Category: 31days

Toi Thomas’s 2014 contribution to an annual, 31 day, writing challenge that takes place in October and was created by Myquillyn Smith (The Nester). The history, origin, and meaning of names.

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31days

Day 20- Affix: What’s in a Name? #write31days 2014

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Term of the day: affix: an appendage or attachment.

Thoughts:

An affix in a name, for me, is when I can’t decide definitively what the appendage is. This may be an example of using a partial root then adding on a suffix or an example of a compound name, similar to a compound word.

Consider the name Thompson. “Son” is clearly the suffix, but where did “Thomp” come from? Does “Thomp” stand alone or is it simply “Tom or Thom” with some affix letters?

Let’s look at the name Joanna. We’ve seen this already within the suffix top, but this is where it really belongs. Before I compared Jo to Joanna, but let’s be honest, Joe should be spelled correctly. The name is a combination of “Joe” and “Anna”, but an “e” is dropped in the process.

Name of the day: Lillian (Lilly, Ann)

Breakdown and meaning:

I like names like Lillian. Their meanings are always pleasantly complicated.

Lilly is the name of a flower, so that itself could serve as a meaning for this name. With English and Latin origins, Lilly means “purity”  and “innocent” which goes along with the previous meaning, since flowers have long since been symbols of purity.

Anna, related to my earlier discussion of nicknames, means “grace” and “beauty” much like Annabelle, but it has also been known to take on the meaning of “mother”

With all these meaning, it’s clear to see that Lillian is a special name given to someone with a lot of love. My favorite derived meaning of this name is “pure mother”.

In my Eternal Curse Series, Lilly is one of the few, non-major, characters to play a small but impactful role in both book one and the up-coming book two. The reader gets to see her life from childhood into the senior years, thus seeing how her roles change over time.

Well, that’s it for Day 20. See you tomorrow.

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Go back to the beginning to see all the posts in this series.

Outside of my own personal search throughout the years, basic meanings and definitions of the terms used here can be found at the following websites:http://www.meaning-of-names.com/, Google search http://en.wikipedia.org/, and http://dictionary.reference.com/.

Learn more here.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords

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31days

Day 19- Prefix: What’s in a Name? #write31days 2014

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Term of the day: prefix: something added to the beginning to make new or alter.

Thoughts:

This one may be a dud. I can’t for the life of me think of any prefixes that are added to names to make them different. Sure there are tons of prefixes added to words to alter their meanings, but when it comes to names, all I can think of are titles. We already covered titles. :/

Can you think of any prefixes that have been added to change the original form of a name?

Name of the day: Sheldon.

Breakdown and meaning:

Sheldon is an odd name to me. Its origin and meaning don’t seem to really mean anything. With English origins the name means “town in a valley”. There are some cases that claim the name means “from shield farm”, but I don’t really know what that means. I can’t seem to find references to shield farm. I guess you could say that the name means “from a town in a valley” or perhaps “farm shield”, but that would just be making things up.

In my Eternal Curse Series, Sheldon is a young boy who will make an impact in the second the book. Once again, this character will bring in younger audience appeal, but it will still be mainly for teens and adults.

Well, that’s it for Day 19. See you tomorrow.

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Go back to the beginning to see all the posts in this series.

Outside of my own personal search throughout the years, basic meanings and definitions of the terms used here can be found at the following websites:http://www.meaning-of-names.com/, Google search http://en.wikipedia.org/, and http://dictionary.reference.com/.

Learn more here.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords

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31days

Day 18- Suffix: What’s in a Name? #write31days 2014

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Term of the day: suffix: something added to the end to make new or alter.

Thoughts:

It’s one to add endings to make new words with new meanings, but what about adding to names. I guess that at some point people realized that there were too many people using the same names, but no one really wanted to think up anything new, so they just added on to existing names…You know I’m just being silly here right.

Let’s consider these names: Williams, Jeffers, Gibb, and more. Now let’s add to the end and make: Williamson, Jefferson, Gibson, but that’s only the beginning. What about all those cases where female names are derived from male ones, such as: Jo and Joanna, Robert and Roberta, Charles and Charlene? Oh, and what about all those endearing endings that have become part of common names, like the Spanish “ito or ita”? Here’s an example to set you straight: Juan, Juana, Juanita.

Name of the day: Victoria aka Tori.

Breakdown and meaning:

Tori is the common pet name for Victoria, though it is now a popular name on its own. However, I’ll be focusing origins of the root name. With Latin, Spanish, and English roots, Victoria is strong and powerful name. Most commonly it is the feminine form of Victor, which means “victorious or victory”.

Its Latin roots are a bit of  a jumble. Named by the Romans to replace the Greek god Nike, Victoria was the goodness of victory. And when considering the name English roots you’ll to pay homage to the royal family.

The legacy of Queen Victory has brought a whole new meaning to the name, though victory was the intention when she was given the name. Due to her profound impact and influence on the Great Britain during her time and after, new ideas are now associated with her name. One the term Victoria era was coined, Victoria became a name that meant: elegance, pose, high morality, and good reputation.

Tori is a character from my, in progress, sequel to Eternal Curse. She’s a younger character who will step in a give the series a fresh new feel that will be appeal to both adults and teens.

Well, that’s it for Day 18. See you tomorrow.

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Go back to the beginning to see all the posts in this series.

Outside of my own personal search throughout the years, basic meanings and definitions of the terms used here can be found at the following websites:http://www.meaning-of-names.com/, Google search http://en.wikipedia.org/, and http://dictionary.reference.com/.

Learn more here.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords