The Beauty of Names

Origin: Slavic Gender: Male Meaning: "More Glory" Pronunciation: WEHN-ses-las Other Forms: Wenceslaus, Venceslaus, Veceslav, Václav, Vyacheslav, Więcesław, Wenzel Are you ready to learn the history behind the beloved Christmas song? Today's name is Wenceslas! Wenceslas, or Wenceslaus, is a Medieval Latinized version of the Slavic Veceslav. Veceslav comes from the elements veche , "more" and slava , meaning "glory". The later form may have been influenced by the Czech word  věnec, which means "wreath" or "crown". The eponymous figure from the classic Christmas song is based on Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemia, sometimes called Václav the Good (921-935). The song tells of a "good king" who travels through the harrowing winter weather to deliver alms to the poor on the feast day of St. Stephen. His page is about to give up, but through following the king's prints, step for step, he makes it through the blizzard. While Wences...

Origin : English Gender : Unisex Meaning : Diminutive of Robert; The bird Pronunciation : RAH-ben Other forms : N/A What came first -- the name of the bird, or the diminutive for Robert? I always assumed that the red-breasted bird's name was perhaps of a different origin than that of the nickname for Robert, but as it turns out, they are one in the same! Robin started life as a short form for Robert in Medieval England, ala Wilkin or Hopkin (for William and Robert again, respectively). Sometime in the the 15th century it was à la mode to name animals human names, and the little bird became known colloquially as "robin redbreast". Other English names for it included ruddock and robinet . The scientific name for the European robin is Erithacus rubecala , with rubecala coming from the Latin for red -- ruber . Its American brother is in fact no brother at all! The American and European robins might be called the same thing, but are not closely related, with the former b...

Origin : Akkadian Gender : Male Meaning : "Ba'al protect the King" Pronunciation : BAHL-tha-zar Other forms : Baltazar, Baltasar, Baldassare The Three Wise Men have been given many different names. Syrian Christians name them as Larvandad, Gushnapash, and Hormisdas, while those from Ethiopia call them Hor, Karsudan, and Basanater. Armenians have Kagpha, Badadakharida, and Badadlilma. Most of the time us Westerners cite them as Caspar, Balthazar, and Melchior. They are either scholars or Kings. Caspar is from India, Melchior from Persia, and Balthazar is Arabic. I've decided we will talk more in-depth about Balthazar, a favorite of mine. The name Balthazar comes from the Akkadian Bel-Sarra-Usur by way of the Hebrew Belshazzar, and means "Ba'al protect the King". For those of you unaware, Ba'al was a God from the Ancient Near East, and is usually referred to as a demon in Christian mythology. Beelzebub was originally called "Ba'al ...