Alaric\'s real name

[Justin I]

From what I understand, the name Alaric means "king of all." I can't help but wonder if this was just an honorific title, like a Gothic version of the Roman Augustus.
If I remember correctly the Goths didn't have kings before the Huns arrived, only chieftains and in times of emergency a temporary commander-in-chief. Is it likely that Alaric's mother and father would name him "king of all" when he was just a baby? Is it possible that he began calling himself Alaric in 395 when he was proclaimed king of the Gothic refugees in the Balkans?

[Thiudareiks Flavius]

From what I understand, the name Alaric means "king of all." I can't help but wonder if this was just an honorific title, like a Gothic version of the Roman Augustus.
If I remember correctly the Goths didn't have kings before the Huns arrived, only chieftains and in times of emergency a temporary commander-in-chief. Is it likely that Alaric's mother and father would name him "king of all" when he was just a baby? Is it possible that he began calling himself Alaric in 395 when he was proclaimed king of the Gothic refugees in the Balkans?

The Gothic form of his name would have been either *Allareiks or *Alhareiks. The initial element (or "prototheme") may be *Alla- from the Gothic word alls, meaning "all, everything". Or it could be *Alha- which is a cognate with the Old English world ealh, meaning "a temple, sacred place". The second element (or "deuterotheme") -reiks is clearly the Gothic word for "king, ruler" and is found in many other Gothic and East Germanic names.

But it's not wise to come to conclusions based on what Germanic names "mean". These names were contructed by taking traditional protothemes and deuterothemes and putting them together in traditional ways. The meaning of the combination was not important. This is why some names constructed this way have meanings that are nonsensical - "Frithubadws" literally means "peace-war" for example. People didn't think about what the themes that made up names "mean" anymore than most people today think "bee" when they hear the name Melissa or "god-fearer" when they hear Timothy.

Alaric is made up of themes found in other Gothic names and is most likely a name, not a title.

[Alanus]

From what I understand, the name Alaric means "king of all." I can't help but wonder if this was just an honorific title, like a Gothic version of the Roman Augustus.
If I remember correctly the Goths didn't have kings before the Huns arrived, only chieftains and in times of emergency a temporary commander-in-chief.

Actually the Greutungi had kings going back to the period of Tacitus. They also had a rather large kingdom by the time the Huns arrived. Young Viteric was a king even though he was cared for by regents (the "two duces," Alatheus the Goth and Safrax the Alan) The Tyrfingi also had kings beyond the military reiks and the titled "judge" at an early date. It's possible the Tyrfingi kingship died out by the third century.

As noted in the previous reply, "Alaric" was a name, not a title. The "ric" shows up in Alemanic and even in Celto-British names.

[Thiudareiks Flavius]

As noted in the previous reply, "Alaric" was a name, not a title. The "ric" shows up in Alemanic and even in Celto-British names.

The "-ric" ending is found across all Germanic names, including Old Norse and Old English. That's because all have a cognate of the Gothic word reiks all of which derive ultimately from the Proto-Germanic word *rikijaz = "rich, wealthy".

The Celtic-British names with the same ending derive theirs from Celtic cognates with the Germanic words, which show the word goes back to Proto-Indo European. In Irish the word is righ, in Gallic it was rix, in Latin it was rex and in Sanskit it was raja. The Gallic form can be found in the name of the chieftain Vercingetorix for example.

[Justin I]

Thanks again. I had a vague idea of what the suffixes "-rix" and "-rex" meant and I have read about people like Cingetorix, Orgetorix, Ambiorix et al but wasn't sure about the connotation was. Just wanted to make sure these guys weren't misidentified by foreigners referring to their titles, like the Candaces of Nubia.

I was afraid I had asked a stupid question but once again, RomanArmyTalk comes through with thoughtful, informative responses.

[Alanus]

Salve Justin I,

It was a viable question.
They say that Honorius thought the king of Goths was a "smart-alaric.":roll: