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Elvis (name)

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Elvis
Gendermasculine
Name day12 September[1]
Origin
Word/nameCeltic
Meaningunknown
Other names
Related namesEilfyw, Eilfw, Ailbe, Ailbhe, Alby, Albeus, Alibeus, Elwen, Elvan
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Elvis is a male given name that first appears as that of a Saint Elvis, a figure said to be active in medieval Wales. While the name features in early Medieval Welsh literature and is of Celtic origin, it is uncertain if the name was originally Irish (Gaelic) or Welsh (Brythonic).

Saint Elvis

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Writing in the late 11th century Buchedd Dewi ("Life of David"), Rhigyfarch states that a Saint Elvis baptised Saint David at Porthclais.[2][3] Other Welsh traditions associate Elvis with the area, he is said to have fostered the young St David[4] while serving as bishop of Menevia (present-day St David's) before leaving on his mission to convert southern Ireland.

The saint's name name is given as Eilfyw in Welsh Ailbe in Irish and Elvis in later English translations, and there are a number of places associated with the saint that bear the name "Elvis" in the St Davids area. These include a burial chamber, a shrine, the Parish of St Elvis, St Elvis farm[5] and St Elvis's Well.[4]

If the name is of a Welsh origin, the Irish name Ailbe might be gaelicisation of an Ancient British name ancestral to modern Welsh Eilfyw or Eilfw.[6] Alternatively the name may be related or identical to the Brythonic names Elwen, Eluan and Elvan, the names of a number of several attested saints venerated in early medieval Wales, Cornwall and Brittany. Or even from the surname Elwes.[7] If the name is of a Welsh origin, it may derive from the Old Welsh elfydd ("world" or "land"), ultimately from the common Celtic root albi(i̭)o- ("world")[8]

A folk etymology is suggested for a Gaelic origin of the name in the 14th century Vita Albei, deriving it from ail ("a rock") and beo ("living").[9] A sporadic association of the saint's name with rocks has been observed, as in the Lia Ailbe ("stone of Ailbe") on the Magh Ailbe (plain of Ailbe), in Sliabh Ailbe "Mount Ailbe" in Duanaire Finn.[10] and maybe in Inbher Ailbhine mentioned in Tirechan's Vita Patricii.[11] Other possibilities involve derivation from the root albh- "white", which is found in the names of a number of Celtic deities (including a possible Albius recorded in a single inscription from Aignay-le Duc),[12]

Other proposed etymologies

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In medieval French sources, the unrelated homograph Elvis occurs as a feminine name, a variant of Helvis, Aluysa, Alaisa, from a Germanic name such as Alwis.[13]

The name may also be derived from the Scandinavian Old Norse word Alviss which in Norse mythology means “all-wise”.[citation needed]

Usage

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The name most commonly refers to American singer and actor Elvis Presley (1935–1977). Earlier bearers of the name include American government official and college administrator Elvis Jacob Stahr Jr. (1916–1998, born the same year as Elvis Presley's father, Vernon Elvis Presley).[14] In most cases, however, it refers to people who have the name as a tribute to Elvis Presley.[citation needed] People in this latter group includes those who took the name themselves (with UK-born singer and songwriter Elvis Costello being an example), and those who were named Elvis by their parents.

People with the name

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Musicians

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Kenyan songwriter and singer

Athletes (association football)

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Athletes (other sports)

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Other

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Fictional characters

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References

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  1. ^ historically also 13 September and 27 February, "Saint Elvis" in Terry Breverton's Wales: A Historical Companion, pp. 164 f. Amberley Publishing (Stroud), 2009.
  2. ^ Wade-Evans, A.W. (1913) Rhigyfarch's Life of Saint David, ed. and trans., University of Wales Press, and (1944) Vitae Sanctorum Britanniae, ed. and trans, Cardiff, UWP. (pp. 150-172, 364-387 in new edition, ed. Scott Lloyd, Welsh Academic Press Cardiff, 2013); Sharpe, Richard and Davies, John Reuben, ed. (2007) "Vita S. David" in Evans, J Wyn and Wooding, Jonathan M, ed. "St David of Wales, Cult, Church and Nation", Boydell Press, Woodbridge
  3. ^ BBC. "Saint David".
  4. ^ a b "Saint Elvis" in Terry Breverton's Wales: A Historical Companion, pp. 164 f. Amberley Publishing (Stroud), 2009.
  5. ^ St Elvis farm Solva Pembroke SA62 (Map). Google maps. Retrieved 26 May 2009.
  6. ^ Plummer, Charles (1968) [1910]. Vitae Sanctorum Hiberniae [Lives of the Saints of Ireland] (2nd ed.). Oxford: Clarendon. p. 46 ff., vol. 1.
  7. ^ Patrick Hanks; Richard Coates; Peter McClure (2016). The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland. Oxford University Press. p. 835. ISBN 978-0199677764.
  8. ^ In fact this root has been argued to be related to the root albho- 'white, bright', see Meid, Wolfgang (1990) "Über Albion, elfydd, Albiorix, und andere Indikatoren eine keltischen Weltbildes" in M.J. Ball, J, Fife, E, Poppe and J.Rowland, ed. Celtic Linguistics: Readings in the Brythonic Languages, Festschrift for T. Arwyn Watkins, Amsterdam/ Philadelphia.
  9. ^ Baring-Gould and Fisher (1907), "The Lives of the British Saints" Vol I, p. 130 [1]
  10. ^ II, 95, xlii in MacNeill, Eoin and Murphy, Gerard (1908-54) Duanaire Finn, 3 vols, Irish Texts Society 7, 28, 43.
  11. ^ Watson, W.J. (1926) "The Celtic Place Names of Scotland", Edinburgh/London, p. 469, note 1.
  12. ^ Lajoye, Patrice & Crombet, Pierre, (2016) "Encyclopédie de l'Arbre Celtique" s.v Albius, retrieved 25 August 2016. [2] ; Beck op.cit: 4, III, B, 1) c)
  13. ^ Mémoires de la Société bourguignonne de géographie et d'histoire 5 (1887), p. 481; Elvis d'Epoisses (died c. 1252), wife of André de Montbard.
  14. ^ "Elvis Presley roots in Scotland". Archived from the original on 31 July 2012. Retrieved 27 May 2009.
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