Traditional Given Names As a Reply of Far History
We continue our publication of a overview regarding the sources of European names widely used at present. Next part is devoted to names that came from far-away past.
• Ancient Continental Germanic: Some very familiar names, such as William, Robert, Richard, Roger, Geoffrey, Guy, Hugh, and Matilda – every of which have settled ties in German, Dutch, French, and other linguas – borne in Germanic pre-history. It is possible to utilize translation agency Poland to find more. Names approached English by a shaded route. The paperwork language of the judges of the Merovingian and Carolingian Franks (5th – 9th centuries) was Latin, but their everyday language was a Germanic dialect, and their personal names were mostly of Germanic origin. These French given names became set-up in medieval France and in due time were picked up by the Vikings who lived in Normandy in the 9th century. Upon the Norman invasion of England in 1066, these personal names were brought to England, where they noticeably pushed out traditional Anglo-Saxon personal names such as Ethelred and Athelthryth. A very insignificant Anglo-Saxon given names survived, for example Edward, which was borne by King Edward the Confessor (c. 1002–1066; ruled 1042–1066), the ancestor of an Anglo-Saxon man and a Norman woman, who was revered by Anglo-Saxons and Normans alike. A rather different situation is that of Alfred, an Anglo-Saxon name that disappeared from use because of the Vikings, but was restored in the 19th century in commemoration of the great 9th-century king of Wessex.
• Old Norse: Old Norse is, certainly, a Germanic language, but its naming custom is rather original from that of mainland Germanic, and many traditional Norse forenames are currently used in Scandinavia today, for example Olaf, Harald, Hakon. There has been much borrowing from German (e.g., Helga, Ingeborg). Several Nordic names such as Ingrid have been adopted much more widely. Many looked for linguistic services into Slavic. In the latter case, the film celebrity Ingrid Bergman (1915–1982) was a powerful influence.
• Old Slavic linguas: Names such as Wojciech (Vojteˇch), BogusLaw (Bohuslav), and StanisLaw (Stanislav) are hardly known in the English-speaking environment except among Slavic immigrants, however represent a strong and flowing Slavic tradition, with cognates in various Slavic languages. Many such names are pre-Bible, whereas others have been sanctified by recognition as a saint’s name. Except where a saint has been involved, these forenames are not widely used in Russia, because there the Orthodox Church has strongly insisted on using names related to Christian patrons, such as Fyodor (Theodore) and Dmitri. These are mostly of Greek origin. Within the Western Slavs (Poles, Czechs, Slovaks) and Southern Slavs (Serbs, Croatians, Slovenians, Bulgarians, etc.), each linguistic county of Slavic natives has its own characteristic list of traditional given names, most of which are of Slavic origin.