Re: aldric, luis, aldrin = etymology?

From: bmscotttg
Message: 34844
Date: 2004-10-25

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "he_who_must_not_be_named"
<lifeiscool86@...> wrote:

> i have a few more questions regarding the topic:
> 1. putting into mind the [rodericus]>[rodrigo] thing, would
> it be justifiable to suggest that [aldricus] would result to
> [aldrigo] in spanish? and also...: hearing this feminine -o
> ending... does it make [aldrico] feminine too? or is it only
> to gothic?

There are two different -o endings in question here. One is
Gothic -o in some feminine n-stems; the other, in Rodrigo,
is Spanish -o from Latin -us and is found in masculine names.
They have nothing to do with each other.

Names in *-ri:kaz are all originally masculine. The gender
of the name was originally determined by the grammatical gender
of the second element, though to some extent this system
eventually broke down in Continental Germanic, probably in
large part thanks to Romance influence, and you start to see
a few feminine names with masculine second elements. But a
Spanish Aldrigo, if it existed, would have been masculine.

Brian