New Post
Search
HelpRe: What would English name look like without Christianity?
in reply to a message by Rose Yuen
Oooo, fun. I did a little looking.
These names come from Anglo-Saxon, so you might see them or names like them:
Alfred Alvin Albert Chad Kenelm, Athelstan, Ethelred, Adelmar, Dunstan, Edgar, Edmund, Edward, Edwin, Levin, Oswald, Oswin, Sigbert, Esmund, Egbert, Godric, Godwin, Harold, Roger, Rudolf, Waldemar, Swithin, Wystan
Ebba, Elfleda, Elfreda, Audrey, Edith, Aldith, Everild, Frideswide, Godiva, Hilda, Milburga, Mildred, Sunniva, Wulfrun
And a few from Medieval French:
Otto Geoffrey Joss
Alice (and therefore Alyssa, Alicia, and Alison) Amy Odetta Odilia Joyse Melisende
*****
And last of all an Admiral came,
A terrible man with a terrible name,—
A name which you all know by sight very well;
But which no one can speak, and no one can spell.
Robert Southey, "The March to Moscow"
These names come from Anglo-Saxon, so you might see them or names like them:
Alfred Alvin Albert Chad Kenelm, Athelstan, Ethelred, Adelmar, Dunstan, Edgar, Edmund, Edward, Edwin, Levin, Oswald, Oswin, Sigbert, Esmund, Egbert, Godric, Godwin, Harold, Roger, Rudolf, Waldemar, Swithin, Wystan
Ebba, Elfleda, Elfreda, Audrey, Edith, Aldith, Everild, Frideswide, Godiva, Hilda, Milburga, Mildred, Sunniva, Wulfrun
And a few from Medieval French:
Otto Geoffrey Joss
Alice (and therefore Alyssa, Alicia, and Alison) Amy Odetta Odilia Joyse Melisende
*****
And last of all an Admiral came,
A terrible man with a terrible name,—
A name which you all know by sight very well;
But which no one can speak, and no one can spell.
Robert Southey, "The March to Moscow"
Archived Thread - replies disabled
1
Replies
But maybe you're thinking more of what names wouldn't be as common. I think that's a trickier question. Names that I think of as Christian may have origins in Hebrew, Greek, or Latin, and those influences may have spread to Europe and Britain even without Christianity.
1