French Arthurian Names
The stories of King Arthur acquired their chivalric polish not
in England, but in the sophisticated courts of medieval France.
The French couldn't get enough of Arthur and his knights, and when
the original English stories ran dry, they wrote their own. The
stories they wrote were fantastic, but the names they made up were
even more spectaculara mixture of original French names and
English, Welsh, Irish, Biblical, Latin, and Greek names, with the
occasional German or Arabic name thrown in, all heavily altered
to fit the courtly French of the time. Guinevere becomes Genoivre,
Gawaine becomes Gauvain, Arthur becomes Artui; some names are changed
even more dramatically, as Cain becomes Quaïns and Arimathea
With the exception of place names, these names have nothing to
do with the naming practices of the time. They were as made-up as
Galadriel, Drizzt, or Obi-Wan. To compare them with real French
names of the time, take a look at the 12th- and 13th-century names
Where did these names come from?
These names were drawn from the Index of Proper Names in French
Arthurian Verse Romance, by G. D. West. This rare book has an
only slightly less rare companion, the Index of Proper Names
in French Arthurian Prose Romance, which isn't touched
upon here. Both indexes list not only characters' names, but the
stories behind the names, so if you want to learn more, check your
local academic library.
What do these names mean?
Ah, but that's the wrong question to ask. The real question is:
Do these names mean anything?
Some namesnames derived from historical people or brought
in from earlier versions of the Arthurian legendshave meanings,
though whether their French listeners understood the original Welsh,
Anglo-Saxon, or Hebrew meanings is doubtful. If you want to find
the meanings of these names, trace them back to their original stories.
However, names original to the French Arthurian poems may be as
made-up as names in modern fantasy novels. It would take an expert
in medieval French to say whether the names are based on French
words; but the impression I've gotten is that the authors invented
names based on what sounded romantic.
(And now you know why other Arthurian name lists give most of the
names' meanings as "knight" or "king.")
Men's Names ABC
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