Roderick
Roderick (*Hrōþirīkiaz) is a Teutonic name and means “mighty in renown”. Rick (“powerful”) is cognate with Latin rex, German reich, English rich, Sanskrit raj, and so forth. Rod (“glory”) is cognate with Sanskrit kīrtí- (“praise/glory”, whence kārú- “singer of praise, poet”) and Greek κήρυξ (“herald”). From the same root, Icelandic and Anglo-Saxon hróðr and hréð mean “glory”, hence “victory”, with the respective adjectives hróðugr/hréþig meaning “triumphant”. Both of these elements (rod-rick) can be mixed and matched with other elements to make other names, such as Frederick (“mighty in peace”) or Roger/Hroðgar (“famous spear”).The Hebrew equivalent is Hillel (הלל), the name of the famous rabbi. Hallelujah means “glory to Jehovah” (or “praise Jah”). The exact Greek equivalent would be the extremely rare Cratocles (Κρατοκλῆς). The ending –cles means “renown”: hence Damocles (“famous folk”), Pericles (“entirely famous”), Diocles (“renowned of Jove”), Androcles (“famous warrior”) and Eteocles (“man of true renown”), &c. I use the name Sophocles (a poet “famed for wisdom”) and my Greek friends know me as Σοφοκλῆς Σαξονίδης, though my wife jokingly calls me Σφαιροκλῆς, because I’m fat.
In this post and the ones that follow are some of my namesakes.
Hrørek of Dorestad, Danish King of Frisia (841-73)
Rorik fan Dorestêd, Deenske kening fan Fryslân
Roderick, ruRikr (Hrœrekr),
Runestone U413 on Church of Norrsunda
Uppland, Sweden.
The small "r" is that inherited from the Indogermanic/Protogermanic /r/.
The big "R" is a reflex of Protogermanic /s/.
(Cf. Gothic Hroþareiks vs. Icelandic Hrœrekr/Hrærekur.)
What this actually sounded like, one can only guess,
but it was different enough from both /r/ and /s/
to merit having a separate symbol.
In East Germanic it stayed /s/,
in North Germanic it eventually became /r/
and in West Germanic it was lost altogether.
Roderick's Mom, Wealhþeow,
Wife of Hroðgar, Mother of Hreðric and Hroðmund.
