Re: Asian migration to Scandinavia

At 6:03:44 PM on Sunday, September 14, 2008, Andrew Jarrette wrote:

> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott"
> <BMScott@...> wrote:

>> At 5:12:30 PM on Sunday, September 14, 2008, Andrew Jarrette
>> wrote:

[...]

>>> Well, I'd much rather take "battlefield" over "crooked
>>> mouth" for the meaning of name of my ancestors, untrue
>>> though it may be.

>> Good grief, why? Surely the facts are more interesting,
>> and in this case there's really no doubt; see the
>> discussion in Black, _Surnames of Scotland_.

> Good grief, can't you see why?

No, not really: whatever it may have been originally, it's
now been an inherited surname for many generations and has
no meaning beyond (in most cases) 'my father's surname was
<Campbell>'. And I really don't much care what my ancestors
were called; that was their problem.

> Who wants to be known as "Andrew Crookedmouth" (or, say,
> "Andrew Bignose")? "Andrew Battlefield" at least has some
> suggestion of the glory of battle.

But even if you were <Andrew Campbell>, you wouldn't be
'Andrew Crookedmouth'.

[...]

> But apparently even my name "Jarrette"

It's most likely of patronymic origin, from either of the
names whose standard forms are now <Gerald> and <Gerard>.
It's possible but rather less likely that it's a feminine
form of the French surname <Jarret>, a diminutive of <jarre>
'jar', metonymic for a maker or seller of such things.

> looks like Celtic words meaning "hock, ham, hollow of the
> knee" - not especially honorific either.

Sort of. There is a French <jarret> with that meaning,
borrowed from Gaulish *garra 'leg' (OIr <gairr> 'the calf of
the leg', MWelsh <gar> 'leg, shank', MBret. <garr> 'leg',
Corn. <gar> 'leg').

Brian