Names Reference library
Garner’s Modern English Usage (4 ed.)
... Daily Express (London), 26 Aug. 1994 , at 9. F. Proper Names as Adjectives. See adjectives (d) . G. Pluralizing Proper Names. See plurals (f) . H. Names for Place Residents and Natives. See denizen labels . I. Other Sources. For good general studies, see Justin Kaplan & Anne Bernays , The Language of Names ( 1997 ), and Elsdon C. Smith , Treasury of Name Lore ( 1967 ). For books on how proper names have become everyday words, see Eugene Ehrlich , What's in a Name? ( 1999 ); Andrew Sholl , Wellingtons, Watts & Windsor ( 1997 );...
NAMES Reference library
The Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion (2 ed.)
... . In many ancient cultures personal names had great significance. Names represented one’s essence, and a person was often given a new name upon entering a new phase of life. The Bible often explains why individuals were called by certain names or why their names were changed (Abram, Sarai, Jacob, and Hoshea were changed to Abraham, Sarah, Israel, and Joshua); the change of name symbolically invests a person’s life with new significance. Names of gods often formed a part of personal names, and it was not uncommon at first also for Israelite names to contain...
Names Reference library
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt
... . To the ancient Egyptians, names were considered ritually and magically potent, a vital part of the individual. A person could therefore have multiple names expressing different aspects of his or her personality. Kings had at least five names, corresponding to the five-part titulary, and are known to have changed their names to suit changes in their religious or administrative policies. Gods frequently had many names designating their different manifestations, and major gods and goddesses had secret names that were unknown even to other deities. Chapter...
names Reference library
The Oxford Companion to Philosophy (2 ed.)
... . In the broadest sense of the term ‘name’, names divide into two classes—proper names and common names, these being species of singular and general terms respectively. Proper names are names of individuals, such as ‘London’, ‘Mars’, and ‘Napoleon’, whereas common names are names of kinds of individuals, such as ‘city’, ‘planet’, and ‘man’. Not all singular terms are proper names; for instance, pronouns like ‘I’ and ‘he’ are not, nor are demonstrative noun phrases like ‘this city’ and ‘that man’. Definite descriptions, such as ‘the capital city of England’,...
Names Quick reference
A Concise Companion to the Jewish Religion
...names, some of the Rabbis had such names; Antigonus or Symmachus, for example. In Western lands, Jews often have a Gentile name in addition to the Hebrew name, and this is often a form of the Hebrew: Arnold for Abraham or Maurice for Moshe (Moses). Hasidic children are often named after the particular Zaddik to whom the family owes its allegiance. Except for a few families, family names were unknown until comparatively modern...
names Quick reference
A Dictionary of the Bible (2 ed.)
... Most Hebrew personal names in the * Bible are compounds which begin or end with the divine name Yahweh, such as Jehoshaphat, ‘Yahweh establishes justice’, or Joel, ‘Yahweh is God’. Many names of towns and villages were also compounds with the name of God—Beth‐el, ‘house of God’—or compounded with the place's reputation—Beth‐lehem ‘house of food’. Some places preserved their ancient * Canaanite name (e.g. * Megiddo ; Zech. 12: 11), while others were changed by new rulers, as when * Herod renamed * Samaria as Sebaste. The forms ‐iah and Jo‐ are...
names Quick reference
A Dictionary of English Folklore
... . Socially, legally, and emotionally, ‘name’, ‘identity’, and ‘status’ are closely linked. The Christian naming ceremony (christening or baptism ), has both a religious and an identifying social function: the baby is admitted into the Church, but it is given a name considered attractive in its family's social circle, or is ‘named after’ a relative or friend. As practising genealogists know, inherited forenames are a regular feature of English families, often over many generations—the idea that naming a baby after a living parent is unlucky, mentioned in ...
names Reference library
Oxford Reader's Companion to Hardy
... . Naming characters was an aspect of his art that Hardy took seriously, and his choices are often worth attention. Although many personal names in the novels are ordinary ones, sometimes drawn from places or families in Dorset, others are symbolic and influence our sense of the characters in various ways. Sometimes Hardy found a local name that would fit. ‘Troy’ was formerly a Dorset place-name; it has just the right note of exaggerated swagger, combined with illomen, in ‘Sergeant Troy’. Far from the Madding Crowd includes several other distinctive names,...
Names Quick reference
Oxford Essential Quotations (6 ed.)
... Names Proper names are poetry in the raw. Like all poetry they are untranslatable. W. H. Auden 1907 – 73 English poet A Certain World (1970) ‘Names, Proper’ I have fallen in love with American names, The sharp, gaunt names that never get fat, The snakeskin-titles of mining-claims, The plumed war-bonnet of Medicine Hat, Tucson and Deadwood and Lost Mule Flat. Stephen Vincent Benét 1898 – 1943 American poet and novelist ‘American Names’ (1927) in love with American names in love with American names With a name like yours, you might be any...
Names Reference library
Oxford Dictionary of Humorous Quotations (5 ed.)
... Names Names I never really needed a nickname at school. Although it was bad for me it was much worse for my sister Ophelia. Ed Balls 1967 – British Labour politician : in Independent 24 September 2007 really needed a nickname at school much worse for my sister Ophelia of Arianna Stassinopoulos: So boring you fall asleep halfway through her name. Alan Bennett 1934 – English dramatist and actor : attributed; in Observer 18 September 1983 boring you fall asleep halfway through her name fashionable children's names of which Camden...
Place-Names Quick reference
Margaret Gelling
The Oxford Companion to Local and Family History (2 ed.)
..., and the like, the use of the folk‐names as settlement‐names belongs to a later stage in the Anglicization of the place‐name stock. In many cases these names will refer to places on tribal boundaries, rather than at the centre of a territory. The related formation, in which ha¯m (‘village’) is added to the genitive of an ‐ ingas name to give place‐names of the Birmingham, Nottingham type, is now considered to be perhaps rather earlier than the ‐ ingas type. A further complication in the evaluation of ‐ ingas names arises from the difficulty of...
Place Names Reference library
Garner’s Modern English Usage (4 ed.)
...Names . A. As Adjectives. See adjectives (d) . B. British Practices with American Place Names. See names (e) . C. Pronunciation of Foreign Names. See names (c) . D. Names for Residents and Natives. See denizen labels...
good names (USA) Reference library
The Handbook of International Financial Terms
...names (USA) . Recognized names in which US and Canadian shares can be registered for delivery without transfer formalities ( cf. street name...
field‐names Quick reference
The Oxford Companion to Local and Family History (2 ed.)
...names Collecting all the field‐names of a parish from every available source, from earliest times to the present day, is a worthwhile task for a local historian or a group project . Unlike the study of †place‐names , specialist linguistic knowledge is rarely needed, for few field‐names go back so far in time as to hinder interpretation. Every parish has sufficient records to make this task plausible; even towns and cities have records of field‐names from earlier times and street‐names that commemorate former fields. In some parishes field‐names changed...
place-names Reference library
The Concise Oxford Companion to Irish Literature
...names in Ireland reflect human life on the island for at least 2,000 years. The Gaelic name of the country, Éire (earlier Ériú > Ireland), may have been taken over by the Érainn from the Picts, whose own name (Latin Pretani > Pretanic, or British, Isles) is reflected in local names such as Ráth Cruithne (‘mound of the Picts’), now Crown Mound, Co. Down. The names of many of the early Celtic tribes survive in regional names such as Ulster (Cúige Uladh, ‘the fifth of the Ulaid’) and Corcaguiny (Corca Dhuibhne, ‘the seed of Duibhne’). The vast majority of...
place names Quick reference
A Dictionary of Human Geography
...names The names attached to different locations on the Earth’s surface, be they inhabited or not., Place names often tell a story of human movement and settlement past and present. Human geographers have long been interested in place names for two reasons. First, for historical geographers, old place names are important clues in understanding patterns of migration, conflict, colonization, and cultural assimilation in previous centuries. Secondly, for political and cultural geographers, many contemporary place names are bound up in the dynamics of conflict...
street‐names Quick reference
The Oxford Companion to Local and Family History (2 ed.)
...names Many street‐names are medieval in origin, but others did not become fixed until Victorian times. Alternative forms can be found on successive maps. Once signs were erected, the names of streets became settled. The Victorians took this opportunity to rename streets which had offensive or lowly connotations. Locating streets named in early directories , census returns , etc. can be difficult because of these changes. Some names which sound ancient may be consciously archaic forms that were deliberately introduced in much later times. Old street‐names...
Names, Greek Reference library
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome
...“theophoric” names—that is, names the first element of which is a god's name, for example “Apollodoros,” which means “gift of Apollo.” Some gods’ names were even used unchanged as personal names, but probably not by the Greeks themselves before the late Hellenistic period; this phenomenon seems to be most widespread in Asia Minor, where names such as “Hermes” and “Artemis” may have been chosen because of their phonetic similarity with indigenous names. Greek names, both male and female, consisted of either one or two elements: if the name consisted of one...
street names Reference library
The Oxford Dictionary of Local and Family History
...names . Many street names are medieval in origin, but others did not become fixed until Victorian times. Alternative forms can be found on successive maps. Once signs were erected, the names of streets became settled. The Victorians took this opportunity to rename streets which had offensive or lowly...
women's names Quick reference
The Oxford Companion to Local and Family History (2 ed.)
...obvious. The study of both male and female first names has been advanced enormously by Scott Smith‐Bannister , Names and Naming Patterns in England, 1538–1700 ( 1997 ), and George Redmonds , Christian Names in Local and Family History ( 2004 ). See also Christian names ; godparent . The 20th century has seen the adoption of foreign names, such as the Russian Natasha and Tanya, or the Swedish Astrid and Ingrid, and the introduction of many new names by immigrants. Meanwhile, Gaelic and Welsh names have been consciously preserved and many have...
