Kingdom Names: 480 Ideas with Real Meanings

Medieval fantasy kingdom of stone towers on a cliff above a river valley at sunrise

Tolkien taught Anglo-Saxon at Oxford for twenty years, and it shows in one detail most readers never notice. The Rohirrim do not call their country Rohan. That is what Gondor calls it. Among themselves it is the Mark and the Mark is Mercia. Mercia was a real Anglo-Saxon kingdom covering the English Midlands. Its name … Read more

Victorian Names: 300 Real Names from 1837 to 1901

Open Victorian parish birth register on a wooden desk beside an oil lamp, inkwell and dip pen

Here is something most Victorian name lists get wrong: Victoria was not a popular Victorian name. In 1844, English birth registers recorded over 63,000 girls named Nancy. Victoria got 148. The Queen’s name was considered too grand for ordinary families — so while Albert climbed steadily after the royal wedding in 1840, Victoria never did. … Read more