Talk:Randolph

Meaning of Shieldwolf

Right, but what does "Shieldwolf" mean? Does it mean one who shields a wolf? This is not made clear.217.43.226.218 (talk) 19:47, 25 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

That's right, it is not immediately clear what the meaning is. One puzzle replaced by another. doxTxob \ ^talk 22:00, 4 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Update:

It looks like Randolph is derived from the old English Randwolf, meaning Shieldwolf. That could actually refer to a wolf, guarding or shielding a herd or village by patrolling in the perimeter. That meaning might well have been attributed to people whose profession had to do with guard duty for either people or animals, the latter rather like a shepherd.

I guess when it is about the history of names and their meaning, that all goes a long time back and is seemingly difficult to trace. Take care! doxTxob \ ^talk 22:19, 4 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I don't think Germanic names "mean" things quite the way the 217.43.226.218 originally thought. They are just composed of different elements to form new names. Instead of thinking "Shieldwolf" think of it as "shield + wolf" - two separate elements combined together. Many of the royal Anglo-Saxon families retained certain elements in their children. Look at the children of Edward the Elder (OE Ēadweard) and his wife Ælfflæd, for example. Their firsborn was Ælfweard, whose name is a combination of their names: Ælf- (from the mom) + -weard (from the dad). Many of Edward's other sons had the first element Ēad- after himself. So think of the name in elements, not as a whole. I bet some of the earliest men with the name Randolf had family members with some of the same elements, and that the family just retained and recycled certain elements to form new names (for example one grandparent might have had the element Rand- in his/her name, and another might have had -wolf; the result being that the children of these two may have named their child Randolf.--Brianann MacAmhlaidh (talk) 08:55, 16 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]