LL-L "Names" 2003.11.10 (05) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 10.NOV.2003 (05) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Arthur Jones <arthurobin2002 at yahoo.com>
Subject: LL-L "Names" 2003.11.10 (01) [E]

Heja alle benoemde mensen!

Ik gihorta that seggen... Began an OHG epic. Your great discussion of
venerable names reminds me that Theo/Dirk probably goes all the way back
past Christianity, to the original Theodoric (The Gothic King). The name was
"Thiudo-rik", or "king of the people", Thiudo being, of course, Germanic
people. The same Theodoric referred to in the Nibelungenlied when
"...fleeing the wrath of Dietrich von Bern".

Thiudisc became "Deutsch", according to all the scholars I can grab together
with my limited scope and experience. Judging from the scorched earth policy
often pursued by Goths, Vandals, Bajuwari, Jutes, Saxons and such in the
later days of the Western Roman Empire, the name had little to do with the L
ove of God, the later Christian adaptation of the original Gothic.

Thus, "Theo" and "Dirk" go back a good deal further than indicated. A proud
old name and a rich heritage indeed. Anybody have more thoughts on other
names? Anyone as pure at heart as a "Reinhard"?

All the best,
Arthur Jones

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Names

Thanks, Arthur!  "pure at heart," huh?  I wish.  Actually, contrary to
popular belief, the _Rein..._ part of my name (as well as of Reiner, Rainer
and Reinhold) is not derived from something conveying "pure" or "clean" (Old
German _(h)reini_, Gothic _hrains_ < Indo-European *_(s)krē˘i-_ 'to
separate', 'to sift' (> 'to make pure')) but from _ragin_ 'counsel',
'advice', 'guidance', and the _...hard_ part is related to English 'hard'
rather than to 'heart'.  (The _ragin_ part can also be found in English
Reginald < *Raginwald.)  Apparently my name (< Raginhard ~ Raginhart
"strong/competent/powerful counsel/guidance," which I would expect to be
something like *Regin(h)ard if it existed in English, and which in French
became _Renard_ ~ _Reynard_ > English _Reynard_ of sly fox fame [or was it
the other way around?]) goes back to the tribal position title of a
counselor.

Folks,

I thought the names list project over a bit and would like to make the
following suggestions:

*  It is better to put all names into *one* column and to dump all variants
into one cell, not only (1) because of space considerations (if we want to
make a comparative list) but also because (2) many derived names have become
names in their own right (e.g., LS Elisabeth - Else - Elke, Marie-Louise -
Marlies, etc.), and (3) supposed derivations may in some cases be foreign
imports (e.g., Elisabeth - Elise - Lies, Heinrich - Hen(d)rik - Hinnerk -
Henning - Hein(er) - Heino - Henno).

* It would be nice if a volunteer would assemble and synthesize the data in
a collective table.

* It would be even nicer if these data were searchable and could be made
into pairs in dictionary format (besides being browsable).

Cheers!
Reinhard/Ron

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