Christina here – This week I will be celebrating my name day – a Swedish tradition that baffles a lot of my English friends, although I know other countries, like Spain, share this custom (there it’s called día de santo). It’s probably not as common in Sweden nowadays, but in my family we keep it up, mainly because it’s a great excuse for cake (if you need an excuse! - see my previous post here) and also because several of us share the same name so it gives us a special bond.
Friday (24th July) is St Christina’s day and although Sweden is mainly a Protestant country, for some reason they have retained the various saints’ days in their calendar. To make it more modern and inclusive, as names vary a lot more now than in the past, they have recently added lots of new names (not belonging to any saint as far as I know). That means I officially have two name days, with a new one for my other name Pia, but I’ve always celebrated Christina and one is enough for me.
While doing genealogy, I often come across documents where the dates are given only with reference to a saint’s day. For example, I found this entry in a Devon manorial court roll:-
"To the Court of North Bovy held there Tuesday before the Feast of St Ambrose, 4 Hen. 6. [the fourth year of the reign of Henry VI] came William, son of John and of Agnes his wife, and gave a fine for an inquisition to hold enquiry as to his right in one ferling of land …”
It would seem that our ancestors were very familiar with all the various days and would have known exactly which date the Feast of St Ambrose referred to (7th December), whereas we would have to look it up. Words like Michaelmas (short for “Michael’s Mass”) – the Feast of Saints Michael, Raphael and Gabriel (aka the Archangels) on 29th September – were commonly used, and one of the important quarter days each year. It was around this time that hiring fairs were held and thus a new working year for hired servants began. I find this all fascinating!
I am sure that the naming of characters has been discussed before by the Wenches, but having recently started work on a new novel, I am slightly obsessed with this topic at the moment. Choosing names for my characters is one of my absolute favourite parts of writing and I can spend hours just looking through name sites to find the perfect one for my hero or heroine. Some authors can write a whole story without deciding on any names, referring to them as just X or Y, but I can’t – they absolutely have to have a name before I even put fingers to keyboard. A person’s name is so much a part of them, of their personality, that without knowing it, I can’t visualise the character. I have only ever written one story where I wasn’t sure what the heroine was going to be called. For some reason I couldn’t find a name that suited her and tried changing it several times – nothing worked. In the end, I just had to pick one but to this day, it doesn’t feel quite right to me whenever I look at it. Very frustrating!
Nothing can be as important as naming your children obviously – they have to live with your choice for the rest of their lives – but sometimes choosing one for a character feels almost the same. It’s a huge responsibility and can influence the way readers feel about them. The only difference is that a fictional character can’t complain whereas my two daughters frequently moan about theirs. I can’t blame them as I do the same to my own mother – I don’t like my name and as a child I wanted to be called Selina which means “moon” – as you can see, I was a bit of a dreamer and romantic already then.
Whenever I come across interesting or different names, I write them down and I have a long list now in a special file on my computer. This helps each time I have to start a new story and decide what to call my heroine. Sometimes a name will even spark a character in my imagination, because certain names feel like their owners ought to have specific traits.
Genealogy is a particularly fertile ground for discovering unusual gems. Here is a small selection of the ones I’ve found while working on my family tree (and I bagsy/call dibs on the first one for next time I write a story set during the English Civil War!):-
Arminell – this is a very rare name and there is some disagreement as to its meaning – possibly it might mean “female/noble warrior”. I suspect it’s a surname used as a Christian name in rare cases and I found it during the mid-17th century in south west England. I can easily imagine that my Arminell will be a staunch Royalist and wife or sweetheart of a Cavalier, helping to defend King Charles I. For some reason, in my mind I see her dressed in a beautiful blue silk gown like the lady in this portrait – Anthony van Dyck’s wife.
Sidwell – this seems to be the name of a Devon virgin saint (in Latin Sativola but possibly Brythonic in origin) and there is a church in Exeter called St Sidwell. It was definitely used for girls, at least on my family tree, but I’m not sure I can picture a Sidwell, unless it’s a modern heroine who gets called Sid for short (like girls named Samantha are always Sam these days). In that case, she probably has short, spiky hair, piercings, tattoos and attitude, don’t you think?
Gelyn – a very old name, from the end of the 16th century, and sometimes written as Gelynan. I can’t find a meaning for this but I see Gelyn as a wise woman (although young and pretty) skilled with herbs and potions, who is happy to help those in need of her knowledge. (Perhaps she looks like this pretty Tudor lady?)
Peternell – an alternative form of Petronella, a diminutive of the Latin Petronia which is the feminine form of Peter, ie “rock”. I have also seen this as a variation on Eleonor. I like it and think of Peternell as a rather feisty medieval lady who takes no prisoners and doesn’t suffer fools gladly.
Philotis – yes, this one is very unusual! It seems to be a Roman name and the archivist at the Devon Record office told me it appears in a play (a tragedy) written in the early 1600s by John Ford called “’Tis a Pity She’s a Whore” – who knew? If I’m going to have a heroine of this name she’ll probably have to be Roman.
Wealthian – I have only found two instances of this name in the entire county of Devon so it was clearly either made up by one particular family, or extremely rare. I quite like it though – what do you think? It has a sumptuous feel to it.
Garthred – is an old-fashioned English or Anglo-Saxon way of saying Gertrude (from the Germanic for “spear” and “strength”). Could be great in a Saxon story, perhaps for some sort of shield maiden or tomboy?
Pertese/Perteze – where did this come from? It sounds as though it ought to be Italian, but I can’t find a meaning or origin for it except as a surname. I wonder what a name like that is doing on a medieval woman from Devon? (I have only found the one). It’s quite pretty though and has a lovely ring to it!
Asenath – now we are entering biblical territory and I love some of the names in there. Some of those used by the Puritans were wonderful and I would definitely use this, especially for a 17th century story. In one of my historical novels (The Gilded Fan) I called my heroine Temperance, which I really like!
Have you heard any of these names before? Do you perhaps have someone in your family with one of them? It could be that it’s been handed down through generations, just like the name Joseph occurs on my family tree for eight generations in direct descent – quite a feat! I think naming traditions are great and a lovely way of remembering our ancestors. In fact, that’s another favourite complaint of mine whenever I raise the subject with my mother – why didn’t she call me Elmina or Lovisa after her two grandmothers? Both wonderful names and so much nicer than Pia or Christina. But our choices are very subjective and I assume she didn’t think so, or at the time perhaps she felt they were too old-fashioned. She couldn’t have known she’d end up with a history-obsessed daughter after all!
Do you like your name? If not, what would you like to be called? I'd love to know.