Re: Names

--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, jeffery craft <warbuff_4@...> wrote:

>
> i wonder what the translation of jeffery craft would be from english in to old norse

The first element of Jeffery may be from Old High German <gewi> "district" (Modern German <Gau>), or perhaps <ger> "spear". Another suggestion connects it to some continental Germanic cognate of Old English <gid> "speech, verse", Old Norse <geð> "mind, inclination" (Forssner: Continental-Germanic personal names in England in Old and Middle English times, p. 102 [ http://www.archive.org/details/continentalgerma00forsuoft ]). Forssner also mentions a tendency to confuse this name with God(e)frid (pp. 102, 118-119), whose first element corresponds to Old Norse <goð> or <guð>. The second element appears in Old Norse names as <frøðr> or <freðr>, meaning "peace".

I don't know of Old Norse personal names beginning with all of these first elements, but <Goðfreðr> is attested in Íslendinga saga, and here [ http://baekur.is/is/bok/000197700/1/464/Islenzkt_fornbrefasafn__sem_Bindi_1_Bls_464 ] seems to be a Modern Icelandic substitution of Goðfreðr for Goffridus, so that might be the way to go. Is this a reference to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_of_Vend%C3%B4me ?

The Old Norse cognate of English <craft>, Modern German <kraft>, is

kraptr (-s, -ar), m. (1) might, strength, power; (2) virtue; (3) superhuman being, angel.

Although family names weren't used as in English, a nickname such as this could be placed after the main name.