Black family names (Phineas)

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, Monika Huebner <mo.hue at w...> 
wrote:

> No, I have a British copy, too (as I suppose you have). But I was
> wondering about Phineas. I found two "Phineus" in Greek mythology,
> bu no "Phineas". Maybe we are just too obsessed to find the 
> etymology of the names in mythology.

http://www.behindthename.com/ is the name website that I usually 
consult. As soon as I finished reading OoP, I looked up Phineas 
there and found that it is an Bible translation variant of Pinhas 
(Pinchas). I already knew that Pinhas is a Hebrew name --- I already 
knew that the Hebrew name Pinhas comes from the Ancient Egyptian 
name Pa-Nehasi, which means "the Nubian", the same way that modern 
people are named Scott, Dane, Norman, Frank... I luckily looked up 
Nigel, which they explained as coming from "Nigellus", Latin for 
"Neil" but sometimes explained as related to "Niger", rather than 
looking up Nigellus, which doesn't have a listing of its own.

What I have just said is that Phineas Nigellus Black means (close 
enough for JKR) Black Black Black. I admire her cleverness, but wish 
she could have done it without a racial reference ... what other 
names mean Black? Nero? Douglas or Dugall or anything derived from 
Dubh. Chernobog.