Gronus
September 16, 2014 § Leave a comment
ORIGIN:
One of those “last names as first names” that were once a quite popular way for a mother’s maiden name to be passed on to her sons, “Gronus” is a name of unknown origin and meaning, but possibly related to the French “grenus”, meaning “grainy”, or archaic French slang for “whiskers” or “moustaches”.
VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
. . . I don’t know. I really, really don’t know.
REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Sir Gronus Batchildor, one of the local gentry who rile up a mob with the intent of at least arresting, if not shooting, the pardoned and somewhat-reformed highwayman Tom Faggus, in Lorna Doone, by R.D. Blackmore (written in 1869, set in the 1670s-1680s).
Metalka
August 28, 2014 § Leave a comment
ORIGIN:
As far as I can discover, the word “metalka” is possibly Slovenian or Serbian, meaning “metallic”. But the way I have seen it used in literature thus far, it seems to be a made-up name intended to sound Native American, specifically Walla Walla – Sahaptin. Which is all to say . . . I don’t know what it means or where it came from. Origin unknown.
VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
I don’t know.
REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Metalka, Wallula’s older sister in “Major Molly’s Christmas Promise” from Nora Perry’s A Flock of Girls and Boys (1895).
Zabe
August 24, 2014 § 1 Comment
ORIGIN:
As I’ve seen it used so far, a shortened version of “Orizaba“, possibly from “Citaltépl”, the Aztec name for the Pico de Orizaba, meaning “star mountain” in the Nauhuatl language.
VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
Well, I probably would have gone with Ori, or Orry, or something, before Zabe, but what do I know?
REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Zabe (Orizaba) Page, a young servant at Caryston Hall, in Virginia of Virginia, written by Amélie Rives in 1888.
Whattle
August 24, 2014 § 1 Comment
ORIGIN:
As I’ve seen it used so far, a shortened version of “Iztaccihuatl“, from an Aztec myth, meaning “white woman”.
VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
I dunno.
REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Whattle (Iztaccihuatl) Page, a young servant at Caryston Hall, in Virginia of Virginia, written by Amélie Rives in 1888.
Popo
August 24, 2014 § 1 Comment
ORIGIN:
As I’ve seen it used so far, a shortened version of “Popocatepetl“, from an Aztec myth, meaning “smoking mountain”.
VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
. . . No idea. None, maybe.
REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Popo (Popocatepetl) Page, a young servant at Caryston Hall, in Virginia of Virginia, written by Amélie Rives in 1888.
The Art of Literary Nomenclature 