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ArchivesGood Lord, no!
in reply to a message by Kay
Those are all butcherings of René, which is indeed a male name in French (see Rene). Renée's the feminine form.
I actually would believe that Renny's a form of Renée, though. Or it even could've been influenced by Irene or Ireneus (essentially the male form of Irene, albeit with a slightly different meaning). But, as always with my guesses, don't necessarily take this as gospel.
Kay, as a general rule never trust any name book or site with the word "baby" in it. They're, quite simply, mostly total and utter crap, with made-up or misleading meanings without etymological citations, misunderstandings resulting from mistranslations, and such absurd things like "Native American" or "American" names. Also, 95% of the "40,001" names (does anyone ever check how many?) are outright butchered spellings, and often legitimate international or alternate spellings get lost in between the kre8tyv spellings.
We're not a "baby names" site. We're a site devoted to human names; it just so happens that humans are born in small, undeveloped forms we call "babies". Above all, we're much more devoted to etymology--the study of words--and history than your average baby name site, and hence have a decidely scholarly bent.
EDIT: I had a brain burp that told me Renny (REN-ee, yes?) was more related to Irene (ie-REEN or ie-REE-nee) than Renée (re-NAY or reh-neh)... I blame an hour-and-a-quarter of English!
Miranda
Proud adopter of 15 punctuation marks; see my profile for their names.
I actually would believe that Renny's a form of Renée, though. Or it even could've been influenced by Irene or Ireneus (essentially the male form of Irene, albeit with a slightly different meaning). But, as always with my guesses, don't necessarily take this as gospel.
Kay, as a general rule never trust any name book or site with the word "baby" in it. They're, quite simply, mostly total and utter crap, with made-up or misleading meanings without etymological citations, misunderstandings resulting from mistranslations, and such absurd things like "Native American" or "American" names. Also, 95% of the "40,001" names (does anyone ever check how many?) are outright butchered spellings, and often legitimate international or alternate spellings get lost in between the kre8tyv spellings.
We're not a "baby names" site. We're a site devoted to human names; it just so happens that humans are born in small, undeveloped forms we call "babies". Above all, we're much more devoted to etymology--the study of words--and history than your average baby name site, and hence have a decidely scholarly bent.
EDIT: I had a brain burp that told me Renny (REN-ee, yes?) was more related to Irene (ie-REEN or ie-REE-nee) than Renée (re-NAY or reh-neh)... I blame an hour-and-a-quarter of English!
Miranda
Proud adopter of 15 punctuation marks; see my profile for their names.
This message was edited 2/20/2006, 5:22 PM
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Replies
Being a linguist I couldnt agree more Mirada, however I have failed to find any books on name etymology without the baby cutsey top 100000 names to guarantee your baby will win a nobel prize ;) Im a dedicated classic scholar and as Ive already posted any recommendations on must-reads will be of great help. Thank you ever so much for any suggestions you may have,
Kay
Kay
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Well, this site's very good
I would trust BtN first and foremost. However, other sites I have bookmarked are:
Edgar's Name Pages: http://snipurl.com/7wjg - Good for history, not so much for meanings.
Oxygen.com's Babynamer: http://snipurl.com/869q - Good (it discusses alternate meanings, always an encouraging sign), but their Hebrew names need help according to Miss Claire, one of our resident Jewish name nerds. I like the site's feature of listing similar names to the one you're looking up.
Hebrew Letters: http://snipurl.com/fzpk - What Miss Claire routinely uses for Jewish names.
Hungarian Names List: http://snipurl.com/kfwn - Er, the official list of Hungarian names allowed by law, with name days. However, obviously it's all in Hungarian; all you really need to know, however, is: férfi név = boy name, while női név = girl name.
Bible Gateway: http://snipurl.com/2til - This is actually not a name site, but a site with multiple translations of the Bible. However, if you need an obscure translation of a Biblical name (what is the Vietnamese form of Naomi anyway?), then this is an excellent place to look it up.
Patron Saints Index: http://snipurl.com/9vk9 - Another non-naming site, this is a vast collection of Catholic saints. Good for naming inspiration, if only for the unusual names that crop up, and also good for getting inspiration for character names (need a name for a pilot? Go with Joseph or Thérèse in honour of Joseph of Cupertino or Thérèse of Lisieux, both patron saints of pilots).
I would trust BtN first and foremost. However, other sites I have bookmarked are:
Edgar's Name Pages: http://snipurl.com/7wjg - Good for history, not so much for meanings.
Oxygen.com's Babynamer: http://snipurl.com/869q - Good (it discusses alternate meanings, always an encouraging sign), but their Hebrew names need help according to Miss Claire, one of our resident Jewish name nerds. I like the site's feature of listing similar names to the one you're looking up.
Hebrew Letters: http://snipurl.com/fzpk - What Miss Claire routinely uses for Jewish names.
Hungarian Names List: http://snipurl.com/kfwn - Er, the official list of Hungarian names allowed by law, with name days. However, obviously it's all in Hungarian; all you really need to know, however, is: férfi név = boy name, while női név = girl name.
Bible Gateway: http://snipurl.com/2til - This is actually not a name site, but a site with multiple translations of the Bible. However, if you need an obscure translation of a Biblical name (what is the Vietnamese form of Naomi anyway?), then this is an excellent place to look it up.
Patron Saints Index: http://snipurl.com/9vk9 - Another non-naming site, this is a vast collection of Catholic saints. Good for naming inspiration, if only for the unusual names that crop up, and also good for getting inspiration for character names (need a name for a pilot? Go with Joseph or Thérèse in honour of Joseph of Cupertino or Thérèse of Lisieux, both patron saints of pilots).
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