--- In cybalist@..., João Simões Lopes Filho <jodan99@...> wrote:
> I have a little doubt about the etymology of my surname LOPES
(Portuguese Lopes = Spanish Lopez)
>
> All dictionaries consider LOPES as the patronymic of LOPO, an old
form of Portuguese LOBO "wolf".
>
> But I found many problems in this etymology:
>
> 1) In Medieval times the name LOPO is common in Portugal, but we
never find the most "popular" form LOBO used as given name. If Lopo
is the erudite form, we might find the popular form also used (cf.
Portuguese CIPRIANO, erudite from Cyprianus, and popular obsolete
form CEBRA~O, CIBRA~O)
> 2) Portuguese prenomen is LOPO, but the SPanish form is LOPE. Latin
Lupus cannot give "LOPE".
'Lope' is not the only Spanish name ending in '-e' when one would
expect '-o'. 'Felipe' (ultimately from Greek Philippos) is another
example. Is it possible that the '-e' is actually a survival of the
vocative ending? Ukrainian names ending in '-o' show a similar
feature; this is a survival of the vocative, whereas the nominative
should end in '-a'. In both cases, there may be a support from the
language of the church. Would the vocative be used during infant
baptism? It is a long time since I attended a baptism.
> I sugest that Lopo is just a Portuguesized form of Spanish Lope,
that cannot come from LUPUS.
Thus the only problem is the hybrid nature - u > o, but p > p, not b.
Richard.