What's In A Name: Joseph, Irene

Joseph-From transliterated Hebrew "Yosef," with the idea of, "Jehovah will add." Made popular among Jews by the Old Testament son of Jacob, and made popular among Christians by the New Testament husband of Mary, as well as the Old Testament. Passed onto Muslims and Arabic, generally as "Youssef," also from the Old Testament. Passed into transliterated Greek as "Iosif," which was borrowed by Latin as "Ioseph," then also "Iosephus." The name became increasingly popular in other parts of Europe during the Middle Ages, but of course, in different forms throughout the various language groups, like: "Giuseppe" (Italian), "José" (Spanish/Portuguese), Joseph (English, French, German, although the spelling "Josef" is also sometimes used in German, as well as, Dutch). The female form of the name is "Josephine," which was borrowed by English from French "Joséphine." Likely made more popular circa 1800, as it was the name of Napoleon's first wife, the Empress Joséphine. 

Irene-This female name comes from transliterated Greek "Eirene" (pronounced as if, "i-ray-nay"), which meant "peace," "perhaps" from an original notion of "joining and working together." The name was used for the Greek goddess of peace. Originally more popular in eastern Europe, the name eventually grew in popularity in other areas of Europe in the 1800s.    

I consulted the following, so for more information on any of the names see: 1) "A Greek-English Lexicon," by Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, Roderick McKenzie, and Eric Arthur Barber, published by Oxford/Clarendon Press, 1940. 2) "A World Of Baby Names" by Teresa Norman, published by Perigee/Penguin Group, New York, 2003. 

WORD HISTORY:
Fathom-This word goes back to Indo European "peteh," which had the notion of "spread out." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "fathma/fathmaz," meaning, "an embrace." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon)  "fæðm/fæðme" (modern = faethm/faethme), which also meant "an embrace," but also, "a length of measurement from outstretched arms of 6 feet." This later became "fathome," before the modern version. The verb was originally "fæðmian" (=faethmian), meaning, "to grasp with outstretched arms, to embrace, to surround." Forms in the other Germanic languages: German has "Faden," meaning "thread," from "a piece of thread the length of outstretched arms," but also, "a fathom, a unit of measurement (originally from outstretched arms)." It has been spelled "fadum" and "vadem" at various times. Low German Saxon has the same, "Faden," "perhaps" influenced by standard German in more modern times, but also once spelled "vadem," meaning, "length of measurement of 6 feet, the length of outstretched arms." Dutch has "vadem" (fathom), Danish and Norwegian have "favn/favne" (meaning "embrace," actually usually as "omfavne," and "fathom(s)"), Icelandic "faðma" ("embrace") and "faðmur" ("measurement of depth"), Swedish "omfamning" ("embrace") and "famn" ("fathom, armful, rope/cord").