ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2670 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2670 ************************************ 15 Feb 2003 From: Sara L Friedemann Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You wanted to know if would be an appropriate byname for a 16th century German from Munich. Here is a brief letter with the information we have found. Your choice of surname is fine; we found it recorded as in 1499 near Wuerttemberg, as well as the earlier forms in Muehlheim in 1266 and in Esslingen in 1238. [1] We found two places named Muehlheim; one in the state of Hessen and the second in Baden-Wuerttemberg. Esslingen is on the Neckar, also in Baden-Wuerttemberg. Baden-Wuerttemberg is the next state west of Bavaria, where Munich is, so this places the byname near your desired area. Without actual evidence from Munich we cannot say whether or would be more appropriate, but since both are found today as modern surnames in Munich, we believe both are appropriate for your period as well. However, it is likely that in 16th century Munich, a merchant family would have had an inherited surname rather than a descriptive byname. Thus, a 16th century merchant surnamed was not necessarily a salt merchant himself, and was instead the son of a man surnamed , though if the family had been in the same business for a long time, could easily have changed from being a literal descriptive of their trade to a fixed, inherited surname. If you haven't chosen a given name yet, we recommend the following articles as good sources: "Late Period German Masculine Given Names" http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/talan/germmasc/ "German Given Names from 1495" http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/german1495.html We hope that this brief 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. Research and commentary on this letter were provided by Arval Benicoeur, Talan Gwynek, Maridonna Benvenuti, Margaret Makafee, and Adelaide de Beaumont. For the Academy, ~Aryanhwy merch Catmael --------------------------------------- References: [1] Brechenmacher, Josef Karlmann, _Etymologisches Woerterbuch der deutschen Familiennamen_ (Limburg a. d. Lahn, C. A. Starke-Verlag, 1957-1960). , s.nn. Salz, Salzmann