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Look in just about any book on name origins and you typically find that Tarry is derived from the Germanic name Theodoric. Don't ask me how, but it is. For a long time this relationship to an ancient German name has perplexed me. After doing some history reading and a little imaginative guess work, I have come up with a possible explanation.
If we believe that Tarry is a Norman name, which it certainly seems to be, then we should consider who the Normans were. Much is made about the Nordic migration into North France, yet the Nordic races made up only a minority of what became Normandy. The proof of this is in personal names. After only 100 years of Nordic settlement is it nearly impossible to find Nordic personal names in Norman texts. Likewise the number of Nordic based place names is relatively small.
So what racial group did represent the majority of Normandy? The answer is the Franks--one of many Germanic tribes that pushed into Western Europe during the early centuries A.D. And if you wanted to give your child a virtuous German name, then what could be better than Theodoric--the great Visigoth king who died in battle fighting back Attila and his nomadic pagan hoard! Sure, the Tarry/Theodoric relationship may have nothing to do with an ancient Visigoth king. There had to be countless other Theodorics, it seems to have been a pretty common name among the Germans. But I offer one last tantalizing fact to consider.
The battle of Chalon in 451 is considered one of the most significant battles of all time. Certainly its importance wasn't lost on the Germans whose lives depended on the outcome. This battle, that may have saved Western civilization, was fought in the same region our ancient Tarry ancestors likely came from--Northern France. Just as today parents often name their children after people they idealize, so it must have been 1500 years ago. I'm not saying we're decendants of a great king, though I wish I could prove it true. But is interesting to consider that our name may be the end result of giant events that happened long ago.
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