response 43 of 80:

Jan 12 06:11 UTC 1998

This has large appeal.  It doens't need to be stricken from agora just because
it involves languages.

Did you know that there are at least four Steve Kings in the local area?

response 45 of 80:

Jan 12 08:37 UTC 1998

The person who would link this item to language would be the fair witness of
language, i.e. rcurl.

This is a really neat item, BTW.

response 47 of 80:

Jan 12 16:40 UTC 1998

Menkewicz looks Polish to me.  Meka (which is pronounced menka) means torture,
torment, suffering, pain, hunger pangs, misery, tribulation or b) wayside
shrine (derived possibly from the Passion of Christ?)  torment anguish agony
distress drudgery vexation annoyance nuisance.  (Meka has a mark under the
e).  I can't imagine how this would have turned into a name.  -ew (ev) and
-ow (ov) are endings used to make last names from first names and have a
possessive meaning like English 's - as in John's Mike, or Mike Johns.  Maybe
there was a first name Menk?   Or a German name Menck (whatever that meant)
which was Slavicized, and then the owner's descendants moved to Lithuania?
I found Menke as a probably related name.  Do any Germans have ideas?

I once read an interesting book, which I will try to find again at the public
library, on how people acquired last names.  In England this happened in the
late middle ages, by about 1400, partly because it got to be the fashion for
everyone to be named John or Mary rather than the old Anglosaxon names like
Edgar or Edward, where you put your name together from two pieces that had
a meaning (such as strong wolf) and people all had different names.  The Johns
could be distinguished in various ways:  by their father's (or mother's) name
(Johnson), by physical characteristics (Little John - the phone book is full
of Littles and Talls), where they lived (Green - by the village green,
Townsend, Church, Bridge), where they worked (Castle, Mott, Manor), the
village or town they came from (Jesus of Nazareth or Jack London), and most
commonly their occupation.  I suggest, as a way to reconstruct medieval
English life, we try to come up with as many names as possible based on
occupations and maybe also physical characteristics and where you lived, in
other words, last names with meanings.  If people wanted, they could start
in the phone book at their own name and go 5-10 pages in each direction, but
few or no English names started with K (it was spelled C), Z (S) or V (F),
so pick the letter before or after.
        Most occupational names were from a verb plus the suffix -er (or -ler,
yer, -ster).  Ster was a female ending and gave rise to Brewster (Brewer),
Spinster (Spinner), Webster (Weaver), and a few others.  Yer is used after
w in Sawyer and Lawyer.  Other occupations were Priest, Judge, etc.  The
majority of Kings did not rule but worked for the king.  Look for people
involved with food procurement and preparation (Fowler, Carver - catch the
wild bird and cut it up at the table), housing (Carpenter, Mason), clothing
(Taylor/Tailor), transportation (Carter), crafts (Smith), servants (Sarver,
a server) and civil servants (Clark, clerk).  And note the number of
occurrences of a name (with variants) in the phone book for some idea of how
many were involved in each occupation (lots of Taylors and Smiths and
Wagners).  If a name looks like an occupation but you are not sure, I can look
it up (hopefully) - such as Adler, Becker, etc.  (Many of the -er names are
German, but we can guess at those too).  Should this be limited to English,
or any language (if you can supply the meaning)?  Chaucer had what I think
is a French-derived name (Chaser, or Hunter), from the Normal conquest.

response 49 of 80:

Jan 12 18:24 UTC 1998

No, the Slavic word is menk, not meng.  Mengele looks like a diminutive
(German or Yiddish) of Menge.  German Menge means:  quantity, number, amount,
a great many, mass, multitude, crowd.   The verb mengen means mix, mingle
(related), blend, admix, meddle with, interfere in..  I found Meng, Menge and
Mengel in the phone book.  Could the original Mengele have been a meddler,
or a mingler?  Or someone who blended things, such as dyes or spices?

response 51 of 80:

Jan 12 22:30 UTC 1998

Re 38: keesan, "Matthew" is the English form of the Greek form of an old
Jewish name.  More or less.

response 53 of 80:

Jan 12 23:15 UTC 1998

In America, there's the added problem of figuring out whether some names have
been changed at Ellis Island or not.  My mother's family is fairly certain
that theirs was, since in Lebanon nobody seems to have heard of a Machraz
surname.  But that's what they have.

response 55 of 80:

Jan 13 00:43 UTC 1998

In response to #52.  Our grandson is named Matthew in English.  WEhen we had
him "named" in a Hebrew Ceremony, the Rabbi gave us the name "Matenayu" as
his Hebrew name.  I don't know if that's the only Hebrew equivalent of
Matthew, but its the one he suggested for us.  So we took it.  And we like
it.  

response 57 of 80:

Jan 13 06:20 UTC 1998

   i do know of someone who has the last name menke, which was
shortened from menkewicz. and while it looks polish, the people whose
name i'm asking about arrived here from lithuania.

response 59 of 80:

Jan 13 16:47 UTC 1998

i don't think there *is* any new yiddish.  it is a dying language.

response 61 of 80:

Jan 15 22:21 UTC 1998

I know that I know a lot of Lauras and a lot of liz's.  

response 63 of 80:

Jan 16 17:44 UTC 1998

If you really want to know what the "trendy" or popular names are, pick up
a fairly recent (in the last year or two) baby name book. We've got one that
has popular names in a bunch of countries worldwide (who really needs to know
the #1 name in Italy?).

We did, however, settle on Jacob Martin (if it's a boy) and Kimberly Diane
(if it's a girl). So, those are our favorites of the month. <grin> All this
*IS* subject to change as the pregnancy continues...

response 65 of 80:

Jan 16 18:59 UTC 1998

Whoops, even I spelled it wrong.  Brzeczyszczykiewicz.   (The first e has a
diacritic under it and is pronounced en).