When translating old Anglo-Saxon names we frequently come across meanings such as Boar-Counsel as in Evered, Everard et al. Does the Counsel refer to a clan chief, a mentor or something else? Would Boar be a personal name or a totem? Gary

In message <f.25f95e9e.2da1100f@aol.com>, GaryIvoDe@aol.com writes >When translating old Anglo-Saxon names we frequently come across >meanings such as Boar-Counsel as in Evered, Everard et al. Does the >Counsel refer to a clan chief, a mentor or something else? just someone who gives (good) advice. But It is not normal to 'translate' names, since although in the mists of time someone might have been given a nickname because of their own attributes, succeeeding generations simply get the name for a distant grandfather - it implies nothing about their own talents or abilities . You get Aethelraed, noble adviser, which eventually came to the king known as Ethelred the Unready, meaning singularly stupid and illadvised or unadvisable. (Eberhard, Everard, anyway, should be 'hard/tough as a boar' not a 'raed' derivation. Pigs are clever but not noticeably communicative of their advice.) -- Eve McLaughlin Author of the McLaughlin Guides for family historians Secretary Bucks Genealogical Society