ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1329 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1329 ************************************ 25 Oct 1998 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked for information about early medieval forms of the Irish surname and of the German surname . Here is what we have found. is an English spelling of the Gaelic family name that would have been spelled before 1200 or so, and later in our period. Either spelling is pronounced \oh SOO-ly@-vahn\. \@\ represents a schwa, the first vowel sound in [1, 2]. An Irish man of this period would most often have been known as his father's son. For example, the son of would have been called . He might also have been known by his clan name, e.g. "O/engus son of A/ed ua Su/ileba/in" or for short. If you'd like to choose first names for yourself and your father, you can find a good list on the web: 100 Most Popular Men's Names in Early Medieval Ireland http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/tangwystyl/irish100 We're not certain of the origin of the surname . We found the German surname , where {sz} represents an ess-tzet, a scribal combination of an and into a single character that looks a bit like a capital and is often rendered as in modern German. That name has three possible origins: * a Middle High German nickname or "Russian", where the ^ is actually over the ; * a pet form of , which was itself a short form of the first name ; and * an occupational name derived from Middle High German "cobbler". Some early examples of these names include [3, 4, 5]: C. der Reu{sz}e 1272 Conr. dictus Ru{sz}{sz}e 1284 Bert. Riu{sz}i 1294 Arnolt der Ru"{sz}e 1298 (the " is an umlaut over the ) Konr. der Ru"sse 1324 Jacobus Reu{sz} 1360 Rewsse 1395 Vll Rawss 1414 Th. Reu{sz}e 1511 If you'd like to choose a German given name to go with some form of this surname, you can find several lists of period German men's names on the web in the German section of the Medieval Names archive, http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/ I hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if any part of it has been unclear or if you have other questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Talan Gwynek. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 25 Oct 1998 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Woulfe, Patrick, _Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Irish Names and Surnames_ (Kansas City: Irish Genealogical Foundation). [2] O'Brien, M. A., ed., _Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae_ (Dublin: The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1976). [3] Brechenmacher, Josef Karlmann, _Etymologisches Worterbuch der deutschen familiennamen_ (Limburg a. d. Lahn, C. A. Starke-Verlag, 1957-1960), s.n. Reu{sz}. [4] Bahlow, Hans, _Deutsches Namenlexikon : Familien- und Vornamen nach Ursprung und Sinn erklaert_ (Frankfurt am Main : Suhrkamp Taschenbuch Verlag, 1985, 1990). [5] Schwarz, Ernst, _Sudetendeutsche Familiennamen aus vorhussitischer Zeit_ (Koeln: Blehlau Verlag, 1957), s.n. Reu{sz}e.