Random Fact of the Day: Feminizations and Feminine Suffixes

English doesn't have any native feminizing suffixes: all the ones we typically use (-a, -ia, -ette/etta, -ine/ina) are borrowed from Latin and Latinate languages.
Rather, Old English had certain elements that were exclusively masculine or exclusively feminine (and many that could be either). It also usually depended on whether that element was the first half or the second half of the name--for instance, hild ("battle") could start either a boys' or girls' name (like Hildewine "battle-friend" or Hildegard "battle protection"), but as a ending element, it was pretty much exclusively for girls.

So instead, if you wanted to endemically turn an OE boys' name into a girls' name (whether or not that was something that even occurred to them, IDK), you would have to swap out the masculine ending element for a feminine one similar in sound or meaning, like Ælfwig ("elf war") to Ælfhild ("elf battle"); or Wulfwine ("wolf friend") to Wulfwynn ("wolf joy"); or in some cases, just reverse the elements: Burgstan ("fortress stone") to Stanburg ("stone fortress"); or Thrudgar ("strength spear") or Gertrude ("spear strength").


Of course, the whole "add an A to make a girls' name" thing was imported pretty darned early (by the 800s for sure, but possibly as early as the 200s AD), so this whole thing is really just an exercise in dorky minutiae. :p

Random Fact of the Day: Every Tom, Dick, and Harry

Many cultures have generic placeholder names. In American English, we have "Tom, Dick, and Harry" (that is, 'any/all men'), and "John Doe" or "Richard Roe"  (an anonymous/unknown person, although the latter is rather archaic now); while in the UK & Australia there's also "Joe Bloggs" and "John Smith".
For some languages, the 'names' aren't actual names you'll find on people; rather, they literally just mean "anonymous" or "whoever"; but others are (or were) in general usage [indicated by bold].

Arabic:

• "Fulan" --- "whoever"
• "Fulan bin Fulan" --- "whoever, son of whoever"

Bulgarian:

• "Petar Petrov"

Chinese:

• "Zhang San", "Li Si", "Wang Wu" -- "Zhang Three", "Li Four", "Wang Five" [Zhang, Li, & Wang are surnames]
• "Wang Xiaoming", "Chen Xiaoming", "Chen Tai Man"

Danish:

• "Morten Menigmand" -- "Morten Ordinary-man"

Dutch:

• "Jan Jansen"

Finnish:

• "Matti  & Maija Meikäläinen" -- "Matti & Maija One-of-us"

French:

• "Jean Dupont"
• "Pierre, Paul, & Jacques"

German:

• "Hinz & Kunz"/ "Heinrich & Konrad"
• "Lieschen Müller"
• "Max & Erika Mustermann" --- "Max and Erika Sample-man"
• "Otto Normalverbraucher" --- "Otto Average-consumer"

Hebrew:

• "Ploni", "Ploni Almoni" -- poss. "indicated", "indicated hidden"; a Biblical placeholder name

Hungarian:

• "Minta János" -- "John Sample"

Irish:

• "Seán Ó Rudaí" -- "Sean O'Things"

Italian:

• "Tizio, Caio, e Sempronio" -- modern Italian version of Roman placeholders (Titus, Caius, & Sempronius)

Japanese:

• "Daredare" -- "whoever"

Lithuanian:

• "Jonas Jonaitis", "Petras Petraitis"
• "Vardenis Pavardenis" (m) / "Vardenė Pavardenė" (f) -- "Name Surname"

Norwegian:

• "Ola & Kari Nordmann" --- "Ola & Kari Norwegian"

Persian:

• "Fulan" -- "whoever"
• "Bahman" --- "whoever"
• "Fulan o Bahman" --- "whoever and whoever"

Polish:

• "Jan Kowalski" / "Janina Kowalska"
• "Jan Novak"

Portuguese: 

• "Fulano" -- "whoever"
• "Fulano, Sicrano e Beltrano" / "Fulana, Sicrana e Beltrana"  -- "whoever, _____, & Beltrano" [origin of Sicrano is unknown; Beltrano is a surname]

Russian:

• "Imyarek" -- "name"
• "Ivan Ivanovich Ivanov", "Pyotr Petrovich Petrov", "Sidor Sidorovich Sidorov" -- sometimes mix-and-match

Serbian:

• "Pera Perić"

Slovak:

• "Janko Mrkvička", "Jožko Mrkvička"  -- "Johnny Carrot", "Joey Carrot"

Spanish:

• "Fulano" / "Fulanita" -- "whoever"
• "Fulano, Mengano, y Zutano" -- "whoever, whoever, & _____?" [poss. related to Latin scire "to know"]
• "Juan Perez" [Latin America]

Swedish:

• "Medelsvensson" -- "average Svensson"

Random Fact of the Day: Linguistic Conversion(s)

Changing a name as it moves from one language to another is often necessary. due to sounds and/or letters that may not exist in the new language. It's not done as often as it used to be, but adaptation of a word/name to English phonetics and alphabet is called Anglicization. Ancient Romans also changed names to suit Latin--Latinization; and many Biblical names we know as 'Hebrew' are actually Greek alterations--Hellenizations.
For other languages, the terms are probably less well-known, but they do exist!

Albanian: Albanization

Chinese: Sinicization

Czech: Czechization

Danish: Danicization

Dutch: Dutchification

Finnish: Fennicization

French: Francization or Gallicization

German: Germanization

Hawaiian: Hawaiianization

Hebrew: Hebraization

Hungarian: Magyarization

Irish or Scottish: Gaelicization

Italian: Italianization
Japanese: Nipponization or Japanization

Norwegian: Norwegianization

Polish: Polonization

Russian: Russification

Spanish: Hispanicization, or Castilianization, when referring to Castilian Spanish

Random Fact of the Day:

In Middle English, there was a feminine occupational suffix--ster.
Although occupations that women could be known for were relatively few, and getting that form passed down to descendants was proportionally rare compared to males (and both male & females forms were also eventually used interchangeably for both genders), there are still a few that survived to Modern English:

Baxter--orig. Bakester, a female baker
Brewster--a female brewer
Dexter--orig. Dyster, a female dyer
Huckster--a female travelling merchant
Sangster--a female singer
Tapster--a female bartender or tavern keeper
Walkster--a female clothmaker
Webster--a female weaver

Random Fact of the Day:

Unlike in modern times, in the medieval world, your name would change as you travelled from place to place. So, if your name was John, you would answer to (and even sign documents as) Juan in Spain, Johann in Germany, Gian in Italy, Jehan in French, etc.

A side effect of this is that when parents imported names from Latin (or used Latinized versions of names from other languages), they often "translated" it by chopping off the gendered ending, since English doesn't use those (sometimes replacing it with a Y, sometimes not).
Thus, there are names that could be feminine in Medieval English that we wouldn't expect--Christian (from Christianus/Christiana), Adrian (Adrianus/Adriana), Julian (Julianus/Juliana), Denis (Dionysius/Dionysia), Phillip (Philippus/Philippa), Johan (Johannes/Johanna), Cecil (Cecilius/Cecilia), and probably many others!

Random Fact of the Day:

Because I'm tired of seeing this bit of misinformation on naming boards--Edward has NOT been jumping in popularity because of Twilight. In fact, the cultural phenomenon seems to have discouraged just as many parents as it inspired, because Edward's steady 75-year decline doesn't really seem to have been affected at all!
(Or, alternatively, you could interpret this as Twilight not even being important enough to influence naming trends. Either way works for me.)

Random Fact of the Day:

The Irish name Caitlín has two forms in the US. The original import usually had its spelling changed to reflect pronunciation, and became Kathleen--Caitlín in Ireland is pronounced "kaht-leen" or "koyth-leen". Around 1980 or, U.S. parents began, either purposely or ignorantly, to use the Irish spelling, but not the Irish pronunciation. Thus, the Caitlyn/Kaitlin/Katelyn craze began.
Other names that have been (or are being) imported in mispronounced form include
Tegan (U.S.: "TEE-gan"; trad.: "TEG-an"),
Carys (U.S.: "CAIR-is"; trad.: "CAHR-is"),
Aislinn (U.S.: "ACE-lin" or "ICE-lin"; trad.: "ASH-leen"),
Anneliese (U.S.: "an-nah-LEES"; trad.: "ahn-nah-LEE-zah"),
Gianna (U.S.: "jee-AHN-nah; trad.: "JAHN-nah")
Giovanni (U.S.: "jee-oh-VAH-nee"'; trad: "joh-VAH-nee")
and Dylan (U.S.: "DIL-an"; trad.: "DUL-an").

*This phenomenon is different from regional/linguistic variants that develop over time (ex. Andrea as "AN-dree-ah" or "awn-DRAY-ah"); or simplifications/adaptations for sounds that don't exist in another language (ex. Mary/Maria becoming Malia in Hawaiian).

Random Fact of the Day:

The term nickname came from the wrong division of the phrase an ekename. Eke is an Old English suffix/word meaning "additional". A few other common English words came about this way, such as:
apron (a napron, "small tablecloth" --> an apron),
newt (an ewt, "lizard" --> a newt),
umpire (a naumpere, "arbiter" --> an aumpire),
ammunition (French la munition, "weaponry" --> l'amunition),
lone (al one, "completely one" --> a lone [one used to rhyme with cone, bone, loan, etc])
Ned (mine Ed --> my Ned)
Nan (mine Ann --> my Ann)

Random Fact of the Day:

Although English is technically a Germanic language, much of its vocabulary is an amalgam of words from many different sources. Words pertaining to politics, art, and war tend to be of French origin; nautical terms from Dutch, and scientific jargon from Latin, Greek, and Arabic. Common, everyday words tend to be from Old English, and sometimes Old Norse.
Because of its myriad of influences, English has more synonyms for common concepts than many languages.

Random Fact of the Day:

Although the R sound is made mainly with the lips in standard American English, in most languages and even some English dialects, the R is pronounced almost exclusively with the tongue, similar to the L. This accounts for the R to L shift in old nicknames (Mary to Molly, Sarah to Sally, for example) and the difficulty new English learners have with our Rs ("flied lice", anyone?); as well as the inability of most English speakers to roll their Rs.

Random Fact of the Day:

Almost all languages spoken today are related to at least one other, whether closely (like Spanish & Portuguese) or distantly (like English & Hindi). There are several different language families. However, there are a few languages that have no known relatives, called 'language isolates'. These are either languages whose 'missing links' to other languages have been totally lost, or that evolved in an isolated group of people with no other language.
The most well-known language isolates include Korean, Basque (areas of France & Spain), Zuni (New Mexico, US), & Ainu (Hokkaido Island, Japan).

Random Fact of the Day:

Rhyming slang is an almost exclusively British phenomenon, specifically London, and is known worldwide as "Cockney rhyming slang". There is, however, one notable example in common American use: making a rude sound with your mouth = "raspberry" = "raspberry tart" = "fart".

Random Fact of the Day:

Although English is a Germanic language, it's closest sister language is Scots. It split from English 400-600 years ago, but is still most intelligible by modern English speakers, if you pay close attention. ;)

Random Fact of the Day:

Old English had a separate letter for the 'th' sound, called thorn. It looked like a modern capital 'Y'.
So on an 'old-timey' sign, like "Ye Old Shoppe", the word 'ye' is pronounced just like our modern word 'the'. :)