2, 014 Names - Names #29-35

7 More Names

Girls




St. Clotilde holding a model of a cathedral

Clotilde (or Clothilde, or Clotild, or even Clotilda) -Germanic, meaning "famous in battle". Pronounced 'klo tild". In Spanish it is pronounced 'klo till day". A fun character in an Argentine mystery novel "Rosaura a las diez". I can't remember for sure, but I think the author is Marco Denevi. I believe he also co-authored some detective fiction with Jorge Luis Borges. Clotilde is actually a medieval name, which just made me love it more. It comes from the German "hlod" which means "fame" and "hild" which means "battle". It is a feminine version of the name Clovis (yes, Clovis is a masculine name). She's a rather cool historical figure. And a saint (that's always neat. I think.). She lived at the beginning of the so-called "Dark Ages". Her uncle killed her father and her mother was drowned. Her sister became a nun and Clotilde fled into exile. (she was French, by the way, though it wasn't called France then. She was from Lyon and when she married the king of the Franks, she became queen in the north of France). That whole thing the Duggar family has done with their 19 children, of naming each with the same letter -- she got into that trend 1500 years earlier. Each of her 4 children's names begins 'chlod' or 'chlot' or 'clot' (long o sound). She is famous for convincing her husband to become Catholic and building a church in Paris, which is where she is buried.

If being Catholic was mainly about saints, or naming your child after one, I think I could be Catholic. It seems to have a few more details, so it's a no-go for me. But I love the stories of the saints.



Dacian warrior on horseback  from a blog dedicated to Romania (Dacia)

Dacia - Pronounced "day sha". Dacia was an ancient empire in what is now called Romania. Ancient Greek writers say that the Dacians were mounted archers. And one had a theory that the name for the Dacians had originally been 'daoi' - supported by the fact that their flag had a picture of a wolf's head and was called the Dacian Draco. Daos was the name of the ancient wolf god. The name Dacia, therefore, means 'from Dacia'. I just picture  Nadia Komeniche on horseback, aiming her arrow at you and thinking your skull will make a good drinking cup.  I loved this name the first time I encountered it (in a mystery novel - she was the first murder victim - but wait - the character was vivid and this buoyant British girl with short red hair and wearing a 'hunter green' jacket - that was the name of the novel, by the way, Hunter's Green. Set in the 1960s I could just imagine her perfectly. Oh, the author of the book is Phyllis Whitney - I recommend it. It was the first book by her I read and got me to read
several more of her novels, which I liked a lot.)


Ermengarde -German, meaning from the German words "ermen," meaning "whole, universal" and "gard" meaning "enclosure, protection". In searching about for information on this name I found that, though Ermengarde is definitely a medieval name, there was an actual Princess Ermengarde that lived in the 20th century, and only just recently died.  (3 cheers!  Not that she died, but that she lived so long.) And also a novel, called "The Suspicions of Ermengarde" available on google books. I read a few pages and I'm intrigued. Though I'd prefer a hardcover version. I hate reading online.


Fortuna - Latin "fortune, luck". She was the Roman goddess of fortune. Her name comes from Vortumna "she who revolves the year".

Boys

Gad - Hebrew, meaning "fortune". Now, is that a coincidence? I did not know the meaning of Gad when I decided to include it in today's grouping. Some things are uncanny and can make you start to notice or expect all sorts of things! Maybe we are just naturally superstitious creatures.

Hiram - Phoenician or Hebrew, meaning "exalted brother"

Iben -Frisian variant of Ivo or a short form of Ibenhard. Ibenhard is a Norwegian surname (who knows what it means?!) And Ivo is German coming from 'iwa' meaning 'yew tree'. The yew tree was sacred to ancient Europeans.