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inksmudgedhands t1_iy4xq9g wrote

Reply to comment by Stibley_Kleeblunch in Woman’s name and tiny sketches found in 1,300-year-old medieval text by hugglenugget

I've always wondered why some ancient names like Noah, Adam, Eve and Mary survived well into modern day while other names like Eadburg just fade away into nothingness. What makes some names endless while others stuck in a certain window of time that gets shut?

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Stibley_Kleeblunch t1_iy588ji wrote

Maybe they eventually get spoken out loud enough for people to realize how crazy some of them sound. Then again, we've still got Keith, so who knows.

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Fochinell t1_iy5oi8w wrote

Saxon name. The Saxons did get overwhelmed by the Normans, after all.

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EmotionalSuportPenis t1_iy6svfn wrote

Biblical names stick around by virtue of being Biblical names. They are notable, a lot of people will have seen them, and they are (were) extremely culturally relevant. You'll also find that different Biblical names tend to be kept by speakers of different languages depending on what's easiest to pronounce.

People are still named after non Biblical figures like Alexander and Helen for the same reasons, even though the two originators of those names were born ~2400 and ~3200 years ago, respectively.

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myrddyna t1_iybzmbi wrote

Language is funny that way. Eadburg pronounced in middle English would sound very near yabur to our ear. Like mother.

Names, like any word, are distorted by dialect. Much like the Irish name Aisling is Ashley in the USA.

Time and dialect change lots of words. It's doubtful that Jews in 1k BC would recognize Adam and Eve as anything more than gibberish.

For instance, my username is Myrddyna, but the two d's are a th sound, it's a form of the name Merlin.

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