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ArchivesNames with unknown or uncertain etymologies
Numerous names have, as you know, uncertain or, worse, unknown, etymologies. My question is: will be the meanings of these names occulte forever? I mean, in the technology era, we don’t have the instruments to do names research? It seems strange. Or maybe don’t we have the necessary sources? Thanks, and have a nice day.
You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right. ~Marie Curie
My name list: behindthename.com/pnl/223545
You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right. ~Marie Curie
My name list: behindthename.com/pnl/223545
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It’s usually due to lack of sources. Unless someone actually wrote down where they got a name, and that piece of writing survived, there’s rarely any evidence of how an obscure name was invented.
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This applies to older names as well. Names often preserve vocabulary elements that became archaic before they were recorded in prosaic/poetic writing, and in many cases traces of extinct languages that may have not survived to be recorded in anything other than a few personal and topographical names that remained in use once the language was replaced by another. If the topographical uses are widespread we can tease out a probably meaning, but that does not work with personal names. Unlike topographical names personal names can also cross cultures so an otherwise poorly attested language can survive in personal names in regions they were never spoken.
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Thank you for the information.
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