ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3040 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3040 ************************************ 12 Jul 2005 From: Gunnvor Silfraharr Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked for information about the name , and wanted our evaluation of it as a 13th or 14th c. German byname. You said you thought that might be the origin of your modern name . You also said you were considering using the given name . Here is what we found. 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 Austria and Switzerland. Some names were used only in one region (and therefore only in one dialect) or another; other names were used in all dialects but spelled or pronounced differently in each dialect. Therefore, your choice of name may depend on exactly what part of Germany you want to re-create [1]. Surnames were commonly based on given names, originally to identify someone as his father's child. Originally forms of were given names, which were then used as patronymic surnames to indicate that the bearer was the son of a man named . In order to answer your question, we'll have to discuss the history of the name and its variants in some detail. Both Old Saxon, the ancestor of the Low German dialects, and Old High German, the ancestor of the High German dialects, had a masculine name . Over time both the and the <-bald> element underwent changes in many dialects; we'll discuss these elements separately. The sequence <-igi-> originally represented something like \EE-gee\ (with 'hard' \g\ as in ), but as Old High German developed into the various Middle High German (MHG) dialects of your period, the pronunciation was usually simplified to something very like \ee\. [2] The resulting syllable was commonly spelled or . For instance, at Arnsburg, north of Frankfurt am Main in the state of Hessen, the given name is Latinized in the 13th century and in the first half of the 14th century, and it appears as in the second half of the 14th century. [3] At Mannheim, in the state of Baden-Wu"rttemberg, it occurs in a Latinized patronymic in the name 1364, where the byname means 'Sibold's [son]'. [4] The is used here to represent a u-umlaut. The same development was also common in Middle Low German, as may be seen from the Low German spellings 1379 and 1454 and the Latinized Low German spelling 1280 for earlier [5, 6]. These forms were pronounced roughly \ZEE-bohlt\, where \oh\ stands for the vowel of the English word . (In the High German dialects the sound was closer to \ZHEE-bohlt\ in the first half of the 13th century.) Starting in the late 12th century, the \ee\ sound changed to \ay\ in many MHG dialects; this new sound was spelled and . This change started in the far southeastern corner of the German language area and gradually spread north and west. By 1400, the end of your period, it had spread through Bavaria, Austria, Bohemia, and Silesia. [7] From Bohemia, for instance, we have the names 1396 and 1424. [8, 9] These spellings represent a pronunciation something like \ZAY-bohlt\. The spelling is a later and somewhat artificial development not found in your period. [12] The history of the second element is much simpler. In most of the High German dialect area there was a general tendency for the /a/ sound to become /o/. [13] In Middle Low German this change was much less general, but it was normal in the sequences <-ald> and <-alt>. [14] As a result, in your period the element very commonly appears as <-bold> or <-bolt> throughout Germany. (The <-bolt> spelling is especially common in the southeast.) In short, is probably the single most widely used form in your period, with a common variant . Around 1200 it might have been found almost anywhere in Germany, with the variant especially likely in the southeast. Around 1400 it was still very widespread, but in the southeast, in Bavaria and Bohemia, it had probably mostly given way to . is much easier: it was used all over Germany, though in most places its popularity declined during your period. At Arnsburg, north of Frankfurt am Main in the state of Hessen, it was one of the most popular names in the period 1200-1250; it is curiously absent from the record in the period 1250-1300, but it is again moderately frequent in the period 1300-1350, and as it appears twice in the period 1350-1400. [3] Further east, in Bohemia, we found in 1269, 1310, and 1408; this is of course Latinized, but the patronymic byname in 1340x1350 shows that the name had its usual German form in this region. [18] Our Low German (northern) sources for your period are unfortunately pretty skimpy, but even so we found yet another ca. 1300 in Pomerania. The pet form was also very common in the north; we found examples from 1262, ca. 1300, and 1338, and the related in 1385. [19, 20] was pronounced approximately \VIL-helm\; was roughly \VIL-eh-k@\, where \@\ stands for the sound of in and . To sum up, the name might have been found almost anywhere in Germany at the beginning of your period, with the variant being especially likely in the southeast. By the end of your period we would expect to see and similar forms in the southeast, but is still possible in much of Germany. In general the in these forms can be replaced by . In the north the given name was often replaced by a pet form, being one of the most common. 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. We were assisted in researching and writing this letter by Arval Benicoeur, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Walraven van Nijmegen, and Maridonna Benvenuti. For the Academy, Talan Gwynek and Gunnvor Silfraharr 12 July 2005 ----------------------------------------------------- References [1] German Dialects 2 with Dialect Map. (WWW: About.com, 2005). http://german.about.com/library/weekly/aa051898.htm [2] Paul, Hermann, & Walther Mitzka. Mittelhochdeutsche Grammatik, 19th edn. (Tu"bingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag, 1963); Sect. 69. [3] Mulch, Roland. Arnsburger Personennamen: Untersuchungen zum Namenmaterial aus Arnsburger Urkunden vom 13. - 16. Jahrhundert. Quellen und Forschungen zur Hessischen Geschichte, 29 (Darmstadt und Marburg: Hessische Historische Kommission Darmstadt und Historische Kommission fu"r Hessen, 1974); pp. 31-37. [4] Brechenmacher, Josef Karlmann. Etymologisches Wo"rterbuch der deutschen Familiennamen (Limburg a. d. Lahn: C.A. Starke-Verlag, 1957-1960); s.n. . The is used here to represent an o-umlaut. [5] Seibicke, Wilfried. Historisches Deutsches Vornamenbuch. 4 vols. (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1996-2003); s.n. . [6] Zoder, R. Familiennamen in Ostfalen. 2 vols. (Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlag, 1968); p. 46. [7] Kienle, Richard von. Historische Laut- und Formenlehre des Deutschen (Tu"bingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag, 1960); Sect. 32. [8] Schwarz, Ernst. Sudetendeutsche Familiennamen aus vorhussitischer Zeit (Ko"ln: Bo"hlau Verlag, 1957); s.n. . [9] The modern surname also shows this High German sound change; in origin it's the pet form of plus the High German diminutive suffix <-el>. [10, 11] [10] Bahlow, Hans. Deutsches Namenlexikon: Familien- und Vornamen nach Ursprung und Sinn erkla"rt (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Taschenbuch Verlag, 1985); s.n. . [11] Priebsch, R., & W.E. Collinson. The German Language, 3rd edn. (London: Faber & Faber Limited, 1948); p. 236. [12] Briefly, the element of Old High German is very closely related to the Old High German word 'victory'. This became MHG , which developed into modern German . Spellings like and are the result of retrofitting the normally developed names with this modern relative of their original . [13] Kienle, op. cit., Sect. 37.1. [14] For example, Old Saxon 'old' became Middle Low German (where the hyphen stands for a variety of grammatical endings), as in the 1311 byname 'old'. The name gave rise to a Low German pet form , with a further diminutive , that was common along the entire northern coast of Germany throughout your period. Other typical examples of Middle Low German names originally containing the element are 1344, 1282, 1328, 1292x6, 1141, and 1400. [15, 16, 17] ('1292x6' means 'at some unknown date between 1292 and 1296. The endings <-us>, <-i>, and <-o> are Latin grammatical endings added to the German names. The ending <-es> is a German possessive ending.) [15] Brechenmacher, op. cit., s.n. . [16] Bahlow, op. cit., s.n. . [17] Zoder, op. cit., pp. 35, 46, 89, 96, 97. [18] Schwarz, op. cit., s.nn. , , , , . [19] Bahlow, op. cit., s.n. . [20] Zoder, op. cit., p. 79.