What are some primeval names?

Of course we can never really know, but discounting the tropes like Grok and Thag and Ugg, what are some likely candidates?

I’d venture two names myself; Anna and Lee.

What caused me to wonder was an article on running, where the author kept talking about how neolithic “Grok” would have run. It definitely cheapened his point.

Maybe Belle, interposed…

Within Europe, the oldest deciphered writings are the Mycenaean Linear B tablets. Forms of names still in use appear there. “Alexander” is quite recognizable, for example. While that name was clearly got a big boost in the 4th century BC, others on the tablets stuck around in Greece and spread.

That names could be stable for 3500 years is fairly clear. So any common name that was documented in multiple places a couple thousand years ago probably goes back to late neolithic times.

Note that there are gods whose names are related to “man” in several Indo-European religions who were the ancestors of mankind. And “man” is incorporated into several European names much like “yah” and “el” in Hebrew names. So many of those go back to very early times.

Sumerian and Ancient Egyptian writings go back even further, but few people anywhere name their kids “Dumuzid” or “Narmer”.

I was looking for information like that. Thanks!

I chose Anna and Lee because they both seem very wide spread. For instance, Lee/Li is common to Europeans and Chinese. I believe there is an Ahn name as well. Not so different than Ann.

Even if it is a matter of cultural borrowing, there are a number of names agreeable to different tongues.

Jean Auel by all accounts did quite a bit of research for her Clan of the Cave Bear series. Makes me wonder about the authenticity of the names of her characters (Brun, Broud, Grod, Iza, Creb, etc.).

IIRC, in the beginning of the first novel, it is mentioned that the the Clan had trouble pronouncing the protagonists name. After several attempts, the little girl settled on “Ayla” as the closest approximation (quote: “She would be Ayla for them.”). Makes me wonder what her real name was (never revealed, as far as I know.)

I am not a linguist, but is there any evidence that certain “sounds” in human language are older than others (I seem to remember that not all letters of the alphabet were always used.) It stands to reason that the oldest names would be constituted only from the oldest sounds.

Well, as proto-indo-european is studied, it makes sense that the same could be done for names. Then again, that might be trickier.