Baby names

[Treffie]

Gwyneira

Literally translated as Snow White

My friend's mother's name is Gwlithyn - dewdrop

[Osweo]

Adolf is a great name!

Not for Englishmen.

OUR form of the same name was AEthelwulf, though the related Eadwulf sounds more like it.

I actually rather like the latter. Its more recent form was spelt Edulf.

I'm interested in 'modernising' the old names, by the way. We say 'tree' and 'town' now, instead of treow and tun, so why should we use only the older forms of our old names? They can be subjected to the same development that our other linguistic heritage has.

[Peasant]

From Anglo-Saxon names I like these, maybe best as middle names.

Denby Anglo-Saxon Male From the Danish settlement.
Brigantia Anglo-Saxon Female Yorkshire goddess.
Brogan Anglo-Saxon Male Terror.
Bron Anglo-Saxon Male Brown or dark.
Diera Anglo-Saxon Female From Diera.
Irwin Anglo-Saxon Male Sea lover.
Isen Anglo-Saxon Male Iron.

Although Denby, no connection to that place. And I've just realised I am thinking of Danby.. I guess its name came from the same place?

[Æscwyn]

Reviving proper Old English names is nice in theory... but the child is going to be living in the real 21st century world and will have to deal with the very real likelihood of teasing if they have what appears to be an 'unusual name' among their playground peers. Apart from a limited selection, OE names have been out of vogue in England since the Norman conquest - so they will seem strange and archaic to the average modern Englishman. Unless there is a sudden surge of little Eadwulfs and Godrics I do not see that changing.

That said, I recently saw a birth announcement for a baby Wulfstan in The Times newspaper.

[Æscwyn]

From Anglo-Saxon names I like these, maybe best as middle names.

Brigantia was a pre-Saxon goddess and Brogan is Irish. I wouldn't trust a lot of the baby name sites out there, they literally make up meanings and do no etymological research whatsoever. I find www.behindthename.com to be the most accurate. They properly research the names.

[hereward]

Why the fuck an Englishman would allow his heir to bear an Irish name when he had no known connection with that island is beyond me.

My own thick stupid lazy pig-ignorant (fully-English) cousin called his kid 'Conner' (sic). Fucking thick bastard. Shun't be allowed to ave bleedin kids...

Ahem.

The moral is, don't call your kid a name that they haven't some sort of RIGHT to.

Amongst the welfare bred in London, Irish and Welsh names (Scottish first names/Surnames to a lesser extent) are common place. Like the rest of the population, they have ancestry from those nations, yet I doubt this is the reason for the prolific use of the names.

The tendency to give placenames as first-names puzzles me. Under this heading go Astley, Ashley, Ainsley, Ashton, Bradley, Shelley, Chelsea.... ?!? I mean, if you're from there, or have an ancestor with that surname, okay... but otherwise... !

Regarding Astley; as mentioned before, it has been in use on my Mums paternal side for nigh on 300 years. The bearers are from your neck of the woods, Fallowfield and Withington.

There's tons of names to choose from. Here's a fairly exhaustive list;
http://eagle.cch.kcl.ac.uk:8080/pase/persons/index.html
(Click on the letters at the top, and you'll get all names that begin with them)

Thanks for the link.

[la bombe]

Reviving proper Old English names is nice in theory... but the child is going to be living in the real 21st century world and will have to deal with the very real likelihood of teasing if they have what appears to be an 'unusual name' among their playground peers. Apart from a limited selection, OE names have been out of vogue in England since the Norman conquest - so they will seem strange and archaic to the average modern Englishman. Unless there is a sudden surge of little Eadwulfs and Godrics I do not see that changing.

That said, I recently saw a birth announcement for a baby Wulfstan in The Times newspaper.

None of those names are any weirder than the made-up crap people concoct nowadays.

[Guapo]

Edward or Edwarda

[Megrez]

Is there any Anglo-saxon form for the Portuguese Ildefonso, which derives from the Gothic Hildefuns?

[hereward]

Reviving proper Old English names is nice in theory... but the child is going to be living in the real 21st century world and will have to deal with the very real likelihood of teasing if they have what appears to be an 'unusual name' among their playground peers.

Well, every Indian/Paki/Bangladeshi who has ever been through the education system here has been ‘teased’; it has not affected the choice of names for their offspring.

Apart from a limited selection, OE names have been out of vogue in England since the Norman conquest - so they will seem strange and archaic to the average modern Englishman. Unless there is a sudden surge of little Eadwulfs and Godrics I do not see that changing.

You should take a visit to Chichester Cathedral, where there are portraits of Bishops up unto the 1500's, Old English names are plentiful right up until the end, if I recall.