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 spectacular—a 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 becomes Barismachie. 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 listed here and here. 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 names—names derived from historical people or brought in from earlier versions of the Arthurian legends—have 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 DEF GHI JKL MNO • Women's Names • Place Names • Other Names |
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