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Help[Facts] Evochildis
I've recently come across the name Evochildis. It belonged to a 5th century queen of the Franks. The -childis part presumably comes from the Germanic "hild", which means "battle". But what about the Evo- part? Thanks to anyone who can help.
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Replies
you'd still expect the /r/ to remain, furthermore, in High German this prototheme remains "Ebur" - German Eber. Intervocalic /b/ in Dutch and English became initially a bilabial fricative, then the easier labiodental fricative /v/ in OE written "f". In modern German the bilabial fricative is an allophone of intervocalic /b/ in casual speech, but formally the regular stop.
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I haven't seen this one explained in a book, but a candidate prototheme is AIVA "(long) time, saeculum", cognate to modern German ewig "eternal". AIVA is listed as a name element in Förstemann 1900, but he hasn't sampled the combination with HILD in this work.
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Agreed! Also compare Old High German êwa meaning "time, age, law" and modern Dutch eeuw meaning "century":
• https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ewa#Old_High_German (in English)
• https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/eeuw#Dutch (in English)
By the way, AIVA can be found on page 49 of Ernst Förstemann's Altdeutsches Namenbuch (1900):
• https://archive.org/details/altdeutschesnam00seelgoog/page/n37/mode/2up (in German)
There might also be a chance that Evochildis is a theophoric name, in which case the first element refers to the obscure Flemish goddess Haeva (mentioned under Aeva by Förstemann on page 50). Much of what is now Flanders was once the territory of the Salian Franks. Since Evochildis was Queen of the Salian Franks, I would say that this theory is not that far-fetched.
According to the following source, the goddess' name might possibly be derived from (or otherwise related to) Germanic *hiwan meaning "marriage":
• https://godenvaneigenbodem.com/haeva/ (in Dutch)
Also compare modern Dutch huwen meaning "to marry": https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/huwen#Dutch (in English)
Note that the aforementioned Dutch source states that Haeva was actually a goddess of the Batavi, a Germanic tribe that lived around the modern Dutch Rhine delta. However, the Salian Franks are also said to have lived around that general area.
• Batavi: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batavi_(Germanic_tribe) (in English; "lived around the modern Dutch Rhine delta")
• Salian Franks: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salian_Franks (in English; "living in the Rhine delta in the modern Netherlands")
• https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ewa#Old_High_German (in English)
• https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/eeuw#Dutch (in English)
By the way, AIVA can be found on page 49 of Ernst Förstemann's Altdeutsches Namenbuch (1900):
• https://archive.org/details/altdeutschesnam00seelgoog/page/n37/mode/2up (in German)
There might also be a chance that Evochildis is a theophoric name, in which case the first element refers to the obscure Flemish goddess Haeva (mentioned under Aeva by Förstemann on page 50). Much of what is now Flanders was once the territory of the Salian Franks. Since Evochildis was Queen of the Salian Franks, I would say that this theory is not that far-fetched.
According to the following source, the goddess' name might possibly be derived from (or otherwise related to) Germanic *hiwan meaning "marriage":
• https://godenvaneigenbodem.com/haeva/ (in Dutch)
Also compare modern Dutch huwen meaning "to marry": https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/huwen#Dutch (in English)
Note that the aforementioned Dutch source states that Haeva was actually a goddess of the Batavi, a Germanic tribe that lived around the modern Dutch Rhine delta. However, the Salian Franks are also said to have lived around that general area.
• Batavi: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batavi_(Germanic_tribe) (in English; "lived around the modern Dutch Rhine delta")
• Salian Franks: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salian_Franks (in English; "living in the Rhine delta in the modern Netherlands")
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Tribal names were fluid, these are after all political entities whose members may change over time, split and merge into other identities.
getting to Haeva from Hiwa seems dubious. more likely is a relation to Aiwa (which can also refer to marriage). Also the form of the Hiwa root that might be used in names is a single syllable Hiw-, with long i: (this may instead be the prosaically rare homophone Hiw "fortune" though).
getting to Haeva from Hiwa seems dubious. more likely is a relation to Aiwa (which can also refer to marriage). Also the form of the Hiwa root that might be used in names is a single syllable Hiw-, with long i: (this may instead be the prosaically rare homophone Hiw "fortune" though).
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