Beautiful English names - history and origin

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:45

Beautiful English names are not something completely alien and unknown to us. The rich literary heritage of English poets and writers is studied by a large number of people. English names sound very beautiful and can form diminutive forms. But, this, perhaps, is all their resemblance to the Slavic names familiar to us.

Popular English names are mainly represented by national old or borrowed new ones. From the old Anglo-Saxon layer, very few names have survived to this day, for example, Edward or Mildred. According to estimates, they account for only 8% of all existing today. This situation developed after the country was conquered by the Normans. At that time, such male names as William, Robert or Richard became popular on English soil.

Beautiful English names from the Bible

With the spread of Christianity in England, noble families began to name their children after biblical saints. ATIn the future, the tradition of naming their children according to the holy calendar appeared among commoners. Many names, having spread among the people, have undergone some changes. For example, three English names at once came from one Hebrew Joanna - Joan, Jane and Jean.

Puritans, followers of a religious movement that opposes the church, introduced such beautiful English names as Sharon, Benjamin and Deborah. Very often, the options they came up with were rather ridiculous, and few of them have survived to this day.

It is impossible not to mention the contribution of writers to the history of English names. Writers made popular many already existing names and the fruits of their creative imagination.

Origin story

The origin and history of names is studied by a separate science. Piece by piece, researchers are gathering information to find out more. For example, in England, there was a very entertaining tradition in a noble family, when a child was given two traditional names at once at baptism, and his surname became one of them. A little confusing, but the British are used to it.

In general, nobody limited parents in the number of names given to the child officially. As a rule, there were two or three of them, but sometimes the number reached ten. Of course, no one used all the names, but they still tried to remember all the relatives and celebrities.

From the 16th century, the British became Protestants, and if before that beautiful English names were taken from Christmas time, then the new religion caused the birth of newtraditions. Many names were taken from the Old Testament or the New Testament.

But there were also people who wanted to somehow stand out, and they came up with such rare English names as Charity, Mercy and others. There were also funny cases when not just names, but entire lines were taken from testaments.

Later, when religion faded into the background, old names began to return again - Daisy, April, Amber. Italian and French names are in fashion. Sometimes, reading the English press, one can conclude that a person here can be called absolutely any word. Take, for example, the Beckham family, who named one of their sons Brooklyn and their daughter Harper Seven.