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HelpRe: Some atrocities from a bad name book I own. Read and weep!
in reply to a message by Caprice
A lot of people seem to assume that Geronimo is a Native American name because of the historical figure, when the name was given to him by the Spanish. Also, the proper Spanish form is Jerónimo. The G probably came about with Anglo-Americans not familiar with Spanish phonetics.
Two years ago I discovered a Native American site that explains false etymologies of names listed as Native American. Here's the site: http://www.native-languages.org/wrongnames.htm
Kane is a real Japanese name, although the actual meaning is different: https://www.behindthename.com/name/kane/submitted (It's also a Hawaiian name - it's the name of a god from Hawaiian mythology. In this case it's spelled Kāne, with a bar over the A. It can be used on people too since from what I've read, Hawaiians do name kids after gods.)
Arlo is Italian? Ending in O doesn't automatically make a name Italian (or Spanish/Portuguese).
As for Filbert, Wiktionary says that hazelnuts being called filberts derives from the Anglo-Norman name "noix de filbert" because they are ripe near Saint Philibert's Day (August 20). So basically the book got this one backwards.
In case you're interested, here's a link about baby name books and why you shouldn't trust them: http://www.namenerds.com/uucn/advice/namebook.html
Two years ago I discovered a Native American site that explains false etymologies of names listed as Native American. Here's the site: http://www.native-languages.org/wrongnames.htm
Kane is a real Japanese name, although the actual meaning is different: https://www.behindthename.com/name/kane/submitted (It's also a Hawaiian name - it's the name of a god from Hawaiian mythology. In this case it's spelled Kāne, with a bar over the A. It can be used on people too since from what I've read, Hawaiians do name kids after gods.)
Arlo is Italian? Ending in O doesn't automatically make a name Italian (or Spanish/Portuguese).
As for Filbert, Wiktionary says that hazelnuts being called filberts derives from the Anglo-Norman name "noix de filbert" because they are ripe near Saint Philibert's Day (August 20). So basically the book got this one backwards.
In case you're interested, here's a link about baby name books and why you shouldn't trust them: http://www.namenerds.com/uucn/advice/namebook.html
This message was edited 6/25/2018, 9:58 AM
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