I trust that I have succeeded in making it clear, from the definite place which the foregoing are shown to occupy in the Teutonic system, that they are not, as they have been generally supposed to be, familiar contractions of Christian names.
FOOTNOTES:
[57] Cf. also Eng. "e'er" for "ever."
[58] There seems probably an Anglo-Saxon name Crecga in Crecganford, now Crayford.
[59] Nomen honestissimæ familiæ Hamburgensis (Richey). He evidently takes it as a sobriquet "beet (i.e. make up) the fire."
CHAPTER XI.
CHRISTIAN NAMES OF WOMEN.[60]
The names of women, so far as they are of German origin, enter into the Teutonic system precisely as do the names of men, and there is, as far as I know, no instance of a stem used exclusively for the names of women. But in regard to the second part of the compound, which is that which governs the name, there are certain words which are only used for women. Some of these are such as from their meaning would not be suitable for anything else, such as trud, from which we have Gertrude and Ermentrude, both of which seem to be of Frankish origin, and to have come to us through the Normans. The Anglo-Saxon form appears to be dryth or thryth, as in Mildthryth, from which comes our Mildred, the only name, as far as I know, in that form. Another feminine ending among the Anglo-Saxons was gith, which, as elsewhere noted, I have supposed to mean woman or goddess. The only name we have with this ending is Edith, unless, as seems not impossible, an Anglo-Saxon Godgith (Godith, Lib. Vit.) has got mixed up with Judith. Another specially female ending was fled, in H.G. flat, the meaning of which seems to be beauty. As a prefix this word enters into the names of men, and we may have some names from it, as Flatt, Flattery, Flatman, &c. As an ending there may have been some word corresponding with O.N. fliôd, a beautiful woman, which has caused its special application. Then there are certain words, such as hild, war, and burg, in which the meaning (condere, servare) may perhaps imply in such case modesty or chastity; which, as endings, are used almost exclusively for names of women. But as a general rule the same range of words forms indifferently names of men and women, the latter being distinguished only by having the ending in a.
My object in this chapter is only to deal with a few names, in regard to which I desire to correct some wrong impressions, or to throw some new light upon the subject. And in the first place I have to refer to the connection between Isabel and Elizabeth, and to the manner in which I suppose the former name to have originated.