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Names are often the starting point for any family history project. They populate our family trees. They appear on postcards and letters from long ago. And, if we are lucky, they live on in our family lore. Even if we know little else about our ancestors, we may know their names, and this knowledge is much more significant than we might expect. Not only do names tether us to our past, but they also offer us a window into history beyond our own families, helping us to understand the cultural contexts into which our ancestors were born.
One of the most remarkable elements of this dictionary is its historical scope. As he worked to compile it, Adjarian consulted sources that spanned nearly 1,500 years, pulling out names from some of the earliest texts ever written in Armenian. This approach allowed him to determine which names had been in use for centuries and which had gained traction only recently.
When names are used for many centuries and over vast geographies, variation is inevitable. It is especially common in societies with low literacy rates. Like most people around the world before the 19th century, the vast majority of Armenians in the past were much more likely to hear names rather than to read them. Given enough time, what was once a single name could multiply, as we see here: Յովսէփ: Յովսէփ, Ովսէփ, Յուսէփ, Ուսէփ, Օսէփ Joseph: Hovsep, Ovsep, Housep, Ousep, Osep Հռիփսիմէ: Հռիփսիմէ, Հռոփսիմա, Սիմա, Հոռոմսի, Ուռում, Հոռոփ, Հռիւս Crispina: Hripsimé, Hropsima, Sima, Horomsi, Ouroum, Horop, Hrus Յարութիւն: Յարութիւն, Յարութ, Յարօ, Արութին, Արթին, Արթօ, Արթաքի Resurrection: Haroutiun, Harout, Haro, Aroutin, Artin, Arto, Artaki Յովհաննէս: Յովհաննէս, Օհաննէս, Ավանէս, Վանէս, Հանէս, Հովիկ, Օհան, Օննիկ, Օնօ John: Hovhannes, Ohannes, Avanes, Vanes, Hanes, Hovig/Hovik, Ohan, Onnig/Onnik, Ono  The Armenian-American singer Onnik Dinkjian bears a form of the name Hovhannes As literacy rates rose in the 20th century and a drive to standardize based on the earliest attested form of a given name gained momentum, variations like the ones above dwindled. But, if an Agop or Kirkor makes an appearance in your family documents, know that it is not a typo. It is a variant of the names we are most used to seeing today as Hagop/Hakob and Krikor/Grigor and reflects your ancestor’s own pronunciation of his or her name. While the names we have read about so far have had remarkable staying power, Adjarian’s work also highlights just how much the popularity of names can change over time. The overwhelming majority of the names he cites are no longer used today—and sometimes have not been for centuries. These include names like the following:
Sometimes names run their course and fall out of fashion for no clear reason. But other times, their rise and fall are linked to cultural changes. The name Vasag/Vasak, for example, was largely abandoned when it became associated with a turncoat prince from the 5th century whose story became more widely known in the 19th century. A cultural shift in the 19th century also revived many ancient names and led to the invention of entirely new ones. This was a period when national sentiment was on the rise, and Armenian intellectuals were looking to the past to help guide their future. Disappearing into their libraries, they reemerged with largely forgotten episodes from history and mythology, drawing on them to forge a cultural consciousness that could unite Armenians all around the world. As awareness of these episodes spread, so too did the names in them. The following figures, for example, are found in Movses Khorenatsi’s History of the Armenians, a work filled with fact and fiction that modern intellectuals relied on to craft their new history books. Likely because of the popularity of the legends in these books, Armenian children in the late 19th and early 20th centuries began to be given the names of figures in them for the very first time in history.
Alongside the ancient past, the 19th century was also marked by a newfound interest in medieval history, particularly the medieval Kingdom of Cilicia. For the first time, the names of Cilician kings and queens were plucked out of books, given to Armenian children, and thus revived five hundred years after the fall of the kingdom. They include the following names, which are still heard today:  A depiction of the medieval Queen Zabel by Vardges Sureniants, c. 1909
 An 18th-century illustration of Haik from Mikayel Chamchian's The History of Armenia Other times, new names spread after a person of note adopted them. A good example is the name Raffi. A widely popular name today, it only came into circulation among Armenians after the writer Hakob Melik Hakobian began using it as his penname in the 1870s. The same goes for the names Seza, the penname of the writer Siranoush Zarifian, and Sevag/Sevak, inspired by the poets Roupen Sevag (born Roupen Chilingirian) and Paruyr Sevak (born Paruyr Ghazaryan).
Click here for part II, an exploration of Armenian names from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
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