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ArchivesNever mind, there is a connection to Russia after all! (m)
in reply to a message by Dorchadas
For the East German bearers, the names that we should be looking at are Силен (Silen) and Силена (Silena):
- Силен (Silen): https://imya.com/name/32497 (in Russian)
- Силена (Silena): https://imya.com/name/9150 (in Russian)
Both are derived from the Russian adjective силен (silen) meaning "strong, powerful", which makes them etymologically related to the Russian noun сила (sila) meaning "strength" as well as "power, might":
- силен (silen): https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/силен (in English)
- сила (sila): https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/сила#Russian (in English)
The aforementioned Russian adjective has a very similar-looking variant, namely силён (silon/silion/silyon). It has the exact same meaning:
- силён (silon/silion/silyon): https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/силён (in English)
As a result, the names Silen and Silena appear to have the variants Силён (Silon/Silion/Silyon) and Силёна (Silona/Siliona/Silyona), but they seem to be either very rare or archaic. Searching for them produces name-like results on the search engines, but nothing that is immediately and obviously concrete (at least at first glance). For the feminine name in particular, it probably also doesn't help that in modern Russian, there is a similar-looking everyday word with a negative meaning:
- силёнка (silonka/silionka/silyonka) meaning "weak, puny strength": https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/силёнка (in English)
Last but not least, I would like to point out the following: -lena seems to become -liona/-lyona and -lona in (some) Slavic languages. It certainly is no coincidence that Helena has the forms Aliona and Alyona in Russian and Ukrainian, and Ilona in Hungarian (through Slavic influence). Perhaps Silena has received similar treatment in some cases in the past, leading to what should be Силёна (Silona/Siliona/Silyona) in Russian and Сильона (Siliona/Silyona) in Ukrainian. The Hungarian form, if it has ever even existed, might have been Silona. To be honest, I could also see that form coming into existence in Lithuanian and Polish, as they are no stranger to that type of name either. But whichever way you slice it, it seems plausible for Silona to have existed in Eastern Europe at some point.
"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people."
- Силен (Silen): https://imya.com/name/32497 (in Russian)
- Силена (Silena): https://imya.com/name/9150 (in Russian)
Both are derived from the Russian adjective силен (silen) meaning "strong, powerful", which makes them etymologically related to the Russian noun сила (sila) meaning "strength" as well as "power, might":
- силен (silen): https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/силен (in English)
- сила (sila): https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/сила#Russian (in English)
The aforementioned Russian adjective has a very similar-looking variant, namely силён (silon/silion/silyon). It has the exact same meaning:
- силён (silon/silion/silyon): https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/силён (in English)
As a result, the names Silen and Silena appear to have the variants Силён (Silon/Silion/Silyon) and Силёна (Silona/Siliona/Silyona), but they seem to be either very rare or archaic. Searching for them produces name-like results on the search engines, but nothing that is immediately and obviously concrete (at least at first glance). For the feminine name in particular, it probably also doesn't help that in modern Russian, there is a similar-looking everyday word with a negative meaning:
- силёнка (silonka/silionka/silyonka) meaning "weak, puny strength": https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/силёнка (in English)
Last but not least, I would like to point out the following: -lena seems to become -liona/-lyona and -lona in (some) Slavic languages. It certainly is no coincidence that Helena has the forms Aliona and Alyona in Russian and Ukrainian, and Ilona in Hungarian (through Slavic influence). Perhaps Silena has received similar treatment in some cases in the past, leading to what should be Силёна (Silona/Siliona/Silyona) in Russian and Сильона (Siliona/Silyona) in Ukrainian. The Hungarian form, if it has ever even existed, might have been Silona. To be honest, I could also see that form coming into existence in Lithuanian and Polish, as they are no stranger to that type of name either. But whichever way you slice it, it seems plausible for Silona to have existed in Eastern Europe at some point.
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Replies
Exploring the Russian path, there may be a connection to Classical Greek Selene / Modern Greek Sileni, the moon goddess.
This message was edited 1/10/2023, 3:23 AM
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The modern Greek form is actually Selini. There are two Greek letters used for the 'e' in the name, namely the epsilon and the eta. Of the two of them, only the eta becomes an 'i' in modern Greek.
But yes, that has indeed occurred to me, as Selene, Selini and their variants Selena and Selina (both used in Russian) are visually rather similar to Silona. I even considered that Silona might be related to Silenus, which is also the name of a character from Greek mythology. But then I thought: "Hmm, the jump from Greek Sel- to Sil- in Russian might be a bit too much, especially if you consider that Russian tends to stay very faithful to Greek names, in that the names (often in their modern Greek form) will be almost perfectly preserved in Russian, at least vowel-wise. As for Silenus: he is not a famous/important enough character for parents to want to name their daughter after."
Just to make sure, I have also checked whether in Greek there has ever been the name Silon (can be spelled as Σίλων and Σίλον) or Sylon (can be spelled as Σύλων and Σύλον), as both would become Силон (Silon) in Russian. But alas, no such name has ever existed! The closest possible name is Κύλων (Kylon), which becomes Cylon in Latin and Килон (Kilon) in Russian. There is also the lesser known Κίλων (Kilon), which would also become Килон (Kilon) in Russian, but Cilon in Latin.
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So this looks like a dead end. I searched for forms like Siliona and Siljona with an additional -i- or -j- in Germany but they don't exist. So the best trace right now leads to the Swedish ship: Its stranding in the big flood of 1962 had a lot of news coverage in German media.
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