Random names (Part 1)

Ingrid betancourt - Ingríður Betánkurt

Maurice Chevalier - Mórits Kaplari

1) Maurice: Mórits in Icelandic. The name literally means 'moorish' and should be 'Márískur' or 'Mári' as the pet-form. The even more pure High Icelandic form would be 'Móverskur'.
2) Chevalier - Kaplari: The family name 'chevalier' means 'knight' and is phoneticly adapted by adding '-ari' to the loan-word 'kapall' (horse), see Íslensk orðsifjabók.

Nicolaus Copernicus - Nikulás Koparsmiður

Nicolaus: Icelandic version is Nikulás

Copernicus: Latinized version of Polish family name Kopernik, which means 'copper-worker'. The purely Icelandic equivalent is 'eirsmiður', but for reasons of sound-similarity we will use the loan-word 'kopar': Koparsmiður

Michel Foucault - Mikjáll Fólkveldingur

1) The Icelandic equivalent of French Michel is Mikjáll (Raphael should be Rafjál)
2) Foucault - Fólkveldingur: The family name foucault derives from a Germanic personal name the first memmber of which was 'folk' (Icel. fólk) and vald (Icel. -valdur). The Icelandic equivalent of the family name is constructed by adding -ingur to Fólkvaldur: Fólkveldingur.

William Shakespeare - Vilhjálmur Skakspjör

1) The Icelandic equiavlent of William is Vilhjálmur.
2) The family name Shakespeare is a compound of the words 'shake' and 'spear' and adapted with the Icelandic cognates these two words.

Yves Saint-Laurent - Ívi Sankti Lafrans

1) Yves - Ívi:
The French personal name Yves, derived from Germanic iv meaning "yew" is the equivalent of Icelandic Ívi, a name of a sea-king, which is probably (according to the Íslensk Orðsifjabók) derived from ýr (yew). Some would like to use Ívar, but the etymology of this name is disputed.
2) Saint-Laurent -Sankti Lafrans

Lech Wałęsa - Læsir Valensa

1) Lech - Læsir
No personal name is so typically Polish than Lech. It was the name of the Legendary founder of the Polish nation and the name of one of the most widely known Poles in the world today: Lech Wałęsa. The name is related to Ljachy, Lenkya, Lengyel, respecively the Old Russian, Baltic and Hungarian name for the Polish people. In Hungarian, Lengyel still means 'Pole' and Lengyelország 'Poland'. The Orðsifjabók mentions 'Læsir' as the name of a Polish tribe living near the Vistula and as a masculine personal name related to the name of this tribe. This means that an equivalent of this typically Polish name existed in Old Icelandic!! This resulted in the following High Icelandic neologisms:
Læsir (masc. pers. name): Lech
Læsir: Poles (Analogue to Hungarian Lengyel)
Læsaland: Poland (analogue to Hungarian Lengyelország)
Læsneskur: PolishLæsneska: Polish language
2) Wałęsa - Valensa:
This polish family name is pronounced 'vawensa' and Icelandicized Valensa.

Bertrand Russell - Bjarthrafn Hrísill

1) Bertrand -Bjarthrafn:
Bertrand is derived from Bertram and means "bright raven", derived from the Germanic element beraht "bright" combined with hramn "raven". The corresponding Icelandic construction is Bjarthrafn.
2) Russell - Hrísill:
The Fjölnismen icelandicized John Russell as Jón Hrísill in their magazine Skírnir, so we will use this as the Icelandic equivalent of this personal name (Jack Russell terrier - Hrísilsgrefill)

Aristoteles - Aðaltili

1) Aristo -Aðal
The prefix Aristo in Greek personal names derived from αριστος (aristos) "best". The equivalent in Icelandic personal names is Aðal- "noble, foremost, premier".
2) -teles - -tili
The Icelandic suffix -tili (derived from til (to, toward), which occurs in aldurtili and ótili is etymologically related to Greek telos and German ziel and have a similar meaning (goal, destiny). Since there is no equivalent in Icelandic personal names, tili has to be introduced as a phono-semantical match for Icelandicized Greek personal names ending in -teles.

Publius Cornelius Scipio - Fólki Hyrnill Skífingur

1) Publius - Fólki
The Latin personal name Publius means 'public' in Latin and is related to the Icelandic fólk. The obvious Icelandic equivalent is Fólki (see Íslensk Orðsifjabók, under fólk and Fólki).
2) Cornelius - Hyrnill
This Roman family name possibly derives from the Latin element cornu "horn". Since the only similar word in Latin means 'horn', it is appropriate to adapt the name with Icelandic horn.
3) Scipio - Skífungur
Related to Icelandic skífa (see íslensk orðsifjabók) so I used the stem of this word for the adaptation: skíf- + ungur (singular form of -ungar, which, along with -ingar, was used to denote families and follwers of someone in Old Icelandic, e.g. Völsungar, hjaðningar).