New Post
Search
Help
ArchivesBrendan means “stinking hair”?
According to this Nameberry article older sources say Brendan means “stinking hair”:
http://nameberry.com/blog/these-names-mean-trouble-literally
Does this have any factual basis? I know Nameberry sometimes list incorrect meanings, but I'm curious about this one.
http://nameberry.com/blog/these-names-mean-trouble-literally
Does this have any factual basis? I know Nameberry sometimes list incorrect meanings, but I'm curious about this one.
This message was edited 3/7/2013, 5:35 AM
1
Replies
Sorry - this is a bit late!
CKE is totally right, as one would naturally expect! But the possible reason why those "older sources" found the "stinking hair" meaning plausible could be that in some cultures it is/was thought unwise to attract the envy of the gods by giving a child such a wonderful name that they might perceive it as competition and zap it with illness, bad luck or even early death. So loving parents with their baby's interests at heart might have thought along the lines of "Let's name him Brendan so the gods will feel sorry for him and either overlook him or perhaps even give him good fortune".
Of course, they didn't, for all the reasons we know about. Or maybe they, too, or some of them, also fell for the Old Irish etymology; like modern parents who think that Katharine means "pure".
CKE is totally right, as one would naturally expect! But the possible reason why those "older sources" found the "stinking hair" meaning plausible could be that in some cultures it is/was thought unwise to attract the envy of the gods by giving a child such a wonderful name that they might perceive it as competition and zap it with illness, bad luck or even early death. So loving parents with their baby's interests at heart might have thought along the lines of "Let's name him Brendan so the gods will feel sorry for him and either overlook him or perhaps even give him good fortune".
Of course, they didn't, for all the reasons we know about. Or maybe they, too, or some of them, also fell for the Old Irish etymology; like modern parents who think that Katharine means "pure".
1
Though more recent evidence does seem to show this is incorrect, this was the best guess that experts had for the original meaning of Brendan when they were still thinking it was derived from ancient Irish Gaelic.
More recent experts now believe it is an importation into Ireland of a Welsh word meaning "prince."
This is a good example of how more recent research that finds new evidence can change the accepted origin of a name. So Nameberry is correct that "older sources" give "stinking hair" as the original meaning of Brendan. It's just that those older sources have now been overturned by new evidence.
More recent experts now believe it is an importation into Ireland of a Welsh word meaning "prince."
This is a good example of how more recent research that finds new evidence can change the accepted origin of a name. So Nameberry is correct that "older sources" give "stinking hair" as the original meaning of Brendan. It's just that those older sources have now been overturned by new evidence.
1
Thanks!
1