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ArchivesThese 12 Peaky Blinders inspired vintage baby names are becoming increasingly popular
Or so my local newspaper tells me.
https://www.brightonandhoveindependent.co.uk/news/people/these-12-peaky-blinders-inspired-vintage-baby-names-are-becoming-increasingly-popular-3152048
But I am not sure that all the etymologies are correct.
Is Tommy really “Derived from the Freek name Teoma”? (Perhaps they meant Greek?)
Here are some thoughts on some of the others.
Arthur: Some decades ago I tracked down a copy of Alt-Celtischer Sprachschatz and I looked up Arthur and Artur and every other variant that I could think of. There was no trace of such a name. It seems that the idea that Arthur is Celtic is a myth. The earliest real source that I can find is in a Roman poem by Juvenal, written around 100:
I’ll leave the ancestral land. Let Arturius, let Catulus live
In Rome. Let the men who turn black into white remain,
Who find it easy to garner contracts for temples, and rivers,
Harbours, draining sewers, and carrying corpses to the pyre,
Who offer themselves for sale according to auctioneers’ rules.
Those erstwhile players of horns, those perpetual friends
Of public arenas, noted through all the towns for their
Rounded cheeks, now mount shows themselves, and kill
To please when the mob demand it with down-turned thumbs;
Then it’s back to deals for urinals, why not the whole works?
https://pages.shanti.virginia.edu/Marking_Up_Johnson/juvenal-the-third-satire-english-and-latin/
It sounds as if Juvenal was mocking a well known person, who had begun life as a horn player, and risen to become a rich government contractor, building sewers and temples and staging spectacles.
Freddie: This is from the Anglo-Saxon name Frithuric. The earliest dated reference that I can find is an abbot variously called Friðeric or Freðoric or Freodoric or Freothoric who occurs as a witness in 843:
http://www.aschart.kcl.ac.uk/charters/s0293.html
https://esawyer.lib.cam.ac.uk/charter/293.html
Charlie: The earliest English example is a King of Mercia called Ceorl about whom nothing whatever is known except that his daughter Cwenburg married Eadwine, King of Deira.
https://archive.org/details/bedehistoriaecc00bedegoog/page/n212/mode/1up?view=theater
Billy: This is from the Anglo-Saxon name Wilhelm. The earliest example is a possibly imaginary ancestor of the Kings of East Anglia. As can be seen from following tables, he is placed four generations before “Redwald” (Rædweald), who is the earliest East Anglian king to feature in recorded history.
https://ia800303.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/32/items/florentiiwigorni01flor/florentiiwigorni01flor_jp2.zip&file=florentiiwigorni01flor_jp2/florentiiwigorni01flor_0261.jp2&id=florentiiwigorni01flor&scale=10&rotate=0
https://ia802702.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/8/items/historyofenglan01lappuoft/historyofenglan01lappuoft_jp2.zip&file=historyofenglan01lappuoft_jp2/historyofenglan01lappuoft_0363.jp2&id=historyofenglan01lappuoft&scale=7&rotate=0
https://www.brightonandhoveindependent.co.uk/news/people/these-12-peaky-blinders-inspired-vintage-baby-names-are-becoming-increasingly-popular-3152048
But I am not sure that all the etymologies are correct.
Is Tommy really “Derived from the Freek name Teoma”? (Perhaps they meant Greek?)
Here are some thoughts on some of the others.
Arthur: Some decades ago I tracked down a copy of Alt-Celtischer Sprachschatz and I looked up Arthur and Artur and every other variant that I could think of. There was no trace of such a name. It seems that the idea that Arthur is Celtic is a myth. The earliest real source that I can find is in a Roman poem by Juvenal, written around 100:
I’ll leave the ancestral land. Let Arturius, let Catulus live
In Rome. Let the men who turn black into white remain,
Who find it easy to garner contracts for temples, and rivers,
Harbours, draining sewers, and carrying corpses to the pyre,
Who offer themselves for sale according to auctioneers’ rules.
Those erstwhile players of horns, those perpetual friends
Of public arenas, noted through all the towns for their
Rounded cheeks, now mount shows themselves, and kill
To please when the mob demand it with down-turned thumbs;
Then it’s back to deals for urinals, why not the whole works?
https://pages.shanti.virginia.edu/Marking_Up_Johnson/juvenal-the-third-satire-english-and-latin/
It sounds as if Juvenal was mocking a well known person, who had begun life as a horn player, and risen to become a rich government contractor, building sewers and temples and staging spectacles.
Freddie: This is from the Anglo-Saxon name Frithuric. The earliest dated reference that I can find is an abbot variously called Friðeric or Freðoric or Freodoric or Freothoric who occurs as a witness in 843:
http://www.aschart.kcl.ac.uk/charters/s0293.html
https://esawyer.lib.cam.ac.uk/charter/293.html
Charlie: The earliest English example is a King of Mercia called Ceorl about whom nothing whatever is known except that his daughter Cwenburg married Eadwine, King of Deira.
https://archive.org/details/bedehistoriaecc00bedegoog/page/n212/mode/1up?view=theater
Billy: This is from the Anglo-Saxon name Wilhelm. The earliest example is a possibly imaginary ancestor of the Kings of East Anglia. As can be seen from following tables, he is placed four generations before “Redwald” (Rædweald), who is the earliest East Anglian king to feature in recorded history.
https://ia800303.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/32/items/florentiiwigorni01flor/florentiiwigorni01flor_jp2.zip&file=florentiiwigorni01flor_jp2/florentiiwigorni01flor_0261.jp2&id=florentiiwigorni01flor&scale=10&rotate=0
https://ia802702.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/8/items/historyofenglan01lappuoft/historyofenglan01lappuoft_jp2.zip&file=historyofenglan01lappuoft_jp2/historyofenglan01lappuoft_0363.jp2&id=historyofenglan01lappuoft&scale=7&rotate=0
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