Custom Patronymics As a Answer of Distant Times
We continue the publication of a overview regarding the origin of European names widely used today. Next part is related to names that came from far-away past.
• Ancient Mainland Germanic: Several widely known names, that are William, Robert, Richard, Roger, Geoffrey, Guy, Hugh, and Matilda – all of those have well-established ties in German, Dutch, French, and other linguas – originated in Germanic pre-era. It is possible to utilize English to Polish translation to find more. They reached English by a shaded route. The official language of the judges of the Merovingian and Carolingian France (5th – 9th centuries) was Latin, however their everyday language was a Germanic variation, and their personal names were mostly of Germanic etymology. These French given names appeared to be established in medieval France and in due course were accepted by the Normannes who lived in Normandy in the 9th century. After the Norman occupation of Britain in 1066, these personal names were brought to England, where they noticeably pushed out usual Anglo-Saxon personal names like Ethelred and Athelthryth. A very insignificant Anglo-Saxon given names survived, for example Edward, that was originated by King Edward the Confessor (c. 1002–1066; ruled 1042–1066), the ancestor of an Anglo-Saxon man and a Viking mother, who was revered by British and Vikings alike. A rather different case is that of Alfred, an Anglo-Saxon patronymic that disappeared of use because of the Normans, but was revived in the 19th century in honor of the famous 9th-century king of Wessex.
• Old Norse: Ancient Norse is, of course, a Germanic language, but its naming custom is quite original from that of continental Germanic, and many usual Norse forenames are currently used in Scandinavia today, for example Olaf, Harald, Hakon. There has been much borrowing from German (e.g., Helga, Ingeborg). Some Nordic patronymics such as Ingrid have been adopted much more broadly. Many looked for Polish translation services into Slavic. In the latter situation, the film celebrity Ingrid Bergman (1915–1982) was a strong 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, but demonstrate a strong and flowing Slavic tradition, with traces in various Slavic languages. Many such names are pre-Bible, whereas others have been accepted by recognition as a saint’s name. Except where a saint has been participating, these names are not much used in Russia, because there the Orthodox Church has strongly stood for using names associated with Christian saints, such as Fyodor (Theodore) and Dmitri. These are mostly of Greek etymology. 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 custom given names, majority of which are of Slavic etymology.