>Since Erik/ Eric/ etc. is an ancient scandinavian name it should of course
>be spelled in nordic runes. ...I think the closest equivalence of the old
>spelling is something like EirikR (don't ask me why the last R is capital,
>I don't know).
The 'R' is written capital to differentiate it from the usual 'r'. Old norse had two /r/ sounds, of which the one written 'R' was pronounced more or less like a cross between a voiced 's' and a usual 'r'. This is evidenced by finnish loan-words like 'kuningas' ["king"] which in old norse was spelled 'kuningaR' = 'kuningaz', or 'rengas' ["ring"] spelled 'rengaR /z'. In the later swedish areas the 'R' was dropped, leaving no traces in the language.
That the Old Norse had these two /r/ types is reconstructed from the runic inscriptions and the finnish 'freezebox'.
>btw, Erik means 'the mighty, the ruler', Nils means 'the conqueror of the
>people', so I'm 'The conqueror of the people, the mighty ruler'. Just a
>little bit pompous perhaps.
'Michael' means 'he, who is like [a] God'. No less pompous.
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