New Post
Search
Help
ArchivesA question about Brendan
Now, we all know that Brendan's real meaning is "prince", but why do so many babynaming books claim it means "smelly hair"? Did they simply make it up? My semi-serious theory: The authors didn't like the name and made up an unattractive meaning to discourage parents from using it. My wacky theory: The authors took bad acid the day they wrote up Brendan. Any other theories/comments?
Miranda
Miranda
1
Replies
Well...
Actually you can blame Celtic philologists.
Sometimes they were so determined to find authentic 'Irish' roots for names they overlooked the easier solutions, which in this case was that the Irish had borrowed the word 'brenin' (which actually means 'king', but these title things are always a bit iffy) from the Welsh. It seems obvious now, but it wasn't at the time.
Actually you can blame Celtic philologists.
Sometimes they were so determined to find authentic 'Irish' roots for names they overlooked the easier solutions, which in this case was that the Irish had borrowed the word 'brenin' (which actually means 'king', but these title things are always a bit iffy) from the Welsh. It seems obvious now, but it wasn't at the time.
1