Waering

Væringi (the singular of Væringjar) was originally a compound of two words. Vár means 'pledge' or 'faith' and is the name of the Norse god of oaths. It is cognate with the Anglo-Saxon noun wǽr (meaning 'fidelity,' 'protection,' 'agreement,' 'pledge,' 'promise' or 'bond of friendship'). Gengi means 'companion' and is cognate with the Anglo-Saxon genga of the same meaning.{{Cite journal|last=Parducci|first=Domenico|date=2007|title=Gli stranieri nell'alto medioevo : Appunti sul cap. 367 dell'Edictum Rothari|url=http://www.glossa.fi/mirator/pdf/i-2007/glistranierinellaltomedioevo.pdf|journal=Mirator|volume=8|issue=1 |pages=1–10}}{{Cite journal|last=Parducci|first=Domenico|date=2007|title=Abstract: Foreigners in the Early Middle Ages: notes on ch. 367 of the Edictum Rothari|url=http://www.glossa.fi/mirator/pdf/i-2007/glistranierinellaltomedioevoabstract.pdf|journal=Mirator|volume=8|issue=1 |pages=11}}{{Cite book|last=Jan de Vries|url=http://archive.org/details/nordischesetymologischesworterbuch|title=Altnordisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch|date=1977|pages=163, 671–672}} Thus, the two together mean 'sworn companion' or 'confederate.' According to Danish Slavist Adolf Stender-Petersen, it means 'men who engage in a pursuit in a relationship of mutual responsibility,' but another theory is that it refers to someone who enters into the service or comes under the protection of a new lord by an oath of fealty.{{Cite book|last1=Blöndal|first1=S.|title=The Varangians of Byzantium|last2=Benedikz|first2=B.|year=1978|pages=4}} Members of the Varangian Guard, elite Anglo-Saxon or Norse bodyguards of the Byzantine Emperor, took such an oath. Some scholars, including linguist Elof Hellquist, assume a derivation from vár with the suffix -ing (that is to say, without gengi).{{Cite book|last=Hellquist|first=Elof|title=Svensk etymologisk ordbok|year=1922|url=https://runeberg.org/svetym/1184.html|pages=1096|language=sv}}{{Cite book|last=Hellquist|first=Elof|title=Svensk etymologisk ordbok|year=1922|url=https://runeberg.org/svetym/1260.html|pages=1172}}{{Cite book|last=Vasmer|first=M.|title=Russisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, vol. 1|year=1953|pages=171}} However, the reduction of gengi to -ing could parallel that seen in Old Norse foringi ('leader'), cognate with Anglo-Saxon foregenga ('forerunner,' 'predecessor,' 'ancestor' or 'attendant').{{Cite book|last1=Falk|first1=Hjalmar Sejersted|url=http://archive.org/details/norwegischdnis02falkuoft|title=Norwegisch-dänisches etymologisches Wörterbuch.|last2=Torp|first2=Alf|date=1910|publisher=Heidelberg C. Winter|others=Robarts - University of Toronto|pages=1403–1404}}Bugge, Sophus, [https://runeberg.org/anf/1885/0229.html Arkiv för nordisk filologi] 2 (1885), p. 225

Walter William Skeat suggested that the name might be the source of the respective names of the English town and county of Warwick, Warwickshire, which are documented as having been Wærincwīc/Wæringwīc and Wæringscīr respectively in Anglo-Saxon.{{efn|The letter w didn't exist in the Anglo-Saxon alphabet, so those names were written with the letter wynn: Ƿærincƿīc/Ƿæringƿīc and Ƿæringscīr.}} Isaac Taylor was more firmly of this opinion. Grant Allen similarly places the Wærings at Warrington. However, others see Warwick and Warrington as being derived from the Anglo-Saxon word wæring{{Cite book|last=Bosworth|first=Joseph|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oH9FAAAAcAAJ&pg=RA7-PA436|title=A Dictionary of the Anglo-Saxon Language|date=1838|publisher=Longman|pages=436|language=en}} or wering,{{Cite book|last=Bosworth|first=Joseph|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oH9FAAAAcAAJ&pg=RA7-PA454|title=A Dictionary of the Anglo-Saxon Language|date=1838|publisher=Longman|pages=454|language=en}} which mean a 'wall' or 'bank'—with wering carrying the additional meaning of 'dam' and, hence, 'weir.'

The English surnames Waring, Wareing and Wearing may be of the same derivation as Waering. However, Charles Wareing Endell Bardsley, author of A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, and others{{Cite book|last=Reaney|first=Percy Hide|title=A Dictionary of English Surnames|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1997|editor-last=Wilson|editor-first=Richard Middlewood|edition=3rd|pages=476}} assert that Waring and Wareing are derived from the Norman Warin (meaning to 'guard' or 'protect' in Frankish), Bardsley asserts that the g was added through a process of excrescence akin to Jennin becoming Jenning.{{Cite book|last=Bardsley|first=Charles Wareing Endell|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e85rAAAAMAAJ&dq=surname%20dictionary%20waring&pg=PA793|title=A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames: With Special American Instances|date=1901|publisher=H. Frowde|isbn=978-0-8063-0022-1|pages=793|language=en}}{{Cite web|last=|first=|title=Kate Monk's Onomastikon (Dictionary of Names) : Medieval Names of Norman/Germanic Origin|url=https://tekeli.li/onomastikon/England-Medieval/Norman.html|access-date=2021-12-03|website=tekeli.li}} Skeat accused Bardsley of confusing Wæring with Warin, pointing out that "both the original vowel and the suffix differ." Thomas William Shore used the spelling Waring for the Varangians, calling them a "mixed race," mentioning a possible connection to the Germanic Warini people, and locating their homeland on the southwest shore of the Baltic Sea.{{Cite book|last1=Shore|first1=Thomas William|url=http://archive.org/details/originofanglosax00shoruoft|title=Origin of the Anglo-Saxon race : a study of the settlement of England and the tribal origin of the Old English people|last2=Shore|first2=Thomas William|last3=Shore|first3=Louis Erle|date=1906|publisher=London : E. Stock|others=Robarts - University of Toronto|pages=36–37}} That location also aligns with Vesevolod Merkulov's identification of the Varangians with the Slavic Wagri people.{{Cite journal|last=Merkulov|first=Vsevolod|date=2014|title=Ost-Holstein – die Heimat der altrussischen Waräger|url=https://www.academia.edu/8259918|journal=Federkiel|volume=10|pages=4–9}}

In any case, Væringi entered into Medieval Latin as Varangus and was borrowed into Slavic languages and Greek as a result, respectively, of Varangian rule over Kievan Rus' and their service in the Varangian Guard. The guard was initially exclusively Scandinavian, but exiled Anglo-Saxon mercenaries began to dominate it after the Norman Conquest of England. The Russian varyag ('a peddler') and the Ukrainian varjah ('a big strong man') are both derived from Varangus.{{Cite web|title=Etymology, origin and meaning of the name varangian|url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/varangian|access-date=2021-12-04|website=www.etymonline.com|language=en}}

The predominant spelling of the surname in modern Danish and Norwegian, Væring (more rarely Wæring), means a 'Varangian' in both of those languages.{{Cite web|title=væring|url=https://ordnet.dk/ddo/ordbog?query=v%C3%A6ring|access-date=2022-01-01|website=Den Danske Ordbog}}{{Cite book|last=Andersen|first=Lars|title=Væringene|publisher=Ascheboug|year=2003|isbn=9788203187162}} Omitting Waring, Wareing and Wearing as contested, Waering is the principal spelling in both English and German,{{Cite web|title=Distribution of surname WAERING|url=https://www.kartezumnamen.eu/en/WAERING.html|access-date=2021-11-29|website=Germany Surname Map|language=en-us}} and the surname also appears as Wäring in both German{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JQtYAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA301|title=Die Wikingszüge: 1|date=1839|publisher=Perthes|pages=301|language=de}}{{Cite web|title=Distribution of surname WÄRING|url=https://www.kartezumnamen.eu/en/W%C4RING.html|access-date=2021-11-29|website=Germany Surname Map|language=en-us}} and Swedish. In the latter language, it can likewise be written as Väring, which is also the name of a locality in Skövde Municipality. All of these spellings are equivalent in their various alphabets. Both the Dano-Norwegian æ and the German and Swedish ä represent the combination of the letters a and e.{{Cite web|title=Swedish|url=https://www.oldbookillustrations.com/dictionary/s/swedish|access-date=2022-01-01|website=A Dictionary of the Art of Printing}} The letters w and v used to be considered identical in the Scandinavian languages.{{Cite web|last=Fischer|first=Bill|date=2019-02-12|title=All You Need to Know about the Swedish Alphabet|url=https://www.clozemaster.com/blog/swedish-alphabet/|access-date=2022-01-01|website=Clozemaster Blog}}{{Cite news|date=2006-04-24|title=W Joins the Swedish Alphabet|language=en|work=Sveriges Radio|url=https://sverigesradio.se/artikel/843139|access-date=2022-01-01}} In Swedish orthography, w was used specifically in the Fraktur typeface to indicate indigenous words pronounced with the voiced labiodental fricative (the "v-sound"). Since the abandonment of Fraktur, w appears mainly in loanwords, as well as in some indigenous, w-holdover surnames.{{Cite web|title=Forum - Duolingo|url=https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/23797646/The-letter-W|access-date=2022-01-01|website=forum.duolingo.com}} This is similar to Danish, in which the interfiling of v and w (as if they were the same letter) was only deprecated in 1980.{{Cite web|date=2021-10-20|title=Dansk biografisk Lexikon / XVIII. Bind. Ubbe - Wimpffen|url=https://runeberg.org/dbl/18/|access-date=2022-01-01|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211020145737/http://runeberg.org/dbl/18/|archive-date=2021-10-20}} Norwegian uses v for the voiced labiodental fricative even in most loanwords, but some indigenous surnames likewise continue to be spelled with w.{{Cite journal|last=Flom|first=George T.|date=1918|title=Norwegian Surnames : With Special Reference to Orthography and Foreign Influence|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40915044|journal=Scandinavian Studies and Notes|volume=5|issue=4|pages=139–154|jstor=40915044|issn=1544-2063}}

File:Waeringopterus_carapaces.png]]

A famous bearer of this surname was the renowned Cuban-born Norwegian-American paleontologist who published under the pen name Erik Norman Kjellesvig-Waering. He was born Erik Norman Kjellesvig, a Norwegian citizen, son of Magne Kjellesvig. His 1938 United States naturalization record notes that he was also known as Erik Norman Waering,{{Cite web|last=Kjellesvig|first=Eric Norman|date=|title=Naturalization Index for the Western District of Missouri, compiled ca. 1930 - ca. 1986, documenting the period ca. 1848 - ca. 1986. ARC: 572253; Records of District Courts of the United States, Record Group 21; The National Archives at Kansas City. Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.A.|url=https://search.ancestrylibrary.ca/cgi-bin/sse.dll?dbid=2494&h=25006&indiv=try&o_vc=Record:OtherRecord&rhSource=8784|access-date=2022-01-02|website=Ancestry Library Edition}} the name appearing on his 1940 draft registration and 1956 marriage certificate. Erik K. Waering appears on his gravestone and Florida death record.{{Cite web|title=Erik Norman Kjellesvig Waering (1912–1979)|url=https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/142450026/erik-norman_kjellesvig-waering|access-date=2021-12-04|website=Find-A-Grave}} The Waeringopterus genus of eurypterids, a group of extinct aquatic arthropods, is named for him.{{Cite web|last=Ciurca|first=Samuel J.|date=May 2009|title=Eurypterids Specimen of the Month : A Little of This, A Little of That|url=http://eurypterids.net/EurypteridMonth10.html|access-date=2022-01-01|website=Eurypterids.net}} The genus is part of the Waeringopteridae family and Waeringopteroidae super family. There is also a genus of fusulinida named Waeringella.{{Cite web|title=Foraminifera : Waeringella Thompson, 1942 †|url=http://www.marinespecies.org/foraminifera/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=721798|access-date=2022-01-02|website=World Foraminifera Database}}

{{clear}}

File:Trinelise-væring DSC03369 01.jpg

• {{ill|Astrid Väring|sv}} (1892–1978), Swedish writer and journalist{{Cite web|title=Astrid Väring (1892-12-15 – 1978-03-22), author, debater|url=http://skbl.se/en/article/AstridVaring|access-date=2022-01-01|website=Svenskt kvinnobiografiskt lexikon}}
• {{ill|Erik Norman Kjellesvig-Waering|de}} (1912–1979), Norwegian-American paleontologist{{Cite journal|date=March 18, 1986|title=Vita : Erik Norman Kjellesvig-Waering|url=https://archive.org/details/palaeontographic5556198688pale/page/n13/mode/2up?view=theater|journal=Palaeontographica Americana|volume=55|pages=3}}
• Jennie Waering, Assistant United States Attorney{{Cite web|last=Sturgeon|first=Jeff|date=2018-09-28|title=Retiring federal prosecutor plans further pursuit of justice|url=https://roanoke.com/business/retiring-federal-prosecutor-plans-further-pursuit-of-justice/article_cf8ad61d-c08e-5f82-9a1b-abe506227730.html|access-date=2021-11-29|website=Roanoke Times|language=en}}
• {{ill|Olaf Martin Peder Væring|no}} (1837–1906), Norwegian photographer and founder of the Fotoarkiv O. Væring{{Citation|last=Pihl|first=Roger|title=Olaf Væring|date=2021-11-30|url=http://snl.no/Olaf_V%C3%A6ring|work=Store norske leksikon|language=nb|access-date=2022-01-01}}
• Trinelise Væring, Danish singer and songwriter{{Cite web|title=Bio UK : Trinelise Væring – Singer and songwriter|url=https://www.vaering.com/bio-uk/|access-date=2022-01-01|website=Trinelise Væring : official website|language=en-GB}}

{{notelist}}

{{reflist}}

{{surname}}

Category:Danish-language surnames

Category:English-language surnames

Category:German-language surnames

Category:Norwegian-language surnames

Category:Swedish-language surnames