I’ve been doing a lot of work on my family tree. I’ve made a lot of progress, but up until now, my grandmother’s middle name has eluded me. It turns out it’s… Folus. Any info on the name? All of the kids in her family have quirky first names ([name]Delphia[/name], [name]Darius[/name], etc.), but the middles are all names I’ve heard of before. Except for my grandma’s middle. I can’t find any reliable info on.
So… any info on the name Folus? Could it be a variant spelling for something? A surname? A place name?
The family is of [name]German[/name] descent but was born in the US.
I’m also very interested in my family tree, but i have not encountered such a strange name! It could be a form of Folk-olf or Folk-lef, which means Folk: People/Warrior people & Olf/Lef: [name]Wolf[/name].
I haven’t heard that one. I wonder if it’s an Americanization of a [name]German[/name] word or name. Have you looked back farther to see if it was a family name that was passed down?
My dad’s side of the family were also [name]German[/name] and his dad’s mn was Azri. I’ve found it on a baby name site before, but it doesn’t seem to be very well-known.
Usually odd middle names like that are surnames from further back in the family. I have a Katherine McBlaine and about five boys with the middle name Ethell.
I don’t think -lus is a traditional [name]German[/name] ending.
It might be more likely that it’s Latin in origin. Maybe. I only took one day of Latin in like 5th grade.
I’m thinking of names like Angelus.
Otherwise I looked up word parts online:
Fo-: apparently has origins in many languages fo - Wiktionary. Is there a chance your ancestors used a word from one of these languages and turned it into a name?
lus: masculine used to create a diminutive of a noun, indicating small in size or youth.
and isn’t Azri short from the Hebrew name Azri’el/[name]Azriel[/name]?
@kungfualex and renrose I haven’t found it anywhere else in the family. I’m only up to her grandparents, though.
@lexiern It’s certainly possible that they were playing with a noun. The other children have name-names as middles, so Folus really sticks out as unusual.
I tried to switch out some letters, and I found Pholus, which was apparently a centaur in Greek mythology. A couple of their other kids have names that resonate with history or mythology, so I wonder if they were going for that, but spelled it differently…