[gothic-l] Re: Names and family relation in Gothic

[jdm314 at AOL.COM]

A professor of mine once pointed out that once the element is in common use,
the meaning may be come irrelivant, especially since sons were often named by
changing one element from their father's name. It gets to the point where
Ethelbert, Etherlred, Ethelstan etc. aren't thinking about what the names
mean so much as trying to come up with another suffix they can append to
Ethel ;)
    He added this as a caveat to his initial explanation when I asked him why
someone would name their child "Bee-Wolf" (he said it was a kenning for a
bear. This makes sense)

-JDM


In a message dated 6/8/00 5:26:49 PM, you wrote:

<<Hails,
I like the site, Tim.  With regard to your comment that some names
seem to have contradictory elements, I remember reading once that the
two elements of Germanic names should not necessarily be take
together.  Rather, they represent two qualities which the parents
wish to bestow on the new child; e.g. Frithubadws would mean that the
child should prosper in peace and in battle.  It seems a plausible
theory, but since we don't have any ancient Germans to confirm it,
we'll never know for certain.
Goleins,
  Brian
>>


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