500th entry: Innocent

Today marks a historic point in the development of the Dictionary: We’ve just finalized the 500th entry to be included in the first edition. It is the entry for the masculine name Innocent.

Innocent

Etymology

The name derives from Latin innocens ‘innocent, harmless; virtuous, upright’.

Usage

Innocent was adopted as the papal name of a number of medieval popes (and one anti-pope!), from the 5th C through to the 18th C. It was also the name of a number of early saints (including the Pope Innocent I).

Because of its use as a papal name, Innocent shows up in far more records than it would have were it simply the name of an ordinary person. As a result, during certain periods, there are disproportionately more citations for the name than might otherwise have been expected.

Of the 18,000+ citations already collected, 12 are citations of this name. Though in the actual entries, citations will be organized first by geographical area, then by language, and then by date, here I’ll present the entries by date.

12th C

• 1132: Innocencius (Latin, nom.; France)
• 1141: Innocentius (Latin, nom.; France)
• 1141: Innocentii (Latin, gen.; France)
• 1141: Innocencius (Latin, nom.; France)
• 1142: Innocencio (Latin, abl.; Germany)
• 1143: Innocencius (Latin, nom.; Germany)
• 1198: Innocentius (Latin, nom.; Germany)

13th C

• 1210: Innocentius (Latin, nom., Germany)
• 1248: Jnnocentius (Latin, nom., Germany)

15th C

• 1421: Innocent (French, France)
• 1423: Innocent (French, France)
• 1489: Innocent (Catalan, Spain)