What's In A Name: Jacob, James, Guinevere

Jacob-This name is from transliterated Hebrew "Ya'aqov," which seems to have meant, "one who follows on the heels of and takes the place of another;" thus, "a supplanter." Greek borrowed the name as transliterated "Iakobos," which was then borrowed by Latin as "Iacobus." English took the name as "Jacob" from the Latin form, which also had a variant form of the name, as "Jacomus." This second form passed into French as "James," which was borrowed by English and became widely used by Christians, in preference to "Jacob," which was thought of by many as a Jewish name. Other common forms of "Jacob," outside of English, are "Jakob," "Yakov," "Giacomo" and "Yakub." Another form of "James" is "Jaime."

Guinevere-This is from Welsh "Gwenhwyfar," which "seemingly" meant "fair and smooth." * At some point after the Normans conquered England in late 1066, they rendered the name as "Guenevere." Famously, "Guinevere" is the name of King Arthur's wife in the writings about the legendary leader of a part of the the Celtic people who were resisting the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Briton. Some of those Celtic people survived the Anglo-Saxons in Cornwall,** in southwestern England, where the name came to be rendered as "Jennifer."  

* Some sources believe the meaning to have been "white ghost/spirit."

** The original language of Cornwall was "Cornish," one of the Celtic languages, and closely related to Welsh and Breton (from Brittany in France). It has declined, as English prevailed as the primary language in Cornwall, but it is still spoken as a second language by some there, while others know at least some words or phrases.

For these names, I consulted: 1) "A World of Baby Names" by Teresa Norman, published by Perigee/Penguin Group, New York, 2003. 2) Behindthename.com

WORD HISTORY:
Glee-There is a problem with "glee's" history. This word, related to "glad" and to "glisten," both from Germanic, goes back to Indo European "ghel," which had the notion "to shine, to cause or to bring light," with the extended meaning, "to bring joy or happiness." Many sources cite some Old Germanic offspring from the Indo European form, but the problem I have is, where are the forms in other Germanic languages, although Old Norse had "gly," which meant "joy, gladness." I wonder if, in fact, "glee" is not just a shortened form of "glad," which was "glæd" in English long ago, or an English invention fashioned out of "glæd" as an intensifier, as while "glad" means "happy, pleased, cheerful," it does not convey the intensity of joy that "glee" signifies. In Old English, "glee" was rendered as both "gleo" and "gliw" and meant, "joy, merriment, jesting, mirth." Further, in Old English, a "gleoman" was a "jester" or a "minstrel." Could it be that the forms of "glee" back then were more often applied to "joy" provided by performers/entertainers who made people "gleeful?" "Glad" often expresses a sense of cheerfulness derived from "satisfaction;" as in, "I'm glad your son chose to go to college." "Perhaps" the Old Norse form could have been borrowed FROM English. The Old English forms melded into "gle," before doubling the "e" for the modern version.