ANST - Norse Names, Misconceptions

Tim McDaniel tmcd at crl.com
Mon Apr 27 21:37:07 PDT 1998


Gunnora gave some fine advice and data.  I just have a few comments.

On Sun, 26 Apr 1998, Gunnora Hallakarva <gunnora at bga.com>
wrote:
> >i am called Sigiher, which means " victory sword".

Aside from Gunnora's comments on the meaning ... it is part
of the definition of what a name *is* that it has become
divorced from any derivation.  A name is a word that has
become a more arbitrary label.  I wasn't named Timothy
because my parents believed I was actually beloved of the
Lord.

As Geirr Bassi notes (p. 5), "The majority of Old Norse
given names are compounds; they consist of two parts, such
as {TH}orbjorn 'Thor+bear', {TH}orsteinn 'Thor+stone',
{TH}orgeirr 'Thor+spear'."  Onomasochists call the prefix
the "protheme" and suffix the "deuterotheme".  "The
resulting compound need not have any specific meaning;
sometimes the juxtaposition of its two elements suggests a
'meaning compound', but more often not -- for example
Sn{ae}bjorn 'snow+bear' = 'polar bear', but Asbjorn
'god+bear'."  I recall reading of Anglo-Saxon examples of
'war+war' and 'war+peace'.

(By the way, the {..} notation is common in the SCA College
of Arms to represent non-ASCII letters in ASCII media.  It
is called Da'ud notation, after the inventer, Da'ud ibn
Auda.  The curly braces help prevent ambiguity.)

> Furthermore, no matter what "Sigiher" might mean, this
> name won't pass - although the name elements both exist in
> period, the College of Heralds is not currently allowing
> us to "mix and match" legitimate name elements -- you have
> to show that the name was constructed that way in period.

Actually, that happens not to be the case.  From the SCA
College of Arms Rules for Submission, part II:

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

2.  Constructed Names - Documented names and words may be
 used to form place names, patronymics, epithets, and other
 names in a period manner.

 Constructed forms must follow the rules for formation of
 the appropriate category of name element in the language
 from which the documented components are drawn.  For
 instance, the standard male patronymic in Old Norse
 consists of the possessive form of the father's name joined
 to the word "son", like "Sveinsson" is the son of Svein.
 The documented Old Norse given name "Bjartmarr" could be
 used in this construction to form "Bjartmarsson", even if
 this particular patronymic was not found in period sources.
 Similarly, German towns on rivers regularly use the name of
 the river with the word "brueck", like "Innsbrueck", to
 indicate the town had a bridge over that river.  A new
 branch could use the documented German name of the river
 "Donau" to construct the name "Donaubrueck".

3.  Invented Names - New name elements, whether invented by
 the submitter or borrowed from a literary source, may be
 used if they follow the rules for name formation from a
 linguistic tradition compatible with the domain of the
 Society and the name elements used.

 Name elements may be created following patterns
 demonstrated to have been followed in period naming.  Old
 English given names, for instance, are frequently composed
 of two syllables from a specific pool of name elements.
 The given name "AElfmund" could be created using syllables
 from the documented names "AElfgar" and "Eadmund" following
 the pattern established by similar names in Old English.
 Other kinds of patterns can also be found in period naming,
 such as patterns of meaning, description, or sound.  Such
 patterns, if sufficiently defined, may also be used to
 invent new name elements.  There is a pattern of using
 kinds of animals in the English place names "Oxford",
 "Swinford" and "Hartford", and so a case could be made for
 inventing a similar name like "Sheepford".  No name will be
 disqualified based solely on its source.

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

Now, you have to be careful in extrapolation.  Older
versions of II.3 had an example that you couldn't justify
"AElfmundegar" from the two examples given.  As Gunnora
said, some "themes" are pure prothemes, some are pure
deuterothemes, and some can occur in either place.  Also,
it's always two elements in Old Norse.  Also, as one swallow
does not make a love^W spring, one or two examples does not
necessarily make a pattern.

So, in this case, you should find several examples of names
starting with "sig-" where it's a protheme, and some with
"-her" where it's a deuterotheme.  "Sig-" appears to be no
problem: Sigmundr, Sigfr{o/}{dh}r, Sigr{o/}{dh}r, Sigtryggr,
... all look like bithematic names to me -- the last three
seem to have the deuterotheme as an independent name.
"-her" as a *deuterotheme*, however, I don't find.  For
"Her-" as an (apparent) *protheme*, I find Herfi{dh}r,
Hermundr, Herr{o/}{dh}r, and a few more.  (I say "apparent"
because I don't know what the parts are derived from, but
the last two examples have the same last parts as two of the
"Sig-" examples above.)  I also read a nicely documented
April 1 letter where they justified the Anglo-Saxon name
"Wulfwulf Herewulf" (justifying "wulf" as both a pro- and
deuterotheme).  So unless someone else has examples of
"-her" -- and I find none in Geirr Bassi -- I'd say the name
is implausible.

Rather than mess up in name construction, it's safer to take
Gunnora's advice (insert a period here if you like!) and take
a documented name.

> Arnþórr [ArnTHo'rr] (masculine) -- Arnþóra
>    [ArnTHo'ra] (feminine)
> Bergþórr [BergTHo'rr] (masculine) -- Bergþóra
>    [BergTHo'ra] (feminine) 
> Dalli (masculine) -- Dalla (feminine)
> Finnr (masculine) -- Finna (feminine)
...

Someone looking at these might think "oh, of course, just
take a male name and add an 'a' to make it feminine" or "of
course, feminine names end in 'a'."  Both are wrong
conclusions for Norse.  Note that Gunnora gave examples of
Gu{dh}laug, Gu{dh}leif, Lj{o'}t, and so forth.

There *is* a pattern of "you can take a masculine name and
add '-a' to get a feminine name" ... in Latin and Romance
languages.  (One of the Roman marriage forms had the groom
say "Where I am Gaius, you are Gaia" -- as if we were to say
"If I am Jehan, you are Jehanna".)  That is *not* the case
in Gaelic or other Celtic languages.  In Norse, I gather it
varies.  There are also pure feminine or masculine names in
most any language, I think.

Daniel "O Beer!  O Hodgson, Guinness, Allsopp, Bass!  Names
that should be on every infant's tongue!" de Lincolia
-- 
Tim McDaniel; Reply-To: tmcd at crl.com; if that fail, tmcd at austin.ibm.com
is work address.  tmcd at tmcd.austin.tx.us is wrong tool.  Never use this.
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