2564: Ursula Dec 20, 2021

The name 'Ursula' is from the Latin 'ursa' (meaning 'bear'), with the feminine diminutive suffix '-ula', but that is not the main reason why people would chose to give that name perhaps. The popularity came from a 4th century saint, Saint Ursula. Many fantastic stories exist about her, though the exact historical record on her is not solid. Still, in addition to making famous an old Latin name—especially in non-Romance speaking areas especially in Slavic Eastern Europe—she also inspired the name for the Virgin Islands in the Caribbean, among other places.

2500: Bears: How Fear Developed Terminology Oct 16, 2021

The word 'bear' and its many similar Germanic counterparts, along with other very different sounding words of Northern European regions diverge from the Proto-Indo-European '*rtko' as seen in the Latin 'ursus' and Greek αρκτικός (arktikos). The Proto-Germanic '*berô' is related to the word 'brown' (and as a matter of course, 'beaver') meaning 'brown one'. Many people have claimed this is as a euphemistic reference from fear of bears who more prevalently inhabited Northern Europe than around the Mediterranean where they were fewer and smaller. Not only Germanic languages have this phenomenon, as the Russian медведь (medved) means 'honey-eater' and some Celtic references once had similar euphemistic qualities.