September 3, 2010
ONLY COLLABORATORS TAKE NORMAN NAMES...:
1066 and all those baby names: Norman names such as William, Henry and Alice have been popular for 1,000 years. Why did the English copy their invaders? (Megan Lane, 8/04/10, BBC News Magazine)
[T]he names of the Norman conquerors quickly became popular, and remain common to this day - William, Robert, Henry, Alice, Matilda.As these French-speaking, wine-drinking, castle-building conquerors swiftly took over England and intermarried with Anglo-Saxon women, it was not just newborns named in their honour.
"The ruling elite set the fashion and soon William was the most common male name in England, even among peasants. A lot of people changed their names because they wanted to pass in polite society - they didn't want to be mistaken for a peasant, marked out with an Anglo-Saxon name."
Look at baby name league tables today, and the Old English name of Harold languishes far below the French-derived Henry in popularity. William, meanwhile, was the second most popular name for boys 200 years ago, the most popular 100 years ago and has held its place in the top 10 in England and Wales since 2000.
...real Englishmen are named for the Celts and Vikings.
