ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1778 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1778 ************************************ 29 Dec 1999 From: Jodi McMaster Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You asked about the name for a man from a Romanized Germanic tribe anytime between the 4th and the 7th century. You said that your knight believed he'd read that was an early form of . You also told us you'd found a reference to in a story about St. Boniface. You also wanted to know about the name . Choosing a name from early medieval Germany can be difficult for several reasons. Languages change over time, and German names from the 4th-7th centuries don't look much like modern German names. History books often hide these differences by translating names to their modern forms. Therefore, if you are looking for an early Germanic name, you have to find how the name appeared in the original documents. We were able to find a number of early forms of , but none as early as you were interested in [1, 2, 3]: Conradus (various dates from the early 8th C. to 12th C.) Chuonredus (9-10th C.) Cuonradus (853, 933, 947) Chuonrat (839) Cohunradus (892) Cuneradus (836) Kuonrat (late 7th C.) Some of these names come from the Germanic languages spoken by the Lombards (from whom modern Lombardy gets its name) and the Franks (from whom modern France gets its name). Each of these cultures had their own forms of many names common in Germany as well. The Franks were in much of what is now Germany. In medieval Germany, became one of the most popular masculine names, so it was probably in widespread use sometime at the latter part of the period in which you're interested. The standard Latinized form of the name is . This is the written version we recommend for the pre-millenial period. The earliest version of the name, , is a normalized Old High German form. [3] By "normalized," we mean that it is spelled in a standardized scholarly form that reflects the various known spellings and the pronunciation reconstructed by historical linguists. We don't know exactly what spelling the original took nor how much earlier it was in use. [4] We're pretty confident it was in use sooner, but since we can't find any earlier examples, we just can't say when. We found nothing to support as a Germanic spelling of . Perhaps your knight was thinking of , an Old English name; Old English is a Germanic language, but the language was not spoken natively on the Continent. A Continental Romanized German would therefore have not borne an Old English name. If you'd like more information on the name , please write us back. As you indicated, there is a place called (in fact, there are at least six modern places with that name). The first problem is determining how the name would have been spelled or constructed in the early period in which you are interested. We were able to find the following undated Latin forms of [5]: Gesmaria Gesmeri Geysmaria Gaesmerae We also found examples of dated place names in Old High German with the same ending [6]: Diummeri 965 (modern --the " after the represents an umlaut) Wimar 1097 (modern ) Vilimar 1054 (modern ) The second element of is from Old High German 'lake' [6]; the source of the first element seems to be unknown, but it appears in another place-name as in 782 [7]. It therefore seems likely that at least by the late 8th century the place-name could have been written , and we cannot say how it might have been written much before that. The second problem is that in the late Classical/early medieval period you're interested in, it was very rare for Germans to have surnames of any sort. We have not found any examples of a pre-millenial German surname based on placename. This kind of surname is known as a locative byname. It is possible that someone of sufficient importance would have been referred to as in a Latin record, but it would be used as an additional description rather than as part of his name. If you wanted to set your persona later, would be a plausible name for as early as the 13th century. If you want to stay in the earlier time frame, you might consider one of the types of Latin bynames that we have examples of, such as [8]: Feletheus sive Feva (5th C.) Gunthigis qui et Baza dicebatur (5th C.) Wursingus cognomento Ado (7th C.) Eudila vel Bertholanda (572) Each of these essentially means 'X, also known as Y'. We have also found examples of Germans with Latin bynames based on their father's names, a type of name known as a patronymic. For instance, (742) means 'Rantwig son of Chrotwig'. [8] You also asked about the surname , which is based on the name of a city. We find the place name in various modern spellings: , , and [9]. (The " represents an umlaut on the .) The only medieval spelling we have found is (1313), but it is not clear that this actually refers to . Remember, though, that bynames based on place names apparently were not used by German before the 13th century. In summary, then, is a fine name from the 13th century onward. is probably an appropriate late 7th century German form of your name, but the only written form we can recommend is the latinized . Bynames were rare, and we have not found any examples of locative bynames, but we did find "also known as" forms or patronymics; we'd be glad to help you try to form one if you're interested. Please just write again. If you're more interested in the 4th to 6th centuries, you may want to look at Henry Bosley Woolf, _The Old Germanic Principles of Name-Giving_ (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press. 1939), which gives some names from that period as recorded in (mostly) Latin sources. These will all be given names rather than bynames, though. 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. Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn, Pedro de Alcazar, Alan Fairfax, Raquel Buenaventura, Arval Benicouer, and Talan Gwynek contributed comments and/or research for this letter. For the Academy, AElfwyn aet Gyrwum __________________ References: [1] Morlet, Marie-Therese, _Les Noms de Personne sur le Territoire de l'Ancienne Gaule du VIe au XIIe Siecle_, Vol. I, p. 152 (Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1972). [2] Bruckner, Wilhelm, _Die Sprache der Langobarden_ (Strassburg: Karl J. Truebner, 1895 [reprinted 1969]). [3] Gillespie, George T., _A Catalogue of Persons Names in German Heroic Literature_ (700-1600) (Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1973). [4] We have examples of similar names with the dipthong from around the same time period: 723, 706, and 735. Morlet, Marie-Therese, _Les Noms de Personne sur le Territoire de l'Ancienne Gaule du VIe au XIIe Siecle_, Vol. I, p. 136 (Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1972). This trend was also found in other words beginning in the 8th C. Robinson, Orrin W., _Old English and Its Closest Relatives_, p. 245 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1992). Therefore, this pronunciation was probably found along the middle Rhein at least by the late 7th c., but we can't verify that this exact spelling was used. [5] Dr. J. G. Th. Graesse, _Orbis Latinus_ (WWW: Columbia University 1996, Originally Published in Berlin: Richard Carl Schmidt & Co. 1909). http://kwaziwai.cc.columbia.edu/acis/ets/Graesse/contents.html [6] Schwarz, Ernst, _Deutsche Namenforschung. II: Orts- und Flurnamen_, p. 77 (Goettingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, 1950). [7] Bahlow, Hans, _Deutschlands geographisches Namenwelt: etymologisches Lexikon der Fluss- und Ortsnamen alteuropa:ischer Herkunft_, s.n. Geismar (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1985, c1965). [8] Stark, Franz, _Die Kosenamen der Germanen_ p. 154 (Wiesbaden: Dr. Martin Sa:ndig oHG., 1967 [1868]). [9] Brechenmacher, Josef Karlmann, _Etymologisches Worterbuch der deutschen Familiennamen_ (Limburg a. d. Lahn, C. A. Starke-Verlag, 1957-1960).