and Bovingas, different forms, I take it, of the same name, in his list
of early settlers. Our name Bobbin, which corresponds with an O.G.
Bobin, may be taken as an example of the ending in _en_, p. 27.
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.
ISABEL _another form of_ ELIZABETH, _and how it came to be so_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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