ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2832
http://www.s-gabriel.org/2832
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From: Roberd mac Cormaic 
05 Mar 2004


Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!

You asked whether the given name <Katja> was used by German women living
between 1000 and 1600.

Unfortunately, it appears that <Katja> came into use in German only in
modern times [1]. Some German forms of <Katherine> that were used in
your requested period are [2]:

Katherine 1366
Katherin  1337
Katheryn  1383
Katerina  1350
Kethe     1365, 1369, 1383
Keterlyn  1366
Katusch   1365

The latter three are pet forms of <Katherine>.

The reason we brought up <Katherine> is that the modern German <Katja>
was probably adopted from Russian, where <Kata>, a pet form of
<Ekaterina>, was in use by 1088 [3].

Once you decide on your given name, we'll be happy to help you choose an
appropriate surname in the same language.

I hope this letter has been helpful, and I ask you to 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 Aryanhwy merch
Catmael, Mari neyn Bryan, Walraven van Nijmegen, Adelaide de Beaumont,
Talan Gwynek, Arval Benicoeur, Laurensa de Chambord, Kolozsvari Arpadne
Julia and Juliana de Luna.


For the Academy,

-Roberd mac Cormaic
5 Mar 2004

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References

[1] 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.n. <Katharina>.

[2] Talan Gwynek, "Medieval German Given Names from Silesia", revised
edition (WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1999).
http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/talan/bahlow/

[3] Paul Wickenden of Thanet, "A Dictionary of Period Russian Names",
2nd edition (WWW: SCA, Inc., 1996), s.n. <Ekaterina>.
http://www.sca.org/heraldry/paul/