For this exercise in anthroponomastics, I’ve broken down the etymologies of my own name, my girlfriend’s name, and the name of an old acquaintance and coworker. I was particularly interested in researching my girlfriend’s name because it is Sri Lankan, and therefore required a foray into the Indo-Aryan or “Indic” branch of the Indo-European family. Despite the paucity of Sinhalese and Hindi etymologies observable on English-available web resources, I was able to construct what I believe to be an accurate onomastic diagram for Shalani’s name by interviewing a number of native Sri Lankans and corroborating their translations with information provided on several “names and meanings” websites. The other two names used for this assignment are more conventionally Western, and therefore were not quite so challenging to research.
For each one, the full name comes first, followed by the breakdown of each part and its respective language of origin and meaning. Concluding each entry is an epithetic phrase constructed from the consideration of each part.
Todd Christopher Bursztyn
Todd > Old English todde, “fox”; Christopher > Late Greek Christophoros, “bearing Christ”; Bursztyn > Polish “amber” [Balto-Slavic form derived from literal translations of “burn stone” in Germanic languages, e.g. German bernstein]
Phrase: “Cunning but devout purveyor of precious Amber”; or, “Amber-colored fox who keeps Christ in his heart.”
Shalani Niranjala Waas
Shalani > Hindi > Sanskrit Shalini, “modest, unassuming”; Niranjala > Sinhalese “from above, traversing earthly and spiritual worlds”; Waas > Dutch wase/waes, “marsh, wetland” [It is believed that the Middle Dutch epic of the fox Reynard is set in the waterlogged Belgian region called Waasland]
Phrase: “Modest, spiritual one from the legendary marshlands”; or, “Modest angel who inhabits the wetlands.”
Tristan Alvar Milde
Tristan > Old French Tristran, Tristan > Latin tristis, “sad” > Celtic Drystan > Celtic Dryst or Pictish Drust, “tumult, din”; Alvar > Swedish > Old Norse alfarr, “elf army”; Milde > English, locational, “one who came from Milden in County Suffolk” > Old English Melda, “the place where orach grew” (a herb or small shrub)
Phrase: “Sad elfin warrior who grew among the shrubs in Milden”
Sources: http://www.behindthename.com
Webster’s New World Collegiate Dictionary, 2009 ed.
Various interviews with Shalani Waas, Joseph Waas, and Sharmini Waas
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