Arnold (given name)

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Arnold
Arnold Schwarzenegger February 2015.jpg
Arnold Schwarzenegger is a famous person named Arnold.
PronunciationEnglish: /ˈɑːrnəld/
German: [ˈaʁnɔlt]
Finnish: [ˈɑrnold]
GenderMale
Language(s)Old High German Old Frankish
Name day1 October
Origin
Word/nameGermanic
Meaningeagle power, bright eagle
Region of originWestern Europe
Other names
Variant form(s)Arndt, Aart, Arent, Ahrend, Arnaud, Arne, Aarne, Arnout, Arnoud, Arno, Arnaldo, Arnoldo, Arnolds
Nickname(s)Arnie
DerivedArnold (surname), Ahrens, Arnall, Arnell, Arnaud (surname)
Related namesArnulf

Arnold is a masculine German, Dutch and English given name. It is composed of the Germanic elements arn "eagle" and wald "power, brightness". The name is first recorded in Francia from about the 7th century, at first often conflated with the name Arnulf, as in the name of bishop Arnulf of Metz, also recorded as Arnoald. Arnulf appears to be the older name (with cognates in Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse), and German (Frankish) Arnold may have originally arisen in c. the 7th century as a corruption of Arnulf, possibly by conflation of similar names such as Hari-wald, Arn-hald, etc.

The name is attested with some frequency in Medieval Germany during the 8th to 11th centuries, as Arnold, Arnalt, Arnald, Arnolt. It was occasionally spelled Harnold, Harnald, and the name may have been conflated with an independent formation containing hari- "host, army". Its etymology ceased to be evident from an early time, and it was sometimes folk-etymologized as Ehrenhold in the early modern period. The French form Arnaud is recorded from the 10th century, and may have reinforced and been reinforced by cognates in England after the Norman conquest, such as the Anglo-Saxon form Earnweald (Doomsday Book Ernehale; Ernaldus 12th century). However, the Norman spelling did not survive into the modern period (other than a possible survival in surnames such as Arnall, Arnell, although these names could be of multiple origins, most lilely the Old English), and once standardised spelling swept England, the form Arnold gradually became the norm. In most of the English speaking world, the name regained popularity in the 18th and 19th centuries. In the United States, Arnold had a relative surge of popularity at the beginning of the 20th century, peaking as the 89th most commonly given masculine name in 1916, but it dropped again below rank 200 by the 1950s.

Hypocorisms of the name are: Arent (Arend, Ahrend), Arndt, Arne, Aarne, Aart (etc.). Regional variants of the name include: French: Arnaud, Arnault, Italian: Arnoldo, Dutch: Arnout, Arnoud, Croatian: Arnoldo, Portuguese: Arnoldo, Spanish: Arnaldo, Catalan: Arnau, Arnald. The German name was also adopted in Old West Norse (14th century), as Arnaldr (Icelandic: Arnaldur).[1]

Arnold is also recorded as a surname (via a patronymic) from the early modern period. (Cornelius Arnold, b. 1711).

List of people called Arnold[]

Fictional characters[]

  • Arnold, the dog featured on a jingle used throughout his early career by British DJ Tony Blackburn
  • Arnold, the pet dog of Turtle, a character in the television series Entourage
  • Arnold, a anthropomorphic pig in the British animated television series Kipper
  • Arnold, a gay character in the series Please Like Me
  • Arnold, a character in the 2003 film Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over
  • Arnold John Flass, a character in the Batman universe
  • Arnold Jackson, a character in the NBC sitcom Diff'rent Strokes
  • Arnold Joseph, a character in the 1998 foreign independent film Smoke Signals
  • Arnold Layne, eponymous title of the 1967 debut single by Pink Floyd
  • Arnold McKinley, a character and firefighter genius in the children's animated television series, Fireman Sam
  • Arnold Perlstein, a character in The Magic School Bus and its revival, The Magic School Bus Rides Again
  • Arnold Poindexter, a character in the Revenge of the Nerds film series
  • Arnold Rimmer, a character in the television series Red Dwarf
  • Dr. Arnold Rosen, a neighbor who is friendly with Don and Megan Draper in Mad Men (season 6)
  • Arnold Shortman, the main character in Nickelodeon's Hey Arnold! media
  • Arnold Teague, a character in the 1990 sci-fi film Solar Crisis
  • Arnold Toht, a character in Raiders of the Lost Ark
  • Arnold Vinick, a character in the television drama The West Wing
  • Dr. Arnold Wayne, Betty Draper's psychiatrist in Mad Men (season 1)
  • Arnold Weber, a character from the HBO series Westworld (TV series)
  • Arnold Wesker, a villain known as Ventriloquist in the DC Comics Universe
  • Arnold von Winkelried, a fictional hero in Swiss folklore
  • Arnold Ziffel, a character in the television sitcom Green Acres

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ nordicnames.de, citing Kristoffer Kruken, Ola Stemshaug, Norsk Personnamnleksikon (1995)
  • Förstemann, Ernst (1900). Altdeutsches Namenbuch (3 ed.). Bonn: P. Hanstein, 114–118.
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