ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2155 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2155 ************************************ From: Lisa and Ken Theriot 27 Nov 2000 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You wanted to know whether is an appropriate name for a man from the Black Forest region of Germany between 1000 and 1300. Here is the information we have found. is an early name most likely arising from the root elements and <-ric>. It is important for you to know that the letter in is a scribal equivalent for ; the same name is also recorded as and . [1] It was pronounced \EHV-rik\ or \AYV-rik\. We find forms of the name recorded as late as 1050, but not after; further, the instances of this name are Romanized Frankish, which would not be appropriate for use in Germany. [2] We did find an Alemannic form, , which would be appropriate for areas of Germany nearer Switzerland, such as the Black Forest, but only very early. [3, 4] You mentioned that you are pronouncing like ; you may prefer to use a form of that name. We find it recorded as in 1293 and as in 1266 and 1325 in Northern Germany. [5, 6] Since the name was borrowed into German from Scandinavian sources, we are doubtful whether it would be appropriate any earlier, especially as far south as the Black Forest. It was pronounced \EH-rik\. Another similar name which may interest you is . There are two German saints by this name; the first, , was bishop of Augsburg. His canonization in 993 is the first recorded canonization by a pope. The second, , was founding abbot of the monastery at Zell in the Black Forest; he died in 1083. [7] We find this name recorded in many forms throughout your period, but we believe that the most appropriate form for your location and period is , which we find recorded in Alsace, not far from the Black Forest, in 1185. [8] Here is a with a small directly over it. It was pronounced roughly \OO@l-rikh\, where \@\ represents the sound of in and , and \kh\ represents the sound of in German . The Black Forest, or region has apparently been known by some form of that name since the 9th century. [9] Unfortunately, we do not find surnames based on the name until 1350, after your period. This could be because the area was so sparsely settled that no one thought to refer to it as someone's place of origin, or because people considered it too large to be a useful identifier for someone who did live there. We find the same pattern for names based on the Odenwald. For the very end of your period, however, we believe that is a plausible name for a man from the Black Forest. [10] If it existed, it would have been pronounced \SWARTS-wel-deer\ from before the beginning of your period into the 13th century. During the 13th century, the pronunciation of began to change from \w\ to \v\, making the pronunciation \SVARTS-vel-deer\ also possible for the end of your period. Another possible explanation for the lack of bynames based on is that local people referred to it only as "the forest". We find the following names recorded in or near your period in Konstanz and Stuttgart, which are both near the Black Forest: [11] , 1317 "from the forest" or possibly, "from (a place called) Wald" , 1285 "woodsman, forester" , 1286 "woodsman, forester" [12] We don't know absolutely that these names relate to the Black Forest, but they do give you other options. We believe that any of these names would be appropriate for at least the last fifty years of your period. Prior to 1250, we do not find any names which we believe are appropriate to use in reference to the Black Forest. If you would like more options for the early part of your period, we recommend you choose a byname based on a more settled area, such as a town. Please write again if you would like further assistance. You should be aware that such a byname probably implies that the bearer no longer lives in the Black Forest; bynames of location were only useful if they didn't describe everyone in the neighborhood. You would probably not have to go far from the Black Forest in order for the byname to be meaningful, as we see in the examples from Konstanz and Stuttgart. In summary, we can recommend as a fine choice for your period; we believe or are possible forms for the end of your period for a man from the Black Forest who is now living elsewhere. We hope that this letter has been useful to you, and that you will not hesitate to write again if any part was unclear or if you have further questions. I was assisted in researching and preparing this letter by Amant le Marinier, Arval Benicoeur, Blaise de Cormeilles, Dietmar von Straubing, Juliana de Luna, and Talan Gwynek. For the Academy, Adelaide de Beaumont 27 November 2000 References: [1] Morlet, Marie-Therese, _Les Noms de Personne sur le Territoire de l'Ancienne Gaule du VIe au XIIe Siecle_, three volumes (Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1972), I:78a. [2] When people who spoke a language descended from Latin (e.g., Old French) borrowed or continued to use names of Germanic origin, these names underwent various sound changes according to the local Romance (= Latin-descended) dialect. The citations we found show signs of having undergone these changes. In most of Germany you don't see these kinds of changes, because there was no significant population speaking a Romance dialect. [3] Alemannic is an Upper German dialect (or family of dialects) spoken in Switzerland and adjacent parts of Germany. [4] Mu"ller, Gunter, _Studien zu den Theriophoren Personennamen der Germanen_ (Ko"ln: Bo"hlau Verlag, 1970), p. 154. The specific form is undated, but it resembles forms which we see recorded from the 9th or 10th c., too early for your period. We believe it was pronounced roughly \AY-bar-rikh\, where \kh\ represents the sound of in German . [5] Bahlow, Hans, _Deutsches Namenlexikon : Familien- und Vornamen nach Ursprung und Sinn erklaert_ (Frankfurt am Main : Suhrkamp Taschenbuch Verlag, 1985, 1990), s.n. Erich. You should be aware that the name is already registered in the SCA; any name you construct using the elements and may be considered too close for registration. [6] Zoder, R., _Familiennamen in Ostfalen_. 2 vols. (Hildesheim: 1968), p. 29. It is possible that the <-e> could be a grammatical addition, so that the name would actually be . [7] Catholic Online Saints Index, (WWW: Catholic Online, 2000), http://saints.catholic.org/stsindex.html , accessed 27 November 2000, s.nn. Ulric, Ulrich. These are modern renderings of the saints' names, and we are unsure which form of the name they would actually have used. [8] Socin, Adolf, _Mittelhochdeutsches Namenbuch. Nach oberrheinischen Quellen des 12. und 13. Jahrhunderts_ (Basel: Helbing & Lichtenhahn, 1903; Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1966), pp. 38, 111, 171. [9] Schwarz, Ernst, _Deutsche Namenforschung. II: Orts- und Flurnamen_ (Goettingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, 1950), p. 186. [10] Brechenmacher, Josef Karlmann. Etymologisches Woerterbuch der Deutschen Familiennamen (Limburg a. d. Lahn: C. A. Starke-Verlag, 1957-60); s.nn. Odenwa"lder, Schwarzwald. Under the citation for Odenwa"lder, the author gives the example recorded in 1350, which would indicate "Johannes from the Odenwald." There were no forms of the names derived from either the Odenwald or the Schwartzwald given, even through modern times, which included the preposition . [11] Brechenmacher, op. cit., s.nn. Walder, Waldman, Waldner. [12] This is a Latin form; the root name would be Middle High German , where {ae} represents the letter ash, a character where the letters and are combined into one. This byname developed into the modern byname . Names were frequently recorded in Latin, although the names would often be quite different in common use. A man whose name was recorded in Latin as would likely have been known locally as .