{"id":2372,"date":"2020-01-21T17:50:34","date_gmt":"2020-01-21T22:50:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.issendai.com\/16thcenturyistanbul\/?page_id=2372"},"modified":"2024-11-12T23:12:43","modified_gmt":"2024-11-13T04:12:43","slug":"armenian-names","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.issendai.com\/16thcenturyistanbul\/turkish-names\/armenian-names\/","title":{"rendered":"Armenian Names"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Updated November 12, 2024.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Each source has its own transliteration method, so combining names from all the sources into one page would make it impossible to know how to pronounce each name. Therefore, each source has its own page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The first five pages are names from manuscripts written in Armenian by scribes living in culturally Armenian, often Armenian-ruled, regions. These sources show the development of the native Armenian pool of names over time. The last source, Armenian Men\u2019s Names in Sivas Province, Turkey, is different. It was written in Ottoman Turkish by a Turkish-speaking Muslim scribe who recorded the names of ethnic Armenians in villages in east-central Anatolia, living under Ottoman rule and among Turkish-speaking Muslim neighbors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.issendai.com\/16thcenturyistanbul\/turkish-names\/armenian-names\/armenian-names-1301-1480\/\">Armenian Names from 1301-1480<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.issendai.com\/16thcenturyistanbul\/turkish-names\/armenian-names\/armenian-names-from-chester-beatty-library-manuscripts\/\">Armenian Names from the Chester Beatty Library<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.issendai.com\/16thcenturyistanbul\/turkish-names\/armenian-names\/armenian-names-from-treasures-from-the-ark\/\">Armenian Names from Treasures from the Ark<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.issendai.com\/16thcenturyistanbul\/turkish-names\/armenian-names\/armenian-names-from-the-bodleian\/\">Armenian Names from the Bodleian<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.issendai.com\/16thcenturyistanbul\/turkish-names\/armenian-names\/armenian-names-from-the-british-museum\/\">Armenian Names from the British Museum<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.issendai.com\/16thcenturyistanbul\/turkish-names\/armenian-mens-names-in-sivas-province\/\" data-type=\"page\" data-id=\"2548\">Armenian Men\u2019s Names in Sivas Province, Turkey<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Name Patterns<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">People were overwhelmingly known by a single name. For lay persons and vardapets (religious teachers), it was their birth name; for priests, monks, and nuns, it was the name they were given upon consecration or ordination. The name could be shortened, made into a diminutive, or occasionally replaced by an unrelated nickname. Very occasionally, an epithet could be added to the name, and there are instances of double-barreled names that I haven&#8217;t had enough information to analyze; but the general rule was a single name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A list of donors in a 14th-century Bible gives an example of the range of names borne by ordinary people. In 1332, the vardapet Ners\u0113s vowed to have a copy of the Bible made, and traveled to \u201cthe village of Xantkah in the land of Urnu\u201d<span id='easy-footnote-1-2372' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/www.issendai.com\/16thcenturyistanbul\/turkish-names\/armenian-names\/#easy-footnote-bottom-1-2372' title='I could not trace this location, but Ners\u0113s says he was born in Sansun (modern-day Sason, well west of Lake Van in western Turkey), so if part of his family lived in Xantkah, presumably it wasn&amp;#8217;t far from Sansun.'><sup>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span> to raise funds from his family and friends. He succeeded:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Moved by love and through the compassion of the holy Mother of God, they offered me the cost [of the production] of this Holy Bible, each according to his means: Mleh, 210 <em>spitak<\/em>; his brother Lewon, 90 <em>dram<\/em>; Yovan, 90 <em>dram<\/em>; T\u02bduran, 30 <em>dram<\/em>; Damur, 30 <em>dram<\/em>; my cousin Mxit\u02bdar, 42 <em>dram<\/em>; the carpenter Mxit\u02bdar, 30 <em>dram<\/em>; Vardan, 33 <em>dram<\/em>; Hayrapet, 36 <em>dram<\/em>; Martir [illegible]; T\u02bdadkan, 30 <em>dram<\/em>; the dyer Luser, 30 <em>dram<\/em>; Zak\u02bdar, 18 <em>dram<\/em>; Ramanos and his mother, 36 <em>dram<\/em>; F\u1e59ang Xlat&#8217;c&#8217;i, 100 <em>dram<\/em>; Anton, 20 <em>dram<\/em>; Umek and his sons, 40 <em>dram<\/em>.<\/p>\n<cite><a href=\"https:\/\/ia800405.us.archive.org\/14\/items\/Sanjian1969Colophons\/Sanjian_1969_Colophons.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Colophons of Armenian Manuscripts, 1301-1480<\/a>, p. 11<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">F\u1e59ang Xlat&#8217;c&#8217;i is &#8220;Frankish Xlat&#8217;c&#8217;i,&#8221; for whatever ethnicity &#8220;Frankish&#8221; stood for in 14th-century western Anatolia. (Two centuries later, in the same area, the Turkish equivalent meant &#8220;European.&#8221;) F\u1e59ang Xlat&#8217;c&#8217;i couldn&#8217;t have been all that Frankish, though, with the intensely Armenian name Xlat&#8217;c&#8217;i.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Bynames<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As people moved into the wider world, they were distinguished from one another by the name of their place of origin: Amirdovlat\u02bd Amasiac\u02bdi, of Amasia; Mat\u02bd\u0113os Sebastc\u02bdi, of Sebastias; St. Grigor Narekac\u02bdi, of Narek. Modern scholarly sources both give names as written (Mat\u02bd\u0113os Sebastc\u02bdi) and translate them (Mat\u02bd\u0113os of Sebastias), so either is a valid way to write an Armenian name in English.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Where Did the Names Come From?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Armenian names were overwhelmingly either Armenian, Persian, Biblical (via Greek), or saintly (also via Greek), with Arabic and Turkish elements entering the name pool in late period with the Islamic conquest of Armenian lands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The mix of cultural influences varied from region and region, and possibly by social level. For example, the villagers of Xantkah who donated to Ners\u0113s bore mainly Biblical or traditional Armenian names, with the exception of Lewon (Leon), whose name is a European import. On the other hand, a bit to the east and a century later, a tragedy-riven merchant family draws its names from far and wide:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In these bitter times, the loyal, devout and pious lady P\u02bda\u0161ay expressed desire for this &#8230; book &#8230; in memory of her good soul and &#8230; [the soul] of her son J\u0308anib\u0113k, who became a martyr at the hands of the infidels, which caused inconsolable grief to his parents, and of her husband, Hawkit\u02bd Atom, who out of grief for his son became <em>xasrat\u02bdamah<\/em>&#8230;<br><br>&#8230;And again remember in your chaste prayers the pious lady P\u02bda\u0161ay, the recipient of this holy Gospel, and her husband Atom, who passed away in God, and her brother, the <em>xo\u01f0a<\/em> [wealthy merchant] Farux\u0161ah . .. and her other brother Sultan\u0161ay, who went on a journey and no one knew what became of him. Also remember in your prayers the pious <em>tanuter<\/em> [householder] Hawkit\u02bd Atom, who died in Christ, and his spouse P&#8217;a\u0161ay, and his son J\u0308anib\u0113k, whom the infidels slew stealthily at Hizan and made him a martyr and whose body his father could not find, and went to his grave in grief and lamentation . . . <\/p>\n<cite><a href=\"https:\/\/ia800405.us.archive.org\/14\/items\/Sanjian1969Colophons\/Sanjian_1969_Colophons.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Colophons of Armenian Manuscripts, 1301-1480<\/a>, p. 219<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">P\u02bda\u0161ay (<em>Pasha<\/em>, Turkish or Persian) and her brothers Farux\u0161ah (Persian <em>Farrukhshah<\/em>, &#8220;happy lord&#8221;) and Sultan\u0161ay (Arabic <em>sultan <\/em>+ Persian <em>shah<\/em>) bore names with Persian roots and Arabic influences; she and her husband Atom (Adam) named their son J\u0308anib\u0113k, a name most famously borne by the Turkicized Mongolian lord Jani Beg\/Janibek Khan, one of the khans of the Golden Horde.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Question of Noble Names<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Members of noble and princely houses often have names that are rarely or never encountered elsewhere. For example, the Orbelian prince Burt\u02bdel (ruled 1300-1343) was married to a woman named Vaxax (or Vakhakh).<span id='easy-footnote-2-2372' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/www.issendai.com\/16thcenturyistanbul\/turkish-names\/armenian-names\/#easy-footnote-bottom-2-2372' title='Aug\u00e9, Isabelle. &amp;#8220;&lt;a href=&quot;https:\/\/www.academia.edu\/12997481\/Les_lieux_de_m%C3%A9moire_des_princes_Orbelean_m%C3%A9moire_%C3%A9crite_m%C3%A9moire_inscrite&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer noopener&quot;&gt;Les lieux de m\u00e9moire des princes Orbelean : m\u00e9moire \u00e9crite, m\u00e9moire inscrite&lt;\/a&gt;.&amp;#8221; In &lt;em&gt;M\u00e9langes Jean-Pierre Mah\u00e9&lt;\/em&gt; (Travaux et m\u00e9moires 18), Paris 2014, p.\u00a065-82.'><sup>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Their son, Inanik, named his daughter Vaxax. This second Vaxax, wife of Arl.ut\u02bday, is best known as a former owner of the Glazdor Gospels. Another Vaxax appears in 1301, when she and her princely husband Azizbe&#8217;k (or Aziz-Beg) built a church in Eghvard.<span id='easy-footnote-3-2372' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/www.issendai.com\/16thcenturyistanbul\/turkish-names\/armenian-names\/#easy-footnote-bottom-3-2372' title='&lt;a href=&quot;http:\/\/tert.nla.am\/archive\/HAY%20GIRQ\/Ardy\/1921-1950\/arajnordarani_erghandes_1944.pdf&quot;&gt;http:\/\/tert.nla.am\/archive\/HAY%20GIRQ\/Ardy\/1921-1950\/arajnordarani_erghandes_1944.pdf&lt;\/a&gt;&lt;br&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https:\/\/pdfs.semanticscholar.org\/8fb5\/66d091117993b9e8acc91a32b39c529634e6.pdf&quot;&gt;https:\/\/pdfs.semanticscholar.org\/8fb5\/66d091117993b9e8acc91a32b39c529634e6.pdf&lt;\/a&gt; '><sup>3<\/sup><\/a><\/span> The name Vaxax was in use in at least two Armenian princely houses in the late 13th to mid-14th centuries, but there are no instances of it outside elite circles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Updated November 12, 2024. Each source has its own transliteration method, so combining names from all the sources into one page would make it impossible to know how to pronounce each name. Therefore, each source has its own page. The first five pages are names from manuscripts written in Armenian\u2026<\/p>\n<p class=\"continue-reading-button\"> <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.issendai.com\/16thcenturyistanbul\/turkish-names\/armenian-names\/\">Continue reading<i class=\"crycon-right-dir\"><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":706,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[103,85],"tags":[105],"class_list":["post-2372","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","category-armenian-names","category-ottoman-turkish-names","tag-freeborn-names"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.issendai.com\/16thcenturyistanbul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.issendai.com\/16thcenturyistanbul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.issendai.com\/16thcenturyistanbul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.issendai.com\/16thcenturyistanbul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.issendai.com\/16thcenturyistanbul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2372"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.issendai.com\/16thcenturyistanbul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2372\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3057,"href":"https:\/\/www.issendai.com\/16thcenturyistanbul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2372\/revisions\/3057"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.issendai.com\/16thcenturyistanbul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.issendai.com\/16thcenturyistanbul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.issendai.com\/16thcenturyistanbul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.issendai.com\/16thcenturyistanbul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}