What's In A Name: Bertha, Oscar

Bertha-This name is also spelled "Berta" in some languages, for example: Czech, Hungarian and Spanish. The name is from Germanic and was originally a shortening of some compound names, although it quickly became a common name in its own right. The primary element of "Bertha" was from Germanic "berhtaz," which had the notion of "shining, gleaming;" thus, "bright." The Germanic form gave Old High German "beraht," which also meant "bright," and indeed, the Germanic form is the source of English "bright." It seems that Charlemagne's mother had the name, as a shortening of her proper name, "Bertrada," and this greatly popularized the name. The name "Big Bertha" was a nickname given by the Allies to the German 420mm howitzer of the World War I era, likely as a play on Bertha Krupp, who had headed the German armaments manufacturer "Krupp" prior to the war. In actual usage, the nickname was often used for various large German artillery pieces, and the beginning letter "B" for both words was perfect in sound and made it easy to remember. The use for large artillery made a tie of the nickname to heavy set women which became so strong, the term was used in a comedic way, and likely this unfortunately made many English speaking parents think twice about naming their newly born daughters "Bertha."     

Oscar-This name, also spelled "Oskar," is a compound derived from Germanic, with the first part, "Os," going back to Indo European "ansu," which meant, "(a) spirit." This gave Old Germanic "ansu(z)," meaning "god, deity;" thus also, "godliness." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "ós," which meant "god," in a general sense. The second part of the name is from Germanic derived "gar," which meant "spear," and it is related to the first part of "garlic." Together they gave Old English the name "Osgar," meaning "god's spear." The change to the spelling "Oscar" is more contentious, although quite simply it could just be a variant spelling of the English name "Osgar." On the other hand, Irish had the name "Oscair/Oscar," 1) perhaps borrowed from the English form, 2) perhaps borrowed from Old Norse "Ásgeir" (the Norse landed in Ireland in circa 800 and continued involvement with landings/settlements there for a couple of hundred years, and longer if you take up when they were called "Norsemen" and later "Normans" 3) perhaps from Gaelic "os," meaning "deer" (the animal) and "cara," meaning "friend." Of course, there may be some truth to many or all of these things, from the Old English form and the Irish form, or the Irish form influenced the Old English form. Oscar I King of Sweden and Norway helped popularize the name in the 1800s (Oscar was a middle name for him, but it had been "given" ("suggested?") by Napoleon, whom the boy's father served as Minister of War when the child was born.    

I consulted the following for this article: 1) https://www.behindthename.com  2) "A Dictionary of First Names (Second Edition)," by Patrick Hanks, Kate Hardcastle and Flavia Hodges, Oxford University Press, 2006

WORD HISTORY:  
Borrow-This word is related to "bury," a word from the Germanic roots of English, and to "bargain," a word of Germanic origin, absorbed by Latin-based French and later borrowed by English via the Normans. "Borrow" goes back to Indo European "bhergh," which had the notion "to hide, to protect, to secure." This produced the Old Germanic offshoot "borganjan/burganan," which meant "to borrow, to lend," and borrowing/lending have the notion of "something given with security," thus showing the "secure/protect" notion of the word, but it did not necessarily mean collateral was used to "secure" the transaction, but often an agreement or pledge was what was meant, which required some  "give and take," "back and forth;" that is, haggling, to finalize, the idea behind the verb form "to bargain." The Germanic form gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "borgian," meaning "to borrow, to lend, to pledge security for," which then morphed into "borwen," before the modern form. "Borg" was the Old English noun and it meant, "pledge (also the more specific "bail")." Relatives in the other Germanic languages: German and Low German have the verb "borgen," meaning both "to borrow" and "to lend," depending upon usage in the sentence; German has the nouns "Borg" and "Borgen" meaning "the act of borrowing (with a pledge of payment)," Dutch has "borgen" meaning "to guarantee," and the noun "borg," "a pledge, a guarantee," also, "bail;" Frisian once had "borgia," Swedish has "borga" meaning "guarantee a payment."