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Hi,
Im pretty new to the name science but Im really fascinated, Ive devoured several books on the topic and Im wondering if there are any must-reads or any books you as insiders could recommend? Im especially interested in Greek and Mythological names. Any suggestions will be highly appreciated, thanks a lot.
I just went to the biggest bookstore and browsed the relevant section then bought and read following books:
- 40,001 best baby names by Diane Stafford
- The New Age baby name book by Sue Browder
- The worst baby name book ever by David Narter
- Baby names for dummies
Im pretty new to the name science but Im really fascinated, Ive devoured several books on the topic and Im wondering if there are any must-reads or any books you as insiders could recommend? Im especially interested in Greek and Mythological names. Any suggestions will be highly appreciated, thanks a lot.
I just went to the biggest bookstore and browsed the relevant section then bought and read following books:
- 40,001 best baby names by Diane Stafford
- The New Age baby name book by Sue Browder
- The worst baby name book ever by David Narter
- Baby names for dummies
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Replies
my main name book is "A World of Baby Names" by Teresa Norman I think it's pretty accurate, and it has a section on Greek names and mythology names.
it's also under 20 dollars (which is good for me and my limited budget:)
it's also under 20 dollars (which is good for me and my limited budget:)
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The New Age Baby Name Book is fun, but not very reliable.
Oxford Dictionary is great! Wordsworth's Dictionary of First Names is good, too, although not always reliable.
WARNING for Everything you need to know about Baby Names by Lisa Shaw (merely the title would have told me it's unreliable). Horrible book!
Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times if only one remembers to turn on the lights
~Albus Dumbledore
Oxford Dictionary is great! Wordsworth's Dictionary of First Names is good, too, although not always reliable.
WARNING for Everything you need to know about Baby Names by Lisa Shaw (merely the title would have told me it's unreliable). Horrible book!
Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times if only one remembers to turn on the lights
~Albus Dumbledore
1
The classic Oxford names book is by far the best source there is. Extremely accurate. A lot of so-called "baby name" books are filled with non-factual rubbish, so be careful. (The ones that boast huge numbers of names are the worst, in my experience. They achieve such figures by respelling everything 1000 times.)
_____________________________________________________________________
♥Elinor♥
_____________________________________________________________________
♥Elinor♥
This message was edited 2/21/2006, 8:54 AM
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Here are some really great books about names of Greek origin, unfortunately one is in German and the rest are in Greek... but maybe you speak German or Greek, so then it wouldn't be a problem! :)
"Lexicon of the Ancient Mythological, Historical and Geographical Personal Names", N. Lorentes, Austria, 1837
"Homeric Onomatologion", ISBN 960-7812-35-2
"Thesaurus of Greek names", ISBN 96-7931-65-3
"Mega Onomastikon", ISBN 960-7756-02-9
"Mega Hetairikon", ISBN 960-7756-14-2
"From Gaia to Hypatia, the Greek women of the ancient world", ISBN 960-316-288-4
"New Lexicon of Greek Mythology", ISBN 960-7931-28-9
and of course click on the "Lexicon of Greek Personal Names" of the British Academy:
http://www.lgpn.ox.ac.uk
"Until the day that an ancient inscription will be found with the name "Alexandrovski" (or "Alexandrev" or "Alexandrov") written on it instead of "Alexander", true Macedonia and true Macedonians will remain Greek, as they always were."
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Source
Wow! In fact I do speak German and Ive been learning Greek for a couple of years now so I will be ok with the books I guess. Did you buy them in Greece or is there any online shop Ive yet to find?
Ive tried to find an online shop but no such luck, if there are several online shops Id prefer one with an English version of the homepage.
Thank you ever so much, Ive had a fascination with Greek names for years now, but so far, all I could do was read mythologic encyclopaedia and the more than elliptic relevant section in English name books, now having this list is like Xmas and Birthday at the same time :))) Dankeschoen and Efharisto poli!
Wow! In fact I do speak German and Ive been learning Greek for a couple of years now so I will be ok with the books I guess. Did you buy them in Greece or is there any online shop Ive yet to find?
Ive tried to find an online shop but no such luck, if there are several online shops Id prefer one with an English version of the homepage.
Thank you ever so much, Ive had a fascination with Greek names for years now, but so far, all I could do was read mythologic encyclopaedia and the more than elliptic relevant section in English name books, now having this list is like Xmas and Birthday at the same time :))) Dankeschoen and Efharisto poli!
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The pleasure is mine, its always nice to meet a fellow enthusiast! :)
I bought all those books in Greece, I am sure there will be Greek online bookstores you can order them from. Unfortunately I don't have much time now, but I promise I'll search for you and I'll let you know tomorrow.
"Until the day that an ancient inscription will be found with the name "Alexandrovski" (or "Alexandrev" or "Alexandrov") written on it instead of "Alexander", true Macedonia and true Macedonians will remain Greek, as they always were."
I bought all those books in Greece, I am sure there will be Greek online bookstores you can order them from. Unfortunately I don't have much time now, but I promise I'll search for you and I'll let you know tomorrow.
"Until the day that an ancient inscription will be found with the name "Alexandrovski" (or "Alexandrev" or "Alexandrov") written on it instead of "Alexander", true Macedonia and true Macedonians will remain Greek, as they always were."
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Ok, after research I did, its not easy to get these books from a Greek online general bookstore due to their low demand... :(
However you can contact the editors of the books and have them sent to you separately, or, even better, find a bookstore that can provide you with all the books from all the different editors, in order to keep the postage cost down.
So here are the editions and contact information for them:
Edition "Marios Verettas", Tel: 0030 210 33 05 139, www.verettas.gr/:
"Mega Onomastikon", ISBN 960-7756-02-9
"Mega Hetairikon", ISBN 960-7756-14-2
Edition "Georgiades", Tel: 0030 210 38 36 231, www.georgiadesbooks.gr:
"From Gaia to Hypatia, the Greek women of the ancient world", ISBN 960-316-288-4
Edition "Kyromanos", Tel: 0030 2310 28 24 27:
"Homeric Onomatologion", ISBN 960-7812-35-2
Edition "Eleftheri Skepsis", Tel: 0030 210 36 14 736, 0030 36 30 697:
"Thesaurus of Greek names", ISBN 96-7931-65-3
"New Lexicon of Greek Mythology", ISBN 960-7931-28-9
Edition "Kypeiros-Parousia", Tel: 0030 210 38 29 833:
They did a fine reproduction in Greek of the
"Lexicon of the Ancient Mythological, Historical and Geographical Personal Names", N. Lorentes, Austria, 1837
now under the ISBN 960-86714-4-2.
As I said, it will be nice if you can get all of these books from one bookstore, so you can keep the postage cost low. I am pretty sure that "Marios Verettas" and "Eleftheri Skepsis" will be able to provide and send you all those books, so try to contact them first and ask about that.
Enjoy your reading!
"Until the day that an ancient inscription will be found with the name "Alexandrovski" (or "Alexandrev" or "Alexandrov") written on it instead of "Alexander", true Macedonia and true Macedonians will remain Greek, as they always were."
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@Kassios
Thank you, I will send verettas an email and hopefully I will soon have a lot of reading to do ;) The georgiandes link doesnt seem to work, are you sure about the spelling?
Also if you know of any interesting homepages/forums etc for grecophiles please let me know discipula_artium at yahoo.co.uk
Thanks a lot
Kay
Thank you, I will send verettas an email and hopefully I will soon have a lot of reading to do ;) The georgiandes link doesnt seem to work, are you sure about the spelling?
Also if you know of any interesting homepages/forums etc for grecophiles please let me know discipula_artium at yahoo.co.uk
Thanks a lot
Kay
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Yes, it is the correct spelling, I don't know why it's not working... anyway I am pretty sure verettas will do the job.
I'll mail you soon about the other sites.
And to salute you, here is a quote for you by
Isokrates, 436-338 BCE:
"The word 'Greek' is not so much a term of birth as it is of mentality, and is applied to a common culture rather than a common descent."
:)
"Until the day that an ancient inscription will be found with the name "Alexandrovski" (or "Alexandrev" or "Alexandrov") written on it instead of "Alexander", true Macedonia and true Macedonians will remain Greek, as they always were."
I'll mail you soon about the other sites.
And to salute you, here is a quote for you by
Isokrates, 436-338 BCE:
"The word 'Greek' is not so much a term of birth as it is of mentality, and is applied to a common culture rather than a common descent."
:)
"Until the day that an ancient inscription will be found with the name "Alexandrovski" (or "Alexandrev" or "Alexandrov") written on it instead of "Alexander", true Macedonia and true Macedonians will remain Greek, as they always were."
1
If you are in the USA, one source for foreign language books is Schoenhof's in Massachusetts. They have special ordered name books from Europe for me before:
http://www.schoenhofs.com/
http://www.schoenhofs.com/
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Definitely not impressed by Stafford; many of her "meanings" are definitely incorrect, though there are so many eccentric ones (for instance, her listing of Michael as "spiritual patron of soldiers") that I'm not sure she intends them to be etymologies. Just looking at other names on the same page as Michael, she has Mercer as "affluent", when it's from an Old French word meaning "merchant"; Meyshaun as "searching", an interpretation which seems completely off the wall; Milburn as "volatile", when it goes back to an English place name meaning "mill stream"; and Mingo as "flirtatious", which seems just as off the wall as Meyshaun. The only thing this book has going for it is an especially large number of names, but if you are interesting in scholarly etymology or history of names, it's about the last book I would recommend.
Narter's book is of course just one big joke which he doesn't mean anyone to take seriously. Browder's book has been around for quite a while and I don't have one in my office in order to comment on it.
Baby Names for Dummies does seem to be one of the better books on the market at the moment, though Margaret Rose, the author, does leave off the all-important question mark from the original meaning of Michael; it's very important in interpreting what this name meant to the early Hebrews to know that it was "Who is like God?", NOT a statement.
Hanks & Hodges's name dictionaries from Oxford University Press would be one I would recommend.
Narter's book is of course just one big joke which he doesn't mean anyone to take seriously. Browder's book has been around for quite a while and I don't have one in my office in order to comment on it.
Baby Names for Dummies does seem to be one of the better books on the market at the moment, though Margaret Rose, the author, does leave off the all-important question mark from the original meaning of Michael; it's very important in interpreting what this name meant to the early Hebrews to know that it was "Who is like God?", NOT a statement.
Hanks & Hodges's name dictionaries from Oxford University Press would be one I would recommend.
1