Name News

Though the vast majority of such names have sharply plummeted in popularity, there's a large quantity of Germanic-origin names formed from the root beraht (bright). Robert is far and away the best-known, with other well-known (albeit not nearly as popular) names including Albert, Gilbert, Herbert, and Hubert. Let's take a look at this category of names. Albert (English,…

We already have a lot of these pairs, but since -ana is a rather trendy ending right now, I though it'd be fun to see if there's any we've forgotten, or possibly have never been used.

"So we'll...focus on two uniquely English diminutive suffixes: -cock and -kin. Both of these were in use by the beginning of the 13th C, and had mostly fallen out of use by the middle of the 15th, with their traces being left in modern surnames (think Atkins and Hitchcock) rather than modern given names."

In this post, we look at Slavic diminutives — suffixes used in Poland, the Ukraine, and the Czech Republic — which share a clear relationship with Low German -ke(n). We concentrate on the two most common suffix types: -ko and -ek for men and -ka and -ek(a) for women.

I like this name that seems a lengthening of just Mae which always seems to be used in double barrel names like, Mae Lee, Mae Ella, and Mae Belle.

"Well, I like the name Tavia, but I don’t want to name one of my kids after someone I know whose name is Tavia. So I added a suffix, “anna”. I looked on your site, and “Tavia” was listed as an abbreviation of “Octavia”, meaning eight, and “anna” was listed as “gracious, merciful”. So the name I made up, Tavianna, would mean “gracious, merciful eighth”? Any thoughts on any other meanings this name could have?"

Slava is a common root in Slavic names, and means "glory, fame." It appears fairly evenly among East, West, and South Slavic names. A few of these names are so popular, they also have equivalents in non-Slavic languages. Some sources believe the name Gustave, with its many variants, also comes from the slava root. Though a…

Over a year ago we discussed two unusual English diminutive suffices, -co(c)k and -kin. At the time, we said of -co(c)k: This suffix was never common, and we don’t currently have any examples in our data, but look forward eagerly to the day when we do! Well, now we do! So we thought we'd devote…

In this post, we look at a collection of diminutive suffixes: -el, -et, -in, -on, -ot, and their feminine forms. Withycombe calls them French [1], and while their use in England was certainly strongly influenced by the invading Normans, the suffixes ultimately derived from Latin, and as a result can be found throughout Romance-speaking areas.…

Meaning: (Flower, Blossom, Floressa is a version of Flora (Latin) with the suffix -essa.)

Although occupations that women could be known for were relatively few, and getting that form passed down to descendants was proportionally rare compared to males (and both male & females forms were also eventually used interchangeably for both genders), there are still a few that survived to Modern English: