(no subject)

[naath]

I have a project, it's a bit silly, and also a bit unfinished, but Imma share snippits.

Died on this day in 1387 at the age of 54 - King Charles the Second of Navarre (my toy, wikipedia).

Charles was the father of Joan of Navarre, who was Queen of England (married Henry IV, no children); his descendants include Kings of Navarre and France, his ancestors include many Kings of England (as well as other places).

In the 14th century names were apparently scare. His mother was called Joan, his wife was called Joan, he had a daughter called Joan, and at least one grandchild called Joan. Two sisters (yes, two sisters with the same name, yes, they both lived to be adults) and a sister-in-law called Joanna too...

Born on this day in 1511 to Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon a son, Henry (my toy, wikipedia). One of many children born to Catherine who did not survive to see their first birthday (at least two called Henry).

Comments

[rochvelleth.livejournal.com]

I think this is an awesome project! And love the evidence for crazy onomastic stability.

I think I had two co-existing great aunts (who were sisters) called Anne, one usually going by Nancy to tell thm apart.

[naath.livejournal.com]

I think in general people would have had different nick-names that would distinguish them, but the lack of name-diversity is quite striking in some families.

[rochvelleth.livejournal.com]

I suppose this is something that can happen easily in a binomial tradition that's drawing on a relatively limited pool for first names but has useful things like patronyms and occupation names and so on. It will also be interesting to see whether the lack of diversity in names is equal when comparing men's and women's names.

[naath.livejournal.com]

It's a bit hard to tell, I've got a lot of names... but the "top" names are very common. I suppose "people who have relatives of the same name" is an interesting question I could try to work out how to ask the database.

[pavanne.livejournal.com]

The one that sticks in my mind is Henry the Impotent.