Names of the US Presidents - what origins?

[lpetrich]

Though she is not yet a President and may never be, Kamala Harris has a very unusual first name by President standards, though her last name is much more typical. So I decided to research the names of US Presidents and Vice Presidents with the help of The Meaning and History of First Names - Behind the Name and Wiktionary

 List of presidents of the United States and  List of vice presidents of the United States

• Germanic: William (Bill), Herbert, Henry (Harry), Richard (Dick), Gerald, Ronald, Elbridge, Charles, Hubert, Walter, Albert (Al)
• English last names: Millard, Franklin, Rutherford, Grover, Woodrow, Warren, Dwight, Lyndon, Garrett, Nelson, Danforth (Dan) (mostly with Germanic elements)
• Gaelic: Donald
• Latin: Martin, Chester, Calvin, Alben
• Greek: George, Andrew, Theodore, Schuyler, Spiro
• Aramaic: Thomas
• Hebrew: John, James (Jimmy), Zachary, Abraham, Ulysses, Benjamin, Joseph (Joe), Aaron, Daniel, Levi, Adlai, Michael (Mike)
• Punic: Hannibal
• Arabic: Barack
• Sanskrit: Kamala

Many of the last names look English, though here are some exceptions:

• Dutch: Van Buren, Roosevelt
• German: Eisenhower, Rockefeller
• Norwegian: Mondale
• Gaelic: Buchanan, Kennedy, Reagan
• Welsh? Latin? : Arthur
• Luo (Nilotic: Eastern Sudanic): Obama

Some names have mixed heritage.

• Jefferson = son of Jeffrey (Geoffrey - from Germanic through Old French)
• Jackson = son of Jack (Jacob - from Hebrew)
• Harrison (Harris) = son of Harry (Henry - from Germanic)
• Nixon = son of Nick (Nicholas - from Greek)

 

[lpetrich]

I like Roosevelt: "rose field" or "field of roses" in Dutch.

The "velt" part is cognate to English "field", from Proto-Germanic *felthuz likely from Proto-Indo-European *pletH- "flat" inferred from Latin plânus "flat" and Greek platu- "flat" and English "flat" itself.

The "roose" part is from Latin rosa, where English "rose" comes from. It's likely from some pre-Indo-European Mediterranean language, as Greek rhodon "rose" likely is.

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Most of the names of Presidents and Vice Presidents come from the British Isles or nearby continental Europe or Greco-Roman antiquity or the Bible. The exceptions that I could recognize:

• Spiro - Modern Greek
• Barack - Arabic: "blessed"
• Obama - Luo: "bent, crooked"
• Kamala - Sanskrit: "lotus" (flower)

I couldn't recognize any Italian or Slavic names among those who were elected, but among those who weren't elected:

Edmund Muskie's father was a Polish immigrant named Stephen Marciszewski - he changed his last name to Muskie.

Geraldine Ferraro's last name is an Italian one, a variant of Ferrari, a name that means "ironworker" or "blacksmith". Something like Dwight Eisenhower's last name: "iron hewer".


What Edmund Muskie's father did was what Spiro Agnew's father did. Spiro Agnew's father was a Greek immigrant named Theophrastos Anagnostopoulos - he changed it to Theodore Agnew.

Something like George Stephanopoulos's last name.

 

[lpetrich]

How are the languages related? I'll start off with Indo-European.

• Germanic
  • West Germanic: English, Dutch, German
  • North Germanic: Norwegian
• Celtic: Gaelic, Welsh
• Italic: Latin
• Greek
• Indo-Iranian: Sanskrit

Semitic: West Semitic: Central Semitic

• Northwest Semitic
  • Aramaic
  • Canaanite: Punic, Hebrew
• Arabic

Central Sudanic: Nilotic: Luo

 

[Swammerdami]

If tired of clicking on Wiki's List, the President's names can be recalled with a bit of doggerel:

George and John and Tommy J.​

Two Jims, John Q, and Old Hickory A.​

Marty, Willy, Johnny, and James.​

Zachary and Millard (how 'bout those names?)​

Franklin, James and Abraham occurred.​

Then Andrew, Ulysses, and Rutherford​

James and Chester, Grover and Ben.​

Now don’t forget we had Grover again.​

Willy Mac, Teddy, and William T.​

then Woody, Warren, and Calvin C.​

Herbie, Frankie, Harry and Dwight.​

John and Lyndon, then Dickie for spite.​

Gerry, Jimmy, Ronnie and George;​

Then came(!) Bill, then another George.​

Barack and Donny, and a man named Joe.​

Let's stop there; I've got to go.​

A similar poem gives England's Monarchs since 1066:

Willy, Willy, Harry, and the King named Stee,​

Harry, Dick, John, and Harry three,​

Ed, Eddie, Edward, and Richard two,​

Henries four, five, six – then who?​

Edwards four, five; then Dick the bad,​

Harries twain and Ned the lad.​

The meter might fail if we mention Jane​

But don't forget her nine-day reign​

Mary and Lizzie, then a man called James,​

Charlie, pause, Charlie and another James​

William & Mary, then Anna Gloria,​

Four Georges, William and Victoria,​

Edward, George, repeat the twain,​

Liz the second, now Charles again.​