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ArchivesThe real ethnicity of the name Cheryl
Hi Everyone, especially Nanaea, whose vast knowledge of names and naming I much admire. I am a new contributor to the board and would like to challenge Nanaea or anyone else to tell me the ethnicity of the name Cheryl. Contrary to most people's definition, it is not French, although it is from the French Cherie meaning "love" or "dear one". I know where it comes from as I have researched the name. If I go to one more names site that tells me Cheryl is a French name I shall scream and scream. Well I have thrown down the gauntlet. Anyone care to take it up?
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Replies
The Original Cheryl may have been a guy :)
Welcome to our laboratory and playground Cheryl :) Lemme propose an alternative to Nanaea 's very elegant approach.
Assuming that "Cheryl " is derived from the fruit Cherry , one can trace Cheryl to the Greek "kerasos" (cherry) => "cerasus" (Latin) => cerise, cherry, kirsche etc (contemporary languages).... As a matter of fact there is a very early recorded Mycenaean *male* name "Keraso" (George Babiniotis, *Hellenic Lexicon*).
Welcome to our laboratory and playground Cheryl :) Lemme propose an alternative to Nanaea 's very elegant approach.
Assuming that "Cheryl " is derived from the fruit Cherry , one can trace Cheryl to the Greek "kerasos" (cherry) => "cerasus" (Latin) => cerise, cherry, kirsche etc (contemporary languages).... As a matter of fact there is a very early recorded Mycenaean *male* name "Keraso" (George Babiniotis, *Hellenic Lexicon*).
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False alarm...must have been a gal!
Looked into it a bit more: the Mycenaean Keraso is accented in the last syllable (Êåñáóþ), a characteristic of feminine names.
Looked into it a bit more: the Mycenaean Keraso is accented in the last syllable (Êåñáóþ), a characteristic of feminine names.
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A "man-at-arms magistrate" and "inserted Greek"?
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Welcome to BtN, Cheryl!
And thanks for the props. I'm blushing. :)
According to my reference sources, the name Cheryl came into popular usage in the 1920s and was a development from "Cherry" -- an old pet name for "Charity". Charity, of course, was a Puritan virtue name, derived from the New Testament word for love. Tracing this word back to its New Testament Greek roots, the original form would be "Charis".
How'd I do? ;)
-- Nanaea
And thanks for the props. I'm blushing. :)
According to my reference sources, the name Cheryl came into popular usage in the 1920s and was a development from "Cherry" -- an old pet name for "Charity". Charity, of course, was a Puritan virtue name, derived from the New Testament word for love. Tracing this word back to its New Testament Greek roots, the original form would be "Charis".
How'd I do? ;)
-- Nanaea
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Thanks Nanaea for the warm welcome. I think I'm going to like it here; you're my kind of folks. About my name, according to my research, Cheryl is a Welsh form of the French Cherie. I even talked to someone from Wales who verified its Welsh origins. She said in Wales the CH sound is pronounced like cherry and not like sherry. In other words, the Welsh pronounce Cheryl as chair' uhl instead of share' uhl
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Cool! :) I hadn't heard that before. Thanks for the Welsh background on "Cheryl" -- I'm making a note of it!
I see you've been busy on the board tonight, too. You're going to be an asset to the joint, I'm sure. :)
-- Nanaea
I see you've been busy on the board tonight, too. You're going to be an asset to the joint, I'm sure. :)
-- Nanaea
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