ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1276 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1276 ************************************ 08 Nov 1998 From: Jodi McMaster Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You asked whether the surname would be appropriate for a 14th century German woman. There was a St. Genuinus (also referred to as St. Ingenuinus) who was a bishop near Brixen, Tyrol, and who died in the 7th century. As the veneration of the saint spread, so did the name in various forms, which are still in use today [1,2]. We were not able to find the form in period. However, by combining several lines of evidence we infer that it is a possible 16th century surname. First, the citation 1424 shows that by that date there were already variants of the name with the first syllable pronounced \YEN\ instead of \GEN\ (with hard \G\ as in ). To show that <-wein> is a reasonable 16th century spelling of the second part of the name, we have to look at the development of other similar names. It's not clear whether the name was originally Germanic or Latin, but it was treated like a Germanic name with an original second element <-win>. The Germanic name provides an apt analogy: it began as a forename, , and gave rise to several surnames [1]: Ge{sz}win 1570 Go:swin 1571 (the "o:" is an o-umlaut) Gi{sz}wein 1547 The {sz} in each of these represents the ess-zett ligature--the German letter that looks like a beta. >From these examples of , we can see that although the <-win> form continued through our period, <-wein> was beginning to appear in the 16th century. Thus, is a possible 16th century form of the surname. We don't have examples of <-wein> in the previous century, but on the basis of the 1424 citation we judge that and (both pronounced \YEN-nuh-veen\) are possible 15th century spellings. We hope this letter has been helpful. Please write us again if any part of it has been unclear or if you have other questions. Arval Benicoeur, Talan Gwynek, and Aryanhwy Prytydes merch Catmael Caermyrdin contributed comments and/or research for this letter. For the Academy, AElfwyn aet Gyrwum __________________ References: [1] Brechenmacher, Josef Karlmann, _Etymologisches Worterbuch der deutschen familiennamen_, s.n. Jen(n)ewein, Go:nn(en)wein, Gennewein, Jennin (Limburg a. d. Lahn, C. A. Starke-Verlag, 1957-1960).