Latinisation of Names

Latinisation Of Names

Latinisation is the practice of rendering a non-Latin name (or word) in a Latin style. It is commonly met with for historical personal names, with toponyms, or for the standard binomial nomenclature of the life sciences. It goes further than Romanisation, which is the writing of a word in the Latin alphabet that is in another script (e.g. Cyrillic).

In the case of personal names it may be done so as to more closely emulate Latin authors, or to present a more impressive image. It is carried out by transforming the name into Latin sounds (e.g. Geber for Jabir), by translating a name with a specific meaning into Latin (e.g. Venator for Cacciatore), or choosing a new name based on some attribute of the person (e.g. Noviomagus for Daniel Santbech, possibly from the Latin name for the town of Nijmegen). Humanist names, i.e. pen names assumed by Renaissance humanists, were very largely Latinised names, though in some cases (e.g. Melanchthon) they invoked Ancient Greek. The Latinisation in humanist names may consist of translation from vernacular European languages, involving a playful element of punning. Such names could be a cover for humble social origins.

Latinisation is also common for place names, as 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 name Eesti, German/Scandinavian name Estland, i.e. "land of the Aesti")
• Livonia (German/Scandinavian name Livland, i.e. "land of the Livs" - the local tribe)
• Ingria (Finnish Inkerinmaa, German/Scandinavian "Ingermanland", i.e. "land of the Ingermans - the local tribe)

Latinisation is a common practice for scientific names. For example, Livistona, the name of a palm, is a Latinisation of "Livingstone".