More about names

In an earlier post about popular names, I listed the top 20 boys' names for 2006 in the UK, USA and Slovenia.

My Slovenian friend Goranka emailed me some more information on a few names.

• Žiga (no. 5) derives from German Sigismund.
• Matic (8) is the diminituve of Matej.
• Jaka (12) is Jake, which is also the diminutive of Jacob.

It's an interesting trend that parents are tending to give diminutive names as given names in the UK, USA and Slovenia. For example, instead of naming a kid Jacob and just calling him Jake, the given name is often "Jake". The same holds for names like Charlie and Jack.

The most interesting thing (which I am still trying to figure out) is that Nejc is the diminutive of Jernej which is the Slovenian form of Bartholomew (which was the Greek form of an Aramaic name meaning "son of תַלְמַי (Talmay) which is a Hebrew name meaning "furrowed". In the New Testament Bartholomew was an apostle also known as Nathaniel which coincidentally brings us straight back to Nejc which is pronounced "Nates". (History of Bartholomew from Behind the Name.)

Also from Goranka, I learned a new word: onomastics, the study of meanings and origins of names.


Interesting links:

English equivalents of some Slovenian names.

The history of some first names.