Re: [tied] aldric, luis, aldrin = etymology?

At 11:11:36 PM on Wednesday, October 20, 2004,
he_who_must_not_be_named wrote:

> 1. regarding the etymology of the germanic masculine name:
> *aldric/aldrick; eng. *aldrich. i think the name means
> "old-ruler" right?! what is the latinised form of the
> germanic "aldric?" i'm guessing it's *aldrico or
> *aldricus.

<Aldricus> is well-attested, along with some variant
Latinizations (e.g., <Aldericus>).

> furthermore, what is the latin equivalent? *altus rex?

Hardly: <altus> is 'high; deep'. I'm not aware of anything
comparable and would not expect to find anything: Roman
naming was very different from Germanic naming.

> 2. regarding the etymology and origins of the modern
> spanish name *luis and modern french *louis. i've heard it
> came from the frankish name *clovis, but i also heard it
> was from the latin *ludovicus. are they cognates? also: is
> the german *ludwig cognate to the latin *ludovicus? and
> thus to *luis/louis? again, help please.

All of these are ultimately from Germanic *Hlu:dawi:gaz. In
Old High German it became <Hluodwig>, whence modern
<Ludwig>; in Frankish, <Chlodovech>, whence <Clovis> and, at
a later date, <Louis>. <Ludovicus> is simply a Latinization
of the Germanic names.

> 3. regarding the etymology and origins (again) of the name
> *aldrin. i'm clueless, actually. all i can think of is the
> "alder (tree.)" could this name be cognate with the
> tree's? possibly meaning "of the alder" (alder+in) like
> "oaken" = "of the oak" ??? big help on this one.

There was apparently an Old English adjective *<alren>
'growing with alders' from <alor> 'alder'; this could well
have produced the modern surnames <Aldren> and <Aldrin>.

Brian