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WEre the names Edmund and Edward confused?
Sat, 23 Dec 2006 15:59:58 -0600
soc.genealogy.medieval
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Dora Smith...
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Edmund Rice's birth record has never been found. He had a son, Edward,
whose baptism at Stanstead, Suffolk, England, in 1622, was apparently
recorded as Edmund. Edmund Rice married Thomazine, and the confusion
about whether she was the daughter of Edmund or Edward Frost is massive.
Edward and Edmund are both names of popular Saxon kings, and both names
remained popular after the Norman conquest. One means rich guard, and the
paulvheath...
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They were the names of sainted kings.
One means rich guard, and the
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other means rich keeper.
paulvheath...
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Like most Anglo-Saxon names, they are composed of two elements, and
although the each element has (or had) a meaning, the name as whole is
often meaningless. Stenton explained: "To speak of the significance
of Old English personal names is, however, to beg an important
question. Most compound names can be translated, but the translation
often makes nonsense. The men who coined the names Frithwulf,
'peace-wolf', and Wigfrith, 'war-peace', were not concerned
about meaning. ...The name Wulfstan, 'wolf stone', makes sense,
though not much sense, but it was obviously a matter of accident
whether a name framed like this happened to be intelligible, or an
absurdity like Frithwulf of Wigfrith. In any case the meaning of the
name did not matter to those who gave it."
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It seems like I've seen the two names confused in other contexts.
Were Edward and Edmund virtually interchangeable around 1600?
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