Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 138

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/138

This is one of the Academy's earliest reports. We are not confident that these early reports are accurate. Please use it with caution.

Greetings,

Here's the information we found on the name "Reifenberger."

"Reifen" does mean "tire" or "hoop" in modern German, and was used in medieval German to mean "ring-shaped band." It's possible that "Reifenberg" implies "narrow, curved mountain." It's also possible that "Reifen" is related to the medieval German "ripe" (hoar-frost) and that the name means "frosty mountain."

Whatever the origin, the name was used for some time. We found an "Ulrich der Reiffenberger" dating to 1367, and an "Alram der Reifenstainer" in the same year, in "Etymologisches Woerterbuch der Deutschen Familiennamen" by Brechenmacher. Both of these people lived in Austria, so there may be a specifically Austrian connection to the name.

Walraven van Nijmege, Marten Broeker, Zenobia Naphtali, and Arval D'Espas Nord contributed to this letter.

We hope this has been helpful. If we can be of further assistance, please let us know.

Sincerely,
Alan Terlep
Academy of S. Gabriel