ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1064 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1064 ************************************ From: 13 Jul 1998 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked us about as a German woman's name for use sometime between 1000 and 1600. We found the following early forms in Germany and the Netherlands related to : Cristina 1200-1250 [1] Christiana 1200-1250 [2] Czyne 1350 [3] Christine 1381-83 [3] Kirstyn 1381-83 [3] Kirstan 1381-83 [3] We're not sure what you intended to mean as a byname, and our closest guess is "from Anna's fir-tree". While we do have examples of the somewhat similar forms , meaning "from the oak", and the more common , or "at the oak" [4], we don't have evidence for a German name construction as complicated as the one you suggested. Bynames are words or phrases used to help identify a person. In period, these were usually based on who your father was, where you lived, or what you did for a living. A byname meaning "from Anna's fir-tree" seems unlikely. We did find the similar sounding 1508 [5], which is a locative byname (indicating your place or residence or origin). If you are interested in looking for other byname ideas and would like help with a byname or bynames of a particular meaning, please feel free to write us again. We hope this has been helpful, and that we can continue to assist you. Arval Benicouer and Talan Gwynek contributed to this letter. In service, --Walraven van Nijmegen Academy of S. Gabriel [1] Talan Gwynek, _German Given Names 1200-1250_ (WWW, J. Mittleman, 1997) http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/germ13/ [2] C. Tavernier-Vereecken, _Gentse Naamkunde van ca. 1000 tot 1253_ (Belgisch Interuniv. Centrum voor Neerlandistiek, 1968) [3] Talan Gwynek, _Medieval German Given Names from Silesia_ http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/bahlow_v.htm [4] Adolf Socin, _Mittelhochdeutsches Namenbuch: Nach oberrheinischen Quellen des 12. und 13. Jahrhunderts_ (Basel: Helbing & Lichtenhahn, 1903) [5] Josef Karlmann Brechenmacher, _Etymologisches Worterbuch der deutschen Familiennamen_ (Limburg a.d. Lahn: C. A. Starke-Verlag, 1957-1960)