History of Names

Although names are so ancient that it is impossible to realize their exact creation points, the earliest names did have descriptive characteristics. For example, the Irish Gaelic name "Conan" means hound or wolf, and "Aed" means fire. Also, many early names were combinations of words in order to describe a personality or virtue trait. For example, the Frankish name "Sigibert" means victory-shining, and "Childeric" means battle-powerful. However, today's names often do not have recognizable meanings because of the fact that the words they are formed from have passed out of language. There are common names today because parents began using names that had already been established in particular cultures instead of making up new ones. Sometimes, although the spelling of the names are different, the original meaning can still be recognized such as in the Old English name "Wulfgar." Also, trends in naming changed with advent of religion. Many people strived to name their children after saints and important people in their religions. The reusing of names led to many people having the same name and therefore being indistinguishable from others. This led to the development of surnames or last names. Sometimes names were used to indicate a father-son relationship, such as "Richardson" or "Johnson." Also, names were often used to indicate place of inhabitance. Referred to as Toponymic bynames, landscape features such as hills or beaches transformed into surnames such as "Hill" or "Beche." Also, names often reflected a person's vocation such as "Smith" for blacksmith or "Baker," "Brewer," "Weaver," and "Taylor."

To learn more about the meaning of names or find out what your name means, visit our names pages.