I'm sure that I've discussed names and name meanings on this blog before, but I've been thinking about name meanings a lot lately. I wonder how many people actually consider the meaning of names before giving them to their children. The name James, for example, at it's heart is a translation of Jacob, which means the usurper. Francis or Frances essentially means French. And of course, many cultures have anglicized their names to correspond with the English - so somebody recorded as James may have been known as Seamus or Seumas if they were Irish or Scottish, or Shams or Iago if they were Welsh. The writers of the Welsh national anthem, Mae Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau, had the bardic names Iago ap Iago and Ieuan ap Iago - or James [son of] James, and John [son of] James. There are several versions of John in Welsh such as Shon, Sion, Ieuan, and Evan.
Another name with a huge amount of variations, this time a lot of which were in English, is Elizabeth - think about it, Elizabeth can be recorded as Liz, Lizzy, Lizzie, Bertha, Betty, Betsy, Liza, Eliza, Bess, etc. etc. This page, shows the huge extent that the name Elizabeth has been varied in different times, countries, and cultures. Names tend to be more fluid than we think they are.
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