First Names [antikvár]

Interest in names is peculiarly widespread. They are a by-product of human activity as important to the hopeful parent and the enquiring child as to the philologist or historian. In the scope of this work we have tried to include those names which have been prominent in the modern cultural development of Britain. We have made no attempt to capture all the individual variations and inventions that have occurred, especially recently, as these are far too numerous and, except in rare cases, do not have a wide application. We provide a guide to the pronunciation of the names, and describe briefly the history and development of each one. Etymologies have been kept simple; we use 'Old German' to describe both Old High and Middle High German, and we use 'Welsh' and Irish' so that 'Gaelic' refers to Scottish Gaelic. Occasionally the term 'Celtic' indicates a lack of evidence about which branch of that language a name first developed in. The short sketches on each main entry show how names were affected by social and political events, by literature, and by the influence of outstanding personalities, and how, in their turn, they