It just occurred to me--there was that eminent medievalist (American) named Charles Homer Haskins. Somehow "Homer" as a middle name in between "Charles" and "Haskins" doesn't sound quite so bad. "Homer Haskins" _tout court_ would have a hillbilly ring to it. I still wish I knew why, though. Randi Eldevik Oklahoma State University
On Thu, 23 Sep 1999, Miryam y [UNKNOWN] C�sar Libr�n Moreno wrote: > I can�t comment on any English usage, but here in Spain Virgilio (obviously, > Vergil) has been consistently used as a Christian name, with no implications > whatsoever. Homer has never, to my knowledge, been used. Now the situation in > South America is very different... you have the *lot *of Roman/Greek names, > which apparently carry no special connotations. > > Regards, Miryam > > > > What's the British attitude? Doesn't anyone there give the name > > >Homer or Virgil to their son? After all, one meets Englishmen named > > >Terence, etc. > > > > To someone like me brought up in the UK, Homer and Virgil used as forenames > > sound distinctly American -- I didn't know they had a hillbilly ring. In > > England I don't think Terence is taken to allude to the Roman playwright. > > Nor Horace to the poet. I've never heard of anyone called Plautus or > > Catullus. I'm sure I've heard or read of a dog called Virgil (or perhaps it > > was Vergil) but I can't remember where. In Malta there was (is?) a fashion > > for Greek names, e.g. Sir Themistocles Zammit. > > > > Back to work! (I'm editing a book on a field of study I didn't even know > > existed -- the constitutional law of revolutions. Cases cited come from > > Restoration England, the secessionist South, UDI Rhodesia, Grenada, Fiji, > > Queensland, etc., but so far nothing from ancient Rome, unless you count a > > quotation from De Civ. Dei, IV, 4.) > > > > Simon Cauchi, Hamilton, New Zealand > > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- > > To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. > > Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message > > "unsubscribe mantovano" in the body (omitting the quotation marks). You > > can also unsubscribe at http://virgil.org/mantovano/mantovano.htm#unsub > > > > -- > *************************************************************************** > ...There was Delphinus Polyglott. He told us what had become of the > eighty-three lost tragedies of Aeschylus; of the fifty-four orations of > Isaeus; > of the three hundred and ninety-one speeches of Lysias; of the hundred and > eighty treatises of Theophrastus; of the eighth book of the conic sections of > Apollonius; of Pindar�s hymns and dithyrambics; and of the five and forty > tragedies of Homer Junior. > E.A. Poe > *************************************************************************** > > > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- > To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. > Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message > "unsubscribe mantovano" in the body (omitting the quotation marks). You > can also unsubscribe at http://virgil.org/mantovano/mantovano.htm#unsub > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message "unsubscribe mantovano" in the body (omitting the quotation marks). You can also unsubscribe at http://virgil.org/mantovano/mantovano.htm#unsub
