Please see the following list of approved names, with suggested changes and commentary from the Ealdormere College of Heralds. Information regarding the timing and format of polling will be announced shortly. Please contact the Baronial Seneschal with any questions or concerns.
Potential Names for the Barony with Commentary by the Ealdormere College of Heralds
| Proposed Name | Commentary |
| Alþingis-straumr | Originally submitted as Straumr Althing. Old Norse for “River/Stream Althing”, a nod to the meaning of the indigenous word Odawa (Ottawa), the name of the major river in the area (the Ottawa/Odawa River). If you compound “Alþingi” with “Straumr” it would be “Alþingis-straumr” and not “Straumr Alþingi”. „straumr alþing“ – straumr denotes a current, rather than a river. River is „á“. “Thing River” would be „Þingá“ pronounced approximately “Thing-aw”. |
| Alþingishóll | Originally submitted as Althinghaugr. Old Norse for “Althing Hill” Thingvellir is the name of the place in Iceland where the historical Althing took place. You could probably make a case for “Althing-” to be used as an element in similar ON constructions (so in combo with a geographical feature) — so possibly Althinghaugr, for instance (Althing hill). I am quite taken with Althinghaugr, even if it’s a direct translation of a very local placename in Ottawa. I’d tend more toward “hóll” than “haugr” as “hóll” (p. 280 in my Cleasby & Vigfússon ON dictionary) is “hill” whereas “haugr” has more the connotation of a “heap” or a “cairn” than a hill. “Alþingishóll could translate to either “Assembly Hill for all” or “Assembly Hill above all others (ie Supreme Assembly Hill)”. Hóll compounds in the singular in ON for things like “álfhóll” (an elf hill) and “víghóll” (a battle hill) and in plural when the number of hills is plural, as in “sand dunes” as “sjávarhjólar”. “Staðarhóll” was a place name in Iceland in the period ON was spoken, so it’s a good choice for a place name. |
| Antrum Lepi | Latin: cave of the hare Correctly formed Latin |
| Aquae Aureliae | Correctly formed Latin. Aurelia Althing isn’t likely to work, either grammatically or from a linguistic mix standpoint. Aurelia is a Latin personal name. You could possibly posit this as “Aurelia’s Althing”, but that would require “Aurelia” to go into the genitive case in either Latin or (likely) Old Norse. Again the linguistic mix likely means this would not be preferable. |
| Austrthing | Eastern Parliament No conflicts noted with Austrþing |
| Caerdydd Newydd | Welsh for “New Cardiff”. |
| Chateau de Thames | Submitted as Chateau Thames. French and English are acceptable language mixes. “Thames” can be a surname, so “Chateau Thames” might be possible with the assumption that “Thames” is a surname. |
| Eldinga Alþingi | Originally submitted as Elding Althing. Old Norse (Icelandic) for “Lightning Althing” According to Wiktinary, in Middle English, “elding” can mean “warmth” or “fuel” but also “rubbish.” I have not been able to verify this. For the meaning of the name to stay true, “elding” should likely be plural (“eldingar”). “Elding” means a singular bolt of language. In Old Norse, “elding” can also refer to “the ‘eld’ or old age of the night, the last or third part of the night” per Cleasby & Vigfusson. I’m guessing that this one really wouldn’t work as a placename. The other proposals with Althing were a geographical feature and an adjective (that could possibly be used as a noun). If Althing itself were a placename, this one might work, but it really isn’t – it’s a name for a gathering of people. Lightning really needs to be accompanied by a geographical feature to possibly work in a placename (and even then, it might not be possible without modification) Althing” should be “Alþingi” if you’re using ON. (C&V p.18) “Alþing” is the more modern Icelandic version of “Alþingi”. When you compound “elding” with “Alþing” it would more likely be “EldingaAlþing” as in the C&V examples for “eldingaflug” (flash of lightning) and “eldingamánaðr” (the lightning month). “Elding” is also the third part of the night, where the day begins to rekindle. It’s a pretty cool connotation. As you can see from “eldingamánaðr”, an abstract concept like “Alþing” can as easily be compounded with “elding” as can a place name. I’d keep it singular as “Alþingi” is a single assembly even though many people gathered at it. That last should be “EldingaAlþingi”. My autocorrect is set to modern Icelandic so it keeps dropping the final “i” off Alþingi on me. „elding alþing“ – This is ok, but I’d suggest „eldþing“. |
| Gasteiz Beria | Basque for “New Gasteiz”. |
| Gilden Alþingi | Originally submitted as Gilden Althing. Old Norse for “Golden Althing”, a reference to Aurelia Althing” should be “Alþingi” if you’re using ON. (C&V p.18) “Alþing” is the more modern Icelandic version of “Alþingi”. |
| Gullin Alþingi | Originally submitted as Gullen Althing. Old Norse for “Golden Althing”, a reference to Aurelia Althing” should be “Alþingi” if you’re using ON. (C&V p.18) “Alþing” is the more modern Icelandic version of “Alþingi”. I like “Gullin Alþingi” (see Cleasby & Vigfússon for many examples of “gullinn” (golden) compounding with the second “n” dropped. P. 221 top left column for me. It would do Enid proud. Would be better formed as „gullenþing“. |
| Harastede | Originally submitted as Harestead. There might be an issue with Harestead, particularly with the Harastede version, as there is a registered household name of Haraldstad, and that is VERY close in pronunciation. Harestead might clear the conflict–it is two syllables rather than three and there is a pronunciation difference between -stad and -stead. Harestead could work, with the added complexity that the Hare-component could be either from a personal name (Hari (Scandinavian) or Hersa (OE)), from the OE here- meaning “army”; from OE har- meaning “grey”, or, in the case of Harewood, possibly from the OE hara- meaning “hare”. If you wanted to go completely OE, “Harastede” might be a better spelling. (-stead can either be from the OE -stede or Scandinavian -stad or -sted and means simply “place.”) |
| Heragaard | Dutch for “Hare’s Gate”. gaard is actually Dutch and does not mean “guard” — it means gate or yard (think garden!), which is a fine placename element. For Old Norse, the equivalent word to gaard is garðr. Once we confirm the grammar and position of Hera-, I think this one would work as a placename.Old Norse for “Hare’s Guard” |
| Héragarðr | Originally submitted as Heragarðr. Old Norse for “Hare’s Guard”See Heragaard. In ON, “hare” is “héri” not “heri”and goes into the genitive as “héra” so “Hare’s guard” would be “Héragarðr”. „heragarðr“ – This is ok, but, to be grammatically correctly, it should be „héragarðr“ |
| Nafarroa Berria | Basque for “New Navarre”. Nafarroa is a Basque name–we know it now as Navarre. Berria is Basque for New. So essentially “New Navarre”. I know nothing about the Basque language and how the grammar works, but hey, it would be interesting, and this certainly works as a place name. (Nika Dmitrieva doch’ Zvezdina) |
| Nieuw Brussels | Dutch for “New Brussels”. |
| Nordhaugr Althing/Norðr Alþing. | Nordr Althing: I believe the non-Althing part will require some kind of terrain feature (man made or natural) in order to be registerable. Some ideas of mine include: Norddalr Althing (North Valley/Dale) Nordhaugr Althing (North Hill) Nordlundr Althing (North Grove) Nordtoft Althing (North Homestead) Nordhaugr Althing could refer to Parliament Hill. That would maintain the spirit of the original name, at the same time removing the problematic part. Second, I like the direction idea a lot. Austrþing is a fine name. Norðrþing would be good, though not as easy to pronounce. Third, Norðr Alþing is interesting and makes sense, being that Ottawa is home of Parliament. I’m uncertain about the historic echoes, however. But, it should be ok.” The “Althing” part would be allowed to be kept as part of a new name. (It’s usually just þing; alþing is just “big Thing” or “High Thing.”) (Note from me: If you were to pronounce the nominative case “r”, which is sometimes done, you would come up with something like “Norther Althing”….which has the advantage of keeping the scansion of the original name). No conflicts noted with Austrþing, Norðrþing, or Norðr Alþing. |
| Pont de York | Submitted as Ponte de York “York Bridge.” Ponte is Italian (French is Pont). So either “Ponte di York” (which would be an English-Italian linguistic mix and not possible) or “Pont de York” (which keeps it French-English). Pont de York, despite its issues, has no conflicts. |
| Specus Lepi | Hare’s Cave – Latin Correctly formed Latin |
| Terra Aureliae | Originally submitted as Terra Aurelia Choreas. Latin for “Aurelia’s Land”Latin for “the land where Aurelia danced” This one appears to be Latin, sort of (the final word is of Greek origin). The Terra Aurelia part is easy to put into the correct grammatical construction – Terra Aureliae, “Aurelia’s land”. Choreas appears to be a reference to either a dance or a chorus (chorea is a Greek word). I’m not sure what the intended meaning is, but the first part would absolutely work on its own. |
| Wabozwaaling | Wabozwaaning (Waboz-Waaning), Anishinaabemowin, meaning, “cave of the rabbit”. If there is a strong desire to use Anishinaabemowin, I recommend following traditional place names patterns which typically the are geography descriptors, with major features tying into local lore. Following this pattern the lore behind the old Barony name/device could be used with the barony’s most prominent geographical feature… Though the old way of pronouncing and thus spelling would make it “Wabozwaaling” So rabbit spelled using the Fiero double vowel system (which is most common writing system for Anishinaabe) rabbit is spelled “waaboozh”… I’m not sure about cave but place is “endat”… waaboozhendat should do the job…unless you really want cave instead of place. (Þórunn in rauða refr) According to an online Ojibwe dictionary: Waazh = cave in Ojibwe (one of the three peoples who make up the Anishinaabe) |
Ineligible Names
The following names were submitted but were not usable for the reasons given below.
Ther Hverr Bitha
This was translated as “Those Who Wander” in discussions, which does not fit any established patterns for a locative name.
Silfur Kah’na Althing
Given that Kah’na is an indigenous word, it is not an acceptable linguistic mix with Old Norse under SENA Appendix C.
Zibi Althing
As above, Indigenous languages cannot be combined with Old Norse.
Waboz Althing
Assuming this is what I think it is – namely, the Ojibwe word for the snowshoe hare – then as above.
Eastern Salient
Whilst Salient *is* a period word, it is a verb (to leap). The noun version – that is, a geographic “bulge” – is a 19th century word.