Posts Tagged ‘ names ’

Which French monarch name has the longest gap between reuses?

Remember when I calculated the longest gap between reuses for the name for the monarchs of the United Kingdom? Well now I’ve done it for France. The list of French monarchs (on Wikipedia) skips numbers a few times – I think the others with those people aren’t included in the list because they weren’t actually in charge of France, despite stealing a number – and so some gaps are widened by ignoring those people.

Carloman
I d. 771, II s. 879 = 108 years.

Charles
I d. 814, II s. 840 = 26 years.
II d. 877, the Fat s. 885 = 8 years.
the Fat d. 888, III s. 893 = 5 years.
III d. 922, IV s. 1322 = 400 years.
IV d. 1328, V s. 1364 = 36 years.
V d. 1380, VI s. 1380 = 0 years.
VI d. 1422, VII s. 1422 = 0 years.
VII d. 1461, VIII s. 1483 = 21 years.
VIII d. 1498, IX s. 1560 = 62 years.
IX d. 1574, X s. 1824 = 250 years.

Childebert
I d. 558, III s. 695 = 137 years.

Childeric
I d. 481, II s. 673 = 192 years.
II d. 675, III s. 743 = 68 years.

Chilperic
I d. 584, II s. 715 = 131 years.

Chlothar
I d. 561, II s. 584 = 23 years.
II d. 629, III s. 657 = 28 years.

Clovis
I d. 511, II s. 639 = 128 years.
II d. 657, IV s. 691 = 34 years.

Dagobert
I d. 639, III s. 711 = 72 years.

Francis
I d. 1547, II s. 1559 = 12 years.

Henry
I d. 1060, II s. 1547 = 487 years.
II d. 1559, III s. 1574 = 15 years.
III d. 1589, IV s. 1589 = 0 years.

John
I d. 1316, II s. 1350 = 34 years.

Louis
I d. 840, II s. 877 = 33 years.
II d. 879, III s. 879 = 0 years.
III d. 882, IV s. 936 = 54 years.
IV d. 954, V s. 986 = 32 years.
V d. 987, VI s. 1108 = 21 years.
VI d. 1137, VII s. 1137 = 0 years.
VII d. 1180, VIII s. 1223 = 43 years.
VIII d. 1226, IX s. 1226 = 0 years.
IX d. 1270, X s. 1314 = 44 years.
X d. 1316, XI s. 1461 = 145 years.
XI d. 1483, XII s. 1498 = 15 years.
XII d. 1515, XIII s. 1610 = 95 years.
XIII d. 1643, XIV s. 1643 = 0 years.
XIV d. 1715, XV s. 1715 = 0 years.
XV d. 1774, XVI s. 1774 = 0 years.
XVI d. 1792, XVIII s. 1814 = 22 years.

Napoleon
I d. 1815, III s. 1852 = 37 years.

Philip
I d. 1108, II s. 1180 = 72 years.
II d. 1223, III s. 1270 = 47 years.
III d. 1285, IV s. 1285 = 0 years.
IV d. 1314, V s. 1316 = 2 years.
V d. 1322, VI s. 1328 = 6 years.

Robert
I d. 923, II s. 996 = 73 years.

Theuderic
III d. 691, IV s. 721 = 30 years.

The biggest gap is between Henrys, with 487 years between the first and second. The oldest name to be reused is Charles, with 1062 years between the beginning of the reign of Charles I (aka Charlemagne) and the end of the reign of Charles X. Louis is a close second – the first Louis was Charles I’s successor and the last Louis was Charles X’s predecessor – with 1010 years.

As before, I have made a graph showing the average gap size between each name.

2011
08/04
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Which Scottish/British monarch name has the longest gap between reuses?

You may remember when I investigated the gaps between reuse of names for English/British monarchs. At the time I left out Scottish monarchs because it complicated things, but I felt bad so I have done them now as well.

As with last time, to represent the end of one reign I’ve used the letter d (for “death”, though it wasn’t always), and s for the start of the next reign with that name. After the crowns of England and Scotland merged, the numbers skip ahead a bit because England had Edwards that Scotland didn’t, as well as an extra William.

Alexander
I d. 1124, II s. 1214 = 90 years.
II d. 1249, III s. 1249 = 0 years.

Charles
I d. 1649, II s. 1649 = 0 years.

Constantine
I d. 877, II s. 900 = 23 years.
II d. 943, III s. 995 = 52 years.

David
I d. 1153, II s. 1329 = 176 years.

Donald
I d. 862, II s. 889 = 27 years.
II d. 900, III s. 1093 = 193 years.

Duncan
I d. 1040, II s. 1094 = 54 years.

Edward
VII d. 1910, VIII s. 1936 = 26 years.

George
I d. 1727, II s. 1727 = 0 years.
II d. 1760, III s. 1760 = 0 years.
III d. 1820, IV s. 1820 = 0 years.
IV d. 1830, V s. 1910 = 80 years.
V d. 1936, VI s. 1936 (though not immediately succeeding) = 326 days = 0 years.

James
I d. 1437, II s. 1437 = 0 years.
II d. 1460, III s. 1460 = 0 years.
III d. 1488, IV s. 1488 = 0 years.
IV d. 1513, V s. 1513 = 0 years.
V d. 1542, VI s. 1567 = 25 years.
VI d. 1625, VII s. 1685 = 60 years.

Kenneth
I d. 858, II s. 971 = 113 years.
II d. 995, III s. 997 = 2 years.

Malcolm
I d. 954, II s. 1005 = 51 years.
II d. 1034, III s. 1058 = 24 years.
III d. 1093, IV s. 1153 = 60 years.

Mary
I d. 1467, II s. 1689 = 222 years.

Robert
I d. 1329, II s. 1371 = 42 years.
II d. 1390, III s. 1390 = 0 years.

William
I d. 1214, II s. 1689 = 475 years.
II d. 1702, IV s. 1830 = 128 years.

Interestingly, the answer is again William (the later William being in fact the same William who won for the English/British monarchs, though with 114 years removed because Scotland’s William I came after England’s William II). William is also the name that had the largest time pass between it’s first use and second use, with 672 years passing between the start of William I’s reign and the end of William IV’s.

Here is a graph of the averages for each name.

2011
07/03
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Where do the unintuitive chemical symbols come from?

For some chemical elements, the chemical symbols are straight forward. For instance, oxygen is represented by O and Neon is represented by Ne; both of these are quite obviously just taken from the start of the full name. Others, like meitnerium, Mt, are not the first letter or two of the full name, but are still quite clear. Occasionally, though, we come across something like W for tungsten and it just makes no sense. This is because they are taken from names other than the common ones (duh). (I had initially thought this was to save on reusing symbols, which is probably true but primarily it seems to be that preference was given to Latin names when the element was known in Roman times – which is why, for instance, we use Hg for mercury when there is no M, Me, Mr, Mc, Mu or My.) What are the names they do come from?

Well, here is a list. All but the last one is from Latin.

Ag – silver, from argentum
Au – gold, from aurum
Cu – copper, from cuprum
Fe – iron, from ferrum
Hg – mercury, from hydrargyrum
K – potassium, from kalium
Na – sodium, from natrium
Pb – lead, from plumbum
Sb – antimony, from stibium
Sn – tin, from stannum
W – tungsten, from wolfram (this one is German)

2011
06/26
CATEGORY
Chemistry
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Which English/British monarch name has the longest gap between reuses?

I was wondering what the largest gap is between reuses of the name of an English monarch (including British monarchs after the merger). The situation becomes more complex if you also look at Scottish monarchs (because sometimes they overlap and sometimes they don’t), so I have not looked at them. It’s not that I think Scottish monarchs are any less worthy, it’s just that the English ones were the ones I was thinking about, being the ones I am familiar with.

Here are the reused names listed alphabetically (I’ve decided semi-arbitrarily that Æ comes before C). To represent the end of one reign I’ve used the letter d (for “death”, though it wasn’t always), and s for the start of the next reign with that name.

Æthelred
d. 871, the Unready s. 978 = 107 years.

Charles
I d. 1649, II s. 1660 = 11 years.
II d. 1685, III s. >2010 > 325 years. [This is the current Prince of Wales – I was just curious, haha.]

Edgar
the Peaceful d. 975, the Ætheling s. 1066 = 91 years.

Edmund
the Magnificent d.  946, Ironside s. 1016 = 60 years.

Edward
the Elder d. 924, the Martyr s. 975 = 51 years.
the Martyr d. 978, the Confessor s. 1042 = 64 years.
the Confessor d. 1066, I s. 1272 = 206 years.
I d. 1307, II s. 1307 = 0 years.
II d. 1327, III s. 1327 = 0 years.
III d. 1377, IV s. 1461 = 84 years.
IV d. 1470, V s. 1483 = 13 years.
V d. 1483, VI s. 1547 = 64 years.
VI d.  1553, VII s. 1901 = 348 years.
VII d. 1910, VIII s. 1936 =  26 years.

Elizabeth
I d. 1603, II s. 1952 = 349 years.

George
I d. 1727,  II s. 1727 = 0 years.
II d. 1760, III s. 1760 = 0 years.
III d. 1820, IV s. 1820 = 0 years.
IV d. 1830, V s. 1910 = 80 years.
V d. 1936, VI s. 1936 (though not immediately succeeding) = 326 days = 0 years.

Harold
Harefoot d. 1040, Godwinson s. 1066 =  26 years.

Henry
I d. 1135, II s. 1154 = 19 years.
II d. 1189, III s. 1216 = 27 years.
III d. 1272, IV s. 1399 = 127 years.
IV d. 1413, V s. 1413 = 0 years.
V d. 1422, VI s. 1422 = 0 years.
VI d. 1471, VII s. 1485 = 14 years.
VII d. 1509, VIII s. 1509 = 0 years.

James
I d. 1625, II s. 1685 = 60 years.

Mary
I d. 1558, II s. 1689 = 131 years.

Richard
I d. 1199, II s. 1377 = 78 years.
II d.  1399, III s. 1483 = 84 years.
III d. 1485, Cromwell s. 1658 = 173 years.

William
I d. 1087, II s. 1087 = 0 years.
II d. 1100, III s. 1689 = 589 years.
III d. 1702, IV s. 1830 = 128 years.

From this list we can see that the biggest gap between reuses is with William, with 589 years between the end of William II and the start of William III. Second is Elizabeth, with 349 years, then Edward with 348 years between VI and VII.

Here is a graph of the average gap between reuse for each name. It should be noted the data here is only so informative, and is a bit misleading – even though Edward is third in terms of maxima, it is seventh by average. Similarly, there is an 80 year gap between Georges IV and V, but the other four gaps of 0 years drag the average down to 16.

Average time between reuses of the name for an English/British monarch

Also interesting is that the name with the biggest time-span between first and last uses is Edward: Edward the Elder started his reign in 899, and Edward VIII ended his in 1936, spanning 1037 years. Granted, this has something to do with the number of times the name was used, but Henry and George are the next most common, while William is in fact second in terms of the amount of time between first and last uses (with 771 years, compared to 447 for Henry and 238 for George).

2011
06/25
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Does the Molotov cocktail have anything to do with Vyacheslav Molotov?

The question here is based simply on the similarity of their names: Does the Molotov cocktail, a breakable bottle containing a flammable liquid and a burning wick, something like an improvised grenade, have anything to do with Vyacheslav Molotov, third Premier of the Soviet Union, whose existence I discovered by accident on a list of names on wikipedia? And the answer is, “Yes.” Or, to elaborate, “Yes. It was named after him.”

Apparently it was named by Finns during the Winter War (1939-1940), a conflict between Finland and the Soviet Union, to make fun of Molotov, who was at that time the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs. My friend Kira wondered if, as they threw them at the enemy, they called out to the Russians, “Stop hitting yourself, stop hitting yourself!” (Or, as Google translate assures me is Finnish for this, “Älä lyö itseäsi, älä lyö itseäsi!”)

2011
06/04
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