@leafygreens It depends on what translation of the Bible you’re reading. Some use [name_f]Rebecca[/name_f]. To my understanding, the original Hebrew form is Rivqah.
I agree - I see names which I know are Ugandan or Nigerian for example but they get listed as African, which completely misrepresents the meaning this name has to a specific culture.
For practical purposes, they should really be listed under both origins. I agree with the principle of not taking a whole continent as a single origin, but we do get lots of searches for African names as a category. I will add more specific origins where possible to any I come across.
So I wonder whether that’s because the categorisation currently makes it difficult to find them under a specific country? It’s just a thought but it’s something I’ve done myself whereby I’ve tried to search for a Swahili name but find I get more results by typing African. This doesn’t help me much though as I then get all the other names merged into the search. Also do European names currently get classed under both continent and country?
Would love to come back to this with some useful suggestions though as I appreciate it’s definitely not straightforward.
Ahh ok that makes sense, in my bible it’s spelled [name_f]Rebekah[/name_f]. Thank you for that information, that’s interesting!
It’s not fully consistent due to names being added from different sources, by different people, over many years, but you’ll see similar with, for example, “Nordic”, “Germanic”, “Celtic”, “Slavic”, “Scandinavian” — none of these are a specific modern origin, but they are sometimes included alongside (or sometimes, instead of — which should definitely be remedied) a more specific language or culture of origin, which might be searched less often.
That would be very helpful, please do. We’re always open to updating or amending any entries which could be made more accurate or informative.
Not here to ask for anything, just wanted to say thank you for changing the [name_m]Bonaventure[/name_m] description, it’s much better now
I’d like to suggest an update to [name_m]Kelvin[/name_m] which is currently quite sparse - the entry simply says it’s a ‘[name_m]Kevin[/name_m]-[name_m]Melvin[/name_m] hybrid cloned in the 1920s and still alive’ which isn’t really the full story.
Kelvin is an Anglicisation of Cheilbhinn which is the name of a river that runs through the [name_u]West[/name_u] End of [name_u]Glasgow[/name_u]. It also flows past the University of [name_u]Glasgow[/name_u], where physicists [name_m]William[/name_m] [name_m]Thomson[/name_m] worked in the 19th century. When he was knighted by [name_f]Queen[/name_f] [name_f]Victoria[/name_f] in 1866 for all his scientific breakthroughs, he chose to call himself [name_m]Lord[/name_m] [name_m]Kelvin[/name_m], after the river that flows past the university where he made all his discoveries. (His full title was 1st [name_m]Baron[/name_m] [name_m]Kelvin[/name_m] of Largs.) That’s where we get kelvin (K) as a unit of absolute temperatures as well.
I’ve always found that story so sweet and would love that to be part of the entry for [name_m]Kelvin[/name_m].
since adding to the pop culture sections is no longer possible, can someone with that power add [name_f]Marianne[/name_f] [name_u]Sheridan[/name_u] to the [name_f]Marianne[/name_f] page? thanks :]
I know, but it should say “Original spelling of [name_f]Rebecca[/name_f]”.
Ahh I get what you mean
a few little things today!
ortensia’s description is just a bit mean:
Slight improvement on [name_f]Hortense[/name_f]. But then again, what isn’t.
I actually rather like hortense!
next, caliadne’s origin is listed as a german, whilst its description (correctly) cites it as greek. I presume this is an incorrect selection from a drop-down menu and should, as such, be an easy fix!
next, helen’s page says:
If [name_f]Helen[/name_f] is too much of an old lady name for you, you might consider one of its many variations that may be tastier for the modern palate: [name_f]Helena[/name_f], [name_f]Eleanor[/name_f], [name_f]Elena[/name_f], [name_f]Ella[/name_f], [name_f]Nell[/name_f], or [name_f]Leonora[/name_f], to mention just a few.
however, of these, eleanor - and leonora with it - is of a completely different derivation! it (as cited on its own page) is derived from alienor, itself a formation of alia aenor. I could see it being used as an alternative or an honour name for helen, but I don’t think “variation” is the best term here.
now, getting into tiny things, tia’s page reads:
In Spanish in Portuguese…
I presume this is meant to be and and should be an easy fix.
on alexei’s page, there is some random capitalisation:
Other variations are: ALEXANDROS, ALEXIOS, and ALEKSEI.
this isn’t a problem… just a bit weird
I’ve seen the capitalisations in some other name pages too
I’d like to add that the name [name_f]Nessa[/name_f] is also of Irish origin. It’s a name of a [name_f]Princess[/name_f] from Irish Mythology. Could this be added to the database entry? Nessa is also a name on it’s own.
The entries for [name_m]Oskar[/name_m]-related names needs to be updated. Oskarê probably needs to be reads as its own entry and the /Oskar names need to be removed.
This is brilliant and so helpful, thank you @Luminen for all of this information. I have just updated [name_m]Kelvin[/name_m] along with a bunch of others and the changes should go live within the hour.
Thank you for all the work you do around here, @katinka! The new entry for [name_m]Kelvin[/name_m] is so lovely.
Probably the best description would be: