Ang Peregrino Recommends 7: Behind the Name

Behind The Name: The Ety­mol­ogy and His­tory of First Names
URL: http://​www​.behindthename​.com/
Many know where their names came from. For some, it’s really just a fusion of the names of their par­ents (i.e. Alma = Alfred and Maria). For oth­ers, they got their names from famous peo­ple (i.e. John Paul from the vis­it­ing Pope John Paul II, Paul Ringo when the Bea­t­les had a con­cert in their city, etc.). Oth­ers got their names from a myr­iad of sources. A cousin of mine was named Mar­shall because he was born in 1972, when Mar­tial Law was declared in the philip­pines. A famous bas­ket­ball player in our coun­try is named Olsen, because he was born on Nov 1 (or is it 2?), All Saints Day. The name of a politi­cian in our city is Pres­i­dent. And I heard that his sib­lings were named: Emperor, Princess, and Prince. That’s our own ver­sion of a Royal Family!

But it would also be great to really know where our names came from. When we talk about the mean­ing of our names, we are really talk­ing about its ety­mol­ogy and its his­tory. So click on the link above, check out your first name and know how it came to be.

ERIC

Gen­der: Masculine

Usage: Eng­lish, French

Pro­nounced: ER-ik (Eng­lish), er-EEK (French)

From the Old Norse name Eiríkr, derived from ei “ever” and ríkr “ruler”. Dan­ish invaders first brought the name to Eng­land. A famous bearer was Eiríkr inn Rauda (Eric the Red in Eng­lish), a 10^th-century nav­i­ga­tor and explorer who dis­cov­ered Green­land. This was also the name of kings of Den­mark, Swe­den and Norway.

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