Understanding Athelind's ... name.
Mar. 7th, 2010 08:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
athelindIt's actually spelled Æþelind, and pronounced with a long "A".
It means "noble serpent" in Old English, and I've discovered, to my surprise, that a very similar name was actually used historically.
Originally, I spelled it "Æthelind" when writing by hand, but "Aethelind" just looked wrong when typing. I think one of my early BBS hang-outs or e-mail providers had a maximum of eight letters—which is particularly amusing in this day and age, when 6 to 8 alphanumerics is often a minimum.
If I actually have proper Unicode access, of course, then "AE Ligature-Thorn-E-L-I-N-D" is eight letters, but I'm not going to fight with log-in screens and Old English characters.
It means "noble serpent" in Old English, and I've discovered, to my surprise, that a very similar name was actually used historically.
Originally, I spelled it "Æthelind" when writing by hand, but "Aethelind" just looked wrong when typing. I think one of my early BBS hang-outs or e-mail providers had a maximum of eight letters—which is particularly amusing in this day and age, when 6 to 8 alphanumerics is often a minimum.
If I actually have proper Unicode access, of course, then "AE Ligature-Thorn-E-L-I-N-D" is eight letters, but I'm not going to fight with log-in screens and Old English characters.
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no subject
Date: 2010-03-08 04:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-08 05:53 am (UTC)The æ -- or "ash" -- was (at our best guess) pronounced like, well, like the a in "ash." Is that what you mean by long a? Or do you mean like the a in cake?
no subject
Date: 2010-03-08 04:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-08 04:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-08 04:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-08 07:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-08 04:12 pm (UTC)