What's In A Name: Quentin, Quinton, Zelda

Quentin/Quinton-There seem to be two separate sources of these names. "Quentin" is derived from Latin "Quintinus," which was from Latin "quintus," meaning "fifth," and "Quintinus" was from the use of that word for the "fifth" son in many Roman families. One of the men with the name embraced Christianity in the 200s and he went to Gaul (now France), to Amiens, as a missionary. He was imprisoned, tortured and beheaded in 287. His name was later rendered as "Quentin" and the Normans carried the name across the English Channel to England, although the name never proved to be highly popular in England. President Teddy Roosevelt's youngest son was named "Quentin," and he was killed during World War One. The form "Quinton" supposedly goes back to Old English from the name of a town called "Queen's town" (queen was then spelled "cwene") with the name later seemingly continuing alongside "Quentin," which influenced the use of "Quinton" as a given name. 

Zelda-"Zelda" became a proper name in its own right, but it is simply the shortened form and nickname form of the English feminine name "Griselda," which came into use in the Middle Ages.

WORD HISTORY:

Witch (Wicked)-The ultimate origin of this word is uncertain and its history is not easy. It "may" go back to an Old Germanic or West Germanic form "wikkjaz," for "someone who awakens the dead," but this is far from a certainty, although Low German has "wicken," meaning, "to use witchcraft," and the noun, "wikker," meaning, "one who tells of the future." Old English had "wicca," which meant, "a wizard, a man of magic," from that was derived the feminine form, "wicce," for "a sorceress, priestess of magic," with somewhat later the underlying notion of, "supernatural powers derived by a connection to evil spirits." It seems the male form was derived from a verb, "wiccian," which meant "to practice sorcery or magic," and later, the male form "wicca," along with the female derived "wicce," gave English "wicche" in the Middle Ages, and this then became "witch." There is a possible connection to modern German "weihen," which means, "to consecrate," which was once spelled "wihan/wihen," and also, "wichen." This is tied to other Germanic forms that had to do with, "be committed to something, be dedicated to;" thus also, "to be holy." Old English had the related "wig," which meant, "idol." It took some time for the various Germanic peoples, including the English, to convert to Christianity. Wicked seems to have been an adjective formed from "wicca" in late Old English as "wikk(e)," meaning "evil, bad, morally twisted," and it then became "wicke," before formation as a participle-type word, "wicked," but without being from a verb.