
dispersed into various quarters, giving title to four churches in
London, besides St. Botolf’s bridge, commonly called Bottlebridge, in
Huntingdonshire, and St. Botolf’s town, in Lincolnshire, usually known
as Boston, whence was called its American cousin Boston, with little
relation to the saint. The tower of the church of St. Botolf, looking
forth over the Wash, was a valued landmark, and thence the saint was
apparently viewed as a friend of travellers, and connected with the
entrances to cities, much as St. Christopher is elsewhere. Camden even
supposed him to be Boathulf, or boat helper, and his day, the 17th June,
is a market day in Christiania, under the term of Botolsok, or Botsok.
In Jutland there is a church of St. Botolv; and in the North the names
of Botol and Bottel are kept up; while, in England, there only remain to
us the surnames of Bottle and Biddulph. The Old German forms of the two
names above-mentioned are Botzhild, Botzulf; and Botzo, or Boso, a
Commander, was now and then used as a name with them, as in the instance
of the troublesome duke of Burgundy, whom French historians generally
call Boson, and who is apt to be translated by _böse_, wicked.
Boto, Botho, Poto, are also found in Germany, and the very earliest
specimen of this class of name is to be found in Botheric, commanding
king, the name of the governor whose murder in the hippodrome caused
Theodosius to give his bitterly repented command for the massacre of
Thessalonica. Now and then _bot_ occurs at the end of a word, as in the
Spanish prince Sisebuto, the messenger of victory, or victorious
commander.
These are not the same with some that look much like them, derived from
the Northern _bød_, German _badu_, A.G.S. _beado_, war. Beadwig, in the
Wodenic ancestry, is thus battle war, and the Gothic king of Italy,
Totila, is probably made by the Romans from Bødvhar, battle pleader, a
name still used in the North as Bødvar. Bødmod, Bødulf, and Bødhild, or
Bødvild, have also been in use.[146]
-----
Footnote 146:
Munch; Michaelis; Pott; Sismondi; Butler; Camden; Le Beau; Kemble.
SECTION III.—_Brightness._
The root _brâj_ furnished the Greek φλέγεεν, Latin _flagrare_, and
Gothic _bairht_, the Anglo-Saxon _beohrt_, or _byrht_, the Old German
_percht_, and Northern _bjart_.
It is a component of Frank, German, and Anglo-Saxon nomenclature, but is
rarely found in genuine Norsk; the only instance in the _Landnama-bok_
is Biartmar, who is noted as of Irish birth, so may have brought an
Anglo-Saxon name.
Bertha, the most obvious of all the progeny of _biart_, has been treated
of in her character as a personification of the bright Epiphany night,
mixed up with an old epithet of Frigga and with the spinning Holda. So,
in Swabia, these legends have formed a masculine, Berchthold, who has
become the wild huntsman in that quarter. Berchtvold was really an
English prince of the Heptarchy, and Brichtold is in Domesday.
Perahtholt is a veritable Old German name, making the modern
Bartold—Niebuhr’s name,—the Italian Bertaldo, and French Bertould.
Bertalda is not so likely to be the feminine of this word as to come
from Berchthilda, like the name of Bertille, a sainted abbess of
Chelles.
It is not easy to discover whether the most popular of all thus
commencing should be regarded as a single corrupted name, or the produce
of two, of which one has the second syllable _hramn_, a raven, the other
_rand_, a house. The patron saint of all alike is Bertichramnus, bishop
of Mans till 623, and his Latinism leaves no doubt that he was
Bright-raven. It was chiefly popular in France, whence we must have
obtained it, although there is no instance of it in Domesday, and it was
especially glorious in the fourteenth century, for the sake of gallant
Constable du Guesclin, ‘the eagle of Brittany,’ whom Spanish
chroniclers, by a droll perversion of his appellation, called ‘Mosen
Beltran Claquin,’ when he came to fight their battles.
┌────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┐
│ English. │ Scotch. │ French. │ Provençal. │ Italian. │
│Bertram │Barthram │Bertrand │Bertran │Bertrando │
├────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼────────────┤
│ Spanish. │Portuguese. │ German. │ Lusatian. │ Hungarian. │
│Beltran │Bertrao │Bertram │Batram │Bertok │
│ │ │Berdrand │Batramusch │ │
└────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┘
The wolf was sure to accompany the raven; so Perahtolf, or Bertulf, was
canonized as an abbot in Artois, and left the German Bertulf, and our
own Bardolph, the flaming comrade of Falstaff.
Bertwine, or Bright friend, was the St. Bertin of France, and the
Bertuccio of Italy, often found in the old Lombardic towns.
Brihtric was the English earl who so gallantly died in defending England
from the Danes in the unhappy days of Ethelred the Unready, and another
Brihtric was the unsuccessful suitor of Matilda of Flanders, on whom she
wreaked an unworthy vengeance after the Conquest. All the Brihts in
Domesday seem to be of Saxon birth, since they use the English instead
of the Norman French commencement, which was already _Ber_, as in the
instance of Bertrade de Montfort, Bright speech, the countess of Anjou,
who deserted her husband for Philippe I. of France. The remaining forms
are—
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Ger. Bertar; Fr. Berthier—Bright warrior │
│ { Brichteva—Bright gift │
│ { Bricfrid—Bright peace │
│ { Brichtmar—Bright fame │
│ Eng. { Brichsteg—Bright warrior │
│ { Britfleda—Bright increase │
│ { Brichstan—Bright stone │
│ { Bricsteg—Bright maid │
│ Ger. Bertrud—Bright maid │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────┘
_Bert_ is one of the most indispensable conclusions among all the German
range of names, and is far more common there than as a commencement.
Another word meaning bright, or glittering, is the Northern _jar_,
_jor_, _jer_, the German _ir_. Iring, or Irinc, is a semi-mythological
person. Old German tradition declared him to have been the counsellor of
Irnvrit of Thuringia, and that when both had been taken by the Franks,
he was deceived into slaying his sovereign, after which, in his rage, he
killed the victorious Frank, laid him under his master’s body, and then
cut his way through the enemy, and returned home.
He appears again in the _Nibelungen-noth_ as the Markgraf Irinch of
Tenemarche, or Denmark, in company with Irnvrit of Düringen, i.e.
Thuringia: he wounds Hagen, but is slain by him, and lamented over by
Kriemhild. His name was sometimes subsequently used, and is, perhaps,
what French histories call Harenc.
Jørund is a northern name with a similar prefix, and means a brilliant
or glittering man; but it gets called Jøren, and mixed up with Jorgen,
or George.[147]
-----
Footnote 147:
Grimm, _Deutcher Mythologie_, _Deutche Heldensage_; Munch; Alban
Butler; Sismondi; _Ayale-y-z-urita_.
SECTION IV.—_War._
In Ulfilas' Bible, ‘the multitude of the heavenly host’ is translated
‘_Haryis hunniakundis managei_.’ In Anglo-Saxon, an army is _here_, in
old German _heri_, in the North _her_, all perhaps coming from the ear,
and _to hear_, as having been summoned, like the legion from being
chosen. Thence the leader was the English Heretoga, and German Herzog,
finally translated into the Latin _dux_, and becoming political and
territorial. The doings of the _herr_ were expressed by various old
words, of which the Scottish _to harry_ is the direct descendant.
_Heerfurst_, or army leader, may be the Ariovistus of Cæsar.
The single warrior was _har_ in the North, _hari_ in Germany, and as
_ar_ is often found at the end of names. Many German critics translate
the word by the army, instead of the warrior; but Professor Munch
considers that the warrior, _hari_, was the original meaning, and that
_herjar_, his plural, afterwards came to mean the army.
The oldest and most famous of all the family is introduced to us by
Tacitus as Chariovalda, a Batavian prince. It is the hardened sound of
Harivald, Warrior power, or ‘Army wielder,’ a name that the Germans soon
called Heriold, and the North Harald. This soon became one of the most
renowned northern names. Harald Harfagre, or the fair-haired, was he who
vowed never to trim his locks till he was sole king of Norway, and thus
sent Thorer the Silent to Iceland, and Rolf-ganger to Normandy. Harald
Krake, king of Sleswig, was baptized in the presence of Louis le
Debonnaire, and used the already mentioned vow to forsake Thunner,
Scaxnot, and all their works. He afterwards introduced St. Anschar to
Denmark, but like all the first Christian kings of Scandinavia, was
himself expelled from his realm by his subjects. Harald Hardrada, or the
resolute, was the very crown of the poetic sea-kings of Norway, meeting
with romantic adventures in Constantinople, singing the praises of his
Russian bride all across the sea, exchanging gallant messages with his
namesake Harold Godwinson at Stamford Bridge, and dying as poetically as
he had lived at the foot of his banner Landwaster. It was from the Danes
that Harold came to England with the son of Knut, and to the son of Earl
Godwin, the usurper, more than half a Dane in blood and temper, who,
because he died in battle with the Normans, is regarded by the popular
mind as an English patriot, and has in very modern times had a good many
namesakes. Harald, or, as the Frisians call it, Herold, is only properly
national in Scandinavia and the islands from Iceland to Man.
Next in note is what the Franks called Charibert, when it belonged to
the king of Paris, whose daughter brought Christian doctrine to Kent,
and prepared the way for St. Augustine. St. Haribert was archbishop of
Cologne about the year 1000, and at that time the name became extremely
common among the French nobility. A Norman settler had brought it to
England even in the time of Edward the Confessor; and one of the many
Herberts founded a family in Wales, which, in the time of Henry V., was
one of the first to follow the advice to use one patronymic instead of
the whole pedigree of names. It is probably owing to the honours in
various kinds of the branches of this family that Herbert has of late
years become an exceedingly prevalent Christian name in England. Except
that the Frisians call it Harber and Hero, and Italy puts an _o_ at the
end, it has no variations. Herman is confused with Eormen; and the other
forms are—
┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Ger. Herberge—Warrior protection │
│ Ger. Herbold—Warrior prince │
│ Nor. Herbrand; Ger. Herbrand—Warrior sword │
│ Nor. Herbjorn—Warrior bear │
│ Ger. Herdegen—Warrior blade │
│ Ger. Hertag—Warrior day │
│ Nor. Hergils—Warrior pledge │
│ Nor. Herlaug—Warrior drink │
│ Nor. Herleik—Warrior sport │
│ Nor. Herleif—Warrior relic │
│ Ger. Herimar—Warrior greatness │
│ Nor. Hermod; Ger. Hermund; Frank. Charimund—Warrior protection │
│ Nor. Herjolf; Ger. Heriulf; Frank. Chariwulf—Warrior wolf │
│ Ger. Heraric—Warrior king │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
The warrior names were of the fiercest order. Leid (if it do not mean a
road) was the same with the word in modern German, meaning hurt or
mischief, and expressed spite or violence. The North had Liedulf,
afterw—ards contracted into Leiul, and no doubt the Scottish Lyulf, and
German Lethard, Lethild, Laidrad, Laidwald, Laidwig.
In the same spirit we have _neid_ or _nöt_, meaning violence or
compulsion, though it has resulted in the German _neid_, envy, and our
_need_, want. We have it in the name of St. Neot, the relative and
rebuker of King Alfred in his haughty days, and the hero of a legend of
little fishes daily renewed for his food. Also Nidhard was a great
chronicler of Frank history, and left a name surviving as Nyddert, in
Friesland, and cut into Nitz, in Germany. There, too, were Notburg and
Notger, Nidbert in France, and in the North, Notulf, afterwards written
Notto. The terminal _nôt_ is, however, more common.
Wig or Vig is war itself, and is found in the genealogy of Odin. Wægdæg,
or War day, is an ancestor of the Deiran kings.
Vigleîk still subsists in the North, and so does Viglaf, relic of war,
the same as that of Wiglaf, the chronicler.
The other forms are—
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Ger. Wigbert; Fris. Wicbo—Bright war │
│ Nor. Vigbrand—War sword │
│ Ger. Wigbald—War prince │
│ Ger. Wigburg—War protection │
│ Nor. Vigfus—War eagerness │
│ │
│ German. Frisian. Nor. │
│ │
│ Wighard │ Wygard │ Vighard } │
│ Wichhard │ Wiart │ } │
│ Weikard │ Wiert │ } │
│ Wigo │ │ } War firmness │
│ Wigi │ │ } │
│ Viga │ │ } │
│ │
│ { Wigher, Wicher—Warrior │
│ { Wighelm—War helmet │
│ { Wiglind—War serpent │
│ Ger. { Wigmann, Wichman—War man │
│ { Wigmar—War fame │
│ { Wigram—War raven │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
These are almost all German. The terminations in _wig_ are often owing
to German pronunciation of the word _veh_, or _vieh_, consecration, and
sometimes of the northern _veig_, liquor.
The strange northern name of Snorre, famous for the sake of that
Froissart of the North, Snorre Sturleson, comes from _snerra_, strife.
_Styrke_ is the strong, the same word as that in which the old
chroniclers describe William the Conqueror, as ‘so very stark.’ Sterkulv
and a few other forms have been found in the North.
Toke is a very curious old name. It seems to mean the mad or raging,
and, growing into Tyke or Tyge in Denmark, was the name that was
Latinized into Tycho by the celebrated astronomer Brahe, who did not
leave his madness behind him with his name. The famous Jomsburg
sea-rover, a sort of northern Lycurgus of the tenth century, was
Palnatoke, supposed to be properly Toke, the son of Palne. Palne is an
unexplained name used by the Danes, and perhaps borrowed from the Wends;
but there are a few other instances of it, among them the Anglicized
Earl Pallig, the husband of Sweyn’s sister Gunhild, who was killed by
Ethelred the Unready.
_Thiostr_ means hardness or harshness, and was in use in the North as
Triostulf, since contracted into Kjostol, Thiostvald, Thiostar; and
probably Tostig, the ungracious son of Godwine, who brought Harald
Hardrada to invade England, took his name from thence.
SECTION V.—_Protection._
_Bar_—the word for strength—has been most fertile in produce. Its
progeny are far too numerous to describe; but the most notable at
present in use are the Berg, the strength of the hills, a mountain, and
Burg, a fortress.
The names derived from it are, in combination, the _bjorg_ of the North,
in the masculine, meaning protector, and _borg_, the feminine, meaning,
perhaps, protection,—the _berge_ of the Germans and _burg_ of the
Anglo-Saxons answering to the same. The Anglo-Saxon ladies also bear
names ending with _burh_, also from the same root, and meaning a pledge,
the strength of an engagement, and the origin of our verb, _to borrow_.
Burrhed, king of Mercia, bore this name; but instances of it are not
very common.
Birger, Byrger, Birge, are the masculines much used in Scandinavia; and
the combinations were Biorgulv, Bergthor, Bergthora, the faithful wife
of Njal, and Bergliot, the daughter of Thorer the Silent,—the same name
that has been already mentioned as the northern one that has been mixed
with the Irish Brighid, and which would mean protecting ugliness. Other
forms are Bergswain, protecting youth, Berghild, answering to our
Mercian princess Burgenhild, and Borgny, apt to be cut down to Borny.
This is the word to which the Burgundians owed their title, as dwellers
in burghs, instead of wanderers on the open plain.
Another large race of names comes from the Gothic _warjan_, Anglo-Saxon
_warian_,—the ‘_ware_’ of rustic shouts in England like the ‘_gare_’ of
France, the latter syllable of beware and aware, and the _wehrer_ of
Germany. The quality of precaution furnished the North with its
favourite terminations _var_ and _vara_, indicating the possession of
the prudent virtue that makes a man _wary_. It does not begin names, but
it often ends them, both in the North and Germany, as Geirvar, Hervar,
Amalvara, Hildiwara, &c.
The inhabitant was the natural defender, and in Anglo-Saxon and Norsk
_ware_ became synonymous with the dweller, as Cantwara, the defenders of
Kent, for the Kentishmen; Burgwara, the burghers; and in the North,
Vikvarjar, bay defender. _Ware_, a defender, is thus a commencement in
the German Warimunt, Guarding protection, the Vœrmund of the Mercian
genealogy, and Vermund of the North, while its surviving representatives
in France are Guiremond and Vermont.
Warenheri, or Protecting-warrior, is the Guarniero of Tasso, the Garnier
of France, whence this form came to England as a surname after the Edict
of Nantes, whilst Warner had been the legitimate descendant of the
native Vœrnhare.
Warand, the German participle name, may have assisted in forming Guérin
and Warren, unless there was a Warewine to account for it. Warnfrid or
Warno, Werinhold and Warnebold, are also German.
The defender was with us the _Weard_, guard-warden, and _weardian_ was
to ward or guard; as in French _garde_ and _garder_, in the North
_vördhr_, in Germany _wart_, _warten_. This is the favourite
termination, the _ward_ of England passing the _wart_ of Germany, the
_vard_ of the North; but of rare appearance as a commencement, though
there is an instance of a German Wartgar, or guardian-spear.
These are extremely like the words taken from _to gird_, like _gerda_,
_gaard_, &c., but they are essentially different: watching is here the
idea of safety, as enclosure is there.
The termination _mund_, so common among all the Teuton nations, has been
a very great difficulty. Some regard it as the German _mund_ or
_munths_, a mouth. The fact, however, appears to be that _mund_ means a
hand in the elder languages, and from a hand was early transferred to
him who used his hand in protection.
All the best authorities agree in translating _mund_ as protection; but
as _mund_, a hand, is a feminine noun, the derivation from this source
is a little doubtful, as the only lady’s name thus terminated is
Rosamond. It is never a prefix.
Names ending in _mund_, hand, are often confused with those finishing in
_mod_ or _muth_, meaning courage or wrath, the _mood_ of England and
_muth_ of Germany. Even in very early times, Thurismund, or Thurismod,
would be indifferently written; but _mod_ is not very common, and is apt
to shorten into _mo_, as Thormod, Tormo.
The Germans used to imagine that all their names ending in _hulf_ meant
help; but this pleasant faith was destroyed by the northern wolf, and
only one real _help_ name is extant, the Helfrich of modern Germany, and
Hialfrek of the North, which own an ancient precedent in the old Frank
Hialperik or Chilperic.
The pronunciation of _ward_ runs so naturally into _hard_, that many
names, which when traced to their roots, turn out to terminate with
_ward_, are spelt in German and French as if they were _hard_. The word
_hard_ does, however, really enter into the composition of a few names,
chiefly German. There is, however, a semi-mythical northern lady called
by the amiable name of Harthgrepa, Firm-grip or Hard-claw; and
HartheKnad, or, as we call him, Hardicanute, seems to have had this
distinguishing epithet added to his father’s name. The most noted of the
other forms was Hardwine, Firm friend, the Hardouin of old French
chroniclers, called in Italy Ardoino.
Harding, firm
Hartrich, firm king
Hartwig, firm war
Hartmund, firm protection
Hartmod, firm spirit.
The names in _rand_ have likewise been a difficulty; but the word is
best referred to the Gothic _razn_, a house, and likewise a shield, from
the protection both afford.
Rand is a northern prefix, and its derivatives are not easy to
distinguish from those of Regin and Raven. Röndolfr, or House wolf, was
certainly a northern name, and the same seems to have belonged to St.
Radulphus, bishop of Bourges in 888, and to thirty-eight Radulfs in
Domesday Book, then to the good justiciary, Ranulf de Glanville, under
Henry II., to the crusading Earl Randle of Chester, and subsequently to
many a Randal, Randolf, and Ralf, or, as we foolishly spell the word,
Ralph.
The North had Rannveig, House-liquor, by way of a lady, and have
shortened her into Rannog and Ronnau, also Rannmod, Randvid, Randve, or
Randverr, house consecration.
Fast—in the sense of firm, not of quick—is found in the northern
Fastolf, in the Frank queen, Fastrade, Firm council, in Fastburg,
Fastmann, Fastmund. Lidvard, an old Norse name, that with us has run
into Ledyard, in its own country into Levor, is the gate ward.
Tryggve, a favourite old northern name, is the true or trusty. The same
word sometimes serves as a termination, as in Sigtryg or Sihtric.
SECTION VI.—_Power._
_Magan_ is the Gothic and Saxon to be able, whence our defective _may_,
and a number of other words in all the various northern tongues, in
especial _main_ or _chief_. The names from it are chiefly of German
origin. Maginfred, or Powerful-peace, was a fine Old German name, which,
by the time it came to the brave but unfortunate Sicilian, son of
Frederick II., had been worn down to Manfred, whence he was called by
his subjects Manfredi, by his French foes Mainfroi, and by his English
contemporaries Mainfroy.
Meginhard, main power, was a chronicler of the early ages, and in 1130
appears in the Cambrai registers. The Germans used it as Mainhart, and
the English surname Maynard is from it. Meginrat made Meinrad, or
powerful council, and Maginhild is still in use in the North as Magnild.
The _main_ land is, in fact, the chief land, the _main_, the chief sheet
of water, or sea, and _might_ and _main_ are so closely connected
together, that Maginhild is the most natural step to Mahthild, Main
heroine to Might heroine; for _maht_ is really the modern German
_macht_, and our own _might_, and both these mighty names were in early
use in Germany. Mahthild was the wife of the emperor Henry the Fowler,
and afterwards became the sainted abbess of Quedlingburg. Another
Swabian Mechtild was canonized after being abbess of Adilstetten; and so
fashionable did the name become, that all the French maidens, who were
not Alix, seem to have been Mahthild; and in Italy it was borne by the
Countess Matilda, the friend of Gregory VII., whose bequest was one of
the pope’s first steps to the temporal power, and who is introduced by
Dante in the flowery fields of Paradise. The Flemings call it Mahault,
and thus term the lady, who, as the wife of William the Conqueror,
brought it to England. Molde, as the Normans were pleased to term it,
was regarded as so decidedly a Norman name, that the Scottish-Saxon
Eadgyth was made to assume it, and it continued the regnant royal name
until it sunk beneath the influences of the Provençal Alienor. It seems
as if Matilde had been freshly introduced in Flanders when Count Philip
married Matilda of Portugal; and this, and the old traditional Mehaut,
went on side by side, just as in England did the full name Matilda, and
the Anglicized Norman contraction Maude. Of late years Maude has been
fashionable, though not so near the original, nor so really graceful in
sound as Matilda. The earlier Mall and Moll were from Matilda, not Mary,
which came much later into use.
┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐
│English. │French. │Italian. │Bavarian. │
│Matilda │Mathilde │Matilda │Mechtild │
│Molde │Mahaud │ ————————— │Mechel │
│Mall │Mehaut │German. │Melchel │
│Maud │ │Mathilde │ │
│Tilda │ │ ————————— │ │
│Tilly │ │Hamb. │ │
│ │ │Tilde │ │
│ │ │Tille │ │
└───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘
Maatfred and Maatulf were old masculines.
From _may_ and _might_ we pass to our other defective auxiliary _can_.
‘Knowledge is power,’ is an idea deeply rooted in our languages, for the
difference between _I ken_ and _I can_ is well-nigh imperceptible. The
Sanscrit _gna_, forming the Greek verb γιγνώσκω (gignosco), reappears in
the Latin _nosco_, and the Anglo-Saxon _cnawan_. Another Anglo-Saxon
form is _cunnan_, answering to the Danish _kjende_, Iceland _kunna_,
German _kennan_. Thence our word _cunning_, knowing, and _cuth_, the
past participle, known, noted, or dexterous, whence came several
North-Anglian names, Cutha, Cuthwealh, Noted power; Cuthred, Noted
council; Cuthwine, Noted friend; Cuthburh, Noted pledge; and chief of
all Cuthbryht, the great saint of Lindisfarn in his lifetime, of Durham
after his death, when the wanderings of his relics rendered his fame so
great that Cuthbert is still national among the peasantry of Northumbria
and the Lothians.
_Kann_ seems to have been originally a past tense of _ken_, and the
Teutonic mind concluded that to have learnt is to be able, for all
adopted the word _can_ without an infinitive, and varied it into past
tenses. To be able was likewise to dare, whence the old Teuton _kuoni_,
Frank _chuon_, Saxon _cene_, German _kuhn_, bold.
Be this as it may, a large class of names has arisen from these words of
knowledge and action, earliest of the bearers of which should stand
Kunimund, king of the Gepidæ, and Chunimund, king of the Suevi, both
meaning Able protection. Chuonrath, Able council, or Bold-speech, was
also Suevic, and in the form of Konrad, afterwards a world-wide name in
the Swabian house of Hohenstaufen, till the last of their generous
though impetuous blood was shed on the scaffold of Corradino, as Naples
fondly termed its unfortunate young heir, the Conradin of history. Pity
for his untimely fate assisted to spread the name through all the German
dependencies, and it has become so common that, like Vasili, Tom, and
Heinz, Künz has descended to cats. It has the feminine Cunzila; and our
old Mercian King Cenred represented it in England.
┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐
│ English. │ French. │ Provençal. │ Italian. │
│Conrad │Conrade │Cohat │Corrado │
│Cenred │Quenes │ │Currado │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│ German. │ Bavarian. │ Swiss. │ Swedish. │
│Konrad │Kadl │Chuedli │Konrad │
│Kunz │Kuenl │Kudli │ ————————— │
│Kurt │Kuenz │Chuedler │ Netherlands. │
│Kuno │Kunl │Kored │Koenraad │
│ │ │Koredli │Court │
│ │ │Chuered │ │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│ Danish. │ Russian. │ Bohemian. │ Slovak. │
│Cort │Konrad │Kunad │Kunsch │
│ │Kunrat │ ————————— │ │
│ │Kondratij │ Lusatian. │ │
│ │ │Kunat │ │
└───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘
Kunigund, or Bold war, was the name of a daughter of the counts of
Luxemburg, who was wife to Henry of Bavaria, the sainted emperor, and
shared in his canonization, rendering her name national in Bavaria.
Another royal saint reigning in Hungary added to its honours, nor has it
ever sunk into disuse.
┌────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┐
│ French. │ Italian. │Portuguese. │ German. │ Bavarian. │
│Cunigonde │Cunegonda │Cunegundis │Kunigunde │Kunl │
└────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┘
The West Saxon Cenbyrht is the same with the German Kunibert; and Wessex
likewise reckoned among her kings Cenfyrth, or able peace, Cenfus, bold
impetuosity; while Mercia has Cenhelm and Cenwulf.
Alternating with these are Cynric, Cynebald, Cynewald, Cyneburh,
Cynethryth, whose first syllable is _cyn_, _kin_, or _kind_, meaning, of
course, kindred or lineage. Some refer Kunibert and Kunigund to this
same _kin_ instead of _kuhn_. This word _cyn_ is one of those regarded
as the root of king, _cyning_, the son of his race or kindred.
Another word seems to have had the same double meaning of ability being
strength; for _svinn_, which is wise in the northern tongues, is in
those of central Europe, strong; the English _swith_, Gothic _swinths_,
German _swind_; whence the present _geschwind_, and swift; moreover,
_swindig_ is much, or many, in vulgar Dutch, and to _swindle_ is
probably to be too much for the victim.
Suintila was an old Gothic king of Spain, Swithbert, one of the early
Anglo-Saxon missionaries, especially honoured as the converter of the
kindred land of Friesland, where he was revered as St. Swibert. Swithelm
was another Saxon form; but the most noted amongst us was Swithun, the
bishop of Winchester, tutor to King Alfred, and endowed with many
supposed miracles, the best known of which was the forty days' rain, by
which, like other honest English saints, he testified his displeasure at
having his bones meddled with. The Germans have had Swidburg,
Swintfried, Swidger; but in general this has served as a feminine
termination, as in Melicent, Frediswid, and in all the many _swiths_ and
_swinds_ of the Franks and Goths.
Whether this be the root or not, Svein is in the North a strong youth,
generally a servant, but in the form of Svend becoming the favourite
name of the kings of Denmark, belonging to him whom Ethelred’s treachery
brought down on England, where it was called Swayn, and translated into
Latin as Sueno, while Tasso calls the crusading Swend, Sveno. Svinbjorn
occurs in Iceland, and is our Swinburn. Svenke, again, is the active or
slender youth. It is amusing to see how, from a strong man, the swain
became a young man, then a bachelor, then a lover, and, finally, a
shepherd.
Another of the mighty words that have been formed into names is _vald_,
the near relative of the Latin _valeo_. Our verb _to wield_ continues
the Anglo-Saxon _wealdan_, which named the wealds of Kent, nay, and the
world itself.
Vald still stands alone in the North, and once was the name of a Frank
abbot of Evreux; St. Valdus, in Latin, St. Gaud, in French.
The leading name is, however, Waldheri, Powerful-Warrior appearing as
the young prince of Aquitaine, who, in the curious Latin poem which
seems to represent the Frankish _Nibelungenlied_ in the south of France,
flies from Attila’s court with his fellow-hostage, the Burgundian
Hildegunna, and her treasure, and repulses the pursuing Gunther and
Hagano. This same Walther was said to have afterwards reigned thirty
years in Aquitaine, and, no doubt, the name was already common there,
when, about 990, it came to saintly glory, through a monastic saint of
that dukedom, who, being followed by two others, caused it to be spread
far and wide. Indeed, there are twenty-eight Walters in Domesday, and
Cambrai made plentiful use of it in the same form, till, about 1300, the
spelling was altered to the French Gautier. Walther von Vogelwied, the
Minnesinger, who bequeathed a perpetual dole to the birds of the air at
his tomb, well deserved that the memory of his name should be kept up in
Germany, and it has always been very popular. Wat, as a contraction, is
as old as Rufus’s time, and Water was in use, at least, in Shakespeare’s
time, when he shows the prophecy of Suffolk’s death by water fulfilled
by the name of his assassin.
┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐
│ English. │ Irish. │ French. │ Italian. │
│Walter │Thaiter │Waltier │Gualtiero │
│Water │ │Gualtier │ ———————— │
│Wat │ │Wautier │ Spanish. │
│Watty │ │Gatier │Guttierre │
│Wattles │ │Gautier │ │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│ Portuguese. │ Netherlands. │ Lettish. │ Dutch. │
│Gualter │Gualterus │Waters │Wolder │
│Gualterio │Walter │ ———————— │ │
│ │Wouter │ Swiss. │ │
│ │Wout │Watli │ │
└───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘
Waldemar is an old German form imported by the Normans to England, and
sometimes supposed to have been carried to Russia, and to have turned
into Vladimir; but this has been traced to a genuine Slavonic source,
though it is used by the Russians to represent Walter.
This commencement is almost exclusively German; its other varieties are
Waldobert, or Walbert, the Gualberto of Italy, Waldrich, and, perhaps,
Walpurg, though she is more probably from _val_, slaughter.
Frodhr, Wise or learned, is sometimes an epithet, but is also used for a
name, and Latinized into Frotho. The Germans have it in combination as
Frodwin, wise friend, Frodbert and Frodberta, whence the French make
Flobert and Floberte.
The root _mah_, which made the Sanscrit _mahat_, Zend _maz_, Greek
_megas_, Latin _magnus_, Kelt _mawr_, comes forth again in Teutonic,
with _mære_, or _mara_, in Anglo-Saxon, with its comparatives _mœrre_
and _mœriste_, whence our _more_ and _most_. This same sense of
greatness formed the word _maara_, fame, and _maren_, to celebrate, both
old German, and it is the commencement of the Frank chieftain’s name
from whom all the princes of the earlier race were called Meerwings,
Merowig, or Famed men, the Meerwig of German writers and Meroveus of
Latinity, whence the Merovée of French history.
Our own Anglian Mercians had among their royal line Merowald, Merehelm,
and Merewine; but, in general, _mer_, or _mar_, is used as a termination
rather than a commencement, and then is always masculine. Merohelm is
also called Merchelm, so the French saint, ‘Marculphe,’ _may_ have been
Merowulf, though he now looks more like Markulf, a border wolf.[148]
-----
Footnote 148:
Munch; Sismondi; Butler; Junius; Kemble; Michaelis; Lappenburg;
Mariana; Weber and Jamieson; Donovan.
SECTION VII.—_Affection._
The Teutons had a few names denoting affection. Dyre is the same in
Norse as our own word _dear_, or _dyr_ in Anglo-Saxon. An inlet on the
north-west corner of Iceland is still termed Dyrefiord, from one of the
first settlers, and Dyre was the hero of a ballad in the _Kæmpeviser_,
answering to the Scottish Katharine Janfarie, the original of young
Lochinvar. The old Germans had Dioro and Diura, and the Anglo-Saxons
affectionately called the young sons of their nobility Dyrling, or
darling.
_Leof_, the German _lieb_, beloved, is much used by the Anglo-Saxons.
Two bishops, one of Wells, and afterwards primate, the other of
Crediton, were called Leofing, or Lyfing. The first was certainly
properly Ælfstan, so it is probable that in both instances Leofing was
merely an endearing name that grew up with them, and displaced the
baptismal one; but its Latin translation, Livingus, shows the origin of
the surname of Livingstone.
England also had Leofwine, Beloved friend, the only native name borne by
any of the sons of Earl Godwin. An earlier Leofwine was a member of St.
Boniface’s mission, and converted many of the heathens on the banks of
the Weser; and as St. Lebwin is patron of Deventer, probably occasioned
the name of Lubin, which, from being borne by French peasants, crept
into pastoral poetry.
Another of the same mission party was Leobgytha, or Dear gift, called
also Liuba and Liebe, who was sent for from her convent at Wimborne to
found one of the earliest nunneries in Germany. It is probably from her
that Lievine became an old Cambrecis name.
Leof seems to have been the special prefix of the earls of Mercia, for
we find among them, besides Leofwine, Leofstan and Leofric, the last the
best known for the sake of his wife and of Coventry.
The continental instances of the prefix are among the Spanish Goths,
Liuva, Leovigildo, and Liuvigotona; and among the Franks, Leobhard, or
Liebhard, a saint of Touraine.
The only present survivor of all the varieties is probably, if we
exclude the occasional Puritan Love, the Cornish and Devon feminine
Lovedy.
Far more universal are the names derived from the old word _vinr_, or
_wine_, meaning friend or object of love, the same which has left a
descendant in the German _wonne_, affection, and the Scottish adjective
_winsome_. It is a continual termination, as must have been already
observed, and we had it as a commencement in our great English
missionary Winfrith, or Friend of peace, the Devonian bishop who spread
Christianity over Germany, but who is far better known by the Latin
surname which he assumed, namely, Bonifacius. Winibald was another of
our missionary saints, and Germany has also had Winrad, Winrich, and
Winmar, but the Welsh Wenefred must not be confused with it.
_Mild_, or _mild_, is exclusively Saxon; nay, almost exclusively
Mercian, for it only occurs in one family; that of King Merowald, who
named his three daughters Mildgyth, Mildburh, and Mildthryth. All became
nuns, the two latter abbesses, one in Shropshire, the other in the isle
of Thanet, and they were canonized as Milburga and Mildreda. Milborough,
as the first became Anglicized, was found within the last century in
Shropshire, and Mildred was never entirely disused; it belonged to the
daughter of Burleigh, and has lately been much revived, under the notion
that it means mild speech; but _red_ is always masculine, and, as has
been before said, _thryth_ commands or threatens, so that Mildthryth is
the gently strict.
SECTION VIII.—_Appearance._
Miss Carolina Wilhelmina Amelia Skeggs was verily named after a beard.
Skegg means neither more nor less than a beard, and strange to say,
Bardr and Skegg were both fashionable names in the North; indeed, one
Icelandic gentleman rejoiced in the euphonious title of Bardr Bla-skegg,
or Beard Blue-beard.
But we have an independent name of this class. William de Albini, the
second husband of Henry I.’s widow, Alix of Louvaine, wore moustachios,
which the Normans called _gernons_, and thus his usual title was William
_als Gernons_; and as the common ancestor of the Howards and Percys, he
left this epithet to them as a baptismal name, one of the most whimsical
of the entire roll. From the Percys it came to Algernon Sidney; and
partly through his admirers, partly through inheritance, and partly
through the love of trisyllables, has become diffused in England.
_Faxe_ meant the hair or tresses, as may be seen in the names of the
horses of day and night, Skinfaxi and Hrinfaxi. Two instances of it are
found in the _Landnama-bok_, Faxi, a colonist from the Hebrides, and
Faxabrandr, most likely an epithet due to some peculiarity of hair,
probably whiteness, or perhaps fieriness; but it was not common, though
it came to England to be the surname of Sir Thomas Fairfax.
The name of our excellent friend Wamba in _Ivanhoe_ must probably have
been taken from one of the Visigothic kings of Spain, with whom it was
most likely a nickname, like that of Louis de Gros in France, for it
means nothing but the belly. Epithets like this were not uncommon, and
sometimes were treated as names, such as Mucel, or the big, the
sobriquet of the earl of the Gevini; or Budde, the pudding, the person
who showed Knut the way over the ice. Many of those used in England were
Keltic, showing that the undercurrent of Cymric population must still
have been strong.
It is remarkable how very few are the Teuton names taken from the
complexion—in comparison with the many used by the Kelts, and even by
the Romans—either because the Teutons were all alike fair, or because
they thought these casual titles unworthy to be names. Bruno was
exclusively German, and may perhaps be only a nickname, but it came to
honour with the monk of Cologne, who founded the Carthusian order, and
has been used ever since; and the North has Sverke, Sverkir, swarthy or
dark, a famous name among the vikings.
Far more modern is the name of Blanche. The absence of colour is in all
tongues of Western Europe denoted by forms of _blec_. In Anglo-Saxon,
_blœc_ or _blac_ is the colour black, but _blœca_ is a _bleak_, empty
place, and _blœcan_ is to bleach or whiten; _blœco_, like the German
_bleich_, stands for paleness. It is the same with German and Norse, in
the latter of which _blakke hund_ is not a black dog but a white one.
All these, however, used their own _weiss_ or _white_ for the pure
uncoloured snow; while the negative _blœc_, or colourless, was adopted
by the Romance languages, all abandoning the Latin _albus_ in its
favour. It is literally true that our _black_ is the French _white_;
_black_ and _blanc_ are only the absence of colour in its two opposite
effects.
Blach, Blacheman, Blancus, and Blancard, all appear in Domesday; but
Blanchefleur and Blanche, seem to have been the produce of romance. The
mother of Sir Tristrem was Blanchefleur, a possible translation of some
of the Keltic Gwenns or Finns, and it probably crept from romance to
reality among the poetical people of southern France. The first
historical character so called was Blanca of Navarre, the queen of
Sancho IV. of Castille, from whom it was bestowed on her granddaughter,
that child of Eleanor Plantagenet, whom her uncle, King John, employed
as the lure by which to detach Philippe Auguste from the support of
Arthur of Brittany. The treaty only bore that the son of Philippe should
wed the daughter of Alfonso of Castille; the choice among the sisters
was entrusted to ambassadors, and they were guided solely, by the sound
of the name borne by the younger, that of the elder sister, Urraca,
being considered by them hateful to French ears, and unpronounceable to
French lips. John was punished for his policy, for Blanche’s royal
English blood was the pretext of the pope in directing against him her
husband, Louis the Lion, but no choice could have been a happier one for
France, since Blanche of Castille was the first and best of her many
queen-regents.
From her the name became very common in France. One of the daughters of
Edward I. was so called, probably from her, in honour of his friendship
for her son; it became usual among the English nobility, and is most
common in Italy, though it is somewhat forgotten in Spain.
┌────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┐
│ English. │ French. │ Italian. │ Spanish. │Portuguese. │
│Blanch │Blanche │Bianca │Blanca │Branca │
└────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┘
A Swedish heroine called Blenda made this name, from _blenden_, to
dazzle, common in her own country, but it is not known elsewhere.
_Koll_, with a double _l_, meaning head, is sometimes used in northern
names, but far less commonly than _kol_, cool, or rather in the act of
cooling after great heat. The great blast-bellows with which the gods
charitably refreshed the horses of the sun, are called in the Eddaic
poetry, _isarnkol_, or iron coolers, and there may have been some
allusion to this in the names of Kol and Kale, which alternated in one
of the old northern families. But as the cooling of iron involved its
turning black, _kolbrünn_ meant a black breastplate, and was thus used
as a by-name; and it may be in this sense of black that _kol_ enters
into the composition of Kolbjorn, black bear, Kolgrim, Kolgrima;
Kolskegg would thus be black-beard; but Kolbein can hardly be black-leg,
so, perhaps, it may refer to the bones being strong as wrought iron; and
Kolfinn and its feminine are either cool-white or refer to Finn’s
strength. Colbrand is in English romance the name of the Danish giant
killed by Guy of Warwick, at Winchester; but the Heptarchy displays a
very perplexing set of Cols, as they have been modernized, though they
used to be spelt Ceol. There were three Ceolwulfs in Bernicia, Mercia,
and Wessex; Ceolred in Mercia, Ceolwald in Wessex, Ceolnoth on the
throne of Canterbury. Are these the relatives of the northern _kol_,
cool, or are they _ceol_, keel, meaning rather a ship than merely the
keel, as it does now? Or, on the other hand, are both these, and the
northern _col_, adaptations of the Keltic _col_ or _gall_, like those
already mentioned of Finn? Their exclusive prevalence among the
Scandinavians and Anglo-Saxons would somewhat favour the notion.
The northern feminine terminal, _frid_, belongs to this class, and means
the fair, or pretty, from the old northern _fridhr_, though it is most
deceitfully like _fred_, or _frey_, peace, and is probably from the same
root.
Teitr is a northern man’s name, meaning cheerful: _Zeiz_ answers to it
in old German; and though the analogue in Anglo-Saxon does not otherwise
occur in any Anglo-Saxon work, yet we find from Bede that Æthelburh, the
daughter of Æthelbeorht and Bertha, of Kent, who carried her
Christianity to her husband, Eadwine, was also called Tâte, by which we
may gather that she was particularly lively and cheerful.
SECTION IX.—_Locality._
A large and interesting class of names relate to country, and express
the birthplace or the wandering habits of the original bearers.
The word _land_ was one of these. Its primary meaning seems to be the
abode of the people. Long ago we spoke of the Greek λαος, prominent in
Laodamia, and many other of the like commencement. An almost similar
term runs through the Teutonic tongues; the Saxon _leod_, German
_leute_, Frank _liade_, Northern _lydhr_. The _leod_, or _leute_, seem
to have been the free inhabitants, including all ranks, and thence we
have the _laity_, for the general people, and the _lewd_, which has sunk
from the free to the ignorant, and then to the dissipated.
The great region of these names taken from the people is Germany.
Leutpold, the people’s prince, was a canonized Markgraf of Austria, in
the days when that family had hardly yet begun its course of marrying
into greatness, and making Leutpold better known at every stage, and by
each new dialect differently pronounced, till it turned into Leopold,
and was confounded with the old lion names. Indeed, in the old Swiss
ballad on the battle of Sempach, translated by Scott, Leopold the
Handsome is called the Austrian Lion. The recurrence of the name in the
modern imperial line has made it European, and the close connection of
our own royal family with the wise king of the Belgians has brought it
to England. Of course, it has not escaped a modern German Leopoldine.
┌────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┐
│ English. │ French. │ Italian. │ German. │ Slav. │
│Leopold │Léopold │Leopoldo │Luitpold │Leopoldo │
│ │ │ │Leupold │Poldo │
│ │ │ │Leopo │Poldi │
└────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┘
Leutgar, the people’s spear, was a good bishop of Antrim, who was
speared by the people, or, at least, murdered by them, in the furious
wars of the long-haired kings, and was revered as a martyr under the
Latin form of Leodigarius. A priest of Chalons was canonized by the same
name, which is in France Leguire, and was brought as a territorial
surname to England as St. Leger.
Liutgarde seems to have been a Frank saint, but there is no account of
her in Alban Butler; but hers is one of the favourite old names at
Cambrai. Liutprand, the people’s sword, is one of the chief chroniclers
of early French history, and the other forms are Liuther, the only one
accepted by the North, and that in the form of Lyder.
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Ger. Liutbert; Fries. Liubert—People’s brightness │
│ Ger. Liutberga—People’s protection │
│ Fr. Leodefred, Leufroi—People’s peace │
│ Ger. Liutmar; Fries. Luttmer, Lummer; Fr. Leodemir—People’s │
│ greatness │
│ Ger. Leuthold, Liutold; Ags. Leodwald—People’s power │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
The _land_ itself was compounded into names chiefly among the Franks,
Germans, and Lombards, often as a conclusion, but now and then at the
beginning. Lantperaht, or the country’s brightness, is the most noted of
these, having been borne by three saints of Maestricht, Lyons, and
Venice, and having thus become national in all the countries around; but
it is universally corrupted into Lambert, and has been generally derived
from a lamb.
┌────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┐
│ English. │ French. │ Italian. │ German. │ Dutch. │
│Lambert │Lambert │Lamberto │Landbert │Lambert │
│ │Lanbert │ │Lambert │Lammert │
└────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┘
Landerich, or country’s ruler, was an early Frank saint, who has left
Landry to be still frequent among the Flemish and French peasantry.
Landfrang, lord of the country, was the Lombardic Lanfranco, whence the
Lanfranc of the archbishop of Canterbury, whom William the Conqueror
imposed on the English Church, but who brought in fresh vigour and
learning. Landfrid has left the surname Laffert to France; its
contraction Lando belonged to a saint, and has the feminines Landine and
Landoline. There are also recorded Landolf, Landrad, Landrada, and
Landinn.
If Germany and Italy talked of dwellers in the land, the North, with its
seas and numerous islets, distinguished the islanders with the word Ey,
or Øi, the word that we use to this very day in speaking of Guerns_ey_
Jers_ey_, &c., of an _eyot_ in a river; and even in Sodor, that puzzling
companion to the Isle of Man, which once was the Sudeyas, or South
Isles, the Hebrides.
The most famous northern island name is Eystein, or Øistein, much in use
among the early kings, and especially honoured for the sake of the good
brother of Sigurd the Crusader, who stayed at home and worked for his
people’s good, while Sigurd was killing blue men in the land of the
Saracens. The Danish Eystein was turned into Austin, or Augustin, to be
more ecclesiastical, and this may be the origin of some of our Austins.
Eyulf, or the island wolf, has become, in the course of time, Øiel and
Øiuf. Eyvind, who appears in the _Landnama-bok_ with the unpleasant
sobriquet of Skalldur Spiller, or the poet spoiler, is supposed to have
been the Island Wend, a reminiscence of the Wends on the shores of the
Baltic. It was a very common name, and became Øvind and Even, while
Eymund, in like manner, was turned into Emund. An island thief was not
wanting, as Eythiof; nor an island warrior, as Eyar; also Eyfrey,
Eylang; and the ladies Eygerd, Eydis, Eyny, and Eyvar, or, as Saxo calls
her, Ofura.
An island is also sometimes _holm_, whence the northern Holmstein and
Holmfrid, with Holmgeir, which gets mixed with Holger.
Persons of mixed birth were drolly called by the actual fractional word
_half_, in Germany Halbwalah, half a foreigner, or half a Wallachian,
and Halbtüring or half a Thuringian; and in the North, generally,
Halfdan, half a Dane. So early was this in use that there was a mythical
king, Halfdan, from whom the name was adopted by many a true-born Dane
and Northman, and has been Latinized as Haldanus.
Travellers had their epithets, which probably came to be family names.
_Lide_, Wanderer, was compounded in Haflide, sea wanderer; Vestlide,
west wanderer; Vetilide, winter wanderer; and Sumalide, or summer
wanderer, which last was current among the lords of the Isles, and kings
of Man, in the shape of Somerled, or, in Gaelic, Somhle; but ‘the heirs
of mighty Somerled’ did not long keep up his name.
Travellers again had their name from _fara_, the modern German _fahren_,
and the scarcely disused English _to fare_, meaning to journey. The most
noted instance is Faramund, who, in the guise of Pharamond, is placed at
the head of the long-haired Frankish dynasty, far travelled it may be,
from the river Yssel whence the Salic stock took the title that was to
pass to one peculiar law of succession; also Farabert, Farulf, and
Farthegn, contracted into Farten, and Faltin, and then supposed to be a
contraction of Falentin, or Valentine. _Thegn_ did, in fact, originally
mean a servant, so that Farthegn was either the travelled servant, or
the travelled thane. Fargrim appears in Domesday; but these names are
not easy to divide from those taken from _waren_, to beware.
Even the exile had his sorrows commemorated in his children’s names. No
doubt if we could meet with the story of the original Erland, we should
find that he was born under the same circumstances as Peregrine Bertie,
for the name is from the old northern _er_, out, or away from, and
_land_. Erland is the Outland, the banished man, and he must have been
beloved, or celebrated, for Erlendr, as the Icelanders had it, occurs
plentifully, with its diminutive Erling, and perhaps the corruption
Elling.
The unfortunate Bishop Hatto’s name was anciently Hazzo, and is
translated a Hessian.
Viking has been used as a Christian name in Norway in comparatively
modern days, in memory of the deeds of the terrible Vikingr of old; but,
in spite of the resemblance in sound, it must not be suspected of any
relation to sea-kings, being only the inhabitant of a vik, or bay, of
course the most convenient abode for a sea-rover.
The sea, _haf_, or _hav_, as it was called in the North, named Haflide,
Hafthor, and Hafgrim, as well as the mythic hero, Haflok, the Dane,
whose life, according to his legend, was saved by his faithful servant
Grim, the founder of Grimsby, in Lincolnshire, the native place of our
own Sir Henry Havelock, who was bewailed by the Danish school-children
as their own ballad hero. The two feminine terminations _laug_ and
_veig_ may have been in its honour, but it is much to be feared that
they only meant liquor, and at the best were allusions to the costly
mead of the gods, the drink of inspiration, or the magic bowls that
inflamed the Berserks. Nay, men rejoiced in the name of Ølver or Ølve,
meaning neither more nor less than Ale, _øl_, which acquires a _v_ in
the oblique cases and plural. Ø1ver and Olaf have, no doubt, been
confounded into the modern Oliver.
Knud, or Knut, a very common northern name, is a very puzzling one. Its
origin and nationality are Danish, and it only came to Norway by
intermarriages, nor does it appear at all in the _Landnamabok_. The
great Dane who brought it here is called by the chroniclers Canutus,
from some notion of making it the Latin _hoary_, and thus we know him as
Canute; but even in Domesday, one landholder in Yorkshire, and another
in Derbyshire, are entered as Cnud. The whole North, and the inhabitants
of the Hebrides, use the name, which comes from the same root as our
_knot_, and properly means a protuberance, a hill, or barrow.
SECTION X.—_Life._
Life played its part among Teutonic names. One old word conveying this
sense was the Gothic _ferchvus_, Saxon _feorh_, and Northern _fiorh_.
The Anglo-Saxon _feorh_ also meant youth, and thus passed on to mean a
young man.
There are not many names from thence, but one of the few has been a
great perplexity, and has been explained in many ways, _i. e._ the
Gothic Ferhonanths, the last syllable being _nanth_, daring, so that its
sense would be, ‘adventuring his life.’ It was the Spanish Goths who
used this gallant name, and made it with their Romance tongues into
Fernan and Fernando. San Fernando, king of Castille, and father of our
own Eleanor, made it a favourite for his royal line; and a younger son
of Castille so called, being heir of Aragon, carried it thither, and
thence it passed to southern France, where the grandson of old King René
was Ferrand or Ferry. Aragon again bestowed it upon Naples; but it was
there prolonged into Ferdinando, whilst Spanish elisions had at home
turned it to Hernan, as the conqueror of Mexico termed himself. It was
bestowed upon the second son of Juana la Loca, who was born in Spain,
and long preferred there to his brother, though it was to the imperial
throne that he was destined to succeed, and to render his Spanish name
national through Germany, where Ferdinand has long been a sore puzzle;
sometimes explained by _fart_, a journey, and sometimes by _fried_,
peace, but never satisfactorily. The contraction Nandel was the shout of
the mob in the ears of Ferdinand, the obstinate, narrow-minded man who
won his cause by mere force of undivided aim. It is so popular in Spain
and Germany as in each to have a feminine, Fernanda and Ferdinandine.
┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐
│ English. │ French. │ Spanish. │ Italian. │
│Ferdinand │Ferdinand │Fernando │Ferdinando │
│ │Ferrand │Hernando │Fernando │
│ │Ferry │Hernan │Ferrante │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│ German. │ Polish. │ Lettish. │ │
│Ferdinand │Ferdynand │Werlands │ │
│Nandl │ │ │ │
└───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘
Ferahbald and Ferahmund were forgotten old German forms, and Fjorleif
was known in the North.
This is, probably, relic of life, as otherwise the word would be a
reduplication; but the termination _leif_ or _lif_ is sometimes used,
being our very word life.
There are two words which may be said to form names of progress, the
German _gang_, from to go, sometimes commencing as in Gangolf, but more
usual at the end of a word; and the Northern _stig_, from the universal
root _stig_, found in the Greek ἔστιχον, and in our step and stile, also
stairs, for the usual sense of the word implies mounting upwards; and
the name of the semi-Danish archbishop of Canterbury who crowned Harold,
and was one of the Conqueror’s lifelong captives, was the participle
Stigand, mounting, and was long extant in the North, as well as the
Danish Styge and Stygge.
PART VII.
NAMES FROM THE SLAVONIC.
SECTION I.—_Slavonic Races._
The last class of names that have had any influence upon European
nomenclature are those borne by the Slavonic race dwelling to the
eastward of the Teutons, and scarcely coming into notice before the
period of modern history.
Nor, indeed, have they been ever very prominent. Slipping into the
regions left empty by the Teutons, or depopulated by the forays of the
Tatars, these nations have carried on a life for the most part obscure
and industrious, though now and then drawn, either by Mongol fury on the
one hand, or by Teuton ambition on the other, into gallant exertions;
but a genuine Slavonian has seldom or never extended his power far
beyond his own country. Imaginative and poetical, they have nevertheless
few ancestral traditions, they have no history previously to coming
under the influence of other countries, and their migrations are even
less known than those of the early Kelts and Teutons.
All that we do know is that by the time the ten horns of modern empire
were developing themselves, there was a long strip of Slavonians, or
Wends, extending from the White and Baltic seas down to the Black and
Adriatic, making a division between the Teutons and the Tatars, but
utterly unable to oppose a barrier when periodical fits of fury and
invasion seized upon the wild hordes to the eastward of them.
Wends, or Venedi, seems to have been one universal national term;
_Slava_ furnished another. The word, like the Greek κλύα and Teuton
_hlod_, is from the root _çru_, and denotes fame or glory; and it is
constantly employed in the personal names, commencing Slavoljub,
glorious love, Slavomir, glorious peace, Slavomil, friend of glory, and
terminating Siroslav, far-famed, and many others, usually rendered as
_slas_ and _slaus_.
But just as Geta, the Goth, stood for a bondsman in classical
literature, so when the Slav became the captive of the German, his once
glorious epithet became the generic term of the thrall, bought and sold,
while the derivatives of the Latin _servus_ were reserved for the free
hired domestic. Glory had literally turned to slavery, perhaps the more
readily because it is the Slav who, of all the Indo-European race, most
readily bows beneath the yoke, so that to this day, his forms of
courtesy are the most servile, his respectful address the most
extravagant, used in Europe.
At our first glimpse of the Slavonic nations, the Danube flowed through
the midst of a considerable settlement of them, known to classical
writers as Bulgarians, and most savage foes to the Eastern empire, who
lost army after army in expeditions against these barbarians.
In the North, two great merchant republics at Kief and Novgorod were
conducting the trade of the North, and apparently living an honourable
life of industry and self-government.
All around the east and south of the Baltic were other large territories
occupied by Slavonians, from Finland to Jutland; and, with few
exceptions, most of these lands still own a Slavonian population, though
only one has a native government.
The Mongols have, perhaps, chiefly influenced the changes undergone by
the Slaves. The great and terrible Tatar invasion of Attila trod them
down, but by ruining the Roman empire, established homes for them,
especially round the Danube. In the kingdom now called Hungary, there is
a large Slavonian population, called Slovak, from the term _slov_, a
word, living mixed with the remains of the Huns, but keeping a separate
language.
The mountain-girt lozenge of Bohemia was also a separate kingdom, with
its own language, not the same, though nearly related, and more
resembling that of the fierce elective kingdom of Poland.
The migrations of the Teutons drove most of the Wends out of Denmark
into the marshy and sandy lands at the mouth of the Vistula; and,
somewhat later, home quarrels, and fears of the Tatars, impelled the
republics of Russia to call in the aid of the Northmen, who quickly put
an end to the freedom of the cities, and set up the principality that
was the germ of the Russian empire.
The Greek Church converted the Bulgarians about the year 870, and the
translations of the liturgy and Scriptures, made for their benefit, have
been the authorized version of the Slavonians ever since. The same
missionaries, Cyrillus and Methodius, likewise baptized the first
Christian king of Bohemia; and in the next century, a Bohemian bishop,
Adalbert of Prague, converted Hungary and Poland. But these three realms
gave their allegiance to the Western, not the Eastern Church; and though
Hungary received much of her civilization from Constantinople, her faith
was with Rome. The Norse Grand Princes of Muscovy themselves sought
Christianity from Byzantium, and the Russian Church has ever since been
the most earnest and conservative of the Eastern Churches.
The Baltic Slavonians held out longest against the Gospel. Missionaries
preached to them, and orders of knighthood crusaded against them on far
into modern history, and the final period of their conversion and
settlement into small duchies or realms, held by the conquering knights,
is hardly worth tracing out.
The next step in general Slavonic history is the great Turkish outbreak,
which almost crushed Muscovy, and infused a strong Tatar element into
the Russian population; and, finally, conquered the Greek empire, and
with it the Bulgarian lands, which, though never Mahometanized, have
ever since remained under Turkish dominion.
The kingdoms of Bohemia and Hungary, with the other western Slavonic
provinces, were one by one absorbed into the German empire, or by the
House of Austria—it made little difference which was the original
tenure—all are ‘Austrian’ now, whether willingly or not.
With the same skill, the House of Brandenburg obtained the domains of
the Baltic Slaves, and formed the kingdom of Prussia, very Teutonic to
the west, and very Slavonic to the east.
Meantime, after a long period of exhaustion, almost of extinction, the
Muscovites came forth from the Tatar oppression stronger than ever; and
by gradual conquests from their former enemies, at length formed their
huge empire of the east.
And Poland, after many a turbulent election, many a summons to German
princes to hold the reins of its restless multitude, was finally and
unrighteously dismembered and divided, and the cry of its wrongs has
ever since rent the ears of Europe.
The existing Slavonian languages are the Russian, the literary language
of the great empire; the Livonian, or the language spoken by the persons
who are not of Finnish blood in the elbow beneath the Gulf of Finland;
the Lettish and Lusatian, used by the old Prussian subjects and their
neighbours in Russia; the Polish; the Slovak, spoken in Hungary; the
Servian, Illyrian, and Croatian, all representing the old Bulgarian.
Of all these, it is perhaps the Polish that has contributed the most
names to the European stock, and they are but few; but there were
intermarriages, and friendly intercourse, besides occasional elections
to the Polish throne; and, latterly, the dispersion and exile of the
Polish nobility carried their names into distant parts of Europe, and
gave them a romantic interest.
Bohemia and Hungary sent a few names into the Austrian line, but they
soon died out; and Russia uses comparatively few native Slavonic names,
but makes chief use of those of the saints of the Greek Church.
Slavonian languages are said to be soft in their own speech, but our
letters clumsily render their sounds, and make them of cumbrous length;
and the few names that have been adopted have been severely mangled.
They are, for the most part, grand and poetical compounds, often exactly
corresponding to Greek or Teutonic names, and with others more poetical
than those in either of these other languages, such as Danica, the
Morning star; Zwezdana, or in Russian, Swetlana, a Star; Zora, Zorana,
Zorica, the Slovak Aurora; and Zorislava, the Dawn of glory; Golubica,
the Dove; Lala, the Tulip. The Slaves use likewise the amaranth, or
everlasting flower, as a name both for men and women, namely, Smiljan
and Smiljana; and while a man may be called Dubislav, or Oak fame, the
Servians and Illyrians call their daughters after fruits,—Grozdana, Rich
in grapes; Jagoda, the Strawberry; and Kupina, or Kupiena, the
Gooseberry.[149]
-----
Footnote 149:
Kombst, (in Johnson’s) _Physical Atlas_; Max Muller, _Lectures_; Le
Beau, _Bas Empire_; Schleicher, _Sprachen Europen_; Zeuss, _Deutschen
und die Nachbar Stamme_.
SECTION II.—_Slavonian Mythology._
The Slavonians had a polytheistic religion, answering, in spirit, to
that of the other Indo-European nations; but as they had no mythic
literature, like Greece and Scandinavia, we are dependent for
information upon popular ballads and superstitions, eked out by the
notices of missionaries and statements of conquerors; and it is not easy
to perceive whether their myths were an independent branch of the
general stock, or only the Teutonic religion under another dress.
The divine word, in all the various nations, is Bog. It was used for
God, both in the old heathen times, and afterwards in its full sense,
when Christianity became known to them. It enters into numerous names,
both before and after Christianity. The most noted is Bogislav, or God’s
glory, which was borne by many a Pole and old Prussian; and, in 1627, it
finished off the old Slavonic line of dukes of Pomerania, from whom that
state came to the acquisitive house of Brandenburg. The historical
Latinism of the name is Bogislaus; and it is still current in Illyria as
Bogosav.
Theophilus is literally translated by Bogoljub or Bogoje in Illyria, and
Bohumil in Bohemia. This makes it probable that Robert Guiscard thence
took the name of his eldest son, Bohemond, giving it a Norman
termination. The mother is called Alvareda, and she is said to have been
divorced on the score of consanguinity; but it is not improbable that
this was a mere excuse of the wily duke of Calabria for ridding himself
of an Illyrian wife. Bohemond is said to have been called after a giant
of romance; but the giant has not as yet transpired, and may have been,
after all, a Slavonic divinity. Bohemond, or Boemondo, as Tasso calls
him, was the Ulysses of the first Crusade, and left a grandson namesake.
Theodorus and Theodora are answered by Bogdan and Bogdana, both spelt
with _h_ in Bohemia—Bohdan, Bohdana, and in Illyria Bozidar, Bozidara;
and, as has been already said, the Divine birth-night, Christmas, is
commemorated by Slovak children being called Bozo. Bogohval is Thank
God, Bogoboj, God’s battle, all names in use in Poland and the kindred
nations before the general names of Europe displaced the native growth.
The word does not answer to either Deus or God, but is related to the
Sanscrit _bhagas_, destiny.
The word _ljube_, Love, is rather a favourite in the affectionate
Slavonic nomenclature. At the outset of Bohemian history we come on the
beautiful legend of Queen Libussa, or the darling. She succeeded her
father in 618, governed alone for fourteen years, then, finding her
people discontented, sought the wisest man in her domains for a husband,
and found him, like Cincinnatus, at the plough, when he not only
retained his homely cloak, iron table, and bark sandals, as marks of his
origin, but bade them be produced at all future royal elections. His
name, Przemysl, or the thoughtful, was continued in his line, though
chroniclers cut its dreadful knot of consonants by calling it Premislaus
and the next ensuing namesake Germanized himself as Ottokar. He was
afterwards elected king of Poland, where the name was used, with the
feminine Przemyslava.
Russia has the feminine Ljubov, Love, fondly termed Lubuika, and, in
families where French is spoken, called Aimée, though this more properly
translates Ljubka and Ljubnia. The Slovaks have Ljuboslav and its
feminine, and the Polish Lubomirsky is Peace-loving. The Russian Ljubov
is chiefly used in allusion to the Christian grace of love; and Faith,
or Vjera, and Hope, Nadezna, are both, likewise, very popular at the
present day, the latter usually Frenchified into Nadine; while the Serbs
have Nada, or Nadan.
The Slaves of Rugen had a terrible deity called Sviatovid, or the
luminous, who was considered to answer to Mars, or Tyr, and had a temple
at Acron, and an image with seven heads, which must have much resembled
Indian idols. A white horse was sacred to him, and was supposed to be
ridden by him during the night, and to communicate auguries by the
manner in which it leaped over lances that were arranged in its path.
Human sacrifices were offered to this deity both in Rugen and Bohemia;
and when his image was at length overthrown, St. Vitus, from the
resemblance of sound, was confounded with him by the populace, and
Svantovit, as they called both alike, was still the tutelary genius of
the place. Svetozor, Dawn of light, and Svetlana, a Russian lady’s name
still in use, are connected with light, the first syllable of his name.
Conjoined with Sviatovid, and lying on a purple bed in the temple in
Rugen, was the seven-headed Rugevid, or Ranovid (whose name is explained
by reference to the Sanscrit _rana_, blood-thirsty); and likewise
Radegost, the god of hospitality, from _rad_, prosperous, and _gose_, a
guest, the word so often encountered. Several names began with the first
syllable—Rada, Radak, Radan, Radinko, Radmir, Radivoj, Radko, Radman,
Radmil, Radoje, Radoslav; and the Illyrians have the hospitable name of
Gostomil, or Guest love: indeed, _gost_ forms the end of many Slavonic
names, in accordance with the ready and courteous welcome always offered
by this people.
Davor is another war god, whose name seems of very near kindred to
Mavors, or Mars, and who left Davorinn, Davroslav, and Davroslava, as
names.
Tikla was the old Slavonic goddess of good luck, and, being confounded
with St. Thekla, made this latter name popular in Poland, Russia, and
Hungary; and, in like manner, Zenovia, the huntress goddess, conduced to
make Zenobia, and Zizi, its contraction, common in Russia.
The fire god was Znitch; and though he does not show any direct
namesakes, yet there are sundry fire-names in his honour, such as the
Slovak Vatroslav and Illyrian Ognoslav, both signifying fire glory.
Possibly, too, the Russian Mitrofan may be connected with the old
Persian _mithras_, or sacred fire; though in history it figures in Greek
ecclesiastical guise, as the Patriarch Metrophanes.[150]
-----
Footnote 150:
Tooke, _Russia_; Eichioff, _Tableau de la Littérature du Nord au Moyen
Age_; Zeuss, _Deutschen und die Nachbar Stamme_; _Universal History_.
SECTION III.—_Warlike Names._
Few more Slavonic names remain to be mentioned, and these more for their
correspondence with those of other races than for much intrinsic
interest.
Very few are known beyond their own limits. Stanislav, or Camp glory, is
the most universal, and is one of the very few found in the Roman
calendar, which has two Polish saints thus named. The first, Stanislav
Sczepanowski, Bishop of Cracow, was one of the many prelates of the
eleventh century who had to fight the battle of Church against king, and
he was happy in that his cause was that of morality as well as
discipline. Having excommunicated King Boleslav for carrying off the
wife of one of the nobles, he was murdered by the king in his own
cathedral; and Gregory VII. being the reigning Pope, his martyrdom was
an effectual seed of submission to the Church. The wretched king died by
his own hand, and the bishop became a Slavonian Becket, was enshrined at
Cracow, and thought to work miracles. His name was, of course, national,
and was again canonized in the person of Stanislav Kostka, one of the
early Jesuits who guided the reaction of Roman Catholicism in Poland.
The name has even been used in France, chiefly for the sake of the
father of the Polish queen of Louis XV., and afterwards from the influx
of Poles after the partition of their kingdom.
┌──────────────┬──────────────┬──────────────┬──────────────┐
│ English. │ French. │ Portuguese. │ Italian. │
│Stanislaus │Stanislas │Estanislau │Stanislao │
├──────────────┼──────────────┼──────────────┼──────────────┤
│ German. │ Bavarian. │ Polish. │ Illyrian. │
│Stanislav │Stanes │Stanislav │Stanisav │
│ ———————— │Stanisl │Stach │Stanko │
│ Lettish. │Stanel │Stas │ │
│Stanislavs │Stanerl │ │ │
│Stachis │ │ │ │
└──────────────┴──────────────┴──────────────┴──────────────┘
Much in the same spirit is the Russian Boris, from the old Slavonian
_borotj_, to fight. It has never been uncommon in Muscovy, and belonged
to the brother-in-law of Ivan the Terrible, Boris Goudenoff, who was
regent for his imbecile nephew Feodor; and, after assassinating the
hopeful younger brother, Dmitri, reigned as czar, till dethroned by a
counterfeit Dmitri. Borka and Borinka are the contractions, and Borivor
was the first Christian duke of Bohemia.
Bron, a weapon, forms Bronislav and Bronislava. Voj is the general
Slavonic term for war, and is a very frequent termination. Vojtach, the
Polish Vojciech, and Lithuanian Waitkus, all mean warrior.
It is a curious feature in nomenclature how strongly glory and fame are
the leading notion of the entire race, whose national title of glory has
had such a fall. _Slav_ is an inevitable termination; _voj_ almost as
constantly used; and even the tenderest commencements are forced to love
war, and to love fame. The old Russian Mstisslav glories in vengeance
(_mest_), but is usually recorded as Mistislaus; Rostislav increases
glory; Vratislav, Glowing glory, names not only the Wratislaus of
history, but the city of Breslaw. The Slovak Vekoslav, and Vekoslava,
are Eternal fame.
The two animals used in Slavonic names are warlike; Vuk, the wolf, and
Bravac, the wild boar; but both these are very possibly adopted from the
German Wulf and Eber.
SECTION IV.—_Names of Might._
_Boleje_, strong or great, answers to the Teuton _mer_, and Boleslav is
great glory. Boleslav Chrobry, the second Christian prince of Poland,
was a devout savage and great conqueror, both in Russia and Bohemia. He
was the first Pole to assume the title of king; and after his death, in
1025, there are many instances of his name in both Poland and Bohemia.
In this latter country it had, however, a far more sinister fame.
Borivor and Ludmilla, the first Christian prince and princess of that
duchy, had two grandsons, Boleslav and Vesteslav, or Venceslav, the
first a heathen, the latter a Christian. Boleslav stirred up the pagan
population against his brother, and murdered him while praying in church
at Prague, on the 28th of September, 644, thus conferring on him the
honour of a patron saint and centre of legends. The House of Luxemburg
obtained the kingdom of Bohemia by marriage, and Venceslav was
introduced among their appellations in the form of Wenzel; and the crazy
and furious Bohemian king of that name sat for a few unhappy years on
the imperial throne; but in spite of the odium of that memory, the name
of good King Wenceslas, as we call it, held its ground, and contracts
into Vacslav and Vaclav. Some say that it is crown glory, from
_vienice_; others deduce the prefix from _vest_, the superlative of
_veliku_, great, which furnished the Bulgarian Velika, Veleslav,
Velimir.
The familiar root that has been so often encountered in _valeo_,
_wield_, &c., in the sense of power, gives the prefix _vlad_ to various
favourite Slavonic names. The Russian Vladimir, being of the race of
Rurik, is sometimes seized upon as Waldemar; and, in fact, there is
little difference in the sense of the first syllable. He is a great
national saint, since it was his marriage with the Greek Princess Anna
that obtained for the Byzantine Church her mighty Muscovite daughter;
and in honour of him, Vladimir has been perpetually used in Russia,
shortened into Volodia, and expanded into Volodinka by way of
endearment.
The national saint of Hungary was Vladislav, who was the restorer of the
faith that had almost faded away after the death of the sainted King
Stephen, and was chosen as leader of a crusade, which was prevented by
his death in 1095. His name, and that of his many votaries, have sorely
puzzled Latin and Teutonic tongues; when not content, like the French,
to term him St. Lancelot, his countrymen call themselves after him
Laszlo, or Laczko, the Illyrians Lako, the Letts Wendis; but chroniclers
vary between Uladislaus and Ladislaus in Hungary and Poland; and when
the Angevin connection brought down a king from Hungary to revenge the
death of his brother upon Giovanni of Naples, the Italians called him
Ladislao; and as Ladislas we recognize the last native Hungarian king,
brother-in-law to Charles V. Vladislavka is a feminine, contracting into
Valeska, which is still borne by Polish young ladies. Vladivoj is
another of the same class, and _sve_, all, with the verb _vladati_, to
rule, has formed Vsevolad and Svevlad, All ruler, and Vseslav, All fame.
Possibly there may be some connection here with the deity Volos, Weles,
or Veless, invoked under these names by the Slaves, Bohemians, and
Russians, as witness of their oaths, and likewise as guardian of flocks.
Possibly the Roman Pales may be the same deity under another form; but
the name of Volos is still applied to shepherds, and comes, no doubt,
from the Slavonic _vlas_, or Russian _volos_, the same word as wool.
The word _mir_ at the end of Vladimir is somewhat doubtful. It may mean
peace, or it may mean the world; and in like manner the Slovak Miroslav
stands in doubt between world-fame or peaceful-fame.
Purvan, Purvançe, is the Bulgarian _first_, whether used in the sense of
chief or of first-born does not appear; but, at any rate, bearing a most
eastern sound with it.
We are familiar with the Russian _ukase_, from _ukasat_, to show forth;
and _kaze_ in Polish has the same sense of command. Kazimir is thus
Command of peace, a noble title for a prince, and essentially national
in Poland, where it was endeared by the fame of three of the best of the
earlier sovereigns. It has the feminine Kasimira, and is one of the very
few Slavonic names used by Teutons. Intermarriages introduced it among
the German princes; and Johann Kasimir, a son of the Pfalzgraf of the
Rhine, was a noted commander in the war of the Revolt of the
Netherlands, and received the Garter from Queen Elizabeth. He was
commonly called Prince Kasimir, and his namesakes spread in Germany; and
either for the sake of the sound, or Polish sympathies, Casimir was
somewhat fashionable in France.
┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐
│ French. │ Polish. │ Bohemian. │ Lettish. │
│Casimir │Kazimir │Kazimir │Kasimirs │
│ —————— │Kazimierz │ │Kasche │
│ German. │ │ │Kaschis │
│Kasimir │ │ │Kaschuk │
└───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘
_Kol_, council, formed Koloman, somewhat noted in early Slavonic
history.
_Jar_, pronounced as beginning with _y_, means strength or firmness.
Jaromir, Firm peace, was prince of Bohemia in 999. Jaropolk, firm
government, was the last heathen grand prince of Muscovy; and this name,
with Jaroslav, is very frequent in the early annals of the House of
Rurik.
From _lid_, the people, (our old friends _hleute_ and λαος,) came
Ljudomir and Ludmilla, who was the first Christian duchess in Bohemia,
and was strangled by her heathen daughter-in-law, Dragotina, the mother
of Boleslav and Venceslav, leaving a sainted name much used among all
Slavonian women, and called at home Lida and Lidiska; in Russia,
Ljudmila. Lidvina was likewise Bohemian, from Vina, an old goddess.
SECTION V.—_Names of Virtue._
Words signifying goodness are far from uncommon in this class of
nomenclature. _Dobry_, good, has a worthy family. Dobrija, sometimes
called Dobrowka, was the Bohemian princess whose marriage, like those of
Clotilda, Bertha, and Anna, brought religion into her new country. Her
husband, Miczslav, of Poland, had been born blind, but recovered his
sight at seven years old. He had seven wives while still a heathen, but
was told that he would have no children unless he began afresh with a
Christian lady. He demanded the Czech princess. She brought St.
Adalbert, of Prague, with her; and Mistislaus, as he is generally called
in history, is counted as the first Polish Christian king, in the year
970. So national was the name, that the Poles altered Maria of Muscovy
to Dobrija, on her marriage with Kasimir, their king. The other names of
this commencement are Illyrian—Dobrogast, Dobroljub, Dobroslav, and its
feminine Dobrovoj, Dobrvok, Dobrutin, and Dobrotina, Good guest, Good
love, Good glory, Good war, Good wolf, and Beneficent.
_Ssvätyj_, holy, and _polk_, government, are the component parts of the
old Russian Sviatopolk, often found among the early race of Rurik. Holy
glory, Sviatoslav, was the inappropriate name of the son of the
Christian princess Olga, the same who refused baptism, believing that
all the converts were cowards, and that he should lose the support of
the war gods and of his followers.
The Illyrian _blag_, good, makes Blagorod, Good birth, also, as usual,
Blagovoj, Blagoslav, Blagodvor, Blagogost, and the contraction Blagoje.
_Prav_ is upright, a connection, it may be, of _probus_, and it has
formed the Slavonic Upravda, and the Illyrian Pravdoslav, Pravdoslava,
Pravoje. It is, perhaps, the same with the Wend _prib_, which formed the
name Pribislava. The Danes amalgamated the Wend _pred_ into their own
names as Predbiorn, or Preban.