ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2540 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2540 ************************************ 1 May 2002 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for a German man in our period, and you asked for some information on German surnames. Here is what we have found. is one form of a fairly rare German adaptation of that appeared in northwestern Germany in the 11th century. By the end of the 14th century it had spread throughout the regions of northern and central Germany which used Low and Middle German dialects. The earliest spelling we found is 1049 in Sachsen-Anhalt and 1096 in Westphalia [2]. It appears as in Silesia (eastern Germany) in the early 14th century [1]. The spelling appears in Eastphalia in the mid-14th century [3] and in Thuringia and Hesse in the late 15th century [4]. appears in the Sudentenland in 1381 and in Hesse in 1453 [4, 5]. is thus a fairly unusual spelling of a fairly rare name, one which we have found only in eastern Germany in the early 14th century. It was pronounced \KIHR-sten\. German surnames were generally used literally through the 14th century and then gradually became fixed as inherited family names. Surnames can be classified into four broad categories: patronymic (derived from the father's given name), locative (derived from a place name or description of a place), occupational, and other sorts of descriptions. You can read about these types of bynames in an article on our website: A Brief Introduction to Medieval Bynames http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/arval/bynames/ It is illustrated with English examples, but the general principles apply to medieval German names as well. The preposition "from" was usually used with a place name, e.g 1390 [6]. We wouldn't expect it to be used with a generic topographic term like "(long-distance) road". Instead, we find used in other ways [7, 8]: Cunr[ad] an der Stras{sz}en 1304 "by the road" Deitwin an der Stra{sz}en 1319 Hainr[ich] dictus Strasser 1301 "called Strasser"' Henslinus Straser 1366 Letters in brackets are omitted in our data; the symbol {sz} represents an s-z ligature called an ess-tzet. The <-us> ending in one of the given names is a Latin grammatical ending; the actual German name was . In summary, either or is a fine 14th century eastern German name. 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 and Falk vom Wesserbogen. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 1 May 2002 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 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] Socin, Adolf, _Mittelhochdeutsches Namenbuch. Nach oberrheinischen Quellen des 12. und 13. Jahrhunderts_ (Basel: Helbing & Lichtenhahn, 1903; Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1966), p.72. [3] Zoder, R., _Familiennamen in Ostfalen_. 2 vols. (Hildesheim: 1968). Here are some examples, with page numbers shown in parentheses: Engelingus Kerstanes 1344/65 (31) Kerstien unde Henrik Thyleken sone Kerstiens 1355 (31) Kersten Brade 1367/76 (105) Kerstan Herre 1375 (84) Kersten Peter Kerstens 1415 (47) Cersten Kerstens 1423 (31) Kersten Havenicht 1465 (65) The forms ending in <-s> are possessive, e.g. is 'Cersten Kersten's [son]'. [4] Brechenmacher, Josef Karlmann, _Etymologisches Woerterbuch der deutschen Familiennamen_ (Limburg a. d. Lahn, C. A. Starke-Verlag, 1957-1960), s.n. Kerstan, Kirstan. [5] Schwarz, Ernst. Deutsche Namenforschung I: Ruf- und Familiennamen (Goettingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1949) s.n. Kirstan. [6] Schwarz, pp. 101ff. [7] Brechenmacher s.n. Stra{sz}er. [8] Schwarz s.n. Stra{sz}er.