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ArchivesRe: Origin of name: "Arthur"
in reply to a message by Amphelise
Everything about the fictional Arthur, and the Arthur of the Welsh poems and mythologies is pure conjecture. What is not pure conjecture is several real individuals, not in Wales or Cumbria but in the Danelaw and Norman England, who ARE named Arthur/Arthor/Arnthor. These individuals have ostensibly Norse/Anglo-Norse names, not Roman or British names that might have been used 5-600 years earlier.
Now when you said "disappeared" I assumed you meant "ceased being used" not "were not recorded", however, while both are true of most names that were presumably used (although we have a lot of names, these represent a tiny fraction of the population and are biased toward wealthier men - we know from later recorded place names and family names, there must have been far more), neither is true of Arthor — the Norse name was recorded in Scandinavia, and its variants (Arnor, Arndor, Arnthor) are still being used to this day. Ar-/Arn- are regular variants comparable to Bear/Beorn, both variants are recorded as terms for "eagle" in Norse, and both are used as name elements, in Saxon Britain and the Continent.
Now when you said "disappeared" I assumed you meant "ceased being used" not "were not recorded", however, while both are true of most names that were presumably used (although we have a lot of names, these represent a tiny fraction of the population and are biased toward wealthier men - we know from later recorded place names and family names, there must have been far more), neither is true of Arthor — the Norse name was recorded in Scandinavia, and its variants (Arnor, Arndor, Arnthor) are still being used to this day. Ar-/Arn- are regular variants comparable to Bear/Beorn, both variants are recorded as terms for "eagle" in Norse, and both are used as name elements, in Saxon Britain and the Continent.
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