Wednesday, December 30, 2009

What's In a Name?

Ok - I amaze myself with my geekiness sometimes - and the great part is that I know that many of my friends are even geekier than I am! This post was inspired by my dear Elf-sister Meri, and I'm looking forward to seeing what my PSS thinks about this too :P She'll probably tell me she's heard of this web-site long ago...

What web-site do I speak of? It's called "the Council of Elrond." It's an incredible resource for any serious fan of Tolkien and I'm going to have to book mark it and make myself walk away so I can get other things done today. *sigh*

Now - what is in a name? One of the fun resources that this web-site has is a name finder, where you can find your name in the two main elvish languages (Sindarin and Quenya), or in Rohirric (the language of Rohan). You'll need to use the root of your name, so Mandy become Amanda, and I used my real name (Ruth) instead of the nickname most people know me by (Ruthie). So here's my names! My middle name is "Mae" which pulled up some interesting Gaelic forms. I'll show you both that and the alternate spelling of my middle name "May."

Sindarin

"Ruth"
1. friend. Sindarin: Mellon; fem. Meldis
2. vision of beauty. Sindarin: Bainoth 'beautiful apparition';
Bainthiad, Thiadvain 'beautiful appearance

"Maegwyn, Meagwen"
1. "star", "shining". Sindarin: (star) Êl, Gil; (shining) Silad
2. Gaelic: "sea keeper". Sindarin: (sea-guard) Aerdirith, Gaerdirith, Tirithaer

"Maeve"
Irish: joy. Sindarin: Gell, Glass; (joyous person) Gelir; fem. Gelleth Glasseth, Gelireth

"May"
English: from a name of a month. Sindarin: Lothron


Quenya:

"Ruth"
Hebrew; "Friend"
Quenya: f. Meldë, Nildë

"Maegwyn, Maegwen"
1. Celtic; 'star,' Quenya: Tinwë, Eleniel
2. Celtic; 'shining,' Quenya: Callallë
3.Gaelic; 'sea keeper', Quenya: Eärendildë

"May (Maj, Mai)"
English; 'the month of May'
Quenya: Lótessë, Lótessiel


Rohirric:

"Ruth"
Biblical meaning 'friend, friendly.' Rohirric: Frëond, Wine, Blíae

"Mae"
Not found

"May"
Not found

Now to complete the geekiness....

If I was speaking Sindarin I would choose my name to be: Bainoth Aerdirith

If I was speaking Quenya I would choose my name to be: Meldë Eleniel

And lastly, if I was speaking Rohirric I would go by: Blíae





4 comments:

Meri Greenleaf said...

That's the site I was using for the name thing, but I'll admit to not visiting the site in *years* before that. ;) For all that I prefer Sindarin, I think your name in Quenya is prettier. :)

I love that I felt like such a ditz because I looked up Rohirric. Duh, me, I already know a lot of words in Old English and can guess what more would be because I sorta know how modern letters translate into them. That's one of the main reasons I want to learn OE, because it's Rohirric. LOL! But hey, this is giving me the kick I need to pull out my OE textbooks again!

Anonymous said...

I actually had not heard of this website. :D I have to do it oldschool with my Elvish dictionary - breaking a name down to its meaning and then cobbling it together from the dictionary. I wonder if mine are the same as the websites? :D I'll have to give it a try!

BeadedTail said...

My name wasn't found so guess I'm not geeky enough!

Veelana said...

Thant was fun :-)
Gwennarn 'royal maiden' would be my sindarin name - sarah.. love it!