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  Saturday  March 1  2003    12: 31 AM

what's in a name?

I ended up with three first names.

Behind the Name
t h e   e t y m o l o g y   a n d   h i s t o r y   o f   f i r s t   n a m e s

ROBERT   m   English, French, Scandinavian
Pronounced: RAW-burt
Means "bright fame", derived from the Germanic elements hrod "fame" and beraht "bright". The Normans introduced this name to Britain. It belonged to three kings of Scotland, including Robert the Bruce who restored the independence of Scotland from England in the 14th century. The author Robert Browning and poets Robert Burns and Robert Frost are famous literary bearers of this name. Also, Robert E. Lee was the commander of the Confederate army during the American Civil War.

DUNCAN   m   Scottish, English
Pronounced: DUN-kan
Anglicized form of the Gaelic name Donnchadh which means "brown warrior", derived from Gaelic donn "brown" and chadh "warrior". This was the name of two kings of Scotland, including the one who was featured in Shakespeare's play 'Macbeth'.

GORDON   m   Scottish, English
Pronounced: GOR-dun
From a Scottish surname which was originally derived from a place name meaning "great hill". A famous bearer of the surname was Charles George Gordon, a British general who died defending the city of Khartoum in Sudan.

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  thanks to BookNotes