ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1941 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1941 ************************************ From: "Brian M. Scott" 2 May 2000 Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! Here's the information that we found on and on your whole name, , which you want to use as the name of a 13th century German Templar. I'll discuss the elements , , , and individually, and then I'll discuss how they can be combined to form an authentic 13th century name. The given name does not seem to have been used as early as the 13th century. The earliest example of that spelling that we have found is in the name 1478. [1] (Here is probably the name of Andreas's father, though it might be the name of an earlier male ancestor.) As given names we found in 1598 and the Frisian variant in 1390. [2] Given the assertion by one authority that the name is not attested in the Middle Ages, it is unlikely that earlier examples are known. [3] If the name existed at all in the 13th century, it must have been extremely rare, and it's quite possible that it was a later development. Thus, we cannot recommend it as good historical recreation for your period. As a substitute you might consider the name , which has been suggested as a possible source of . is attested as early as 1125 and was fairly common in just the part of Germany -- the North -- where was later most familiar. [2, 4] An alternative would be simply to drop and use as a given name: it was one of the most popular German names in the Middle Ages and is well-represented in 13th century citations. [5, 6] Our earliest citation for is from 1363. [7] The name originally meant 'one who has been granted full authority to represent someone before a court'. [8] Although we do not have a 13th century citation, it seems likely that the term goes back to your period. At that time, however, it would most likely have been spelled or even . [9] The German word , which means 'sea, ocean', does not seem to have been used as a place-name. Thus, the byname , which would normally be interpreted to mean 'from a town or city named Meer', is not very plausible. A byname meaning 'by the sea' would be somewhat more plausible, but we did not find any. We did find bynames for someone living near a lake: 1336 'of / from the lake', and 1312 'by the water'. [11, 12] These are attested a little later than your period, but they would also be appropriate for the 13th century. If the sound of is more important to you than the meaning, you might be interested in the byname 1284, which comes from the old given name . [13] A 13th century would probably have been the son of a man named . German names from your period generally consisted of no more than two elements, a given name and a byname, i.e., a second name further identifying the person in question. The practice of using two given names -- something like a modern given name and middle name -- developed earlier in Germany than in most of Western Europe, but it was still almost unheard of in the 13th century. [14] Since bynames in your period were literal descriptions, it was not unusual for a person to be known by different bynames at different times. For instance, a gardener from Hagendal named might have been known sometimes as and sometimes as . These bynames would not normally have been used together, however. There are occasional examples of double bynames in official records, but in such cases we seem to be seeing the result of an administrative desire to ensure correct identification, not a name as such. (A modern parallel might be identifying someone by name, address, and social security number.) Combinations like , , and that consist of a single given name and a single byname from your period are therefore good choices for an authentic 13th century name. Some of the longer combinations (e.g., , probably meaning 'Heinrich son of Maro, the authorized representative') might be possible documentary forms, but they would not normally have been used in speech. Arval Benicoeur, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Walraven van Nijmegen, and Barak Raz also contributed to this letter. We hope that it has been helpful and apologize for the length of time it has been in preparation; if you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to ask. In particular, if you would like to confirm the authenticity of any particular combination of the name elements that we've discussed, or if you would like information on the 13th century pronunciation of such a combination, please write us again. For the Academy, Alan Fairfax & Talan Gwynek 1 May 2000 ===== References: [1] Brechenmacher, Josef Karlmann. Etymologisches Woerterbuch der Deutschen Familiennamen (Limburg a. d. Lahn: C. A. Starke-Verlag, 1957-60); s.n. . [2] Bahlow, Hans. Unsere Vornamen im Wandel der Jahrhunderte. Grundriss der Genealogie, vol. 4 (Limburg a. d. Lahn: C. A. Starke Verlag, 1965); s.n. . [3] Bahlow, Hans. Dictionary of German Names, tr. Edda Gentry (German-American Cultural Society, 1994); s.n. . [4] Brechenmacher, op. cit., s.n. Helmold. [5] Bahlow, Vornamen, s.n. . [6] Talan Gwynek. 'Medieval German Given Names from Silesia' (WWW: SCA, Inc., 1998). http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/bahlow_v.htm [7] Bahlow, Dictionary of German Names s.n. . [8] Brechenmacher, op. cit., s.n. . [9] This can be inferred from contemporary spellings of the modern surname , whose phonetic structure is very similar; examples can be found in [10]. [10] Socin, Adolf. Mittelhochdeutsches Namenbuch nach Oberrheinischen Quellen des Zwoelften und Dreizehnten Jahrhunderts (Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1966); p. 492. [11] Bahlow, Dictionary of German Names s.n. . [12] Brechenmacher, op. cit., s.n. . [13] Ibid. s.n. . [14] Socin, op. cit., pp. 107-8.