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CELTIC AND GAELIC NAMES.

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the green grass grows over it again. Mothers, and wives, and sisters are there—pillowed on their loved ones' arms, conquering heroes die joyfully. But one curly-haired boy lays alone— he has come from afary and none know him there; but a chief's daughter knows that where sorrow or suffering is, there is her place!

Was the cup of cold water given in the name of the 'High Father' unblessed? Was the prayer to the only god she knew unheard by the God of Love? The brave boy blesses her as he dies, and the soft-eyed maiden has won the sweet name of Ethel-gifa, the Noble help-giver.

Would that our store of Celtic names was as large as that preserved from our Saxon and Norsemen forefathers! But we know that the Gaelic race honoured women: their priestesses are historic characters, and names like the Teuton Counsellor, Help-giver, and Lady of Might, have their Celtic synonymes, telling that in our own England at no time was woman despised. The Ancient Britons had Cwen-burh, a woman who assists, or who is a tower (of defence); and Boadicea, is it not derived from Bu add, Victory? (s.) a synonyme with Victoria, the happier Queen who rules over English hearts to-day.

We read that the most ancient names in Britain related to colour; but in those that remain, we find only White and Black—the two extremes, fairness often accompanied with red hair, and dark complexions and black hair, which are still

the distinguishing characteristics of Old Gaul.' The Highland race still boast their Du galds— Dhu-gallu-edd, the black-haired powerful man.(s.)

For the epithet of the 'fair sex,' it would seem that women are indebted to the Celts. Cwen, Gwen, Gwyn, originally White, having been accepted as signifying Fair, was then applied to the sex in general, either as woman or lady of rank. One of these British beauties of ancient days rejoiced in the name of Gwen wyn wyn, Thrice Fair.

The form of the final syllables of this name assimilating it to the Teutonic Wyn, Beloved, we may read, if we will, in the one little word Gwyn, a fair woman beloved.

Both the names and the mythological traditions of Celts and Teutons, as they have been handed down to us, do sometimes seem to assimilate strangely distinct races as they were, but both claiming an Eastern origin, and becoming united in our isle. The Celtic Hu Cadarn, the Mighty, and Morvran, Raven of the Sea, connect themselves, though mistily, with one of the sacred birds of Odin, Huginn the Raven. Revealing faint and far traditions of the Deluge, I believe that in Muginn, the Bird of Memory, we behold the Dove, who did remember her old home, bringing back across the trackless waste the olive-leaf.

Morvran, as preserved in Mervyn, the enchanter of later days, is a name of to-day, and Cordelia, the loving daughter of King Lear, may

COMPOUND NAMES.

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sig.

be recognised in Creirwy or Creird dylad, 'the token of the flowing,' her father's name Lyr, sig. the sea-shore.1

Of names compounded of Celtic and Teutonic words, that of the wife of Dagobert, King of France, affords an example, Nant Hilda; Nant, a Celtic word sig. torrent, and Hilda, Teut., sig. lady or young girl, the compound name taken to mean 'Child of the Torrent.1 *

Such compound names meet us on all sides. From Sanscrit, the sacred language of ancient Hindustan, came (it is said) * the name Amala, sig. faultless. This name, borne by the founder of the kingdom of the Visigoths, joined itself in succeeding generations with the Teutonic terminations, Ric, ruler, and Berga, tower, so often used as a feminine designation, Amalaric, Amalaberga.

Amongst compound names, Maximilian of Austria, first of the name, is said by a learned writer to have owed his hitherto unheard-of appellation to his eccentric father, Frederick III., who, after consultation with the stars, composed this name of royal sound from those of Fabius Maximus and Paulus Æmilius.

In Anna-bel, Hebrew and Latin are combined; so are they also in Luci-anne, once a favourite name in England, and in Lu-anna, a different form of the same names.

The names both of Gael and Celt are in

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Fugger, Coxe's Hist. House of Austria, vol. i. 278.

themselves nobly significant—the one derived from Galluedd, strong, powerful; the other from Caled, hard, intrepid. The Celt intrepid, to dare; the Teuton resolute, to do—noble roots, from which upsprang the nation whose empire girdles the globe. The 'Gallant Six Hundred,' the thin red line,' and Havelock's hero-band, did they not show, with countless examples besides, that the vigour of those precious roots is undecayed?

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A Bréton proverb retains the meaning of Celt as hard, intrepid;''got callet densan Armorig,' sig. it is a hard (or intrepid) man of Armorica. The proverb applied to Theophilus Corret Latour d'Auvergne, premier grenadier de France.'

The thrilling story is well known how the brave men whom the gallant Breton had so often led to victory would never part with their dead hero's name. Still day by day at the head of the regimental roll it is called aloud; the generation that loved him have passed away, but their sons and their sons' sons still ever and always hear the idolised name—Corret Latour d'Auvergne; still first of the brave band is summoned, and ever and always a soldier steps forth from the ranks to reply, 'Dead on the battle-field!'

Ah! who can speak lightly of names when our heart-beats tell us how vast and undying is their influence?

Salverte.

CLASSIFIED LIST OF NAMES.

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CHAPTER XI.

Classified List—Class I. Names of religion. II. Divisions and notices—including names from the Assyrian, Persian, Egyptian, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Teutonic, Celtic, Arabic, &c.

CLASSIFIED LIST OF NAMES.

CLASSED ACCORDING TO THEIR SIGNIFICATIONS AND SIGNIFICANCE, AND ACCORDING TO THE LANGUAGES FROM WHICH THEY WERE DERIVED.

'For every word men may not chide or pleine,
For in this world certain ne wight ther is,
That he be doth or saith sometimes amis.'*

CLASS I.

NAMES OF RELIGION.

Division 1. Names of Deities assumed by Men and Women.

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May these old lines (quoted in the preface to Bonn's edition of Mallet's Northern Antiquities) go before the writer as she now ventures into the more immediate domains of the learned. -not to deprecate criticism, but to plead for kindly correction wherever it may be needed?

In attempting so new and venturesome a task as the classification of upwards of 1,500 names, according to their signification and significance, and according to the languages from which they are supposed to be derived, the writer feels that, of course, she must be liable to errors and oversights, although, in giving her whole heart to her work, she has tried her best to avoid both. Far and wide she has sought for the trustiest guides; but with all her most diligent search she has failed to discover any notice of some names, about which history, poetry, or living worth has (at least in her eyes) cast a charm. Their meaning she has striven to discover for herself. Where a signification rests entirely on her supposition, an (s) is attached, sig. suggested.

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