The first reference to the name is found in the person of Aimery II de Thouars's wife,
Alienor (910/915-995), also cited as
Allanor and
Alianor and also known as
Hardouine:
http://www.stirnet.com/HTML/genie/continent/qrstu/thouars1.htmhttp://www.afn.org/~lawson/d0003/g0000034.html#I5498http://fabpedigree.com/s017/f289956.htm
Her grand-grandson Geoffroy de Thouars's wife was named
Aenor (Aenor de Blois), and she is also documented as
Ainor/Aynor/Ainora and
Adenordis:
"(25) Elle est dite Adenordis (cartulaire de St-Jouin-de-Marnes, p. 1-3; Archives Historiques de la Saintonge et de l'Aunis, tome XXX, p. 314-317, n° 257); Ainor (Archives Historiques du Poitou, tome III, p. 106, n° 158; p. 110, n° 167; p. 112-113, n° 173), Aynor (ibid., tome XVI, p. 106-107, n° 88)."
http://poitou.ifrance.com/famthouars.htm
That and the fact that her granddaughter Aenor de Thouars (1050-1088/93), Eleanor of Aquitaine's grand-grandmother, was cited in some documents as
Adenor,
Aenors and
Aleanor/Alienor made think in
Aenor as a hypochoristic form of
Adenor, by fall of the intervocalic
–d- (Adenordis > Adenors > Adenor > Aenor) in a similar process to the process that generates the form
Aalis (Adalhaid > Adalaid > Adalais > Adalis > Aalis).
http://www.chretiens-chatellerault.com.fr/Histoire_%20Locale/Histoire_pages/histoire_Philippe_Bellin.htmhttp://fjaunais.free.fr/h0chatellera.htm
The name Adenor/Aenor is also documented in other people in 10th century, as Adenor/Aenor, Gelduin the Young's wife, for instance:
http://perso.orange.fr/saumur-jadis/bios/gelduin.htm
The forms Adenor and Alienor would be feminine evolutions from the Germanic name
Aldenor (with the feminine ending in
–is, typical in Medieval Germanic names in Catalan and Occitan: Aleidis, Almodis, Adelgardis, Arsendis...). The name Aldenor (masculine) exists in Portuguese and it is more or less used in Brazil:
http://www.censocultural.ba.gov.br/ccb_municipios_resultado_artista.asp?idm=2&MunID=87&RegID=&Cl=2http://www.censocultural.ba.gov.br/ccb_municipios_resultado_relatoriogeral.asp?idm=2&MunID=132&RegID=&Cl=
In fact, in the 10th century in Catalonia, there are documented in the Repertori d'Antropònims Catalans (RAC) variant forms of names in which
Alde- has evolved to
Ali- or
Alie-: Aldenardus > Alienardus/Alinardus/Allenardo (927 to 980).
And in the same RAC, there are variant forms of names in which
Alde- (o
Adel-) has evolved to
Ade-: Aldebert / Adelbert > Adebert (875 and 876).
So, the etym could be a Germanic dythematic name
Aldenor, from
alda, "old", and
nord, "north".
It could be the possibility of a name
*Adalnor, from
adal, "noble", and
nord, "north", but I am not able to document this form, so it is only a second hypothesis.
Since the first Alienor predates in 100 years Eleanor of Aquitaine, the name explanation relating it with alia-aenor seems another folk etymology from educated sources.
There is a concorrent source to the popularity of
Aenor as independent name; it is the existence of the Breton name
Azenor (Judael's wife, 6th century).
Lumia
http://onomastica.mailcatala.comThis message was edited 6/13/2007, 11:00 AM