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[Opinions] Rosmerta
What are your overall thoughts on the name Rosmerta?History below from Wikipedia:"In Gallo-Roman religion, Rosmerta was a goddess of fertility and abundance, her attributes being those of plenty such as the cornucopia.""The name Rosmerta is Gaulish, and is analysed as ro-smert-a. Smert means "provider" or "carer" ... Ro- is a modifier meaning "very", "great", or "most" ... The -a ending is the typical Gaulish feminine singular nominative. The meaning is thus "the Great Provider"."
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It's a nice minor character of the HP books and I often like Ros- names, so it should appeal to me. However, all I can think of is that "smerta" sounds just like the Swedish word for pain, smärta, if you pronunce it with a Swedish accent.
But in English I think it would work.
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I adore it! Its Gaulish derivation and stirring meaning enhance its inherent appeal.
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This is the name of the landlady of The Three Broomsticks (an inn/pub) in the Harry Potter novels. She's not exactly a major character, but she's still immediately who I think of.I could see the name as a middle name, but probably not as a first name, though of course it could be easily shortened to some variation on Rose / Rosa.Something about the 'merta' part sounds very maternal to me, which fits in with the whole "fertility" meaning.Could make a very nice name for (another) witch in (another) fantasy setting or any female character in a steam-punk sort of setting.

This message was edited 6/28/2015, 2:26 PM

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I thought of her, too. The smert part reminds me of the Russian word for death, which would be the opposite of fertility, in a way. I know that's not the root of the name. I guess I could see it being used, since it's more known than before and has Rose in it.
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