Where do Names come from?

[Jake]

I think mine is a bit boring, but here it is anyway:

JACOB (m) "to hold the heel" or "supplanter" from the Hebrew name Ya'akov. The biblical Jacob (later called Israel) was born holding his twin brother Esau's heel. He was the son of Isaac and Rebecca and the father of the twelve founders of the twelve tribes of Israel. A famous bearer of this name was Jacob Grimm, the German linguist and writer who was, with his brother Wilhelm, the author of 'Grimm's Fairy Tales'.

The strange thing is that I AM a twin. We are identical twins. My brothers name is Nicolai.

NICHOLAS (m) "victory people" (Greek). Saint Nicholas was a 4th-century bishop who, according to legend, saved the daughters of a poor man from lives of prostitution. He is now known as Santa Claus, the bringer of Christmas presents. He is the patron saint of children, sailors and merchants, and Greece and Russia. Nicholas was also the name of two czars of Russia and five popes.

A bit strange that my parents chose to name one son after the founder of Israel and the other after the head of the Catholic Church.

Regards,

Jake

[villerk]

Thank's for answering

My surname is KOSKINEN. KOSKI means a rapid or somekind of a stream. That -NEN ending means little or such. There's same kind of ending to substantives in German (and it even means the same thing ): "chen", like in Blümchen (small flower).

(And if you already didn't know, VILLE is maskuline. There's a feminine form also: VILHELMIINA)

[Schorsch]

My name is GEORG (similar to "George" in English), which is derived from the Greek word "georgos" and means "farmer" or "peasant". Famous bearers of this name include Georg Friedrich Händel (German composer), George Orwell (British writer) and George Washington (1st US president).

A funny thing is that my surname ("Schoch") is an old German word for "haystack" - which fits surprisingly well with my first name. I don't know if this is a coincidence or if my parents thought it would be a nice combination...

[Technoid]

MATTHIAS (m) Greek form of MATTHEW which appears in the New Testament as the name of the apostle chosen to replace the traitor Judas Iscariot. This was also the name of kings of Hungary, including Matthias I who made important reforms to the kingdom in the 15th century.

MATTHEW (m) "gift of the Lord" from the Hebrew name Mattityahu . Saint Matthew, also called Levi, was one of the twelve apostles (a tax collector). He was supposedly the author of the first Gospel in the New Testament.