Maybe you're right. I'm not a Middle-Age expert, but I was surprised about what you've said since I've read some sources in old French (which could be pretty different from classic one) and never find the name "Alix". Much less Alison. The only thing I can do, not being an expert is to agree that the ending "son" is a French diminutive . I never read anything about any "Alison" in French history, but of curse it could be.
It seems Alison was Norman or Anglo French and as such mostly used in Britain. The name was first recorded in Scotland in the 12th century, according to Wikipedia. That explains its absence from the French sources. I think you have to read quite widely (or focused on some people) to come across any Alixes in Old French sources. Or perhaps it only appears in Latin sources.
My question now is: why did Father Andrew state a so false thing in his own web? I can certainly write wrong data about an issue if I'm not an expert in it, but I should always said that "I believe" a thins is that way and not another. I should never "assure" such thing, and much less if I have a public site or blog.Other persons could repeat what I wrote and the mistake could be generallized. An internet website must NEVER state things that are or could be fake. In a discussion thread, like this one, we may discuss about being or not right..but if you hace a website with information for others, it's clear that you must have dne some research before posting. Just a thought..
Sadly, the World Wide Web is full of misleading and wrong information. That's the backside to the almost unlimited liberty of the web.
That's why one must always be critical to what one reads. People who claim "It's true, because it says so on
www.meaningsofthecutestbabynames.com" are as naïve and more ridiculous than people who claim "It's true, because the Bible says so." And often, people who operate what-does-my-name-mean services have a a relaxed attitude to what is realistically plausible that is similar to Anna Anderson or medieval royal genealogists. They'll trace it back to the Last Tsar or Alexander the Great no matter how implausible it seems. :-)
And again, if you are right (most likely, you are) you must write to father Andrew to change these mistakes in his web. I believed that he really knows what he was talking about.
I already have.
I'm amazed about how much you seems to know about ancient names...
Thank you! I just love etymology. I am also impressed if you read Old French :-)
But don't think I wrote all this out of the top of my head. I did comparative research along the way.
The thing with etymology of names is that one can seldom find water-tight proof of a name's etymology. The people who first start using it usually don't write down what they had derived it from. (Alice of Hesse writing why she spelled Alix's name as she did is therefore a rare goodie, but of course we would have loved to know where she had found that spelling. Most likely she had gotten it from medieval French royal history, but we can't say for sure.)
Often one can only argue that this name evolving from that name is just highly plausible, given the linguistic laws and processes in work at the time and the inter-cultural contacts that were in existence at the time.
