ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2392
http://www.s-gabriel.org/2392
************************************

19 Nov 2001
From:  (Josh Mittleman)


Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!

You asked our help choosing a name suitable for a late 3rd or 4th century
Visigoth, the son of a Roman mother.  You expressed particular interest in
the names <Athanaric>, <Athavulf>, <Segeric>, and <Recared>.  Here is what
we have found.

What sort of name you use depends very much on the details of your persona.
If you or your father were a permanent resident of the Empire, you would
have been citizens due to the Edict of Caracalla in 212; and you would
likely have used a Roman-style name, which by the 3rd century consisted of
a nomen (family name) and cognomen (personal nickname).  The nomen might
have been based on your father's original Gothic name or perhaps on the
name of his patron [3].  Since you expressed an interest in Gothic names,
we'll focus on that possibility.  If you'd like to discuss a Roman name,
please write us again.  We have some information on Roman naming practices
of your period in this report:

  http://www.s-gabriel.org/2206

All records of early Gothic names come to us through Latin documents.  (The
split between the Visigoths and Ostrogoths wasn't complete in your period.)
The forms you found in our earlier report are partially Latinized.  It is
possible to approximately reconstruct the Gothic form of some names, but
your persona would likely have used a Latinized form more often than not --
certainly in writing -- so we'll try to give you both.

The first of the four names you chose is the most appropriate for your
period: <Athanaric> lived c.380.  The other names were used somewhat later:
<Athavulf> c.410, <Segeric> c.415, <Recared> 586-601 [1, 2].  The Gothic
names underlying the first three of these names are probably <Athanareiks>,
<Attawulfs>, and <Sigisareiks>.  We can't determine a probable Gothic form
of <Recared>.  <Athanareiks> was pronounced \AH-thah-nah-'reeks\, where the
upper-case syllable is stressed and the single-quote indicates a secondary
stress.  \th\ stands for the sound of <th> in <thing>, and the \r\ is
trilled as in modern Italian and Spanish.  <Attawulfs> was pronounced
\AHT-tah-'wulfs\, with the \u\ as in <put>; and <Sigisareiks> was
\SEE-ghis-ah-'reeks\.  \gh\ represents a sound not used in English; it is
the voiced version of the raspy <ch> sound in the Scottish word <loch> or
German <Bach>.  ("Voiced" means pronounced while vibrating your vocal
cords.  \k\ in <king> is unvoiced, \g\ in <gut> is voiced.)

Here are some other early Gothic masculine names.  We've listed the Latin
form followed, in some cases, by our reconstruction of the Gothic form and
its pronunciation.  The reconstructions are based largely on material from
references [2] and [4], with a little input from [5].  Where we haven't
given a Gothic form, we don't have enough material to make a reasonable
guess.  Very little of the Gothic language was ever written down, so much
of it is unknown to modern scholars.

In all the pronunciations, \u\ stands for the vowel in <put>, \oo\ for the
vowel in <moon>, \th\ for the <th> in <thing>, and the \r\ is trilled.

2nd and 3rd century:  

  Amal          Amala         \AH-mah-lah\
  Aoric	 
  Ariaric       Harjareiks    \HAR-yah-reeks\
  Athal         Athala        \AH-thah-lah\
  Augis	 
  Cniva          
  Hilderith     Hildireths    \HIL-dih-'rayths\
  Hisarnis      Eisarn        \EE-sarn\
  Hunuil        Hunawilja     \HOO-nah-'wil-yah\
  Nidada
  Ovida
  Respa
  Thuruar       probably not linguistically Gothic
  Veduc

4th and 5th century:

  Alaric        Alhareiks (uncertain) \AHL-hah-'reeks\
  Alatheus      
  Ansila        Ansila        \AHN-sih-lah\ 
  Beremud  
  Ediulf     
  Ermanaric     Airmanareiks  \AIR-mah-nah-'reeks\
  Fritigern     Frithugairns  \FRIH-thu-'gairns\ 
  Gesimund      Gaisumunths   \GEH-su-munths\
  Hachiulf      
  Hunimund      Hunamunths    \HOO-nah-'munths\
  Oduulf        Audawulfs (uncertain) \OW-dah-'wulfs\ (\OW\ as in <cow>)
  Safrac  
  Sarus  
  Thorismud     Thaurismunths (perhaps) \THOR-is-'munths\
  Valaravans    Walahrabns [6] \WAH-lah-'rahbhns\; \bh\ is similar to \v\ [7]
  Valia         Walja          \WAHL-yah\ 
  Vandalarius   Wandilaharjis  \WAHN-dih-lah-'har'-yis\
  Vinitharius   Winithaharjis  \WIN-ih-thah-'har-yis\
  Vultuulf

As you know, the Goths in your period did not use surnames of any kind.  It
is possible that patronymics were occasionally used in ceremonial settings
or even in everyday settings where clarification was needed -- something
like <Athala Athanareikis sunus> "Athala Athanareiks' son" -- but we know
of no evidence of such forms.


We hope this letter has been useful.  Please write us again if any part of
it has been unclear or if you have other questions.  I was assisted in
researching and writing this letter by Talan Gwynek.

For the Academy,


  Arval Benicoeur
  12 Nov 2001


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References

[1] Woolf, Henry Bosley, _The Old Germanic Principles of Name-Giving_
(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press. 1939), in his chapter on the Goths.  The
author says that he gave Continental names in the forms that he found them,
presumably in a common variant spelling.

[2] Piel, Joseph M., and Kremer, Dieter, _Hispano-gotisches Namenbuch_
(Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universita:tsverlag, 1976), s.n. Recaredus.

[3] Birley, Anthony, _The People of Roman Britain_ (London: B T Batsford,
Ltd, 1979), pp.16-19.  

[4] Wright, Joseph, _Grammar of the Gothic Language_ (Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1924).

[5] O'Neill, Tim, "Gothic Names" (WWW: privately published, accessed 12 Nov
2001).  Although the author does not give his references, we are
sufficiently familiar with his work that we trust his results.  Questions
for him can be directed to the Germanic-L mailing list, which he owns.
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Salon/2385/gothnames.html

[6] The second element derives from the Gothic word for "raven", which is
unattested.  We have used the reconstruction offered by the Oxford English
Dictionary, s.n. raven.  _The Compact Edition of the Oxford English
Dictionary_ (New York: Oxford University Press, 1973).

[7] More precisely, \bh\ is a voiced bilabial fricative, the sound you make
by pronouncing \v\ by vibrating your lips against one another instead of
vibrating one lips against your teeth.