CHAPTER III
.
ISRAELITE NAMES.
SECTION I.—_Moses and Aaron._
At the time of the Exodus, the Israelites had become a nation, and their names, though still formed from a living language, were becoming more hereditary and conventional than those of the patriarchal times.
That of Moses himself, interpreted by the Scripture as meaning drawn out of the water, belongs rather to the Egyptian than to the Hebrew language. It probably came from the Coptic _mo_, water, and _usha_, saved; though the Hebrew, _mâshâh_, also presents a ready derivation: the great Law-giver. It has never been forgotten in the East, where the Arabs in the desert point out Gebel Mousa, the rock of Moses, whence they say the water flowed, and Wady Mousa, the vale of Moses. Mousa is a frequent name among the Arabs to this day, and among the gallant Moors of Granada, none stands so prominently forward in the noble rivalry of Abencerrages and Zegris as does the champion Muza.
Moses was unused by the Jews while they continued a nation, but has been very common in their dispersion, and in Poland has come to be pronounced Mojzesz. The frequent Jewish surname Moss is taken from one of these continental corruptions of the name of the great Law-giver. In Ireland the name Magsheesh has been adopted by the inhabitants as an imitation of Moses; but no form of Moses is used elsewhere, except as a direct Scripture name.
The name of Thermuthis has been found on a tombstone, given apparently in honour of Pharaoh’s daughter, whom Josephus thus denominates.
Aaron’s name is in like manner considered to be Egyptian, and the meaning is very doubtful, though it is commonly explained as a high mountain.
Aaron seems to have been assumed as a name by some of our old British Christians, or else it was accepted as an equivalent for something Keltic, for Aaron and Julius were among our very few British martyrs under Diocletian’s persecution, and a later Aaron was an abbot in Brittany; but it has never been a name in use.[12]
The sister of Moses and Aaron, who led the songs of the Israelites when they saw their enemies dead upon the sea-shore, was the first owner of that name which was to be the most highly honoured among those of women.
Yet it is a name respecting which there is great contention. Gesenius derives it from _Merî_ (stubbornness), with the addition of the third person plural, so as to make it mean their rebellion. Other commentators refer it to the word _Marah_ (bitterness), and thence the bitter gum, myrrh, the same term that was applied to the brackish springs in the desert, and to which the desolate widow of Bethlehem declared her right, when she cried, “Call me not Naomi (pleasant), call me Marah (bitter).” This is on the whole the most satisfactory derivation, but in the middle ages it was explained as Myrrh of the Sea, Lady of the Sea, or Star of the Sea, the likeness to the Latin, Keltic, and Teutonic _mar_ being probably the guide. Star of the Sea is the favourite explanation among Roman Catholics, as the loftiest and most poetical, and it is referred to in many of their hymns and other devotional compositions.
Miriam does not seem to have been repeated until after the captivity, when it took the Greek forms of Mariam and Mariamne, and became very frequent among Jewish women, probably in the expectation of the new deliverance from the bondage that galled them like that of Egypt of old. It was the name of the Asmonean princess in whom the brave Maccabean line was extinguished by Herod the Great; it belonged to three if not to four of the women of the Gospel; and we find it again marking the miserable being who is cited as having fulfilled the most terrible of all the woes denounced by Moses upon the daughters of Jerusalem.
The name of Mariam continued in the East, but was very slow in creeping into the Western Church, though not only the Blessed Virgin herself had borne it, but two very popular saints, namely, the Magdalen, and the Penitent of Egypt, whose legends were both current at a very early period.
The first Maria whom I can find of undoubted western birth was a Spanish maiden, who was martyred by the Moors at Cordova in 851. Michaelis tells us that the old Spanish name of Urraca is the same as Maria, but this can hardly be true.
It seems to have been the devotion of the Crusaders that first brought Maria into Europe, for we find the first instances about the middle of the twelfth century all at once; Maria of Antioch, a Crusader’s daughter, who married the Emperor Manuel Comnenus; her daughter, Maria Comnena, married to the Marquis of Montferrat; Marie, the daughter of Louis VII. of France, and our Eleanor of Guienne, named probably during their Crusader’s fervour; then Marie, the translator of the Breton legends for Henry III.; Marie, the nun daughter of Edward I., and at the same time Marie all over the western world.
Probably the addition of the German diminutive _chen_, in French _on_, formed the name of
“A bonny fine maid of noble degree, Maid Marion called by name.”
Very soon had her fame travelled abroad, for in 1332 the play of _Robin et Marion_ was performed by the students of Angers, one of them appearing as a _fillette déguisée_. The origin of _Marionettes_, puppets disguised to play the part of Maid Marion, is thus explained. They may, however, have received their name from the habit of calling small images of the Blessed Virgin Mariettes, or Marionettes. Several streets of old Paris, in which were such images, were called Rue des Mariettes, or later, Rue des Marionettes. All puppets there came to be called Mariettes and Marmousets; and two streets of Paris were down to the last century called Rue des Marmousets. Henri Etienne says: “Never did the Egyptians take such cruel vengeance for the murder of their cats, as has been wreaked in our days on those who had mutilated some Marmouset or Marionette.” Even the bauble of a licensed fool was a Marotte, from the little head at its point, and the supernatural dolls of sorcerers, in the form of toads or apes, were described as Marionettes in an account of a trial for witchcraft in 1600. The term Marmoset passed to the daintiest and most elegant of the monkey tribe, by which it is now monopolized. Marion became a common name in France, and contracted into Manon, and expanded into Marionette, as in a poem of the 13th century where Marion is thus addressed; and in Scotland, where “Maid Marion, fair as ivory bone,” likewise figured in rustic pageantry, she took a stronger hold than anywhere else, is in common life yclept Menie, and has escaped her usual fate of confusion with Marianne. With us, the Blessed Virgin’s name, having come through the French, was spelt in their fashion till the translation of the Bible made our national Mary familiar. Mary II. was the first of our queens who dropped the _ie_. The chief contractions and endearments are as follows:—
┌────────────────┬────────────────┬────────────────┬────────────────┐ │ English. │ French. │ Italian. │ Spanish. │ │Maria │Marie │Maria │Marïa │ │Mary │Marion │Marietta │Marinha │ │Marion │Manon │Mariuccia │Mariquinhas │ │Moll │Maion │ │Mariquita │ │Molly │Mariette │ │Maritornes │ │Polly │Maillard │ │ │ │Malkin │ (Cambrai) │ │ │ │Mawkes │ │ │ │ │Mawkin │ │ │ │ │May[13] │ │ │ │ ├────────────────┼────────────────┼────────────────┼────────────────┤ │ Keltic. │ Swedish. │ Bavarian. │ Swiss. │ │Mair (W.) │Maria │Marie │Marie │ │Moissey (Manx) │Maria │Mariel │Mareili │ │Mari (Ir.) │ │Mariedel │Maga │ │ │ │Marei │Maieli │ │ │ │Mareiel │Mija │ │ │ │Marl │Mieli │ │ │ │Medal │ │ │ │ │Miel │ │ ├────────────────┼────────────────┼────────────────┼────────────────┤ │ Dutch. │ Russian. │ Polish. │ Illyrian. │ │Maria │Marija │Mary │Maria │ │Marieke │Maika │Marysia │Marica │ │Mike │Mascha │Marynia │Millica │ │ │Mashinka │ │ │ ├────────────────┼────────────────┼────────────────┼────────────────┤ │ Lusatian. │ Esthonian. │ Lapland. │ Hungarian. │ │Mara │Marri │Marja │Maria │ │Maruscha │Mai │ │Mari │ │ │Maie │ │Marka │ └────────────────┴────────────────┴────────────────┴────────────────┘
Our Latin Maria is a late introduction, brought in by that taste which in the last century made everything feminine end with an a.
It is only during the last three centuries that Maria has reigned supreme in Roman Catholic countries, marking the exaggerated devotion paid to the original. Indeed, the Italian proverb, answering to the needle in a bottle of hay, is “_Cercar Maria in Ravenna_,” so numerous are the Marias there. Even in Ireland there were few Marys till comparatively recent times; but now the Môr that in some parts of the island was translated by Sarah, is changed into Mary.
Since Marys have been thus multiplied, the attributes of the first Mary have been adopted into the Christian name, and used to distinguish their bearer. The earliest and best of these was the Italian Maria Annunciata, or Annunziata, contracted into Nunziata; and followed up in Spain by Maria Anonciada; and in France, by Marie Annonciade. Soon there followed Maria Assunta, in honour of her supposed assumption bodily into glory, but this never flourished beyond Italy, Spain, and her colonies.
France has Marie des Anges, at least as a conventual appellation; as in Spain the votaress of the merciful interceding patroness is called Maria de Mercedes; and she whose parents were mindful of the Seven Sorrows supposed to have pierced the heart of the Holy Mother, would choose for their child Maria de Dolores. There was a legend that Santiago had seen a vision of the Blessed Virgin standing on a pillar of jasper and bidding him found at Zaragoza the church thence called Nuestra Señora del Pilar, whence, in Spain at least, Pilar has become a female name, as Guadalupe has likewise in honour of a miraculous image of St. Mary, preserved in the church of the mountain once covered with hermitages. Moreover, a district in Mexico, formerly called Tlaltelolco, contained a temple to a favourite goddess of the Aztec race. After the Spanish conquest, the same site became the scene of a vision of Nuestra Señora, who appeared to a Christian Indian, and intimated that a church was there to be built in her honour. As a token of the reality of the vision, roses burst forth on the bare rock of the Tepeyac, and it further appeared impressed with a miraculous painting, which has been the great subject of adoration from the Mexicans ever since. Guadalupe, a free translation into Spanish of the native name of Tlaltelolco, has been ever since a favourite name with the damsels of Mexico, and is even adopted by such of the other sex as regard the shrine with special veneration. Maria del Incarnaçion is also Spanish. An English gipsy woman lately said ‘Carnation’ was her daughter’s name, and had been her grandmother’s. Was it from this source?
As queen of heaven, Maria has votaries, called in Italy Regina or Reina. The latter was frequent in early times at Florence. In France we find Reine and Reinette, and Regina is a favourite in some parts of Germany, where it has been confused with the derivatives of the old Teutonic Ragin, Council.
Since the promulgation of the new dogma, young ladies in Spain have been called Maria de la Concepcion; in Italy, Concetta. Surely the superstition of these races is recorded in their names. The custom of adding Maria to a man’s name seems to have begun in Italy about 1360, and now most individuals in Italy, and probably likewise in Spain, as well as in the more devout French families, bear the name of Maria; and the old Latin Marius and Virginius, though entirely unconnected except by the sound, have been pressed into the service, and made to do duty as Mario and Virginio in her honour.
Perhaps the Jews had in some degree adopted the Roman fashion of similar names in a family, since the sister of the Blessed Virgin bears the same as her own, and there is a great similarity between those of the sisters of Bethany, which both probably come from _mara_ (bitter), although some deduce Martha from the Aramean _mar_ (a lord), which we often hear as the title of Syrian bishops, as Mar Elias, &c.
Even the earliest writers on the Gospels were at a loss whether to identify the meek contemplative Mary of Bethany, by the woman that was a sinner, who is recorded as performing the same act of devotion, and with Mary Magdalen, once possessed by seven devils and afterwards first witness of the Resurrection. While inquiry was cautious, legend was bold, and threw the three into one without the slightest doubt, going on undoubtingly to narrate the vain and sinful career of Mary Magdalen, describing her luxury, her robes, and in especial her embroidered gloves and flowing hair, and all the efforts of Martha to convert her, until her final repentance. The story proceeded to relate how the whole family set out on a mission to Provence, where Martha, by holding up the cross, demolished a terrific dragon; and Mary, after having aided in converting the country, retired to a frightful desert with a skull for her only companion.
It is this legendary Magdalen, whom painters loved to portray in all her dishevelled grief.
The word itself is believed to be a mere adjective of place, meaning that she came from Magdala, which, in its turn, means a tower or castle, and is represented by the little village of Mejdel, on the lake of Tiberias, so that her proper designation would be Mary of Magdala, _i. e._ of the tower, probably to distinguish her from Mary of Bethany with whom she is confounded.
It is curious to observe how infinitely more popular her name has been than her sister’s, _i. e._ accepting the mediæval belief that they _were_ sisters. The Marfa of Russia is of course like the English Martha, Matty, Patty, the true housewifely Martha, independent of the legend of the dragon, and has there been a royal name occurring frequently among the daughters of the earlier Tzars; and the Martha used in Ireland is only as an equivalent for the native Erse Meabhdh, Meave, or Mab, once a great Irish princess, who has since become the queen of the fairies. Martha used also to be used for Mor. But the Marthe and Marthon of the south of France, and the rarer Marta of Italy and Spain, were all from the Provençal dragon-slayer, and as to the popularity of Magdalen, the contractions in the following table will best prove it:
┌────────────────┬────────────────┬────────────────┬────────────────┐ │ English. │ German. │ Swiss. │ Danish. │ │Magdalene │Magdalene │Magdalene │Magdelene │ │Maudlin │Madlen │ │Malin │ │Maun │Lene │Leli │Magli │ │Madeline │Lenchen │ │Mali │ ├────────────────┼────────────────┼────────────────┼────────────────┤ │ Italian. │ French. │ Polish. │ Servian. │ │Maddalena │Magdelaine │Magdelina │Mandelina │ │ —————————— │Mazaline—_old_ │Magdusia │Manda │ │ Spanish. │Madeleine │Magdosia │ │ │Magdalena │Madelon │Madde │ │ │Madelena │ │ │ │ ├────────────────┼────────────────┼────────────────┼────────────────┤ │ Lusatian. │ Esthonian. │ Ung. │ Lettish. │ │Madlena │Madli │Magdalena │Madlene │ │Marlena │Mai │Magdolna │Maddalene │ │Marlenka │Male │ │Madde │ │Madlenka │ │ │ │ └────────────────┴────────────────┴────────────────┴────────────────┘
The penitent Mary of Egypt has had her special votaresses. Maria Egyptiaca was a princess of Oettingen in 1666.[14]
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Footnote 12:
_Proper Names of the Bible_; Liddell and Scott’s _Greek Lexicon_; Butler’s _Lives of the Saints_; Dean Stanley.
Footnote 13:
Marriott occurs in a Cornish register as a feminine in 1666.
Footnote 14:
Smith’s _Dictionary of the Bible_; Michaelis; Jameson’s _Legends of the Madonna_; _Sacred and Legendary Art_; _Romancero del Cid_; Warton’s _History of Poetry_; Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_; O'Donovan, _On Irish Names_; _Festivals and their Household Words_; _Christian Remembrancer_; Mme. Calderon de la Borca, _Mexico_.
SECTION II.—_Elisheba, &c._
The names of the wife and son of Aaron bring us to a style of nomenclature that was very frequent among the Israelites at the period of the Exodus, and had begun even earlier. This was the habit of making the name contain a dedication to the Deity, by beginning or ending it with a word of Divine signification.
The Divine title known to man before the special revelation to Moses in the burning bush, was the Hebrew word El, in the plural Elohim, which corresponds to our term Deity or God-head. It was by a derivative from this word that Jacob called the spot where he beheld the angels, Beth El (the House of God), and again the place where he built an altar, El Elohe Israel (the God of Israel), as indeed his own name of Israel meant prevailing with God.
This termination is to be found in the names of several of his grandsons; but we will only in the present section review the class of names where it serves as a prefix.
The first of all of these is Eliezer (God of help), the name of Abraham’s steward who went to bring home Rebecca, and again of the second son of Moses. A very slight change, indicated in our version by the change of the vowels, made it Eleazar, or God will help, the name of Aaron’s eldest surviving son, the second high priest. Both continued frequent among the Jews before the captivity, and after it the distinction between them was not observed, though Eleazar was in high repute as having belonged to the venerable martyr in the Antiochian persecution, as well as to the brave Maccabee, who perished under the weight of the elephant he had stabbed.
In the Gospels, Eleazar has become Lazarus, and in this form is bestowed upon the beggar of the parable, as well as on him who was raised from the dead. It is curious to observe the countries where it has been in use. The true old form once comes to light in the earlier middle age as St. Elzéar, the Comte de St. Sabran, who became a devotee of St. Francis, and has had a scanty supply of local namesakes. The beggar’s name has been frequently adopted in Spain as Lazaro or Lazarillo; Italy has many a Lazzaro; Poland, shows Lazarz; Russia, Lasar; Illyria, Lazo and Laze.
Aaron’s wife was Elischeba, meaning God hath sworn, _i. e._ an appeal to his covenant. It recurred again in the priestly family in the Gospel period, and had become, in its Greek form, Ελισαβετ; in Latin, Elisabeth.
The mother of the Baptist was not canonized in the West, though, I believe, she was so in the East, for there arose her first historical namesake, the Muscovite princess Elisavetta, the daughter of Jaroslav, and the object of the romantic love of that splendid poet and sea-king, Harald Hardràda, of Norway, who sung nineteen songs of his own composition in her praise on his way to her from Constantinople, and won her hand by feats of prowess. Although she soon died, her name remained in the northern peninsula, and figures in many a popular tale and Danish ballad, as Elsebin, Lisbet, or Helsa. It was the Slavonic nations, however, who first brought it into use, and from them it crept into Germany, and thence to the Low Countries.
Elisabeth of Hainault, on her marriage with Philippe Auguste, seems to have been the first to suffer the transmutation into Isabelle, the French being the nation of all others who delighted to bring everything into conformity with their own pronunciation. The royal name thus introduced became popular among the crown vassals, and Isabelle of Angoulême, betrothed to Hugues de Lusignan, but married to King John, brought Isabel to England, whence her daughter, the wife of Friedrich II., conveyed Isabella to Germany and Sicily. Meantime the lovely character of Elisabeth of Hungary—or Erzsebet as she is called in her native country—earned saintly honours, and caused the genuine form to be extremely popular in all parts of Germany. Her namesake great-niece was, however, in Aragon turned into Isabel, and when married into Portugal, received the surname of De la Paz, because of her gentle, peace-making nature. She was canonized; and Isabel, or Ysabel, as it is now the fashion to spell it in Spain, has ever since been the chief feminine royal name in the Peninsula, and was rendered especially glorious and beloved by Isabel the Catholic.
In the French royal family it was much used during the middle ages, and sent us no fewer than two specimens, namely, the ‘She-Wolf of France,’ and the child-queen of Richard II.; but though used by the Plantagenets and their nobility, it took no hold of the English taste; and it was only across the Scottish border that Isobel or Isbel, probably learned from French allies, became popular, insomuch that its contraction, Tibbie, has been from time immemorial one of the commonest of all peasant names in the Lowlands. The wicked and selfish wife of Charles VI. of France was always called Isabeau, probably from some forgotten Bavarian contraction; but she brought her appellation into disrepute, and it has since her time become much more infrequent in France.
The fine old English ballad that makes ‘pretty Bessee’ the granddaughter of Simon de Montfort is premature in its nomenclature; for the first Bess on record is Elizabeth Woodville, whose mother, Jacquetta of Luxemburg, no doubt imported it from Flanders. Shakespeare always makes Edward IV. call her Bess; and her daughter Elizabeth of York is the lady Bessee of the curious verses recording the political courtship of Henry of Richmond. Thence came the name of Good Queen Bess, the most popular and homely of all borne by English women, so that, while in the last century a third at least of the court damsels were addressed as ‘Lady Betty,’ it so abounded in villages that the old riddle arose out of the contractions.
During the anti-Spanish alliance between England and France, Edward VI. was sponsor to a child of Henri II., who received the Tudor name of Elisabeth, but could not become the wife of Philip II., without turning into Isabel; indeed, the Italian Elisabetta Farnese—a determined personage—was the only lady who seems to have avoided this transformation.
Poetry did not improve our Queen Elizabeth by making her into Eliza, a form which, however, became so prevalent in England during the early part of the present century, that Eliza and Elizabeth are sometimes to be found in the same family. No name has so many varieties of contraction, as will be seen by the ensuing list, where, in deference to modern usage, Elizabeth is placed separately from Isabella.
┌────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┐ │ English. │ Scotch. │ German. │ Bavarian. │ Swiss. │ │Elizabeth │Elizabeth │Elisabeth │Lisi │Elsbeth │ │Eliza │Elspeth │Elise │Liserl │Betha │ │Bessy │Elspie │Lise │ │Bebba │ │Betsey │Bessie │Lischen │ │Bebbeli │ │Betty │Lizzie │Elsabet │ │ │ │Lizzy │ │Elsbet │ │ │ │Libby │ │Bettine │ │ │ │Lisa │ │Bette │ │ │ │ │ │Ilse │ │ │ ├────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼────────────┤ │ Danish. │ French. │ Italian. │ Russian. │ Polish. │ │Elisabeth │Elisabeth │Elisabetta │Jelissaveta │Elzbieta │ │Elsebin │Elise │Elisa │Lisa │Elzbietka │ │Helsa │Babet │Betta │Lisenka │ │ │ │Babette │Bettina │ │ │ │ │Babichon │Lisettina │ │ │ ├────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼────────────┤ │ Servian. │ Slovak. │ Esthonian. │ Hungarian. │ Lusatian. │ │Jelisavcta │Lizbeta │Ello │Erzebet │Hilzbeta │ │Jelisavka │Liza │Elts │Erzsi │Hilza │ │Liza │Lizika │Liso │Erszok │Hilzizka │ │ │ │ │Orse │Lisa │ │ │ │ │Orsike │Liska │ │ │ │ │ │Beta │ └────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┘
Lise and Lisette are sometimes taken as contractions of Elisabeth, but they properly belong to Louise.
┌────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┐ │ English. │ Scotch. │ French. │ Spanish. │Portuguese. │ │Isabella │Isabel │Isabeau │Ysabel │Isabel │ │Isabel │Isbel │Isabelle │Bela │Isabelhina │ │Belle │Tibbie │ │ │ │ │Nib │ │ │ │ │ │Ibbot │ │ │ │ │ │Ib │ │ │ │ │ └────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┘
Scotland and Spain are the countries of Isabel; England and Germany of Elizabeth.
The noblest prophet of the kingdom of Israel was called by two Hebrew words, meaning God the Lord, a sound most like what is represented by the letters Eliyahu, the same in effect as that of the young man who reproved Job and his friends, though, in his case, the Hebrew points have led to his being called in our Bible Elihu, while we know the prophet as Elijah, the translators probably intending us to pronounce the _j_ like an _i_. The Greek translators had long before formed Ἠλιας, the Elias of the New Testament.
When the Empress Helena visited Palestine, she built a church on Mount Carmel, around which arose a cluster of hermitages, and thus the great prophet and his miracles became known both to East and West.
When the Crusaders visited the Mount of Carmel frowning above Acre, and beheld the church and the hermits around it, marked the spot where the great prophet had prayed, and the brook where he slew the idolaters, no wonder they became devoted to his name, and Helie became very frequent, especially among the Normans. Helie de la Flèche was the protector of Duke Robert’s young son, William Clito; and Helie and Elie were long in use in France, as Ellis must once have been in England, to judge by the surnames it has left. Elias is still very common in the Netherlands.
The order of Carmelites claimed to have been founded by the prophet himself; but when the Latins inundated Palestine, it first came into notice, and became known all over the West. It was placed under the invocation of St. Mary, who was thus called in Italy the Madonna di Carmela or di Carmine, and, in consequence, the two names of Carmela and Carmine took root among the Italian ladies, by whom they are still used. The meaning of Carmel, as applied to the mountain, is vineyard or fruitful field.
Elisha’s name meant God of Salvation. It becomes Eliseus in the New Testament, but has been very seldom repeated; though it is possible that the frequent Ellis of the middle ages may spring from it.
Here, too, it may be best to mention the prophetic name by which the Humanity of the Messiah was revealed to Isaiah—Immanuel (God with us), _Imm_ meaning with; _an_ being the pronoun.
The Greeks appear to have been the first to take up this as a Christian name, and Manuel Komnenos made it known in Europe. The Italians probably caught it from them as Manovello; and the Spaniards and Portuguese were much addicted to giving it, especially after the reign of Dom Manoel, one of the best kings of the noble house of Avis. Manuelita is a feminine in use in the Peninsula. When used as a masculine, as it is occasionally in England and France, the first letter is generally changed to _E_.[15]
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Footnote 15:
_Proper Names of the Bible_; Michaelis; Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_.
SECTION IV.—_Joshua, &c._
A still more sacred personal Divine Name was revealed to Moses upon Mount Horeb—the name that proclaimed the eternal self-existence of Him who gave the mission to the oppressed Israelites.
The meaning of that Name we know, in its simple and ineffable majesty; the pronunciation we do not know, for the most learned doubt whether that the usual substitute for it may not be a mistake. The Jews themselves feared to pronounce it commonly in reading their scriptures, and substituted for it Adonai, that which is indicated by the ‘LORD,’ in capital letters in our Bibles, while the French try to give something of the original import by using the word _l'Éternel_, and thus the tradition of the true sound has been hidden from man, and all that is known is that the three consonants employed in it were J, or rather Y V H.
Yet, though this holy name was only indicated in reading, it was very frequent in combination in the names of the Israelites, being the commencement of almost all those that with us begin with _je_ or _jo_, the termination of all those with _iah_. Nay, the use of the name in this manner has received the highest sanction, since it was by inspiration that Moses added to Hoshea, salvation—the syllable that made it Jehoshea or Joshua, “the Lord my salvation,” fitly marking out the warrior, who, by Divine assistance, should save Israel, and place them safely in the promised land.
That name of the captain of the salvation of Israel seems to have been untouched again till the return from the captivity, when probably some unconscious inspiration directed it to be given to the restorer of the Jews, that typical personage, the high priest, in whom we find it altered into Jeshua; and the Greek soon made it into the form in which it appears as belonging to the author of the book of Ecclesiasticus, and which, when owned by the apostate high priest, under Antiochus Epiphanes, was made by him from Jesus into Jason, to suit the taste of the Greek rulers. It had become common among the Jews; it was the current name for the ancient Joshua, when it was assumed by Him Who alone had a right to it.
A feast in honour of that Name “to which every knee shall bow,” has been marked by the Western Church, and it is probably in consequence of this that the Spanish Americans actually have adopted this as one of their Christian names—a profanation whence all the rest of Christendom has shrunk. There too _a_ and _ita_ are added to it to make it feminine.
In the unfortunate son and grandson of the good Josiah (yielded to the Lord), we see some curious changes of name. The son was called both Eliakim and Jehoiakim, in which the verb meant “will establish or judge;” the only difference was in the Divine Name that preceded it. This miserable prince died during the first siege of Jerusalem, and his son Jehoiachin (appointed of the Lord), reigned for three months till the city was taken, and he was carried away to Babylon. The above-mentioned seems to have been his proper name, but he was commonly called Jeconiah, and Jeremiah denounces his punishment without the prefix, as “this man Coniah.”
After the death of Nebuchadnezzar, Jehoiachin was brought out of prison, and lived in some degree of ease and favour at Babylon; and by Greek authors a sort of compromise was made between his name and his father’s, and he becomes sometimes Jeconias, and sometimes Joacim.
There was an early tradition that Joachim had been the name of the father of the Blessed Virgin, but her private history did not assume any great prominence till about 1500, and in consequence the names of her parents are far less often used before than after that era. Her mother’s name, as we shall see, had a history of its own; and was earlier in general use than that of her father, which scarcely came into England at all, and was better known to us when Murat ascended the throne of Naples than at any other time. Being however found in the apocryphal Gospels, it was in use in the Greek Church, and is therefore to be found in Russia. Its forms are,
┌────────────────┬────────────────┬────────────────┬────────────────┐ │ German. │ Bavarian. │ Frisjan. │ Swiss. │ │Joachim │Jochum │Hime │Jocheli │ │Jochim │Jochem │ │ │ │Achim │ │ │ │ │Chim │ │ │ │ ├────────────────┼────────────────┼────────────────┼────────────────┤ │ Spanish. │ French. │ Italian. │ Danish. │ │Joaquim │Joachim │Gioachimo │Joachim │ │Joquim │ │Gioachino │Johum │ │Joa │ │Giovachino │ │ ├────────────────┼────────────────┼────────────────┼────────────────┤ │ Russian. │ Polish. │ Lett. │ Illyrian. │ │Joachim │Jachym │Juzziz │Accim │ │Akim │ │Jukkums │Jacim │ └────────────────┴────────────────┴────────────────┴────────────────┘
The Germans, French, and Portuguese have the feminine Joachime, Joaquima; or, in Illyrian, Acima.[16]
The Book of Judges has not furnished many names to collective Europe. Caleb, the faithful spy, who alone finally accompanied Joshua into the Land of Promise out of all the 600,000 who had come out of Egypt, had a name meaning a dog, seldom copied except by the Puritan taste, and only meeting in one language a personal name of similar signification, namely, the Irish _cu_ (gen.) _con_.
Caleb’s daughter, Achsah, probably from the shortness and pretty sound of her name, which means a tinkling ornament for the ancle, has a good many namesakes in remote village schools, where it is apt to be spelt Axah. Tirzah (pleasantness) was one of those five daughters of Zelophehad, whose heiresship occupies two chapters of the Book of Numbers. She probably was the origin of Thirza, the name of Abel’s wife in Gessner’s idyll of the _Death of Abel_, a great favourite among the lower classes in England, whence Thyrza has become rather a favourite in English cottages.
Gideon (a feller or destroyer) seems by his martial exploits to have obtained some admirers among the Huguenots of the civil wars of France, for Gédéon was in some small use among them.
The name of the mighty Nazarene, whose strength was in his hair, is not clearly explained. Schimschon seems best to represent the Hebrew sound, but the Greek had made it Σαμψσων; and our translation, Samson. Some translate it splendid son, others as the diminutive of sun.
The Greek Church and her British daughter did not forget the mighty man of valour, and Samson was an early Welsh Bishop and saint, from whom this became a monastic appellation, as in the instance of Mr. Carlyle’s favourite Abbot Samson. The French still call it Simson, which is perhaps more like the original; and our Simpson and Simkins may thus be derived from it, when they do not come from Simon, which was much more frequent.
The name of the gentle and faithful Ruth has never been satisfactorily explained. Some make it mean trembling; others derive it from a word meaning to join together; and others from Reûth (beauty), which is perhaps the best account of it. In spite of the touching sweetness of her history, Ruth’s name has never been in vogue, except under the influence of our English version of the Bible.
Perhaps this may be the fittest place to mention the prevalence of names taken from the river Jordan during the period of pilgrimages. The Jordan itself is named from Jared (to descend), and perhaps no river does descend more rapidly throughout its entire course than does this most noted stream, from its rise in the range of Libanus to its fall in the Dead Sea, the lowest water in the world. To bathe in the Jordan was one of the objects of pilgrims, and flasks of its water were brought home to be used at baptisms—as was done for the present family of Royal children. It was probably this custom that led to the adoption of Jordan as a baptismal name, and it is to be supposed that it was a fashion of the Normans, since it certainly prevailed in countries that they had occupied. In Calabria, Count Giordano Lancia was the friend of the unfortunate Manfred of Sicily, and recognized his corpse. Jourdain was used in France, though in what districts I do not know, and Jordan was at one time recognized in England. Jordan de Thornhill died in 1200; Jordan de Dalden was at the battle of Lewes in 1264, and two namesakes of his are mentioned in the pedigree of his family. Jordan de Exeter was the founder of a family in Connaught, who became so thoroughly Hibernicized, that, after a few generations, they adopted the surname of, Mac Jordan. Galileo dei Gailïlei probably took both his names from Galilee, which comes from _Galil_, a circle.
Bethlem Gabor will seem to the mind as an instance of Bethlehem (the place of bread), having furnished Christian names for the sake of its associations, and Nazarene has also been used in Germany.
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Footnote 16:
Dr. Pusey’s _Commentary on the Prophets_; Kitto’s _Biblical Dictionary_; Jameson’s _Legends of the Madonna_; Michaelis.
SECTION V.—_Names from Chaanach._
Perhaps no word has given rise to a more curious class of derivatives than this from the Hebrew Chaanach, with the aspirate at each end, signifying favour, or mercy, or grace.
To us it first becomes known in the form of Hannah, the mother of Samuel, and it was also used with the Divine syllable in the masculine, as Hananeel, Hanani, Hananiah, or Jehohanan, shortened into Johanan.
Exactly the same names were current among the Phœœœœœœnicians, only we have received them through a Greek or Latin medium. Anna, the companion sister of Dido, was no doubt Hannah, and becoming known to the Romans through the worship paid to her and Elisa by the Carthaginians, was, from similarity of sound, confused by them with their Italian goddess, Anna Perenna, the presiding deity of the circling year (_Annus_). Virgil, by-and-by, wove the traditions of the foundation of Carthage, and the death of Dido, into the adventures of Æneas; and a further fancy arose among the Romans that after the self-destruction of Dido, Anna had actually pursued the faithless Trojan to Italy, and there drowned herself in the river Numicius, where she became a presiding nymph as Anna Perenna! A fine instance of the Romans' habit of spoiling their own mythology and that of every one else! Oddly enough, an Anna has arisen in Ireland by somewhat the same process. The river Liffey is there said to owe its name to Lifé, the daughter of the chief of the Firbolg race being there drowned. In Erse, the word for river was Amhain, the same as our Avon; but on English tongues Amhain Lifé became Anna Liffey, and was supposed to be the lady’s name; another version declared that it was Lifé, the horse of Heremon the Milesian, who there perished.
Hanno, so often occurring in the Punic wars, was another version of the Hebrew Hanan, and the far-famed Hannibal himself answered exactly to the Hananiah or Johanan of the Holy Land, saying that it was the grace of Baal that unhappily he besought by his very appellation. The Greeks called him Annibas, and the Romans wavered between Annibal and Hannibal as the designation of their great enemy. In the latter times of Rome, when the hereditary prænomina were discarded, Annibal and Annibalianus were given among the grand sounds that mocked their feeble wearers, and Annibale lingered on in Italy, so as to be known to us in the person of Annibale Caracci.
It is a more curious fact, however, that Hannibal has always been a favourite with the peasantry of Cornwall. From the first dawn of parish registers Hannyball is of constant occurrence, much too early, even in that intelligent county, to be a mere gleaning from books; and the west country surname of Honeyball must surely be from the same source. A few other eastern names, though none of them as frequent or as clearly traced as the present, have remained in use in this remote county, and ought to be allowed due weight in favour of the supposed influence of the Phœnician traders over the races that supplied them with tin and lead.
The usual changes were at work upon the Jewish names Hannah and Hananiah. Greek had made the first 'Anna, the second Ananias, or Annas. Indeed Hannah is only known, as such, to the readers of the English version of the Bible, from whom the Irish have taken it to represent their native Ainè (joy). All the rest of Europe calls her, as well as the aged prophetess in the temple, Anne.
The apocryphal Gospels which gave an account of the childhood of the Blessed Virgin, called her mother Anna, though from what tradition is not known. St. Anna was a favourite with the Byzantines from very early times; the Emperor Justinian built a church to her in 550, and in 710 her relics were there enshrined. From that time forward Greek damsels, and all those of the adjoining nations who looked to Constantinople as their head, were apt to be christened Anna. In 988, a daughter of the Emperor Basil married and converted Vladimir, Grand Prince of Muscovy, whence date all the numerous Russian Annas, with their pretty changes of endearment. The grand-daughter of this lady, Anne of Muscovy, sister of Harald Hardrada’s Elisif, carried her name to France, where it grew and flourished.
St. Anne became the patron saint of Prague, where a prodigious festival is yearly holden in her honour, and great are the rejoicings of all the females who hear her name, and who are not a few. It was from Prague that the Bohemian princess, Anne of Luxemburg, brought it to England, and gave it to her name-child, Anne Mortimer, by whom it was carried to the house of York, then to the Howards, from them to Anne Boleyn, and thereby became an almost party word in England.
Abroad it had a fresh access of popularity from a supposed appearance of the saint to two children at Auray, in Brittany, and not only was the Bretonne heiress, twice Queen of France, so named, but she transferred the name to her god-sons, among whom the most notable was the fierce Constable, Anne de Montmorency. Her Italian god-daughter, Anna d'Este, brought it back to the House of Guise, and shortly after a decree from Rome, in 1584, made the name more popular still by rendering the feast obligatory, and thenceforth arose the fashion of giving the names of the Blessed Virgin and her mother in combination, as Anne Marie, or Marianne. This is usually the source of the Marianne, Mariana, or Manna, so often found on the continent; in England, Marianne is generally only a corruption of Marion, and Anna Maria is in imitation of the Italian.
Hardly susceptible of abbreviation, no name has undergone more varieties of endearment, some forms almost being treated like independent names, such as the Annot of Scotland, an imitation of the French Annette, showing the old connection between France and Scotland; and in the present day, there has arisen a fashion of christening Annie, probably from some confusion as to the spelling of Ann or Anne.
All these Annes can distinctly be traced from the Byzantine devotion to the mother of the Blessed Virgin spreading westwards, and at Rome magnified by Mariolatry. There are however what seem like forms of Anne in the West before the adoption of the name from Russia and Bohemia. Welsh Angharawd (far from shame), which is treated as Anne’s equivalent. The Scottish Annaple and Annabella are likewise too early to come from St. Anne, and are probably either from Ainè (joy), a favourite name in early Gaelic times, or from the Teutonic Arnhilda—Eagle heroine.
Annabella by no means is to be explained to mean fair Anna, as is generally supposed. _Bellus_ did, indeed, signify handsome in Latin, and became the _beau_ and _belle_ of French, but the habit of putting it at the end of a name, by way of ornament, was not invented till the late period of seven-leagued names of literature. Annys, or Anisia, is a separate name with a saint in the Greek calendar, and was used in England from the Norman Conquest down at least to 1690. Mr. Bardsley thinks, however, that this was really Agnes; and certainly the unfortunate Scotchwoman, who was supposed to have raised the tempest before the wedding of James VI., is called indifferently Agnes or Annis Simpson.
┌────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┐ │ English. │ Scotch. │ French. │ Spanish. │ Italian. │ │Hannah │Hannah │Anne │Ana │Anna │ │Anna │Anne │Annette │Anita │Annica │ │Anne │Nannie │Nanette │ │Nanna │ │Nan │Annot │Nanon │ │Ninetta │ │Nancy │ │Ninon │ │ │ │Nanny │ │Ninette │ │ │ │ │ │Nichon │ │ │ │ │ │Nillon │ │ │ ├────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼────────────┤ │ German. │ Dutch. │ Danish. │ Swiss. │ Bavarian. │ │Anne │Anna │Anna │Anne │Anne │ │Annchen │Antje │Annika │Annali │Annerl │ │ │Naatje │ │Nann │Nannerl │ │ │Annechet │ │Nanneli │ │ ├────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼────────────┤ │ Bohemian. │ Russian. │ Servian. │ Lusatian. │ Lett. │ │Ana │Anna │Anna │Anna │Anne │ │Ancika │Anninka │Anuschka │Hanna │Annusche │ │Anca │Anjuska │Aneta │Hanzyzka │ │ │ │Anjutka │Anica │Hancicka │ │ │ │Annuschka │Anicsika │ │ │ │ │ │Anka │ │ │ ├────────────┴────────────┼────────────┴────────────┼────────────┤ │ Lithuanian. │ Hungarian. │ Polish. │ │Ane │Annze │Anna │Panni │Anna │ │Anikke │ │Nani │Panna │Anusia │ └────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┘
Ἰώαννα, or Ἰαννης, for the masculine, Ἰώαννα for the feminine, were already frequent among the natives of Judea, though they appear not to have been used in the family of Zacharias when he was commanded so to call his son.
The Evangelist who was surnamed Mark, and Joanna the wife of Herod’s steward, both had received their names independently, and thus Joannes became a most universal baptismal name, given from the first in the East and at Rome. There were many noted bishops so called in the fourth century, the earliest time when men began to be baptized in memory of departed saints, rather than by the old Roman names. The first whose name is preserved is Joannes of Egypt, one of the hermits of the Thebaïd; the next is the great deacon of Antioch, and patron of Constantinople, Joannes Chrysostomos (John of the golden mouth), whose Greek surname, given him for his eloquence, has caused him to be best known as St. Chrysostom, and has perpetuated in Italy, Grisostomo; in Spain, Crisostomo; whilst the Slavonian nations translate the name and make it Zlatoust.
At Constantinople, the patriarch St. Joannes the Silent, at Rome, the martyr Pope St. Johannes I., at Alexandria, the beneficent patriarch St. Joannes the Almoner, all renewed the popularity of their name. The last mentioned was originally the patron of the order of Hospitallers, though when these Franks were living at enmity to the Greek Church, they discarded him in favour of the Baptist. Each of the two Scriptural saints had two holidays,—the Baptist on the day of his nativity, and of his decollation; the Evangelist, on the 27th of December, as well as on the 6th of May, in remembrance of his confession in the cauldron of boiling oil.
Thus the festivals were so numerous that children had an extra chance of the name, which the Italians called Giovanni, or for short, Vanni; and the French, Jehan.
It was still so infrequent at the time of the Norman Conquest, that among the under-tenants in Domesday Book, to 68 Williams, 48 Roberts, and 28 Walters, there are only 10 Johns, but it was flourishing in the Eastern Church, where one of the Komneni was called, some say from his beauty, others from the reverse, Kaloioannes, or handsome John, a form which was adopted bodily by his descendants, the Komneni of Trebizond.
It had come into Ireland at first as Maol-Eoin (shaveling, or disciple of John), the Baptist sharing with St. Patrick the patronage of the island; but Shawn or Seoin soon prevailed in Ireland, as did Ian in Scotland; but not till the Crusades did French or English adopt it to any great extent, or the English begin to Anglicize it in general by contracting the word and writing it John.
The misfortunes of the English Lackland and of the French captive of Poictiers caused a superstition that theirs was an ill-omened royal name, and when John Stuart came to the Scottish throne, he termed himself Robert III., without, however, averting the doom of his still more unhappy surname. It did not fare amiss with any Castilian Juan or Portuguese Joâo; and in Bohemia a new saint arose called Johanko von Nepomuk, the Empress’s confessor, who was thrown from the bridge of Prague by the insane Emperor Wenzel for refusing to betray her secrets.
As St. Nepomucene, he had a few local namesakes, who get called Mukki or Mukkel. The original word is said to mean helpless.
Double names, perhaps, originated in the desire to indicate the individual patron, where there were many saints of similar name, and thus the votaries of the Baptist were christened Gian Battista, or Jean Baptiste, but only called by the second Greek title—most common in Italy—least so in England.
┌──────────┬──────────┬──────────┬──────────┬──────────┬──────────┐ │ English. │ French. │ Spanish. │ Italian. │ Swiss. │ Polish. │ │Baptist │Baptiste │Bautista │Battista │Bisch │Baptysta │ │ │Batiste │ │ │Bischli │ │ └──────────┴──────────┴──────────┴──────────┴──────────┴──────────┘
The Illyrians, using the word for christianizing instead of that for baptizing, make the namesakes of the Baptist Kerstiteli.
It was probably in honour of St. John the Evangelist’s guardianship of the Blessed Virgin that her name became commonly joined with his. Giovanni Maria Visconti of Milan, appears in the fifth century, and Juan Maria and Jean Marie soon followed in Spain and France.
Johann was the correct German form, usually contracted into Hans; and it was the same in Sweden, where Johann I., in 1483, was known as King Hans; and in Norway, Hans and Jens, though both abbreviations of Johan, are used as distinct names, and have formed the patronymics, Hanson and Jensen, the first of which has become an English surname. Ivan the Terrible, Tzar of Muscovy, was the first prince there so called, though the name is frequent among all ranks, and the sons and daughters are called Ivanovitch and Ivanovna.
Rare as patronymic surnames are in France, this universal name has there produced Johannot, while the contraction is Jeannot, answering to the Spanish Juanito and the patronymic Juanez. Jan is very frequent in Brittany, where the diminutive is Jannik.
Jock is the recognized Scottish abbreviation, and it would seem to have been the older English one according to the warning to Jockey of Norfolk, at Bosworth. Jack sounds much as if the French Jacques had been his true parent; but “sweet Jack Falstaff, old Jack Falstaff” has made it alienable from John.
Though Joanna was a holy woman of the Gospel, her name did not come into favour so early as the male form, and it is likely that it was adopted rather in honour of one of the St. Johns than of herself, since she is not canonized; and to the thirty feasts of the St. Johns, in the Roman calendar, there are only two in honour of Joannas, and these very late ones, when the name was rather slipping out of fashion. Its use seems to have begun all at once, in the twelfth century, in the south of France and Navarre, whence ladies called Juana in Spanish, Jehanne or Jeanne in France, came forth, and married into all the royal families of the time. Our first princess so called was daughter to Henry II., and married into Sicily; and almost every king had a daughter Joan, or Jhone, as they preferred spelling it. Joan Makepeace was the name given to the daughter of Edward II., when the long war with the Bruces was partly pacified by her marriage; and Joan Beaufort was the maiden romantically beloved by the captive James I. The Scots, however, usually called the name Jean, and adopted Janet from the French Jeanette, like Annot from Annette.
The various forms and contractions are infinite:—
┌────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┐ │ English. │ Scotch. │ Welsh. │ Breton. │ Gaelic. │ │John │John │Jan │Jan │Ian │ │Johnny │Johnnie │Jenkin │Jannik │ │ │Jack │Jock │ │ │ │ │Jenkin │ │ │ │ │ ├────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼────────────┤ │ Erse. │ German. │ Danish. │ Dutch. │ Belgian. │ │Shawn │Johannes │Johan │Jan │Jehan │ │Eoin │Hans │Janne │Jantje │Jan │ │ │Hanschen │Jens │ │Hannes │ │ │ │Hans │ │Hanneken │ │ │ │Jantje │ │Hanka │ ├────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼────────────┤ │ Bavarian. │ Swiss. │ French. │ Spanish. │Portuguese. │ │Johan │Johan │Jean │Juan │Joao │ │Hansl │Han │Jeanno │Juanito │Joaninho │ │ │Hansli │Jehan—_old_ │ │Joanico │ │ │Hasli │ │ │Joaozinho │ ├────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼────────────┤ │ Italian. │Modern Greek│ Russian. │ Polish. │ Bohemian. │ │Giovanni │Ιωαννης │Ivan │Jan │Jan │ │Gianni │Jannes │Vanja │Janek │ │ │Gian │Giannes │Vanka │ │ │ │Giovanoli │Giankos │Ivanjuschka │ │ │ │Giannino │Giannakes │Vanjuschka │ │ │ │Vanni │Joannoulos │Vanjucha │ │ │ │Nanni │Nannos │ │ │ │ │Gianozzo │ │ │ │ │ ├────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼────────────┤ │ Slavonic. │ Illyrian. │ Lett. │Lithuanian. │ Esthonian. │ │Jovan │Jovan │Janis │Jonas │Johan │ │Ivan │Jovica │Janke │Ancas │Hannus │ │Janez │Jvo │Ans │Jonkus │Ants │ │ │Jveica │Ansis │Jonkutti │ │ │ │Jvic │ │Enseliss │ │ │ │ │ │Enskis │ │ ├────────────┼────────────┼────────────┴────────────┴────────────┤ │ Hungarian. │ Lapp. │ │ │Janos │Jofan │ │ │Jani │Jofa │ │ └────────────┴────────────┴──────────────────────────────────────┘
Jessie, though now a separate name, is said to be short for Janet. Queen Joans have been more uniformly unfortunate than their male counterparts. Twice did a Giovanna reign in Naples in disgrace and misery; and the royalty of poor Juana la Loca in Castille was but one long melancholy madness. There have, however, been two heroines, so called, Jeanne of Flanders, or Jannedik la Flamm, as the Bretons call her, the heroine of Henbonne, and the much more noble Jeanne la Pucelle of Orleans. The two saints were Jeanne de Valois, daughter of Louis XI., and discarded wife of Louis XII., and foundress of the Annonciades, and Jeanne Françoise de Chantel, the disciple of St. François de Sales.
Johanna is a favourite with the German peasantry, and is contracted into Hanne. It was not till the Tudor period, as Camden states, that Jane came into use; when Jane Seymour at once rendered it so fashionable that it became the courtly title; and Joan had already in Shakespeare’s time descended to the cottage and kitchen.
┌────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┐ │ English. │ Scotch. │ German. │ Dutch. │ French. │ │Johanna │Joanna │Johanna │Jantina │Jeanne │ │Joanna │Jean │Hanne │Janotje │Jehanne │ │Joan │Jeanie │ │Jantje │Jeannette │ │Jane │Jenny │ │ │Jeannetton │ │Jone │Janet │ │ │ │ │Jenny │ Jessie │ │ │ │ │ │(Gael.) │ │ │ │ │Janet │ │ │ │ │ │Janetta │Seonaid │ │ │ │ ├────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼────────────┤ │ Spanish. │Portuguese. │ Italian. │ Russian. │ Polish. │ │Juana │Jovanna │Giovanna │Ivanna │Joanna │ │Juanita │Johannina │Giovannina │Zaneta │Hanusia │ │ │ │ │Anniuscka │Anusia │ ├────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼────────────┤ │Slovak. │ Illyrian. │ Bulgarian. │ Lusatian. │ │ │Jovana │Ivana │Ivanku │Hanka │ │ │Janesika │Jovana │ │ │ │ │Ivancica │Jovka │ │ │ │ │ │Ivka │ │ │ │ └────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┘
SECTION VI.—_David._
“The man after God’s own heart” was well named from the verb to love, David, still called Daood in the East. It was Δαυὶδ in the Septuagint; Δαβὶδ and Δαυεὶδ in the New Testament; and the Vulgate made it the name well known to us.
The Eastern Church, in which the ancient Scriptural names were in greater honour than in the West, seems to have adopted David among her names long before it was revived among the Jews, who never seem to have used it since the days of their dispersion. It has always been common among the Armenians and Georgians. Daveed is frequent in Russia, in honour of a saint, who has his feast on the 29th of July; and in Slavonic it is shortened into Dako; in Esthonia it is Taved; in Lusatia, Dabko.
The influence of eastern Christianity is traceable in the adoption of David in the Keltic Church. Early in the 6th century, a Welshman of princely birth (like almost all Welsh saints), by name David, or Dawfydd, lived in such sanctity at his bishopric of Menevia, that it has ever since been known as St. David’s, the principal Welsh see having been there transplanted from Caerleon in his time. Dewi was the vernacular alteration of his name, and the Church of Llan Dewi Brevi commemorates a synod held by him against the Pelagians. Dafod, or Devi, thus grew popular in Wales, and when ap Devi ceased to be the distinction of the sons of David—Davy, Davis, and Davies became the surname, Taffy the contraction, and Tafline or Vida the feminine. The Keltic bishop was revered likewise in Scotland, and his name was conferred upon the third son of Malcolm Ceanmohr, the best sovereign whom Scotland ever possessed, and whom she deservedly canonized, although his Protestant descendant James VI. called him “a sore saint to the crown,” because of his large donations of land to the clergy—at that time the only orderly subjects in the country. Affection and honour for the royal saint filled the Lowlands with Davids, and this has continued a distinctively Scottish name.
The Anglicizing Irish took David as the synonym of Dathi (far darting); and Diarmaid (a freeman); and the Danes made it serve for Dagfinn (day white).[17]
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Footnote 17:
_Proper Names of the Bible_; Rees, _Welsh Saints_; Jones, _Welsh Sketches_; O'Donovan, _Irish Names_; _Seven Champions of Christendom_.
SECTION VII.—_Salem._
It is remarkable to observe how the longing for peace is expressed in the names of almost every nation. The warlike Roman may be an exception, but the Greek had his Eireneos; the German, his Friedrich; the Kelt, his Simaith; the Slave, his Lubomirski; testifying that even in the midst of war, there was a longing after peace and rest! And, above all, would this be the case with the Hebrew, to whom sitting safely and at peace, beneath his own vine and his own fig-tree, was the summit of earthly content.
Schalem (peace)! By the Prophet-King it was bestowed upon the two sons to whom he looked for the continuance of his throne, and the continuance of the promises of ‘peace,’—Absalom (father of peace), and afterwards with a truer presage, Salomo, or Solomon, (the peaceful)!
Long before his time, however, Welsh and Breton saints had been called Solomon, as well as one early Armorican prince; and likewise an idiot boy, who lived under a tree at Auray, only quitting it when in want of food, to wander through the villages muttering “Salaum hungry”—the only words, except _Ave Maria_, that he could pronounce. When he died, the neighbours, thinking him as soulless as a dog, buried him under his tree; but, according to the legend, their contempt was rebuked by a beauteous lily springing from his grave, and bearing on every leaf the words _Ave Maria_. Certain it is that an exquisite church was there erected, containing the shrine of Salaun the Simple, who thus became a popular saint of Brittany, ensuring tender reverence for those who, if mindless, were likewise sinless, and obtaining a few namesakes.
Salomon and Salomone are the French and Italian forms; and Solomon is so frequent among the Jews as to have become a surname.
Russia and Poland both use it, and have given it the feminines, Ssolominija and Salomea; but Schalem had already formed a true feminine name of its own, well known in Arabic literature as Suleima, Selma, or Selima.
But returning to the high associations whence the names of Christians should take their source, we find Salome honoured indeed as one of the women first at the sepulchre; and it is surprising that thus recommended, her name should not have been more frequent. It sometimes does occur in England, and Salomée is known in France; but it is nowhere really popular except in Switzerland, where, oddly enough, Salomeli is the form for the unmarried, and Salome is restricted to the wife.
In Denmark, similarity of sound led Solomon to be chosen as the ecclesiastical name, so to speak, of persons whose genuine appellation was Solmund, or sun’s protection. Perhaps it was in consequence that the Lord Mayor of London, of 1216, obtained the name of Solomon de Basing. The county of Cornwall much later shows a Soloma.[18] It is a question whether Lemuel be another name for Solomon. It means “to God,” or “dedicated to God,” and was a favourite at one time with Puritan mothers. Swift made it famous; but Lemuel Gulliver was by no means an improbable north country name, and Lemuel is not wholly disused even now.
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Footnote 18:
_Proper Names of the Bible_; Souvestre, _Derniers Bretons_.
SECTION VIII.—_Later Israelite Names._
By the time the kingdom was established most of the Israelite names were becoming repetitions of former ones, and comparatively few fresh ones come to light, though there are a few sufficiently used to be worth cursorily noting down.
Hezekiah meant strength of the Lord, and in the Greek became Ezekias. Ezekiel is like it, meaning God will strengthen. The great prophet who was the chief glory of Hezekiah’s reign was Isaiah (the salvation of the Lord), made by Greek translators into Esaias, and thence called by old French and English, Esaie, or Esay. The Russians, who have all the old prophetic names, have Eesaia; but it is not easy to account for the choice of Ysaie le Triste as the name of the child of Tristram and Yseulte in the romance that carried on their history to another generation, unless we suppose that Ysaie was supposed to be the masculine of Yseulte! the one being Hebrew, and meaning as above, the other Keltic, and meaning a sight.
Contemporary with Hezekiah, and persecuted by the Assyrian monarch when he returned to Nineveh after the miraculous destruction of his host, was the blind Israelite of the captivity whose name is explained to have been probably Tobijah (the goodness of the Lord), a name occurring again in the prophet Zechariah, and belonging afterwards to one of the Samaritan persecutors. Probably, in Greek, came the variation of the names of the father and son; perhaps the latter was once meant for Tobides, the son of Tobias.
The marvellous element in the book of Tobit gained for it much popularity; scenes from it appeared in art. Thus Tobias had a diffusion in the later middle ages much greater than the names of his contemporaries of far more certain history, and in Ireland Toby has enjoyed the honour, together with Thaddeus and Timothy, of figuring as an equivalent for Tadgh, a poet.
┌──────────┬──────────┬──────────┬──────────┬────────────┬────────────┐ │ English. │ French. │ Swiss. │ Hamburg. │ Italian. │ Russian. │ │Tobias │Tobie │Tobies │Tewes │Tobia │Tobija │ │Tobit │ │Tebes │ │ │Tobej │ │Toby │ │Tebos │ │ │ │ │ │ │Beiali │ │ │ │ └──────────┴──────────┴──────────┴──────────┴────────────┴────────────┘
Hephzibah (my delight is in her), was the wife of Hezekiah, and it may have been in allusion to her that Isaiah spoke of the land being called Hephsibah. It has been rather a favourite name in America, where it gets turned into Hepsy.
As Judah sinned more and more and her fate drew on, Jeremiah stood forth as her leading prophet. His name meant exalted of the Lord, and became Jeremias in the Greek, Jeremy in vernacular English. As the name of some of the early eastern saints it has had a partial irregular sort of use in the West, and is adopted direct from the prophet in the Greco-Slavonic Churches. The French, struck by the mournful strain of the prophet, use Jeremiade to express a lamentation; and the English are rather too ready to follow their example. Jeremy is considered as another variety of equivalent for the Gaelic Diarmaid, and this has led to the frequency of Jerry among families of Irish connection. In Switzerland, Jeremias is contracted into Meies or Mies; in Russia it is Jeremija; but nowhere has it been so illustrious in modern times as in the person of our own Jeremy Taylor. The king whom Jeremiah saw led into captivity was Zedekiah (justice of the Lord).
The prophet of the captivity, Daniel, bore in his name an amplification of that of Dan (a judge). The termination signified God the judge, and the alias Belteshazzar, imposed upon him by the Chaldean monarch, is considered to translate and heathenize the name, making Bel the judge. It is observable that Daniel never calls himself thus, though he gives these heathen titles to his three companions.
Daniel has always flourished as a name in the East. Daniel and Verda (a rose), were martyred by Shapoor in 344; another Daniel was crazy enough to succeed Simeon Stylites on his pillar; and thus the Armenian, Montenegrin, and Slavonian races are all much attached to Daniela, or Daniil, as they call it in Russia; or in Esthonia, Taniel or Tanni. The Welsh adopted it as Deiniol, the name of the saint who founded the monastery of Bangor, the High Choir, in the sixth century, and it was thus known to the Bretons; and in Ireland it was adopted as the equivalent to Domnall, Donacha, and other names from Don (or brown-haired), thus causing Dan to be one of the most frequent of Irish contractions.
St. Jerome “transfixed with a dagger”—with his pen—the additional chapters of the Book of Daniel relating to the story of Susanna, to show that he did not regard it as genuine, but, like the story of Judith, it was greatly more popular than the narratives in the canonical books, and was commemorated in ballad, mystery, tapestry, and painting. The name was properly Schuschannah (a lily), though we know it as Susannah. It belonged to one of the holy women at the sepulchre, and it was likewise in the calendar, for two virgin martyrs, named Susanna, had suffered in the times of persecution, and though not commemorated in the Western Church, Queen Susanna, the “Lily of Tiflis,” had died for the truth in the hands of Mahometans. The name has been chiefly popular in France and Switzerland, as in England. The Swiss contraction, Züsí-Ketti, for Susanne-Catherine, is quaint.[19]
┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐ │ English. │ German. │ Bavarian │ │Susannah │Susanne │Susanne │ │Susan │Suschen │Sanrl │ │Susie │Suse │Sandrl │ │Sukey │ │ │ │Sue │ │ │ ├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤ │ Swiss. │ French. │ Lithuanian. │ │Susanne │Susanne │Zuzane │ │Zosa │Suzette │ │ │Zosel │Suzon │ │ │Zösel │ │ │ └───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘
This may be the best place to mention the Aramean Tabitha, explained by St. Luke as the same as Dorcas (a roe or gazelle), the Greek word being from its full dark eye. Tabitha and Dorcas both have associations unsuited to the “dear gazelle.” As the charitable disciple raised by St. Peter, her names were endeared to the Puritans.
Of the minor prophets, the names have been little employed. Joel meant strong-willed; Amos, a burthen; Obadiah, servant of the Lord, has been slightly more popular, perhaps, in honour of him who hid the prophets in a cave, with whom the mediæval imagination confounded the prophet, so that loaves of bread are the emblem of Obadiah in ancient pictures of the twelve prophets. Even the Abbacuc, as the Apocrypha calls him, who, in the story of _Bel and the Dragon_ is carried off by the hair to feed Daniel in the den of lions, seems to have been likewise supposed to be the same person in the strange notions of Scripture history that once floated among our forefathers. The name of Abacuck, or Habbakkuk, was conferred upon a child by one of the last persons one would have suspected of such a choice, namely, Mary, Queen of Scots. On her way to mass, she was waylaid by one of her caterers, who acquainted her that he had a child to be baptized, and desired her to give the name. “She said she would open the Bible in the chapel, and whatever name she cast up, that should be given to the child;” and for the child’s misfortune it proved to be ‘Abacuck!’ The name comes from the verb to clasp, and means embracing.
Micah is a contraction of Micaiah, and means “Who is like unto the Lord.” Nahum—to us connected with “Tate and Brady”—was consolation; Nehemiah expanded it, adding the Divine termination; Zephaniah is, protected of the Lord; Haggai (festival of the Lord), called Aggae, when brought through a Greek medium, is rather a favourite in Russia.
Zachariah (remembrance of the Lord), has been more in favour. After belonging to a king of Israel and to the priest murdered by King Jehoash, it came forth after the captivity as Zechariah with the prophet; and in the New Testament, as Zacharias, names the father of the Baptist; and the mysterious martyr who was to fill up the measure of the iniquity of the Jews; and again appears as Zaccheus, the publican of Jericho. It was rather frequent among Eastern Christians, and belonged to the pope who first invited the Franks into Italy to protect him from the Lombards; nor has it ever quite died away in the West, although nowhere popular.
┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐ │ English. │ French. │ Italian. │ Danish. │ │Zacharias │Zacharie │Zaccaria │Sakerl │ │Zachary │ │ │ │ │Zach │ │ │ │ ├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤ │ Bavarian. │ Russian. │ Slavonic. │ Illyrian. │ │Zachereis │Sacharija │ │Sakarie │ │Zacherl │Sachar │Charija │Zaro │ │Zacher │ │ │Zako │ │Zaches │ │ │ │ │Zach │ │ │ │ └───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘
Of those to whom these later prophets were sent, Ezra’s name is thought to be the same as that of Zerah, son of Judah, the rising of light, from whom likewise Heman, the writer of the 88th Psalm, is termed the Ezrahite. The name of Ezra is hardly to be recognized in that of Esdras, as the Greek translators rendered it.[20] The house of Aphrah, mentioned in the Prophet Micah, means the house of dust, or ashes, and the Puritans, with their love of piteous names, adopted Aphra as a name. As well it appears as ‘Dust’ and ‘Ashes’ in actual English.[21]
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Footnote 19:
_Proper Names of the Bible_; Jones, _Welsh Sketches_; Michaelis; O'Donovan; Butler.
Footnote 20:
_Proper Names of the Bible_; Michaelis; Chambers, _Records of Scotland_.
Footnote 21:
Bardsley, _Puritan Nomenclature_.
SECTION IX.—_Angelic Names._
We have thrown these together, because, though our common term for those spiritual messengers is Greek, yet all the other words for them, as well as the three individual angelic designations that have come into use as baptismal names, are derived from the Hebrew.
Moreover, the first of these belonged to the last of the prophets, Malach-jah, the angel or messenger of God. It has even been thought by some commentators that this title of the prophet was the quotation of his own words, “Behold, I send my messenger (or Malachi) before my face.”
Malachi would never have been a modern name, but for the Irish fancy that made it the equivalent of Maelseachlain, the disciple of St. Sechnall, or Secundus, a companion of St. Patrick; and as the era of him who is now called King Malachi with the collar of gold, was particularly prosperous, the name has come into some amount of popularity.
The Septuagint always translated Malach by Ἀγγελος, even in that first sentence of the prophet, which in our version bears his name. Angelos had simply meant a messenger in Greek, as it still does; but it acquired the especial signification of a heavenly messenger, both in its own tongue, and in the Latin, whither Angelus was transplanted with this and no other sense.
Angelos first became a name in the Byzantine Empire. It probably began as an epithet, since it comes to light in the person of Konstantinos Angelos, a young man of a noble family of Philadelphia, whose personal beauty caused him, about the year 1100, to become the choice of the Princess Theodora Komnena. It is thus highly probable that Angelos was first bestowed as a surname, on account of the beauty of the family. They were on the throne in 1185, and Angelos continued imperial till the miserable end of the unhappy Isaac, and his son, Alexios, during the misdirected crusade of the Venetians. Angelos thus became known among the Greeks; and somewhere about 1217, there came a monastic saint, so called, to Sicily, who preached at Palermo, and was murdered by a wicked count, whose evil doings he had rebuked. The Carmelites claimed St. Angelo as a saint of their order, and his name, both masculine and feminine, took hold of the fancy of Italy, varied by the Neapolitan dialect into Agnolo or Aniello—_e. g._, the wonderful fisherman, Masaniello, was, in fact, Tomasso Angelo; by the Venetian into Anziolo, Anzioleto, Anzioleta; and by the Florentine, into Angiolo, Angioletto, and thence into the ever-renowned contraction Giotto, unless indeed this be from Gotofredo. It passed to other nations, but was of more rare occurrence there, except in the feminine. The fashion of complimenting women as angels, left the masculine Ange to be scantily used in France, and Angel now and then in England; but in Italy alone did Angiolo, and its derivative Angelico, thrive. All the other countries adopted the feminine, either in the simple form or the diminutive, or most commonly, the derivative, Angelica (angelical), noted in romance as the faithless lady, for whose sake Orlando lost his heart, and his senses. She was a gratuitous invention of Boiardo and Ariosto; whose character for surpassing beauty made her name popular, and thus Angelica and Angelique have always been favourites.
┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐ │ English. │ German. │ French. │ │Angela │Engel │Angele │ │Angelot │Engelchen │Angeline │ │Angelina │Angelina │Angelique │ │Angelica │Angelica │ │ ├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤ │ Italian. │ Polish. │ Bohemian. │ │Angiola │Ancela │Anjela │ │Angioletta │ │Anjelina │ │Angelica │ │Anjelika │ │Agnola │ │ │ │Anzioleta │ │ │ └───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘
Angel was most often a man’s name in England. We find it at Hadleigh, Suffolk, in 1591, and sometimes likewise in Cornwall.
Archangel has even been used as an English name.
The mysterious creatures that are first mentioned as “keeping the way of the tree of life,” then were represented in the tabernacle overshadowing the ark, and afterwards were revealed in vision to the Prophet Ezekiel and to the Apostle St. John, combined in their forms the symbols of all that was wisest, bravest, strongest, and loftiest in creation—the man, the lion, the ox, and eagle.
In the lands where Art made the Cherub a mere head with wings, Cherubino arose as a Christian name, for it is hardly ever to be met with out of Spain and Italy.
Equally misused is Seraph—now a lady’s name, as Seraphine in France; Serafina, in Spain and Italy. The word seraph, or saraph, signifies burning, or fiery, and would apply to that intensity of glory that Ezekiel struggles to express in the cherubim by comparisons to amber and to glowing embers, or to their intense fervour of love.
Three individual angels have been revealed to us by name as of the seven that stand in the presence of God, and foremost of these is Michael (who is like unto God), he who was made known to Daniel as the protector of the Jewish people; to Zechariah, as defending them from Satan; to St. Jude, as disputing with Satan for the body of Moses; and to St. John, as leading the hosts of Heaven to battle with the adversary and prevailing over him.
His name would have seemed in itself fit only for an archangel, yet before apparently he had been made known, it had been borne by the father of one of David’s captains, and by a son of Jehoshaphat, and it was almost the same as Micaiah, the name of him who foretold the destruction of Ahab.
Constantine the Great dedicated a church in his new city in honour of St. Michael, the archangel, and thenceforth Mickaelion, or Mikael, have been favourites with all branches of the Eastern Church.
An appearance of the archangel in Colosse led the way to another legend of his descent upon Monte Galgano in Apulia, somewhere about 493. Then came a more notable vision, seen by Gregory the Great himself, of the angel standing with outstretched sword on the tomb of Adrian, which has ever since been called the castle of St. Angelo. In 706, St. Michael was again seen to take his stand upon the isolated rock on the Norman coast, so noted as the fortress and convent of Mont St. Michel. Moreover tradition placed him upon the Cornish rock,—
“When the great vision of the guarded mount Looked towards Namancos and Bayona’s hold.”
He was above all others the patron of the Christian warrior; his armour-clad effigy was seen in almost every church; the young knight was dubbed in his name, as well as that of the national saint; and since the prevalence of saintly names, his name has been frequently bestowed. It is, perhaps, most common in the Greek and Slavonic countries; but Ireland makes great use of it; and Italy has united it with the epithet angel, in the one distinguished instance of Michelangelo Buonarotti.
┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐ │ English. │ French. │ Spanish. │ Italian. │ │Michael │Michel │Miguel │Michele │ │Mick │Michon │ │ │ │Mike │Michau │ │ │ ├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤ │ German. │ Dutch. │ Swedish. │ Russian. │ │Michael │Michiel │Mikael │Michail │ │Micha │Micheltje │Mikel │Michaila │ │Micha │ │Mikas │Misha │ │ │ │ │Mischenka │ │ │ │ │ │ ├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤ │ Slavonic. │ Servian. │ Lett. │ Hungarian. │ │Miha │Miljo │Mikkelis │Mihaly │ │Mihal │Miho │ │Mihal │ │Mihaljo │Misa │ │Miska │ │ │Mijailo │ │ │ └───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘
There is some confusion in the German mind between it and the old _michel_ (mickle, large), which, as a name, it has quite absorbed. It has the rare feminines,
┌──────────────────┬──────────────────┬──────────────────┐ │ French. │ Russian. │ Portuguese. │ │Michelle │Micheline │Miguella │ │Michée │Mikelina │ │ └──────────────────┴──────────────────┴──────────────────┘
Legend has been far less busy with Gabriel, “the hero of God;” the angel who strengthened Daniel, and who brought the promise to Zacharias and to the Blessed Virgin. His name is chiefly used by the Slavonians; and in Hungary we find it in combination with Bethlehem, belonging to that noted chieftain, Bethlem Gabor.
It was known and used everywhere, however; and the Swedish house of Oxenstjerna considered it to have been the saving of their line from extinction, all their sons having died in the cradle, owing, it was thought, to Satan’s strangling them; till at length one was named Gabriel; and having thus obtained the protection of the guardian angel, survived to be the ancestor of the minister of the great Gustavus. The feminine, Gabrielle, has been a favourite in France ever since la belle Gabrielle gave it a reputation for beauty.
┌────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┐ │ English. │ German. │ Bavarian. │ Swiss. │ Italian. │ │Gabriel │Gabriel │Gabe │Gabëler │Gabriello │ │Gab │ │Gaberl │ │ │ ├────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼────────────┤ │ Russian. │ Polish. │ Illyrian │ Lett. │ Hungarian. │ │Gavrül │Gabryel │Gabriel │Gaberjels │Gabriel │ │Gavrila │ │Gavrilo │Gabris │Gabor │ │ │ │Gavril │ │ │ │ │ │Gavro │ │ │ ├────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┤ │ FEMININE. │ ├────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┤ │ French. │ German. │ Slavonic. │ │ │ │Gabrielle │Gabriele │Gavrila │ │ │ │ │ │Gavra │ │ │ └────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┘
Raphael (the medicine of God), is the angel who guided Tobias and healed his father. Italy and Spain are the countries where his name is most used, and well it may, in the first named, after the fame of him who has made it the highest proverb in art. It hardly varies, except by the double _ff_ Italian, and the single one of Spain, to supply its Greek φ. I have heard of a girl at Mentone called Ravelina, probably Raffaellina.[22]
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Footnote 22:
Smith, _Dictionary of the Bible_; _Proper Names of the Bible_; Williams, _Commentary on the Gospels_; Jameson, _Sacred and Legendary Art_; Ruskin, _Modern Painters_; Marryat, _Sweden_.
## PART II.
NAMES PROM THE PERSIAN.
SECTION I.—_The Persian Language._
Scanty as are the Christian names derived from the Persian race, they are very curious and interesting, partly on account of the changes that they have undergone, and still more because the language whence they are derived belongs to the same group as our own, and testifies in many of its words to the common origin.
To begin with the sovereign to whom all alike look up; him who is “called by name in the book of Isaiah,” as the shepherd who should restore Judah after the Captivity. Kuru is a name said to be older than the Sanscrit and of unknown signification; although some derive it from Khur, one name for the sun. Kureish was the original form; Koreish to the Hebrews; Kyros to the Greeks, whence the Romans took the Cyrus by which he is known to Europe. His only namesake in his own line was he who invited the 10,000 from Greece and perished at Cunaxa, and of whom is told the story of his willing acceptance of the water of the river Kur or Cyrus, whose name sounded like his own. When the Sassanids revived the old Achæmenid names they pronounced the royal word as Khoosroo, and the Byzantines recorded it as Chosröes, when Chosröes Nushirvan, or the magnanimous, almost rivalled the glory of his ancestor—Kai Khoosroo, as the _Shahnameh_ called him.
Not only had the fire-worshippers revived the name, but it had been borne by various Christians in the East, one of whom, a physician of Alexandria, suffered in one of the persecutions, having been detected in visiting a Christian prisoner. He was buried at Canope, in Egypt, and was called in the Coptic calendar Abba Cher, or Father Cyrus; in the Greek, Abba Cyrus. His relics were afterwards transported to Rome, where the Church built over them was called, by the Italians, Saint Appassara. Like a fixed star, the original Cyrus had shone through adjacent darkness, evident by his lustre, but his lineaments lost in distance, and thus Ferdosi makes him a mere mythical hero. Herodotus copied some distorted tradition; Xenophon pourtrayed imaginary perfection in his _Cyropædia_; and moderns have taken even greater liberties with him. _Artaban, ou le grand Cyrus_, the ponderous romance of Mlle. de Scudery, was a stately French tale of love and war, containing a long amorous correspondence between Cyrus and his beloved, the model and admiration of the _précieuses_ in their glory, and absolutely not without effect upon nomenclature. In one village in Picardy there still exist living specimens of Oriane, Philoxène, Célamire, Arsinoe, Calvandre, all derived from vassals named by their enthusiastic seigneurs in honour of the heroines of the fashionable romances, and still inherited by their posterity long after the seigneurs and the heroines are alike forgotten.
Either from his being mentioned in the Bible, or from the _Cyropædia_, Cyrus has had some currency as an English baptismal name.[23]
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SECTION II.—_Esther._
Khshayarsha, from _Kshaya_ (a king), and _arsha_ (venerable), was the word that was converted in Hebrew into Achashverosh, and in our Bible into Ahasuerus, while the Greeks called it Xerxes. In Illyria people are christened from him Kserksas, and called Sersa, and a few seekers of Scripture names, chiefly in America, have called their sons Ahasuerus, in common life Hazzy.
The reigning wife of Xerxes is known to have been Amestris, the daughter of an Achæmenian noble, and she might well have been Vashti, set aside only for a time when the address of the nobles gained a victory over her. The fair daughter of the tribe of Benjamin, whose royalty ensured her people’s safety, was in her own tongue Hadassah, or the Myrtle; some say, Atossa; but the Persian epithet by which we know her may have been taken from _satarah_, a word showing the ancient union of the languages, since Aster is Arab and Greek; and from thence and the Latin _stella_ have sprung the modern _étoile_, _estrella_, star, _stern_, _stjorna_, which the Septuagint gave as Ἑστὴρ, the Romans as Esthera and Hestera; whence the occasional variations in English of Esther or Essie, and Hester or Hetty.
Not till the days of Racine was Esther much in vogue. The tragedian, being requested to write a sacred drama to be acted by the young ladies of St. Cyr, chose this subject in compliment to Madame de Maintenon, as the faultless Esther preferred before the discarded Vashti, namely, Madame de Montespan! Esther thereupon became a favourite lady’s name in France, and vied in popularity with the cumbrous splendours taken from the Scudery cycle of romance. At the same time it was borne by the two ladies who had the misfortune to be the object of Dean Swift’s affection, Esther Johnson and Esther Vanhomrigh, whom he called, one by the Latin name Stella; the other, by the generic title of our finest English butterflies, Vanessa. Estrella was the heroine of a Spanish pastoral, whence the Abbé Florian borrowed his theatrical shepherdess Estelle, which thus became a French name, though chiefly on the stage, and both Estelle and Stella are sometimes used as Epiphany names for girls.
Roschana, as it is now pronounced, is still common in Persia, and means the dawn of day. Roxane and Statire, as rival heroines of Racine, became proverbs in France for the stately or the languishing form of tragedy dame. Roxana, or Roxy, is one of the favourite American grandiloquent style of names.
## PART III.
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