A list of the Top Ten boys’ names and Top Ten girls’ names for 2008, with a detailed description of the origin and meaning of each name.

I’m pretty sure you can all think of at least one word that has changed, or gained a new meaning in the last fifty or so years. Gay? Cool? Hot? But what about from the very beginning? Here’s a few of the ones I find interesting…

Use of the term dates back to the late 19th century.

A short time ago I was talking to a friend about names. I was quite surprised to learn that she didn’t know the meaning of her own name. I was always curious about my name.

They are meek and embarrassed; they follow; they are not wolves.

The etymology of the name Evan.

Tracing the modern English “witch” through a history of terms and practices which have been its predecessors.

Barry Carozzi indulges his love of words and the stories of their origins once again.

The deep prehistory of our language has nurtured little word seeds that over the millennia have proliferated into widely differentiated families of vocabulary.

How the words “friend” and “love” can mean the same in some languages.