Historical figures new names....

[MoonRocker]

Ok at school we had (among others no doubt)
Thomas Abecket
Bodacea (bow-da-see-ah)
Hercules
Now we have:
Thomas Becket
Boudicca (boo-dick-ah)
Heracles

So what changed? where we misinformed at school? How did these name changes arise?

[jake-the-peg]

You were definately misinformed about Thomas Becket - no idea where the 'a' came from wikipedia speculates:

^ The name "Thomas à Becket" is not contemporary, and appears to be a post-Reformation creation, possibly in imitation of Thomas à Kempis.[2]

[VHG]

The moderm alphabet does not match the alphabet used, for example, when Boudicca was alive. So if the name was written down during her lifetime it may not have an exact "match" with modern letters.

So they had to make a "best guess" at how the name was spelt and sounded.

I guess over time, with more research, the way it should be spelt and sounded has changed from Bodacea to Boudicca.

[jno]

Hercules is still Hercules - the name Herakles is older, that's all (it's the Greek form, Hercules is Roman), so it's just going back to roots. Boudicca is a reassessment of how it might originally have been pronounced, so yes, we were probably misinformed about that one. Abecket was always a mistake, as jake says.

[MoonRocker]

ok many thanks

[mike11111]

Herakles and Hercules - simply Greek and Latin versions of the same name, such as: Zeus-Jupiter, Hermes-Mercury, Aphrodite-Venus etc.

[jno]

well, not exactly, mike, Zeus and Jupiter may to all intents and purposes be the same god, but they aren't the same name. The Greeks and Romans had their own chief gods, with their own names; the gods merged, but the names are quite distinct. Herakles and Hercules really are the same name apart from the minor difference in pronunciation. The Romans didn't have a Herakles equivalent so they took him over.