Baby Name History

The history of names is unclear due to the simple passage of time. How did we create or use the first names, what made a name unique or different and why do we believe that names as often linked to everyday objects. One of the key times was the development of written history. People were clearly called something before written records but what is completely unprovable. However, most names appear to have had some sort of original meaning, usually descriptive, rather than a collection of sounds. These descriptive names developed both from nouns and adjectives. Examples of name descended from nouns are the Welsh Girl names such as such as Aerona meaning berry or the Irish Girls Name Ahana meaning from the little ford. What is also clear from historical naming is that highly descriptive names become popular in the Christian bible, such as the Christian Girl Names example when Rachel names her last son Benoni. This Christian Boys name is then changed when his father, Jacob, renames him Benjamin "son of the right hand" (Genesis 35:18).

Many early names were compounds of two descriptive terms. For example, the following Frankish (literally Land of the Franks - or France as we know it today) names are compounds: Sigibert (victory and shining), Childeric (battle and powerful. Sometimes, such compound names in non-Christian societies referred to their gods. The ancient Norse had many names which were linked into their God Thor (He was the son of Odin and Fyorgyn, the earth goddess. Thor was considered the storm-weather god of sky and thunder and also a fertility god.) such as Thorbjorn, Thorgeir and Thorkell and so on.

Early in history a number of names which were more descriptive in nature began to occur over and over. They became in effect so popular that they almost formed a list of names that parents would choose one option from. This lessened the use of unique names and in many cases, the words that formed the original name passed out of use. This contributes to the vagueness and misunderstandings about the roots of many names today such as ancient languages utilising words that have passed out of use or understanding

Created on ... May 08, 2015