A Norwegian skier named Frodo
 

While watching the Olympics I saw a skier from Norway whose first name is Frode. I did some searching and found out that the name means the same thing as Frodo, so in a sense his name is Frodo.

And a politician's moppet named Elwen....
 

The leader of Her Majesty's Opposition and his missus have called theri son

Arthur Elwen Cameron...

All the papers have gone WHAT!!!!???? I just thought ..but that's a girls's name!!!

One paper has equated it with Elwin (Alboin) and translated it Elf-friend but surely it is Elf-maiden or Star-maiden?

David Cameron has denied the Tolkien connection saying his wife found it in a book and liked it.... but I can't help thinking that even Frodo would have been better for a boy...

I did a double take when I heard that Norwegian name during Olympics on TV last week!

I heard a rumour that the singer Sting chose his name in honour of Bilbo and Frodo's sword. Can anyone confirm that?

Sorry to be dull but I believe it was down to a stripey sweater that made him look like a wasp/bee..

I was slightly freaked out by the name of that Cameron child, considering I sometimes call a girlfriend Elwen. :rolleyes:

The Sun reported that many experts believe that the child is named after 'Lord of the Rings elf Elwen'. What a laugh! :D

well I was about to write to The Telegraph when they associated it only with computer games, but the Alboin thing was in the Mail..... but they didn't write as if they really knew what they were talking about (surprise surprise)

Tolkien took all his non-Elvish names straight out of old tales from various Northern European cultures. It would not suprise me to learn that Frodo is a common name in parts of Scandinavia.

Elwen is derived fron the Anglo-Saxon Elfwin of Alfwine, meaning Elf friend. (I though everyone would know that).
I assume that it's a name originally given to someone who's a bit dozy or "otherworldly"; "off with the fairies", as my grandmother might have said..

Frode is a quite common name in Scandinavia. I don't remember how it is pronounced in Norway but in Denmark you allmost can't hear the D. Unlike Frodo

That's right, and the Swedish (Scandinavian?) version of the old Elfwin is Albin.

When it comes to the name Frode (That must be Estil. Haven't you heard of him before? Well, I'm Swede so skiing might be a bit more popular here...), why are you surprised that it reminds you of Frodo? There's a lot of threads discussing the Tolkien-Norse connection. The fact that some names still remain in the Scandinavian laguages is only natural.

When I read this post, it comes out as slightly aggressive. Don't read it like that! It's an order! If you do, then I'll... ;) :p

Edit: Cross-posted with Rune. In Danish, you can't hear 50% of the letters ;)

We just like to make things complicated, thats all. . .

It's not like your language isn't silly. . .When a swede talks it sounds like they are half singing.

Some linguistic confusion elucidated
 

But that would be Elwin. My guess is that somehow the form picked by the Camerons has been corrupted, perhaps due to phonetic spelling at some point in its history. However, one could translate the wen component as OE wēn, 'supposition, opinion, thought, idea' or 'hope, expectation', and if they found it in a book then the author may have chosen the spelling for this reason.

As for the component wen meaning 'woman', that's true in Sindarin but not English. The similar component in Éowyn's name is OE wynn(e) ('joy, delight, happiness, etc.') and is non-gender-specific.

More Linguistic Notes
 

I have determined that Squatter (skwa-tur) is a compound of the Old Gothic verb skwat meaning 'learned, deeply knowledgable, informed' and the Old Norse terin meaning 'ferocious, monstrous, terrifyingly big'. :D

The derivation of my name
 

Well, Fordim, that could be so; but it could equally be derived from the Indo-Germanic compound skvot tur, meaning 'pretentious show-off who has Bosworth-Toller bookmarked'.

Lol, my daughter & I saw him too, and spent about an hour cheering on "Frodo Estel"! (Apologies to Scandinavian Downers...it was impossible to resist changing 'Estil'.)