Name News

Let’s head to Latvia! In the 13th and 14th C, names were predominantly of Low German origin, and this is clear even when the names occur in Latin documents, as our two examples of today’s mystery name do:

Today’s name is an unusual one from Portugal. Portuguese names are often more tricky than you might think; on the one hand, their geographic isolation contributed to the fossilization of archaic forms as well as the longer continuation of Gothic influence than in other places, but on the other hand the Germanic names moving westward still had a strong influence. Do you recognize this name? Know of any other examples of it? Let us know in the comments!

Today’s name feels like it comes straight out of Dr. Seuss, but in fact it comes from 9th C Hamburg. The deuterotheme is easily enough identifiable — Old High German/Old Saxon bald ‘bold’. But does anyone recognize the prototheme? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

Today our name is a feminine Italian name:

We actually have a number of examples of this name from this particular source, but haven’t found it in any other context. Do you recognize it? Have you found any other examples? Let us know!

Have you come across this name before, in Germany or elsewhere? Have you any thoughts of its origin? Let us know!

Today we bring you a lovely Catalan feminine name from the 16th C:

Do you recognize this name? Have any thoughts about its origin? Share your thoughts in the comments!

We’ve identified more Q names than not (and at one point we’d actually finalized all our Q entries…of course, then we found some new ones), but nevertheless we’ve got a Q name for you this week — an early Spanish name. Is it Gothic? Is it Latin? Is it a mixture? Let us know what you think!

Sometimes, you come across a name where you wonder if it is simply just a typo — either by the editor or by the original scribe. But sometimes the name is so far from anything you’ve seen that you can’t even imagine what it might be a typo for. In that spirit, we present today’s Mystery Name.

Today’s name is a beautiful Spanish name which we find in Barcelona. Was it used elsewhere? Do you know its origin? Let us know!

Today’s name is of Breton origin, from the Redon cartularies. The prototheme is easily identifiable, as it shows up in many early Breton and Welsh names, but the deuterotheme is opaque to us. We have found one other example of it, in the probably feminine name Prostlon. The element may be a reduced form of Old Breton uuallon,Old Welsh uualaun, uualon ‘valorous’, but this is only a conjecture. Does anyone have any alternatives? Or support for this conjecture? Leave a comment below!

Today’s name is a beautiful Catalan feminine name from the 16th century. Have you seen this name before? Do you have any thoughts about its origin or etymology? Please let us know in the comments!

Today’s name is one for the Anglo-Saxonists — what is the Old English root of this Latinized Middle English name? And do we have the right standardized form (which, at this point, is pretty much just a guess based on gut feeling and intuition, and not anything substantive).

Today’s name is an Italian name from the late 13th/early 14th C. It has a V! It has a Y! Neither of these letters are especially common in Romance languages, and the combination of the two results in an unusual name. Have you seen any examples of it? Do you have thoughts on its origins?

Today’s name is one for the Cymraegs amongst our readership, a 14th C Welsh name:

The prototheme is almost certainly teg ‘fair’; but what’s the deuterotheme?

Today we give you not one but two names, because both involve the same prototheme, Rece-. One is from 12th C France, the other from 10th C Spain. Is it the same element in both? Do you know of any other names with this element? Let us know!

Last week we had a name that was so far removed from any name we’ve ever seen before. This week we have the opposite: A name that feels like you should know what it is, but which you just can’t pin down. Have you ever come across this name before? Do you recognize its origin?

Today’s name is another one from the Czech Republic. (This is not a coincidence. We’d love to get a Czech expert onto our team to fill our current gap.) We have two 14th C citations of it from Latin records. Do you recognize the name? Do you have any other examples of it?