I've been looking at a genealogy database lately, mainly of French Canada from the 18th to 19th century. There are A LOT of interesting and archaic names in the database. For every name, I tried to check for origins or explanations, but sometimes I couldn't find any. I got a long list, so I'll make other posts.
Don't hesitate to give your thoughts.
Feminine:
Adée (probably a short form of
Adèle,
Adélie, or other names from the same root)
Adelianne (I thought it was an interesting and original form of
Adélie and
Anne)
Almonia
Aldeneige
Anatalie (maybe a variation of
Nathalie ?)
Arménie (spelled exactly like the country Armenia, but no idea if it's related)
Auxilia (from the latin ''auxilium'' meaning ''to give help, to assist''. Pr
Azilda
Alzire (BtN seems to tell me it comes from a
Voltaire novel, but I wonder if the name was also used generally in French speaking novels)
Basilisse (French form of
Vasilisa)
Belzemire
Cédulie (Derived from Latin sedulus "zealous, diligent, industrious".)
Célanire
Masculine:
Adalbert (not that strange, simply rare.)
Adéodat (from Latin
Adeodatus, latin meaning "given by God".)
Adjutor (from Latin ''helper'')
Alcide (Latinized form of Greek
Alkeides, derived from alke meaning "strength, prowess")
Alderic (from
German alt "old" and rih "ruler, king")
Almanzar
Alyre
Anaclet Anthyme
Archelas
Don't hesitate to rate my different PNLs:
http://www.behindthename.com/pnl/246179