ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2279 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2279 ************************************ 20 Apr 2001 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for a man from 14th century Germany and you asked us to suggest an appropriate surname. This letter is a brief answer to your question. As you already know, appears in records dated 1342 from Silesia (a region now in southwestern Poland) [1]. The name is also recorded in 1415 as [2]. It was a pet form of and the spelling you want was pronounced \KEE-tahn\. We haven't found any other example of this name, but it is a reasonable choice for eastern Germany in your period. A man of your period could have been further identified by bynames (surnames) of various types. Probably the most common type was a patronymic, i.e. a byname that identified a man as his father's son, like "Kitan [son of] Conrat". You could construct a perfect name for your period by choosing a name recorded about the same time and place as and using it as your father's name; that's how we constructed these two examples. You can find a suitable list of names in the article in which you found : Medieval German Given Names from Silesia http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/talan/bahlow/ It was also common for a man to be identified by the place where he lived, using a "locative byname". In fact, the example of we found is part of a full name [2]; is an abbreviation for . Locative bynames were formed in various ways in different parts of Germany, and in the 14th century these different forms were considered interchangable: There was a man from Butzbach, near Frankfurt am Main, whose name appears variously as 1390, 1389, and 1388 [3]. Locative bynames that used (or in northern and northwestern Germany) were most common among the nobility in your period [4]. You could build your byname from a 14th century form of any placename in Germany. If you pick a couple places that interest you, we'll be happy to look up period spellings of them. Some men were identified by occupation or by some aspect of their behavior or appearance. If you're interested in one of those possibilities, let us know what you have in mind and we'll see if we can help. We hope this brief letter has been useful. Please write us again if you have any questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Talan Gwynek and Adelaide de Beaumont. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 20 Apr 2001 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Talan Gwynek, "Medieval German Given Names from Silesia", revised edition (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1999). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/talan/bahlow/ [2] Bahlow, Hans, _Mittelhochdeutsches Namenbuch nach schlesischen Quellen_ (Neustadt (an der Aisch): Degener, 1975), p.167. [3] Schwarz, Ernst. Deutsche Namenforschung I: Ruf- und Familiennamen (Goettingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1949); pp. 101ff. [4] Schwarz, p.164.