Musings on Some Vorkosiverse Names

[extrapenguin]

Nomen est omen – at least in the Bujold 'verse

People are counted by their surname during Memory – Ekaterin is thus not in with the Vorkosigans. When someone was named after someone else, the name goes by its first bearer.

 

Vor: вор means ‘thief’ in Russian according to the Vorkosigan Wiki

 

Armsmen:

Pym: from the female name Pymme, a short form of Euphemia, meaning ‘good repute’

Roic: perhaps from the Irish word roc (plural roic) meaning ‘ray [fish]’ or ‘wrinkle’

Jankowski: Polish; meaning ‘someone from Jankowa’

Esterhazy: Hungarian; haven't found out what it means

 

Vorkosigan: from Vor + Kosigan, derived from Kosygin (Word of Bujold, henceforth abbreviated WoB). Origins of ‘Kosygin’ not uncovered by my research.

Vorsoisson: Vor + Soisson. The origins of soisson are unclear, but perhaps it comes from the French poisson, ‘fish’? (← tinfoil hat theory)

Vorrutyer: Vor + Rutyer ( ← Rutger, WoB). Rutger is cognate with Roger, meaning ‘famous warrior’ or ‘famous spear’, depending on who you ask.

Vorbarra: Vor + Barra. Apparently, it's probably a topographic name from the Sicilian bharra, ‘barrier, bar’

Naismith: nailsmith, someone who makes nails

Galen: English given name derived from Latin Galenus, ‘calm, sea’

Illyan: WoB states it's derived from Illya Kuryakin. Ilya is the Russian form of Elias, meaning ‘the Lord is my God’.

Allegre: ‘joyful; happy’.

Toscane: a Dustch-language proper noun meaning Tuscany (a place in Italy).

Koudelka: Czech. Either a nickname for someone with tow-colored hair, from a derivative of koudel ‘tow’, or a habitational name for someone from a village in Moravia called Koudelov. (Koudelka would fit the hair descriptor if I recall correctly.)

Droushnakovi: coined by LMB, though there was a Soviet actor called Yuri Druzhnikov.

Negri: from the Latin word niger, meaning ‘black, dark’. As a medieval byname, given to someone either because they had dark skin, they habitually wore black clothes, or were associated with the night.

 

Vorkosigans:

Aral: from Kazakh арал, island. (See: the Aral Sea)

Cordelia: used by Shakespeare in his play King Lear for the faithful daughter, and the name of a legendary Queen of the Britons. Perhaps possibly related to Latin cor ‘heart’.

Miles: patronymic form of English Mile, commonly associated with the Latin Milo, from miles, ‘soldier’. Thus, ‘a soldier's son’.

Piotr, Pierre: ‘rock’ (Poor guy, his given names are cognates of each other)

Mark: either the Anglicised form of Welsh March, ‘horse’, or from the Latin Marcus, meaning ‘defense’, or ‘of the sea’. (See Galen above.)

Olivia: created by Shakespeare; male Oliver means ‘elf army’

Selig: Yiddish name meaning ‘happy’

 

Other Vor:

Alys: Anglicised form of Welsh Alis, meaning ‘noble sort’

Ivan: from the Greek Ioannes, meaning ‘God is gracious’

Ezar: a variant of biblical Hebrew Ezer, meaning ‘treasury, treasure’

Gregor: from the Latin Gregorius, meaning ‘vigilant; watchful’

Ekaterin: form of Greek Aikaterine, meaning ‘pure’

Byerly: … I have no idea.

Ges: see above. (Though I would hazard that it's pronounced ‘guess’, not ’jess’)

Kareen: another form of Greek Aikaterine, meaning ‘pure’

Xav: from the Basque Xavier, ‘a new house’, originally a surname from the place name Etcheberria.

Yuri: Russian form of Greek Georgios, meaning ‘earth-worker, farmer’

 

Proles:

Simon: either from Hebrew Shimown, ‘hearkening’, or, more likely in this case, a Greek byname from simós meaning ‘flat- or snub-nosed’.

David: Hebrew name meaning ‘beloved’ (Duv was probably chosen for phonemic similarity)

Laisa: possibly a variant of Lais, possibly meaning ‘friendly’ or ‘favorite’.

Guy: from a derivative of the Latin Wido, meaning ‘wide’. Also an English vocabulary word.

Martya: either from Martha ‘lady, mistress’, a pet form of Margaret ‘pearl’ or a pet form of Martine ‘of/like Mars’

 

… So, Aral's name is something that probably was chosen based on the meaning, same for Cordelia, Miles, Mark, Alys, Gregor, and our dear snub-nosed Simon Illyan. Ekaterin, Kareen, and Xav have names that could possibly be chosen for their meaning, though it's not readily obvious.

 

During research, I discovered that there are 26 people in the United States called William Shakespeare.

… I think that's got to count as some kind as maliciousness on part of the poor guys' parents.