{"id":24074,"date":"2025-06-05T15:07:47","date_gmt":"2025-06-05T15:07:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=24074"},"modified":"2025-06-05T15:07:47","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T15:07:47","slug":"strong-names","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=24074","title":{"rendered":"Strong Names"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>What connects the names <strong>Cathal<\/strong>, <strong>Ronald<\/strong>, <strong>Valerie<\/strong> and <strong>Walter<\/strong>? Let&#8217;s find out.<\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/badjonni\/8352472068\/in\/photolist-dJ5AX7-yZGfUB-p7d2MA-8M5Cs2-YDyeH3-dmNtYQ-HE2rEv-BqNAN7-4DjU6f-65B4Mw-2oFzfse-2o2fwVs-7AXvys-7HGZN7-5Cgy8K-57us1G-qE9ZXc-wqxHC-46UifB-bpDsfB-28YXxdg-65xMth-dy8rHd-nvpiAB-a2eC7A-2oUXqNf-8FJ74d-8Y59TK-dtfBbn-9gQmyz-f1shqL-3978ym-mhLQTR-7qD88q-6S7mv6-ixZJwd-9s56Lu-8YhNd-YwYWKo-vhYuVb-puUhw-4KYRza-3GF46L-3EZS6-KRmmQ-3z8oKH-2qn2Ku-oGFvj-6UnpWH-9xfmEe\" title=\"Where's Wally?\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/8232\/8352472068_6333ea9f21_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"426\" alt=\"Where's Wally?\"\/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<em>Where&#8217;s Walter \/ Wally?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The name <strong>Cathal<\/strong> comes from Irish <strong>Cathal<\/strong> [\u02c8kah\u0259l\u02e0], from Old Irish <em>Cathal<\/em>, from Proto-Celtic <em>*Katuwalos<\/em> from <em>*katus<\/em> (battle) and <em>*walos<\/em> (prince, chief), from Proto-Indo-European <em>*h\u2082welh\u2081-<\/em> (to rule, to be strong). The Welsh names <strong>Cadwal<\/strong> and <strong>Cadwaladr<\/strong> come from the same roots [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/Donald#English\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>Names that also share the Proto-Celtic root <em>*walos<\/em> (prince, chief) include <strong>Conall<\/strong> &#8211; from <em>*k\u016b<\/em> (dog, wolf) and <em>*walos<\/em>; <strong>Donald \/ Domhnall<\/strong> from <em>*dubnos<\/em> (world) and <em>*walos<\/em>, and <strong>(O&#8217;)Toole<\/strong> &#8211; from <em>*tout\u0101<\/em> (people, tribe, tribal land) and <em>*walos<\/em> [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/Reconstruction:Proto-Celtic\/walos\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>The name <strong>Ronald<\/strong> comes from Scottish Gaelic <strong>Raghnall<\/strong> [\u02c8r\u02e0\u0264\u0303\u02d0.\u0259l\u032a\u02e0], from Old Norse <em>R\u01ebgnvaldr<\/em>, from Proto-Germanic <em>*Raginawaldaz<\/em> from <em>*ragin\u0105<\/em> (decision, advice, counsel) and <em>*waldaz<\/em> (wielder, rule), from <em>*waldan\u0105<\/em> (to rule), possibly from Proto-Indo-European <em>*h\u2082welh\u2081-<\/em> (to rule, to be strong) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/Ronald#English\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>Names that also share the Proto-Germanic root <em>*waldaz<\/em> (wielder, rule) include <strong>Harold<\/strong> &#8211; from <em>*harjaz<\/em> (army, commander, warrior) and <em>*waldaz<\/em>; <strong>Oswald<\/strong> &#8211; from <em>*ansuz<\/em> (deity, god) and <em>*waldaz<\/em>; <strong>Gerald<\/strong> &#8211; from <em>*gaizaz<\/em> (spear, pike, javelin) and <em>*waldaz<\/em>, and <strong>Walter<\/strong> &#8211; from <em>*waldaz<\/em> and <em>*harjaz<\/em> (army, commander, warrior) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/Reconstruction:Proto-Celtic\/walos\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>The name <strong>Valerie<\/strong> comes from French <strong>Val\u00e9rie<\/strong>, from Latin <em>Valeria<\/em>, a feminine form of the Roman family name <em>Valerius<\/em>, from Latin <em>valere<\/em> (to be strong), from <em>vale\u014d<\/em> (to be strong, to be powerful, to be healthy, to be worthy), from Proto-Italic <em>*wale\u014d<\/em> (to be strong) from Proto-Indo-European <em>*h\u2082wl\u0325h\u2081\u00e9h\u2081yeti<\/em>, from <em>*h\u2082welh\u2081-<\/em> (to rule, to be strong) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/Valerie#English\">source<\/a>]. Names from the same Latin roots include <strong>Valentine<\/strong>, <strong>Valeria<\/strong> and <strong>Valencia<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Parts of all these names can be traced back to the Proto-Indo-European root <em>*h\u2082welh\u2081-<\/em> (to rule, to be strong) &#8211; the same is true for the names <strong>Arnold<\/strong>, <strong>Reginald<\/strong>, <strong>Reynold<\/strong> and <strong>Vlad(imir)<\/strong> [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/Category:English_terms_derived_from_the_Proto-Indo-European_root_*h%E2%82%82welh%E2%82%81-_(rule)\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>Other words from the same PIE root include:  <strong>ambivalent<\/strong>, <strong>cuckold<\/strong>, <strong>evaluation<\/strong>, <strong>invalid<\/strong>, <strong>prevalence<\/strong>, <strong>unwieldy<\/strong>, <strong>valour<\/strong> and <strong>value<\/strong> in English, <strong>gwlad<\/strong> (country, sovereignty) and <strong>gwaladr<\/strong> (ruler, sovereign) in Welsh, <strong>walten<\/strong> (to rule, exercise control) in German, <strong>vallita<\/strong> (to prevail, predominate, reign) in Finnish, <strong>vl\u00e1dnout<\/strong> (to rule, reign) in Czech, and <strong>\u0432\u043b\u0430\u0441\u0442<\/strong> (vlast &#8211; power, authority, influence, government) in Bulgarian [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European\/h%E2%82%82welh%E2%82%81-\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.japanesepod101.com\/member\/go.php?r=759259&amp;i=b0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/images\/banners\/banner_japanesepod.jpg\" alt=\"The Fastest Way to Learn Japanese Guaranteed with JapanesePod101.com\" width=\"630\" height=\"83\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-5001128073855040\"\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- Blog horizontal --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\n     style=\"display:block\"\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-5001128073855040\"\n     data-ad-slot=\"1685480124\"\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What connects the names Cathal, Ronald, Valerie and Walter? Let&#8217;s find out. Where&#8217;s Walter \/ Wally? The name Cathal comes from Irish Cathal [\u02c8kah\u0259l\u02e0], from Old Irish Cathal, from Proto-Celtic *Katuwalos from *katus (battle) and *walos (prince, chief), from Proto-Indo-European *h\u2082welh\u2081- (to rule, to be strong). The Welsh names Cadwal and Cadwaladr come from the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[93,99,104,107,109,111,116,127,10,15,427,35,36,43,44,45,46,56,77],"tags":[421,423,158,426,138,420,281,422,425,424,163],"class_list":["post-24074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bulgarian","category-czech","category-english","category-etymology","category-finnish","category-french","category-german","category-irish","category-language","category-latin","category-names","category-old-irish-goidelc","category-old-norse","category-proto-celtic","category-proto-germanic","category-proto-indo-european","category-proto-italic","category-scottish-gaelic","category-welsh","tag-cathal","tag-donald","tag-etymology","tag-harold","tag-language","tag-names","tag-omniglot","tag-ronald","tag-valerie","tag-walter","tag-words"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24074"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24074\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24079,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24074\/revisions\/24079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}