About This Book
A practical guide for clergy and parents that explains the church’s recommendation to give children saints’ names and traces the development of personal names from early Christian usage through the medieval period, emphasizing the persistence of old Germanic forms in Dutch regions, notably Friesland. It addresses difficulties in matching vernacular Dutch and Frisian name forms to Latin ecclesiastical equivalents, summarizes relevant onomastic research, analyzes name-stems and meanings, and supplies extensive alphabetized name lists with saint equivalents, abbreviations, and brief etymological notes to aid selection and liturgical practice.