The king Urnayr (Ուռնայր)
Urnayr was an Arsacid king of Albania. Historic tradition claims that he was baptised by Gregory the Illuminator. Another Urnayr was contemporary of king Pap (around 370 AD). However not all scholars agree that there was two different Urnayrs.
Its remarkable that the name Urnayr has a typical Armenian form. Norayr (new man), Hrayr (fire man), Zhirayr (lively/active man) are such examples. Indeed Ačaryan gives an Armenian etymology for Urn-ayr meaning hammer man.
Ironically if we count the proportion of Armenian names among Arsacids ruling Armenia we will have a lower proportion than in Albania. Alongside the toponym Getaru this is another example of a name with transparent Armenian etymology. Prior the genetics it was virtually impossible to understand why we have Armenian terms in Albanian onomastic. But today there is no puzzle about that. Armenians and Proto-Armenians had a long presence all over Kur river basin since Bronze Age, even though its not granted that this particular name has old origins there.

No comments:
Post a Comment