Back to Message Board

Latin entries in Baptismal records at NLI

Wicklow

Hello,

A previous message reply confirmed that Eugenius is sometimes entered for forename Owen. Now I have the same question for Alexander or Aleck.

Do you know of any commonly used Latin entries for these?

Thanks,

Kelly

srebla.mot@gmail.com

1 reply

The given name Alexander came very late to both Ireland and Scotland, and is of course not of Gaelic origin.  Queen Margaret (originally a Saxon) introduced it to Scotland, as the mother of the Scottish King Alexander I.  It arrived in Ireland with the Normans at around the same time.  It was often Gaelicized in both Ireland and Scotland as Alsander, Alastar, and sometimes Alastrann or Alastrom.  It was later re-anglicized as Alexander or in forms such as Alick/Alec or Alasdair/Alister (which are also considered nicknames for Alexander, as is the name Sandy).  For a child already being called Alexander by its family, a priest or government official would probably have considered that a perfectly anglicized or classical name, and would not have changed it, though he might have decided to change Alick or Alasdair to Alexander.

kevin45sf@yahoo.com

Reply

Reply
One image file up to 2 MB.