New Post
Search
Help[Facts] Re: Why the name Terence is common in Ireland?
in reply to a message by Dododo
It's in the name description. "The name was used in Ireland as an Anglicized form of Toirdhealbhach". It came in to common use because it replaced an earlier Irish name.
https://nanowrimo.org/participants/christine-seaforth-finch
http://christineseaforthfinch.blogspot.com/
http://christineseaforthfinch.blogspot.com/
3
Replies
It is more likely that it is a Romanization, because Roman Catholic ritual stipulates that “Since those who are brought to baptism are thereby reborn in Christ as children of God and enrolled among his followers, care should taken that obscene, mythical or ridiculous names or those of false gods or heathen heroes be not given; rather, so far as it is possible, should be given the names of saints”. There is a Terentius on the List of Saints, so that name would be acceptable to the Roman priests. Likewise Tadhg was sometimes altered to Thaddæus and Brian to Bernardus. The same policy was imposed in England with the result that Anglo-Saxon names were mostly suppressed, with exception of those belonging to (usually royal) saints, such as Edmund and Edward and Oswald and Oswine. Terence seems to have arrived in England from Ireland comparatively recently as Withycombe thought that it was exclusively Irish: “it has not been used as a Christian name, except in Ireland”. So it is misleading when writers such as Hanks & Hodges say that Terence is an Anglicized form of an Irish name. Rather, it is the Anglicized form of a Roman name, and that Roman name was used in Ireland as a substitute for an Irish name.
1
It's my understanding that often the Romanised versions were used on church documents but not in everyday life - even into the 1800s I see people being baptised as, say, Iohanna, when all of their other documents say Joan. Isn't it equally likely that families were naming the child Terence, and it was being recorded under the Latin Terentius?
1
Yes, some priests recorded names in Latin and some didn't. Terence would have been the name used, even if Terentius was recorded.
Per my answer elsewhere in this thread, Roman Catholic baptism required a Saint's name, I would imagine that is why Terence became popular. Justin is another Latin name that was popular here (and was associated with certain families.)
Per my answer elsewhere in this thread, Roman Catholic baptism required a Saint's name, I would imagine that is why Terence became popular. Justin is another Latin name that was popular here (and was associated with certain families.)
1