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Re: Weola (cognate with the Old German Weila??)
I couldn't find Weila in my German name dictionary (Duden). I checked for Wiela and that's not there either, but there is a male name Wieland. The first element of the name (the Wiel- element) means "surging" as in a war.
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I don't know anything about WEOLA, but I tried to find WEILA. It is not listed in my FÖRSTEMANN, Altdeutsches Namenbuch. The closest I could get was WELA, WIELA, WEALA, WIALA. Förstemann (and following him, Henning Kaufmann 1964) derives the former from VELA 1, the rest from VELA 2 (Wieland can be found there, too).VELA 1: "well," from "will"
VELA 2: from the Old Nordic "vel," artificium (piece of art, craftmanship; which at least at first sight goes well with the story of Wieland the smith); or else from the Old Saxon "viela," treasure, wealth.
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Thank You...Is FÖRSTEMANN, Altdeutsches Namenbuch, available in a English language version??? or do you know of any other works that are?
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The FÖRSTEMANN, as far as I know, is not available in English. It's hardly available at all, you'll find it in a good library, and you don't need to know German to use it. Förstemann gives most meanings in Latin, and apart from that lists tons of names through the centuries. Maybe Cleve knows more about profound works in English.
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