Ancient Web: Kate Monk’s 1997 Names Dictionary Was Rescued from a Dead Host

Part of the Ancient Web Collection.

Kate Monk had a practical annoyance with fantasy roleplaying games: characters supposedly living before Christianity were arriving with ordinary Biblical names. She decided to collect more convincing alternatives.

Visit Kate Monk's restored Onomastikon.

The introduction calls an onomastikon a collection of proper names and says the project started as a small source of Saxon, Norman, Arthurian, and medieval English possibilities. It expanded into a global collection with short historical backgrounds, given names, and surnames. The main index divides material into Celtic, Saxon, ancient-world, European, African, Middle Eastern, Indian, East Asian, and Pacific sections.

But the most important words appear above the contents. A webmaster signing as Roger explains that the dictionary was originally hosted by Sal Robertson at gaminggeeks.org. When that site disappeared around early July 2005, Roger recovered the content through the Internet Archive and made modest HTML adjustments, otherwise leaving the material intact.

Saving a roleplayer's research shelf

The introduction explains the project's original problem and limitations. It was not a scholarly onomastic survey; it was a useful list for players looking for plausible names. Monk explicitly cautions historical reenactors not to treat every entry as securely dated evidence.

The table of contents demonstrates the growing ambition. Its sections reach from medieval English bynames and European surnames to Maori names, Persian and Armenian materials, Hindu and Sikh traditions, Norse names, and places throughout the Pacific. There is a separate sources page listing books and acknowledgements.

Monk's copyright notice dates the compilation to 1997 and dedicates it to 'Red Lance.' These little authorial marks survive beside the restored content and tell us that it was a personal reference rather than an anonymous scraped dataset.

The rescue itself is the central web story. A hobbyist built a tool for other hobbyists; the host failed; someone else retrieved it from archived pages and explicitly credited its creator. Even a plain list of names required people to care enough to keep it reachable.

Accuracy matters, particularly with names connected to living cultures. Its bibliography and disclaimers invite checking rather than using the dictionary as infallible authority.

Browse the rescued name categories and read how the project began.

Part of the Ancient Web Collection.