History of Christian names

by Charlotte M. Yonge

Serpents, as Orm and Lind, are peculiar to the North.

The eagle figures in Aias, Ajax, Aquila, the Russian Orlof, and many an Arn of the Teutons. It is rather surprising not to find him among the Gael; but the raven, like the wolf, is the fashionable creature, as an attendant upon slaughter—Oreb, Corvus, Morvren, Fiachra, Rafn, he croaks his name over the plunderer everywhere but among the Greeks and Slaves.

The swan has Gelges in Ireland, Svanwhit in the North; the dove named Jonah, Jemima in Palestine, Columba in Christian Latinity, Golubica in Illyria; but gentle birds are, in general, entirely neglected, unless the Greek Philomela, which properly means loving honey, were named after the nightingale. The Latin Gallus may possibly be a cock; but Genserich is not the gander king, as he was so long supposed to be.

The bee had Deborah in Hebrew, and Melissa in Greek; but, in general, insects are not popular, though Vespasian is said to come from a wasp; and among fishes, the dolphin has the only namesakes in Romance tongues, probably blunders from Delphi.

Plants were now and then commemorated; Tamar, a palm tree, Hadassah, a myrtle, are among the scanty eastern examples. Rome had a Robur, and Illyria Dobruslav, in honour of the oak; but the Slaves have almost the only genuine flower names. Rhoda is, indeed, a true Greek Rose, but the modern ones are mistakes for hross, a horse. Violet, probably, rose out of Valens, and Lilias from Cæcilius, Oliver from Olaf. Primrose, Ivy, Eglantine, &c., have been invented in modern books at least, and so has Amaranth.

Passing to qualities, goodness is found in many an Agathos of the Greeks, with his superlative Aristos, but early Rome chiefly dealt in Valens, leaving Bonus and Melior for her later inventors to use. The goods of the Teutons are rather doubtful between the names of the Deity and of war, but in passing them, the relation between Gustaf and Scipio should be observed. The Slaves have many compounds of both Dobry and Blago, and the Irish, Alma.

Love is everywhere. David represents it in Hebrew, Agape and Phile in Greek; but the grim Roman never used the compounds of his amo, only left them to form many a gentle modern name—Amabel, Aimée, Amy. Caradoc was the old Cymric, and Aiffe the Gadhaelic, beloved; and Wine and Leof in the German races, Ljubov, Libusa, Milica in the Slavonic, proved the warm hearts of the people. Indeed, the Slavonic names are the tenderest of all, owning Bratoljub and Çedomil, fraternal and parental love, unparalleled except by the satirical surnames of the Alexandrian kings.

Purity—a Christian idea—is found in Agnes and Katherine, both Greek; perhaps, too, Devoslava, or maiden glory, with the Slaves. Holiness is in the Hieronymus and Hagios of heathen Greece, meaning a holy name, and in the northern Ercen and Vieh, at the beginning and end of names, the Sviato of the Slavonians.

Peace, always lovely and longed-for, names both Absalom and Solomon, and after them many an eastern Selim and Selima. Greece had Irene and Irenæus, but not till Christian days, and the Roman Pacificus was a very modern invention; but the Friedrich, &c., of the North, and Miroslav of the Slav, were much more ancient.

The soul is to be found in Greece, as Psyche, and nowhere else but in the Welsh Enid. Life, however, figured at Rome, as Vitalis, and in the Teutonic nations as the prefix fjor; and the Greek Zoë kept it up in honour of the oldest of all female names, Eve.