Thursday, March 5, 2026

Some of my Favorite Historical Names

Shakkanakku, Akkadian governor of Mari, c. 2250 BC

Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon

Demosthenes, Greek orator; it means "strength of the people"

Marcus Valerius Corvus, Roman general; he was awarded the cognomen Corvus (="Raven") after his first great victory

Vercingetorix, Gaulic leader who opposed Julius Caesar; it is a nomme de guerre that means something like "Captain of Heroes."

Maximus Thrax, late Roman Emperor

Ingvar Far-Traveller, Swedish Viking who led a mercenary army to the Caspian Sea

Un the Deep-Minded, noted Viking matriarch

Athelstan the Glorious, Anglo-Saxon king

Nell Ruemonger, obscure Englishwoman of the 1300s who appeared in a legal case I happened to read; I stole this name for The Raven and the Crown.

Hup the Fiddler, another name from a medieval English court roll.

Buzzleswat, likewise

Chagatai, son of Genghis Khan

Semiramide degli Appiani, Florentine noblewoman who marred a Medici in 1482

Desiderius Erasmus, Christian humanist

Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, the alchenist and natural philosopher better known as Paracelsus

Safely-On-High Snat, Puritan settler in Massachusetts

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Crazy Horse, Sioux spiritual leader.

Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard, Louisiana politican and Confederate general

Themistocles Zammit, Greek archaeologist

Others? Have to be real people, not fictional.

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