I confess to a long-term love affair with this week’s Pick of the Week:
Torquil.
I’m not sure where I first encountered it, but it seeded itself in my consciousness a long, long time ago and shows no sign of going away.
Torquil is a wonderful Scottish name, the Anglicized version of the Gaelic Torcall and Torcadall.
They are themselves the Gaelic forms of the Old Norse name Thorketil, a combination of the theonym Thor and ketill “cauldron.”
You can’t really get much more Pagan than that :D.
Thor really deserves — demands — a post all of his own (and will get one erelong).
As most folk know, he is the Norse God of thunder, fertility and healing, known to the Anglo-Saxons as Thunor, and particularly well-known for his hammer called Mjölnir, which has became a major symbol of Norse Paganism (often called Ásatrú or Odinism).
His name means simply “thunder,” and he may well also be one and the same with the Celtic God Taranis.
Both Thor and Taranis were identified with Jupiter by the Romans.
Amongst the Vikings, Thor featured in many compound names — another popular one was Thorold, which in the form Turold, appeared on the Bayeux Tapestry.
Not to mention also giving his name to Thursday…
Meanwhile, the Old Norse ketill — from which we get the modern English “kettle” — was probably more significant than simply a large vessel for heating water and cooking. It is clear from texts and archaeology that many cauldrons also held religious and spiritual significance.
Cauldrons, like chalices and goblets, are symbolic of motherhood and fertility, representative of the womb and the creation of new life.
Probably the most famous example is that of the “cauldron of rebirth,” which features in the Second Branch of the Mabinogion.
Many in Pagan circles believe this is the true source of the Grail myths.
Torquil can thus be seen as a name which encompasses the strong, powerful masculinity of Thor with the mystical femininity of the cauldron.
A name of balance and harmony.
The Vikings were responsible for bringing Thorketil to Scotland in the tenth century. They settled especially around the coast and on the islands, and it was in the Hebrides that Thorketil took root and was Gaelicized, become particularly associated with the MacLeods.
Thorketil itself died out before the end of the Middle Ages, but Torquil continued in use among some Scottish families, and saw a general, if limited revival in the late nineteenth century.
Bearers include the yummy British-born Canadian actor-singer-songwriter Torquil Campbell (b.1972) of the indie rock band Stars, and philanphropist ex-fighter pilot Sir Torquil Norman (b.1933), inventor of the “Big Yellow Teapot.” The toy company he once owned was also responsible for Polly Pocket…
Other variants include Torquhil (as borne by the present Duke of Argyll) and the historic forms Thorketill and Thorkill.
If I’m honest, I did misread the name first off as Torquay, but since I’ve terrible eyesight, don’t take it personally. Another name I immediately think of is Torvill, as in,Jayne Torvill the gold-medalist ice dancer.
As for Torquil, it’s an interesting option. Very few names sound quite like Torquil, in fact, the only other one I could think of from the top of my head is Tarquin, and he’s slight not quite on the money.
Torquil’s great — I’d love to see it used. I recently came across Torburn (on a headstone, eek) and wonder if it’s connected.
Yes! They both derive from the Norse; Torburn comes from the Old Norse Thorbiǫrn, a combination of Thor and biǫrn “bear.”
Ooh I really like it! Taranis is pretty good as well.
Another Thor name is Thurston – “Thor’s stone”. As with the kettle, the stone probably refers to an altar of some kind. I think Torsten and Turstan are variants.
Yep. There’s a lot of names which contain Thor’s name, others off the top of my head include Thorfinn, Thorgar, Thorgils, Thorgod, Thorhildr, Thormund and Thorir — they all gave English surnames — but there are many more.
The form I come across most here in Norway is Torkel. around 600 Norwegians are called Torkel, and none of the other forms come within 400 of him 🙂
There’s also a second meaning connected to Kjetil, ‘helmet’. It makes sense if you think of a helmet as a cauldron up side down 😉 I like the protective aspect it adds to the name.
My favourite Thor related name is Torarin, or Thorarinn. It’s a bit of a tongue twister to English speakers though 🙂 Also love Astor, Eythor/Eytor, Haftor/Havtor and Torar which is the word for ‘thundering’ for some Norwegians, depending on dialect and age 🙂
I love “Viking” names, I think it must be the Viking heritage on my mum’s side ;). I also really like the fact that so many Old Norse names have survived (or at least been revived) in Scandinavia.
The “helmet” meaning could add lovely extra depth. But if it really did carry that meaning in the language, it must have been a late development of medieval Norwegian. I’ve seen it offered here and there as a meaning for the Norwegian name Kjetil, but have never found ketill glossed as such in any Old Norse dictionary.
It leaves me wondering whether this interpretation comes out of the days when some name commentators were reluctant to accept that the –ketill of Thorketil (and Kjetil) really did mean “(sacrificial) cauldron” because of the blatant Pagan connotations, and went out of their way to posit other options. “Helmet” would be a fairly obvious one to come to mind where Vikings are concerned, regardless, and it’s undoubtedly true that an upside-down cauldron resembles a helmet. But as far as I’m aware there’s no evidence of it meaning “helmet” in any Norse text of the period when the name was first used.
I like Torquil in theory but I think it would be perceived as resembling Tarquin, which I always hear degraded by ‘the man on the street’ as being incredibly posh, snobby, and, therefore, unusable.
On a side note, that picture is hilarious. Not so much the face under the veil but more those tree trunk arms!
What you say about Tarquin is undeniably true in the UK. Unquestionably one of those archetypal upper class names. Not sure how much that’s true elsewhere, though. After all, the Americans seem to be embracing Arabella now, and took Cynthia to their hearts in a big way in the 60s, both of which have the same upper class air in the UK as Tarquin.
As for the picture, I think this is probably my favourite of the Norse myths; it’s so pantomime, the Great man’s man (or should that be god’s god?) Thor in a wedding dress. ‘Tis priceless :).
[…] Torquil […]