ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2825
http://www.s-gabriel.org/2825
************************************

29 Mar 2004
From: Julia Szent-Gyorgyi 


Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!

You asked whether the names <Dorotea von Schwabisch Hall>,
<Theodora von Schwabisch Hall>, or <Margarethe von
Salzburg> would be appropriate for a woman living in
Germany or the Holy Roman Empire sometime between 1150 and
1300.

The earliest example we found of <Dorotea> or <Dorothea>
was from the 1300s [1]. It is possible that the name was
used earlier, within your period, but it must have been
rare. We found <Theodora> as the name of a Byzantine
princess who married an Austrian prince in the 1100s, but
this is not good evidence for the more general use of this
name: of the two, it was <Dorothea> that became the
customary German form [2, 3].
 
Some form of <Margareta>, on the other hand, is an
excellent choice for your period. In Germany, St. Margaret
was second only to St. Katherine in popularity, and her
name and its pet form <Grete> were adopted at an early date
by all social ranks [2]. We found numerous examples from
the mid-12th century to circa 1300 of the spelling
<Margareta>. Starting in the mid to late 1200s, we also
find examples of the spelling variant <Margaretha>. [4]
These represent the Latin form of this name; we do not know
if this form was also used in the vernacular. Other
examples are a <Margarete> probably from the late 1200s,
<Margrete> from 1299, and <Margrede> 1262. [4] These are
vernacular spellings, and although we have them only for
the later part of your period, we think they represent the
earlier pronunciation as well. The name was also used in
your period in the pet form <Grete>.  We found examples of
<Greta>, the Latinization of this pet form, from the second
half of the 13th century, and from 1312 we found the
possessive form of <Grete> in the name <Lantman der Greten
sun> 'Lantman the son of Grete'. [5, 6] <Margrete> was
pronounced \mar-GRAY-t@\ and <Grete> as \GRAY-t@\, where
\@\ represents the sound of 'a' in "sofa" and "about".

It's likely that the place name <Schwa"bisch Hall> "Swabian
Hall, Hall in Swabia" would have been shortened to "Hall"
when used as a locative byname, yielding the byname <von
Halle>. (Notice the double quotes in <Schwa"bisch>, which
indicate an umlaut over the preceding vowel.) We found no
examples of this name that we can definitely associate with
a particular place, but both <Fridericus de Halle> 1222 and
<Liuprandus de Hallis> 1255 were recorded in the state of
Wu"rttemberg, which is also where Schwa"bisch Hall is
located [10]. Both of these names are in Latin; in German,
the byname uses <von>: <Wernher von Halle> 1300 was
recorded in 1291 as <Wernherus dictus de Halle> "Werner,
called from-Hall". [11]

There were a number of places called <Salzburg> in period.
We found the locative byname written <der Salzburger> 1382
and <Salczpurger> 1380 [7, 8]. The name of the city in
Austria was Latinized as <Salisburgum>, or less completely,
<Salzburgum> and <Salzeburga>. [9]

Therefore, a name written in Latin as <Margareta de
Salisburgo>, <de Salzburgum>, or <de Salzeburga> is an
excellent choice for your period. Our best guesses for the
vernacular form are <Margrete von Salzburg> or <Margrete
Salzburgerin>; the exact spellings are likely to depend on
where your persona lives. In the Bavarian dialect, the
bynames would probably have been written <von Salzpurch>
and <Salzpurgerin> in the 13th century [12]. <Dorothea von
Halle> or <Theodora von Halle> are much less likely names
for your period, and we hesitate to recommend them.

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 Talan Gwynek,
Arval Benicoeur, Maridonna Benvenuti, Adelaide de Beaumont,
Ursula Georges, Mari neyn Brian, Aryanhwy merch Catmael,
and Juliana de Luna.

   For the Academy,

   Kolozsvari Arpadne Julia
   18 March 2004

--
References:

[1] Drosdowski, Guenther, _Duden Lexikon der Vornamen_, 2nd
ed. (Mannheim: Dudenverlag, 1974). s.n. Dorothea: mentions
a 14th c. Dorothea von Montau who became the patron saint
of Prussia.

[2] Bahlow, Hans, _Unsere Vornamen im Wandel der
Jahrhunderte_, Vol. 4 in the series _Grundriss der
Genealogie_ (Limburg a. d. Lahn: C. A. Starke Verlag,
1965). s.nn. Dorothea, Theodora, Margarete.

[3] The second wife of the 12th c. Austrian Herzog Heinrich
Jasomirgott was Theodora Komnena, daughter of the
Sebastokrator Andronikos and niece of Emperor Manuel I of
Byzantium. Mentioned in Bahlow s.n. Dorothea, with further
elaboration from
http://www.aeiou.at/aeiou.encyclop.h/h398969.htm (an
Austrian online encyclopedia).

[4] Socin, Adolf, _Mittelhochdeutsches Namenbuch. Nach
oberrheinischen Quellen des 12. und 13. Jahrhunderts_
(Basel: Helbing & Lichtenhahn, 1903; Hildesheim: Georg Olms
Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1966), p. 91f.

[5] Mulch, Roland, _Arnsburger Personennamen:
Untersuchungen zum Namenmaterial aus anrsburger Urkunden
vom 13. - 16. Jahrhundert_ (Darmstadt & Marburg: Hessischen
Historischen Kommission Darmstadt and the Historischen
Kommission fu"r Hessen, 1974), p. 38.

[6] Brechenmacher, Josef Karlmann, _Etymologisches
Woerterbuch der deutschen Familiennamen_ (Limburg a. d.
Lahn, C. A. Starke-Verlag, 1957-1960). Vol. 2, p.234, s.n.
Margaretha.

[7] Brechenmacher s.n. Salzburg(er) 

[8] Schwarz, Ernst, _Sudetendeutsche Familiennamen aus
vorhussitischer Zeit_ (Koeln: Blehlau Verlag, 1957). s.n.
Salzburger.

[9] Graesse, Dr. J. G. Th., _Orbis Latinus (2nd ed.)_
(Berlin: Richard Carl Schmidt & Co., 1909). WWW edition by
Karen Green for The Electronic Text Service, Columbia
University, 1996. 
http://www.columbia.edu/acis/ets/Graesse/orblatij.html#Juvavum


[10] Brechenmacher s.n. Hall(e)

[11] Socin p. 317

[12] Paul, Hermann, & Walther Mitzka. Mittelhochdeutsche
Grammatik, 19th edn. (Tuebingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag, 1963)
pp. 113, 116.