Re: THEORY: Meaning of names (was Re: [CONLANG] language names)

I remember studying the revolution in Russia which brought in the workers'
state. People began to name their children such things as Traktor which
reflected the desire to build on the idea of the worker. Culture has such a
large effect. Then I think of all the Hebrew names like Daniel = God is my
judge etc.

It would be interesting to see what other conlangers have done to determine or
create names for their con-cultures/worlds.

S

Quoting Benct Philip Jonsson <bpj@...>:

> On 20.3.2008 MorphemeAddict@WMCONNECT.COM wrote:
>
>  > Must the name of the language have a meaning?
>
> I dareasay all names originally had meaning. That in many
> cases this meaning has eventually fallen into oblivion is
> another matter.
>
> As regards personal names this process was intensified in
> Europe because of the demand by the church that people be
> given saints names: those names that were of Greek origin
> were meaningless to Romance speakers, and those of Latin
> origin were meaningless to Greek speakers and often to
> Romance speakers too, since many were built from obsolete
> Latin roots that had become archaic already by early
> imperial times. Needless to say all those names were
> meaningless to the Germanic and Slavic peoples of central
> and northern Europe.
>
> This has lead people in Western culture not to expect names
> to have meanings, but outside the Western cultural sphere
> the meanings of names are as a rule still remembered and
> important.
>
> /BP 8^)>
> --
> Benct Philip Jonsson -- melroch atte melroch dotte se
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>    "C'est en vain que nos Josués littéraires crient
>    à la langue de s'arrêter; les langues ni le soleil
>    ne s'arrêtent plus. Le jour où elles se *fixent*,
>    c'est qu'elles meurent."           (Victor Hugo)
>