Chapter CCXIX: Section VII: Affection

The Teutons had a few names denoting affection. Dyre is the same in Norse as our own word _dear_, or _dyr_ in Anglo-Saxon. An inlet on the north-west corner of Iceland is still termed Dyrefiord, from one of the first settlers, and Dyre was the hero of a ballad in the _Kæmpeviser_, answering to the Scottish Katharine Janfarie, the original of young Lochinvar. The old Germans had Dioro and Diura, and the Anglo-Saxons affectionately called the young sons of their nobility Dyrling, or darling.

_Leof_, the German _lieb_, beloved, is much used by the Anglo-Saxons. Two bishops, one of Wells, and afterwards primate, the other of Crediton, were called Leofing, or Lyfing. The first was certainly properly Ælfstan, so it is probable that in both instances Leofing was merely an endearing name that grew up with them, and displaced the baptismal one; but its Latin translation, Livingus, shows the origin of the surname of Livingstone.

England also had Leofwine, Beloved friend, the only native name borne by any of the sons of Earl Godwin. An earlier Leofwine was a member of St. Boniface’s mission, and converted many of the heathens on the banks of the Weser; and as St. Lebwin is patron of Deventer, probably occasioned the name of Lubin, which, from being borne by French peasants, crept into pastoral poetry.

Another of the same mission party was Leobgytha, or Dear gift, called also Liuba and Liebe, who was sent for from her convent at Wimborne to found one of the earliest nunneries in Germany. It is probably from her that Lievine became an old Cambrecis name.

Leof seems to have been the special prefix of the earls of Mercia, for we find among them, besides Leofwine, Leofstan and Leofric, the last the best known for the sake of his wife and of Coventry.

The continental instances of the prefix are among the Spanish Goths, Liuva, Leovigildo, and Liuvigotona; and among the Franks, Leobhard, or Liebhard, a saint of Touraine.

The only present survivor of all the varieties is probably, if we exclude the occasional Puritan Love, the Cornish and Devon feminine Lovedy.

Far more universal are the names derived from the old word _vinr_, or _wine_, meaning friend or object of love, the same which has left a descendant in the German _wonne_, affection, and the Scottish adjective _winsome_. It is a continual termination, as must have been already observed, and we had it as a commencement in our great English missionary Winfrith, or Friend of peace, the Devonian bishop who spread Christianity over Germany, but who is far better known by the Latin surname which he assumed, namely, Bonifacius. Winibald was another of our missionary saints, and Germany has also had Winrad, Winrich, and Winmar, but the Welsh Wenefred must not be confused with it.

_Mild_, or _mild_, is exclusively Saxon; nay, almost exclusively Mercian, for it only occurs in one family; that of King Merowald, who named his three daughters Mildgyth, Mildburh, and Mildthryth. All became nuns, the two latter abbesses, one in Shropshire, the other in the isle of Thanet, and they were canonized as Milburga and Mildreda. Milborough, as the first became Anglicized, was found within the last century in Shropshire, and Mildred was never entirely disused; it belonged to the daughter of Burleigh, and has lately been much revived, under the notion that it means mild speech; but _red_ is always masculine, and, as has been before said, _thryth_ commands or threatens, so that Mildthryth is the gently strict.