ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2606 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2606 ************************************ From: Sara L Friedemann 18 Dec 2002 Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You wanted to know if would be an appropriate name for a 16th century German woman. Here is the information we have found. Your name is fine. was a popular name in later-period Germany. It is an excellent choice for your given name, and was pronounced \kah-teh-REE-n@\, with secondary stress on \kah-\, where the \@\ represents the sound of in and . [1] In our period, there wasn't a uniform German language, but rather a collection of dialects that varied from one region to the next. These dialects fall into two major groups: Low German in the north and High German in the south, including Bavaria and Austria. [4] The byname has a number of different origins, arising from differences in dialects spoken in Germany. We'll discuss all of them in turn. The usual source of as a byname derives from its meaning of 'community forest/meadow'; we find the byname recorded in 1472 in Lu"neburg. [2] (The " in represents an umlaut over the ). In Low German the word could also mean 'hind, deer'; this meaning underlies some northern instances of the byname, e.g., the recorded in 1411 in Kiel. In some cases the surname probably referred to residence at a house called 'the Deer'. [2,3] can also be a short form of any masculine name beginning with , e.g, , , , etc., and as a surname it was used to indicate that the bearer's father's name was one of those names. [3] Though we have not found the exact spelling , without a preposition or article, in the 16th century, we would not be surprised to see it in use. We hope that this letter has been useful to you and that you won't hesitate to write us again if any part was unclear or if you have further questions. Research and commentary on this letter was provided by Maridonna Benvenuti, Falk vom Weserbogen, Arval Benicoeur, Adelaide de Beaumont, Ursula Georges, and Tangwystyl verch Morgant. For the Academy, -Argantgui filia Catmaili, 18Dec02 -- References: [1] Talan Gwynek, "15th-Century German Women's Names" (WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1997) http://www.s-gabriel.org/docs/german15f.html. [2] Brechenmacher, Josef Karlmann, _Etymologisches Woerterbuch der deutschen Familiennamen_ (Limburg a. d. Lahn, C. A. Starke-Verlag, 1957-1960). s.n. Hard [3] Bahlow, Hans, _Deutsches Namenlexikon : Familien- und Vornamen nach Ursprung und Sinn erklaert_ (Frankfurt am Main : Suhrkamp Taschenbuch Verlag, 1985, 1990).s.nn. Hardt, Hart [4] The following is a link to a map of the different German dialects: http://www.serve.com/shea/germusa/dialkart.jpg --