Latinisation of names

Not to be confused withRomanization,the conversion of text written in another script into Latin (or Roman) letters, orLiturgical Latinisation.

Latinisation(orLatinization)of names,also known asonomastic Latinisation,is the practice of rendering anon-Latinname in amodern Latinstyle.It is commonly found with historicalproper names,includingpersonal namesandtoponyms,and in the standardbinomial nomenclatureof the life sciences. It goes further thanromanisation,which is thetransliterationof a word to theLatin Alpha betfrom another script (e.g.Cyrillic). For authors writing in Latin, this change allows the name to function grammatically in a sentence throughdeclension.

In a scientific context, the main purpose of Latinisation may be to produce a name which is internationally consistent.

Latinisation may be carried out by:

• transforming the name into Latin sounds (e.g.GeberforJabir), or
• adding Latinate suffixes to the end of a name (e.g.MeibomiusforMeibom),or
• translating a name with a specific meaning into Latin (e.g.Venatorfor ItalianCacciatore;both mean 'hunter'), or
• choosing a new name based on some attribute of the person (e.g.Daniel SantbechbecameNoviomagus,possibly from the Latin (actually LatinisedGaulish) name for the town ofNijmegen,and meaning 'new field').

Personal names

See also:List of Latinised names

Frontispieceof a 1743 legal text byBarnabé Brissonshows his name Latinised in the genitiveBarnabae Brissonii('ofBarnabas Brissonius'). Barnabas is itself a Greek version of an Aramaic name.

Humanist names, assumed byRenaissance humanists,were largely Latinised names, though in some cases (e.g.Melanchthon) they invokedAncient Greek.Latinisation in humanist names may consist of translation from vernacular European languages, sometimes involving a playful element of punning. Such names could be a cover for humble social origins.

The title of the "Wilhelmus",national anthemof theNetherlands,preserves a Latinised form of the name ofWilliam the Silent.

Place names

In English, place names often appear in Latinised form. This is a result of many early text books mentioning the places being written in Latin. Because of this, the English language often uses Latinised forms of foreign place names instead of anglicised forms or the original names.

Examples of Latinised names for countries or regions are:

• Estonia(Estonian nameEesti,Dutch/German/Scandinavian nameEstland,i.e. 'land of theAesti')
• Ingria(FinnishInkerinmaa,German/ScandinavianIngermanland,i.e. 'land of theIngermans', the local tribe)
• Livonia(German/Scandinavian nameLivland', i.e. 'land of theLivs', the local tribe)
• Eboracumwas the Latinised name for the modern English cityYork.It is a Latinised form of theBrittonicname*Eburākonwhich means 'place of (the) yew trees'. The Common Brittonic language was spoken by theindigenous people of Britainand evolved intomodernWelsh,Cornish,andBreton (Brezhoneg).

Scientific names

Further information:Scientific Latin

Latinisation is a common practice forscientific names.For example,Livistona,the name of a genus of palm trees, is a Latinisation ofLivingstone.

Historical background

During the age of theRoman Empire,translation of names intoLatin(in the West) orGreek(in the East) was common. Additionally, Latinised versions of Greeksubstantives,particularlyproper nouns,could easily bedeclinedby Latin speakers with minimal modification of the original word.

During themedieval period,after the Empire collapsed inWestern Europe,the main bastion of scholarship was theRoman Catholic Church,for which Latin was the primary written language. In the early medieval period, most European scholars were priests and most educated people spoke Latin, and as a result, Latin became firmly established as the scholarly language for the West.

By the early 19th century, Europe had largely abandoned Latin as a scholarly language (most scientific studies and scholarly publications are printed in English), but a variety of fields still use Latin terminology as the norm. By tradition, it is still common in some fields to name new discoveries in Latin. And because Western science became dominant during the 18th and 19th centuries, the use of Latin names in many scholarly fields has gained worldwide acceptance, at least when European languages are being used for communication.

Sources

• Nicolson, Dan H. (1974). "Orthography of Names and Epithets: Latinization of Personal Names".Taxon.23(4). International Association for Plant Taxonomy: 549–561.doi:10.2307/1218779.JSTOR1218779.