Chapter LIX: Section II: Names from Theos

Already in speaking of Zeus it has been explained that this and Θεός (Theos) are but differing forms of the same term for Divinity, although one became restricted to the individual Deity; the other was a generic term in heathen days, retaining, however, so much of spiritual majesty that it was employed in the Septuagint to express the true Creator, and thus Christians embraced it as the designation of the supreme object of worship.

The word Theos itself had been assumed as a surname by one of the worst of the line of the Syrian Antiochus, and Theon had never been infrequent among the Greeks. Θεόφιλος (Theophilos), God-beloved, to whom is dedicated the Gospel of St. Luke, must have been so called before his Christianity. Thenceforward Theophilus became a name in the Church; but it has been less used on the Continent than in England. There, probably from its occurrence in Holy Scripture, and also from being generally the title of the favourite speaker in religious dialogues, it has been in some use. The feminine, Theophila, was the name of the mother of Sir Joshua Reynolds.

┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐
│ English. │ French. │ Italian and │ Portuguese. │
│ │ │ Spanish. │ │
│Theophilus │Théophile │Teofilo │Theophilo │
└───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘

Theokles (Θέοκλής), divine fame, was an ancient heathen name, and it is most probable that Θεκλα (Thekla) is the contraction of the feminine. St. Thekla was said to have been a disciple of St. Paul, at Inconium, and to have been exposed to lions at Antioch. Though they crouched at her feet instead of tearing her, she is considered as the first virgin martyr, and it was deemed that the highest possible praise for a woman was to compare her to St. Thekla. Another Thekla of Alexandria is believed to have been the scribe of that precious copy of the Gospels given by Cyril Lucar to Charles I., and now in the British Museum; and thus Thekla has always had high reputation in the East, though less known in the West, except that ‘Tecla’ is the patroness of Tarragona.

┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐
│ German. │ French. │ Italian. │ Russian │
│Thekla │Técla │Tecla │Tjokle │
└───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘

Θεόδορος (Theodoros), and Θεόδορα (Theodora), divine gift, are the most usual of these names; the first universal in the East and West, the second prevalent in the Eastern Church, but less common in the Western than the incorrect feminine Dorothea.

There were numerous saints called Theodorus; the favourite of the West being he of Heraclea, a young soldier, who burnt the temple of Cybele, and was martyred in consequence. The Venetians brought home his legend, and made him their champion and one of their patron saints, whence Teodoro has prevailed in the city of the Doge; and from a church dedicated to him at Rome the Spaniards must have taken their Teodor, the French their Théodore, and the Germans the similar Theodor, which has always been frequent there.

The ancient Britons must have known and used this name; for among their host of obscure saints of princely birth appears Tewdwr; and the Welsh made so much use of this form that when the handsome Owen ap Tewdwr won the heart of the widow of Harry of Monmouth, Tudor was an acknowledged surname, and in two generations more it became a royal one.

Here, however, the Theodores are a recent introduction. They seem only to have been really hereditary in Wales, Greece, and Venice. By Greece is also meant all those Greco-Slavonic countries that received their nomenclature from Constantinople, in especial Russia, where the _th_ is exchanged for _ph_, so as to produce the word Feodor; and the Germans, receiving it again, spell it Pheodor.

┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐
│ Welsh. │ French. │ Portuguese. │ Spanish │
│Tewdwr │Théodore │Theodoro │ and Italian. │
│ ——————— │ │ │Teodoro │
│ English. │ │ │ │
│Theodore │ │ │ │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│ German. │ Hamburg. │ Russian. │ Polish. │
│Theodor │Tedor │Feodor │Feodor │
│Pheodor │Tetje │Fedor │ │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│ Slavonic. │ Illyrian. │ Lett. │ Hungarian. │
│Todor │Todor │Kodders │Twador │
│ │Toso │Kwedders │ ————————— │
│ │ │ │ Finland. │
│ │ │ │Theotari │
└───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘

The feminine Theodora has two independent saints, a martyr and a Greek empress. It suffers no alterations except the Russian _F_ at the commencement, and is not common except in the East. The West prefers the name reversed, and rendered incorrect. Dorotheus and Theodorus may indeed be exact equivalents; but the invention of Theodora makes the giver feminine instead of the gift. It is the beauty of the legend of St. Dorothea that has made her name so great a favourite. Never did pious fancy form a more beautiful dream than the story of the Cappadocian maiden, who sent the roses of paradise by angelic hands as a convincing testimony of the joy that she was reaping. The tale is of western growth, and the chief centre of St. Dorothea’s popularity as a patroness was in Germany; but the name was likewise in great favour in England, where Massinger composed a drama on her story. Dorothy was once one of the most usual of English names; and ‘Dolly’ was so constantly heard in every household, that it finally became the generic term for the wooden children that at least as late as the infancy of Elizabeth Stuart, were called babies or puppets. In the days of affectation, under the House of Hanover, Dorothy fell into disuse, but was regarded as of the same old Puritan character as Abigail or Tabitha. Probably from the influence of German literature, the German contraction Dora, or more properly Dore, has come in as almost an independent name, which, perhaps, ought to be translated as simply a gift, though often used as a contraction for Dorothea. The fashion has again come round, and Dorothy has become the favourite name. In the last century, Dorinda was a fashionable English fancy embellishment, Doralice a French one—perhaps from the German Dorlisa—Dorothea Elisa. The Russian Darija is reckoned as a translation; but it does not seem probable, for the patroness of this latter was an Athenian lady, martyred with her husband, Chrysanthus, at Rome, and buried in a catacomb, which was opened in the days of Constantine the Great. The modern Greeks call the name, Thorothea.

┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐
│ English. │ French. │ German. │ Bavarian. │
│Dorothea │Dorothée │Dorothea │Derede │
│Dorothy │Dorette │Dore │Duredel │
│Dolly │Doralice │Dorlisa │Durl │
│Dora │Dorothea │ │ │
│Dorinda │Dore │ │ │
│ │Dorlisa │ │ │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│ Swiss. │ Dutch. │ Danish. │ Spanish. │
│Torli │Dört │Daarte │Dorotea │
│ │Dortchen │ │ │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│ Portuguese. │ Italian. │ Russian. │ Polish. │
│Dorothe │Dorotea │Dorofei │Dorota │
│ │ │Darija │Dorosia │
│ │ │Darha │ │
│ │ │Daschenka │ │
│ │ │Dorka │ │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│ Illyrian. │ Lusatian. │ Lett. │ Esthonian. │
│Doroteja │Dora │Darte │Tigo │
│Dora │Horta │Tike │Tio │
│Rotija │Horteja │Tiga │ │
│Horta │Vortija │ │ │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│ Lithuanian. │ Ung. │ │ │
│Urte │Doroltya │ │ │
└───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘

Before leaving the word _doros_, we may mention the name Isidoros, a very old and frequent one among the ancient Greeks, and explained by some to mean Gift of Isis; but this Egyptian deity is an improbable origin for a name certainly in use before the Greek kingdom in Egypt was established, and it seems more satisfactory to refer the first syllable to ἰς (strength), a word which when it had its digamma was Γις, exactly answering to the Latin _vis_ (force or strength). It commenced many old Greek names, but none that have passed on to Christian times except Isidorus, which was first borne by one of the grim hermits of Egypt, then by an Alexandrian author, and then by three Spanish bishops of Cordova, Seville, and Badajos. They probably received it as a resemblance of the Gothic names beginning with _eisen_ (iron). In consequence, Isidoro and the feminine Isidora have continued national in Spain, and Isodoros in Greece, whence Russia has taken Eesidor.

Theodotos (God-given) was in common use among the Greeks of the early empire, and apparently in Spain was corrupted into Theodosius, since Spain was the native land of him who rendered this form illustrious. Theodosia has been in favour in many parts of Europe, copied probably from some of the Byzantine princesses. The canonized personages of the masculine and feminine forms are, however, by no means imperial; the one being a hermit, the other a virgin martyr. Theone is also a German feminine.

┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐
│ English. │ │ French. │ Italian. │
│Theodosius │ │Théodose │Teodosia │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│ English. │ Italian. │ Russian. │ Illyrian. │
│Theodosia │Teodosia │Feodosia │Desse │
└───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘

The entire race of Greek words thus derived must be carefully distinguished from the Gothic ones, which at first sight appear to resemble them: such as Theodoric, Theudebert, &c., but are all, in fact, taken from the Teuton word _Theut_ (the people).

Of Theophanos we shall speak among the names taken from sacred festivals, but we must not leave these titles of pious signification without mentioning Τιμόθεος (honour God), from τιμὴ (honour or worship), the noun formed from τίω (to honour or esteem), connected of course with the Latin _timor_ (fear).

Timotheus had been in use even in heathen times, as in the case of Alexander’s musician.

But probably it was with a full religious meaning that the good Eunice chose it for that son who was to be the disciple of St. Paul and the first bishop of Ephesus. From him, and from several subsequent Saints, the East and West both learnt it, but at the present day it flourishes chiefly in Russia as Teemofe. In Ireland, it was taken as one of the equivalents of the native Tadgh (a bard), and the absurdities of Irish Tims have cast a ridiculous air over it, mingled with the Puritan odour of the Cromwellian days, such as to lower it from the estimation its associations deserve. Mr. Timothy Davison, in 1670, named his daughter Timothea, but happily his example does not seem to have been followed.[40]

┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐
│ English. │ French. │ Italian. │ Russian. │
│Timothy │Timothée │Timoteo │Timofei │
│Tim │ │ │Timoscha │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│ Polish. │ Slavonic. │ Lett. │ │
│Tymotensz │Timoty │Tots │ │
│Timoty │ │ │ │
└───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘

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Footnote 40:

Smith; Jameson; Butler; Liddell and Scott; Hartwell Horne,
_Introduction to the Bible_; Le Beau, _Bas Empire_; Michaelis.