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ArchivesRe: the name Emorancy
in reply to a message by clevelandkentevans
My follow-up guess is that Emerentius was taken to South Africa by our Dutch settlers, also as a feminine name but with spelling variants. The best known of these is Emmarentia, probably originating because Emma is a familiar female name. I know a woman, now in her 70s, whose given name is Rentia (pronounced RENsha), a shortened form of Emmarentia.
I have not seen any examples of Emerens or Emerentius in local sources, but nor have I looked: census and BMD notices are not made public here, as a matter of policy, though this might be changing. Public records are kept in very few places and are hard to access and, one suspects, incomplete.
I have not seen any examples of Emerens or Emerentius in local sources, but nor have I looked: census and BMD notices are not made public here, as a matter of policy, though this might be changing. Public records are kept in very few places and are hard to access and, one suspects, incomplete.
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I think the feminine form Emerentia was much more popular than the male form Emerentius because it was the (non-biblical) name of the grand-mother Virgin Mary. I don't think that it has any connections to the name Emma, even when it is sometimes spellt with double m.
--elbowin
--elbowin
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I totally agree about Emma - my sense is that Emma just looked familiar as a female name and the spelling was tweaked to meet people's expectations. There can't be an etymological link.
As for the BVM's granny ... ! I can't imagine the sturdily Protestant - indeed, Calvinist! - Dutch settlers in South Africa paying any attention to any story about the holy family that they couldn't find in the pages of their Bibles. And why a respectable village lady would give her daughter a Latin name, however suitable its meaning would become, three generations later, when the Romans were the invading conquerors is quite beyond me. Oh well. Perhaps Emerentia was used by Dutch Catholics, for the reason you suggest, and stayed in use among Protestants because they liked it!
As for the BVM's granny ... ! I can't imagine the sturdily Protestant - indeed, Calvinist! - Dutch settlers in South Africa paying any attention to any story about the holy family that they couldn't find in the pages of their Bibles. And why a respectable village lady would give her daughter a Latin name, however suitable its meaning would become, three generations later, when the Romans were the invading conquerors is quite beyond me. Oh well. Perhaps Emerentia was used by Dutch Catholics, for the reason you suggest, and stayed in use among Protestants because they liked it!
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