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ArchivesRe: Baudovinia/Baudonivia
in reply to a message by thegriffon
There are two problem though:
-win/wine "friend" is an exclusively masculine name ending in the historic period (e.g. Baldwin). Femine names ending -vine are modern (18th C. and later), and tend to be feminized non-Germanic names (e.g. Sorvine for Severin). The feminine equivalent win/wyn "joy, desire" is regularly -wunnia (unni becomes ynn in OE, with y representing the front u of German uber), so a Baudovinia would have to combine an ancient continental form of Beadu, and a late English form of wynn, not particularly plausible.
-niu is not much better as an interpretation of the ending. It does form many feminine names, but it's practically unknown outside Scandinavia, and even there most forms are relatively modern, inspired by misinterpretations of pet forms such as Othny, Steinny etc.
So our two candidates for the deuterothemes are both unlikely, if the name/names are genuinely feminine.
There remain two possibilities. Most probable is that the gender has been misinterpreted by whoever collected the name. -ia may be in error for -is; mis-recorded on the assumption that Gmc Baudovini was feminine rather than masculine; or re-interpreted in more modern times on the assumption that "wini" is feminine, like Winnie (also traditionally male).
There is a slim possibility that this is a genuinely feminine ancient name, with a heretofore unrecognized deuterotheme, represented by OE win/winn, OHG winne, ON vin, Gothic winja "pasture/meadow", by analogy with OE haeth, ON heithr, OHG heide, Got haithi "pasture, heath", but we would have to speculate that it never gained much use, and that it has always been misinterpreted, just as f. -heide is commonly misinterpreted as m. -heit "manner, form, state".
-win/wine "friend" is an exclusively masculine name ending in the historic period (e.g. Baldwin). Femine names ending -vine are modern (18th C. and later), and tend to be feminized non-Germanic names (e.g. Sorvine for Severin). The feminine equivalent win/wyn "joy, desire" is regularly -wunnia (unni becomes ynn in OE, with y representing the front u of German uber), so a Baudovinia would have to combine an ancient continental form of Beadu, and a late English form of wynn, not particularly plausible.
-niu is not much better as an interpretation of the ending. It does form many feminine names, but it's practically unknown outside Scandinavia, and even there most forms are relatively modern, inspired by misinterpretations of pet forms such as Othny, Steinny etc.
So our two candidates for the deuterothemes are both unlikely, if the name/names are genuinely feminine.
There remain two possibilities. Most probable is that the gender has been misinterpreted by whoever collected the name. -ia may be in error for -is; mis-recorded on the assumption that Gmc Baudovini was feminine rather than masculine; or re-interpreted in more modern times on the assumption that "wini" is feminine, like Winnie (also traditionally male).
There is a slim possibility that this is a genuinely feminine ancient name, with a heretofore unrecognized deuterotheme, represented by OE win/winn, OHG winne, ON vin, Gothic winja "pasture/meadow", by analogy with OE haeth, ON heithr, OHG heide, Got haithi "pasture, heath", but we would have to speculate that it never gained much use, and that it has always been misinterpreted, just as f. -heide is commonly misinterpreted as m. -heit "manner, form, state".
This message was edited 6/22/2016, 6:48 AM
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