View Message

I wonder if Mahaulte is related to Mahaut, the medieval French nn for Mathilde. They loved putting an "o" sound on the end to make a nn, which is where Margot and Isabeau (from Isabelle) come from. The Mahaulte spelling doesn't actually end in an "o" sound. But it's just begging for me to write it as Mahault, which would end in an "o" sound. This is why names are endlessly fun, for me at least. The human element down through the ages, altering names just a touch, according to language variation or pure whim, can never be discounted.

---

I always assumed Maud came from the Anglo-Saxon pronunciation of the first syllable of Matilda, which in Norman times was probably closer to "mahd-" than modern "muh-". But that's just a guess. :0)