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ArchivesRe: Romansch/Swiss Names
in reply to a message by Shaymin
If you do know of a book, and you can order it, I would advice to order it, even if it takes a long time to arrive.
Romansh is such a small language, and therefore Romansh given names and their meanings such a very narrow topic that I doubt that somebody will be able to provide such a list.
Romansh is officially the "4th national language of Switzerland", but if I look at the numbers, and the actual importance, that strikes me as something like a joke. As I see it, it is kept alive mostly for political reasons, with lots of money and effort, like a rare type of animal that would be long extinct if not some zoos were carefully breeding it.
But still, I agree that Romansh given names are an interesting topic, just very difficult to find information about them...
Rene www.AboutNames.ch
Romansh is such a small language, and therefore Romansh given names and their meanings such a very narrow topic that I doubt that somebody will be able to provide such a list.
Romansh is officially the "4th national language of Switzerland", but if I look at the numbers, and the actual importance, that strikes me as something like a joke. As I see it, it is kept alive mostly for political reasons, with lots of money and effort, like a rare type of animal that would be long extinct if not some zoos were carefully breeding it.
But still, I agree that Romansh given names are an interesting topic, just very difficult to find information about them...
Rene www.AboutNames.ch
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All very true, but it seems that Romansch names seem to be quite fashionable in Switzerland. I noticed, while browsing through some Swiss Births very recently, that names like Ladina, Corsin, Seraina etc were very prevalent and seemed to be the trend. :)
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Well, just last week the Swiss given name hitparades for 2008 were published, to be found here:
http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/de/index/news/publikationen.html?publicationID=3681
http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/de/index/news/publikationen.Document.123000.pdf
As far as I can see, these hitparades do not confirm your impression. Ladina is on a downtrend (2006: rank 32, 2007: rank 40, 2008: rank 45), and neither Corsin nor Seraina made it into the top 50 in any of the language regions. And in the hitparades for the "Svizra rumantscha", you can find many non-Romansh names.
Of course, if your info is from 2009, there might be a very recent trend developing, but maybe it's a case of selective attention, as I had when I checked the use of Albanian names in Switzerland a while ago: Suddenly I saw them *just everywhere* :)
http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/de/index/news/publikationen.html?publicationID=3681
http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/de/index/news/publikationen.Document.123000.pdf
As far as I can see, these hitparades do not confirm your impression. Ladina is on a downtrend (2006: rank 32, 2007: rank 40, 2008: rank 45), and neither Corsin nor Seraina made it into the top 50 in any of the language regions. And in the hitparades for the "Svizra rumantscha", you can find many non-Romansh names.
Of course, if your info is from 2009, there might be a very recent trend developing, but maybe it's a case of selective attention, as I had when I checked the use of Albanian names in Switzerland a while ago: Suddenly I saw them *just everywhere* :)
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Let's see: Nevio, Gian, Flurin, Andrin, Jarno, Men, Moreno. Laurin, Floris, and I believe Silvan might be Romantsch as well, have all made it to this lists. That's quite a significant amount of names of Romantch origin to be considered rather popular IMO, though the language itself may be dying off. I saw a few Serainas and Corsins in the Swiss BAs, if your google Swiss Newspapers, and go to a variety of newspapers, type in Geburten. In some newspapers they will be listed on the front page, listed as "babies" sometimes even spelled as "babys" in the German language ones, it will take you to lists of births from that week and weeks before. I had no idea these names were Romantch at first. My initial thought was that the Swiss had gotten into, very much like American naming trends, taking traditional names and giving them trendy spellings.
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Just a little comment: "Trendy spellings" are out of question in Switzerland. People here would probably regard that as nonsense if you suggested it to them.
In fact, I never encountered that phenomenon of re-spelling names in funny ways in any other country except the US, and I was very surprised when I did.
In fact, I never encountered that phenomenon of re-spelling names in funny ways in any other country except the US, and I was very surprised when I did.
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I realize that now, I only brought that up because I had confused some traditional Swiss names like Flurina, Seraina etc as trendy spellings. I was not saying that Swiss parents use trendy spellings in general.
Actually, the French seem to have their own trendy spellings: a la Luna/Louna. Trendy spellings are not just relegated to the US. I have even seen it occur in Germany too, Finn and Fynn for example. I have seen several other French names spelled funny ways in the French BAs, all of which have slipped my mind. Sweden and Norway I can think of a few: Thindra and Tindra. Thindra is definitely a trendy spelling because the name Tindra is derived from a Swedish verb meaning "to twinkle" so adding an unnecessary H to a word name is unneeded to begin with. But that is a completely different subject.
Actually, the French seem to have their own trendy spellings: a la Luna/Louna. Trendy spellings are not just relegated to the US. I have even seen it occur in Germany too, Finn and Fynn for example. I have seen several other French names spelled funny ways in the French BAs, all of which have slipped my mind. Sweden and Norway I can think of a few: Thindra and Tindra. Thindra is definitely a trendy spelling because the name Tindra is derived from a Swedish verb meaning "to twinkle" so adding an unnecessary H to a word name is unneeded to begin with. But that is a completely different subject.
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