Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Eowyn Grace Records

This blog is dedicated to explaining how we came about with the name Eowyn Grace for our little girl.

When we began working on names, we simply started flipping through name books. We wanted something that would not be difficult for either of our my families to pronounce (remember, Maren's family is all German-speaking and some letters take on different pronunciations). But I soon realized that I loved the sounds of old Welsh and Celtic names. I liked the name Eowyn, from J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" (LOTR), but didn't think Maren would go for that. But there were a few others that I liked, such as "Aereonwyn". Maren thought 4 syllables was too many, and that name specifically was too hard for her to remember, so that was out. But then Maren said, "what about Eowyn. I know you like that name." When I reminded her that Eowyn was the King's niece in Rohan in LOTR, and the kingdom of Rohan was the horse kingdom, she was sold.

Tolkien created the name, like he did many others, but the name is derived from two old English words: Eoh meaning horse, and Wyn (short form of many derivatives in English, Welsh, Gaelic) meaning joy. The name Eowyn does not appear in very many naming websites or books at all. One says the name means "horse of joy", but we decided it means something else based on a LOTR site we found, "horses bring joy".

For a middle name, we wanted something to contrast with the flowing sound of Eowyn. We wanted a 1-syllable name, and Grace just felt right. We wanted something that had a biblical feel as well.

So when she's old enough, I will enjoy reading to her J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.

1 comment:

karl said...

Maybe she will marry a Philip someday...(Gk for lover of horses)

you can look up her name at
wikipedia