ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3219 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3219 ************************************ 22 Jan 2007 From: Aryanhwy merch Catmael Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You asked for help developing an authentic 12th century German feminine name, using a precursor to your modern surname . Here is what we have found. There are not many German records from the 12th century which include references to women, and most of the records that we have are written in Latin, not German. However, we were able to create a list of feminine given names that we found in the 12th century or early 13th century. Most of the names are of Germanic origin, but there are a few imported Romance names. Variants of the same name have been grouped together. The first list contains names for which we found at least two 12th century citations, and the second list contains names for which we found only one 12th century citation: [1,2] Adelheit* 1170 Adelheid* ca.1140 Adelheidis 12th C Adilheida 12th C Agatha* 12th C, 1162 Agnes* 1111, 12th C Agnesa* 12th C Agneta* 1109 Berhta* 12th C Bertda* 1165 Christina* 1177, 12th C Diemuota 12th C Diemo[v]t* 12th C Diemuot* 12th C/13th C Demuetis 1211 Diezwib* 1116 Diezewib* 12th C Elisabeth* 1136, 1160, 12th C Elisabet* 1147, 1164 x 1176 Engelburga 12th C Engilburc* 12th C Eufemia 12th C Hophemia* 1145 Ofimia* 1148 Offemia* 12th C Gepa* 1150, 12th C Gerdruth* 1170 Gertrud* 1168 Gerdrudis 12th C Gerdruda 12th C Gisela* 1169, 1170, 1202 Gisila* 12th C Guota* 12th C Cu[o]tha* 1187 Guta* 1224 Helwidis ca.1130 [?] Heluuidis 1188 Heilwidis 12th C Helewida = Helica* 1094 [ and . No vernacular form of occurs in our data from this region, even in the 13th century; in fact, all of our later citations from this region derive from the pet form , so it may be that the long form was no longer in use. is an early feminization of the masculine name (), and we are uncertain how to interpret it. It may be a genuine vernacular form. On the other hand, it may be that some women were called , but the name was written with the feminine suffix <-a> in Latin records. We lean somewhat towards the first possibility. The history of the modern surname is not completely clear. There are a number of distinct origins that the name could have had (and most likely did have - there is no reason to think that the name developed from just one origin out of many possible ones, as opposed to developing independently from many origins). In order to discuss possible precursors of the modern surname , we'll need to go into some details about language, spelling, and possible etymological roots. To begin, in Middle High German, the letter represented two sounds, the \ts\ sound that it represents in modern German and an \s\ sound. In order to make things clear, we will use to represent the \ts\ sound and the symbol <3> to represent the \s\ sound. Next, words which use in modern German are usually from Middle High German words whose normalized forms are spelled with or (where this represents an with a circumflex over it). This gives us the following Middle High German words from which might have derived, either directly or indirectly (in this list <{ae}> represents the a-e ligature): [7] bei3 'hawking' bei3{ae}re, bei3er 'a falcon; one who hunts with a falcon' bei3e 'hawking' bei3el 'a stylus, an engraving tool, a gouge; a wedge' bei3en 'to corrode; to dye; to steep; to macerate; to hunt birds with hawks; to hunt with hounds' bi:3 'biting' (noun) bi:3e 'breeding boar' The byname of 1294 is a variant spelling of , and the surname of 1445 also derives from . [8] That of 1491, on the other hand, is probably from . [9] (Here we use <{sz}> to represent the German Eszett ligature.) The suffix <-el> is a diminutive suffix, like <-ie> in the English names or . This suffix is very old; it occurs in the Old High German word 'little castle, little town', from the root 'castle, town'. [10,12] Additionally, we found a number of 12th and early 13th century German bynames which include a diminutive suffix (albeit not with <-el>), including: [3] Eincelin 'grandchild', 1135 Schiphili 'little ship', 1149 Sporelin 'little spur', 1157 dictus Vuhseli 'called little fox', 1219 Frazali 'little glutton', 1225 Eselin 'little donkey', 1240 If the dialects which used <-el> as the diminutive suffix also used the diminutive suffix in bynames in the 12th century, the byname could have arisen either as a byname meaning 'little breeding boar' or as a byname for a son of a man with the byname , and could have arisen either as a byname for a son of a man with the byname or perhaps directly from the word 'a stylus, a gouge'. [11] However, even though and are possible 12th century German bynames, we cannot recommend them as good re-creation for your persona, because this would require too many layers of conjecture. First, these masculine bynames are already hypothetical: We haven't found any examples of the diminutive suffix <-el> in the 12th century. Second, we lack evidence that bynames of this type were used by women. Third, even if they were, we aren't entirely sure whether (or how) they would have changed in form when used by women. We therefore recommend that you pick a different byname for your persona. The most common type of byname in the 12th century is the locative byname (i.e., a byname which indicates the bearer's place of origin). Some descriptive nicknames and patronymic bynames (ones which indicate the bearer's father's name) can also be found, but they are less common. [3,4,5,6] Additionally, in the 12th century, most German women used just a single given name, and no byname. If you wish to use a byname, then a locative byname is the best re-creation. For example, ca. 1200 we find the following two women recorded in Latin documents: [4] Gertrudis dicta de Gebliswilre ca. 1200 Adelheidis de Honnach ca. 1200 These two names might have represented the vernacular forms and or the like. [13] We hope that this letter has been useful to you and we hope 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, Maridonna Benvenuti, and Walraven van Nijmegen. For the Academy, -Aryanhwy merch Catmael, 22 January 2007 -- References: [1] Talan Gwynek, "German Given Names 1200-1250" (WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1997). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/talan/germ13/ [2] Socin, Adolf, _Mittelhochdeutsches Namenbuch. Nach oberrheinischen Quellen des 12. und 13. Jahrhunderts_ (Basel: Helbing & Lichtenhahn, 1903; Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1966), 51-64, 86-96, 116, 122, 580. [3] Talan Gwynek, "Some Early Middle High German Bynames with Emphasis on Names from the Bavarian Dialect Area" (WWW: Academy of S. Gabriel, 2004) [4] Socin, op. cit., pp. 116-7, chapter XIII [5] Brechenmacher, Josef Karlmann, _Etymologisches Woerterbuch der deutschen Familiennamen_ (Limburg a. d. Lahn, C. A. Starke-Verlag, 1957-1960), s.n. Kils [6] Socin, op. cit., p. 589 [7] _Mittelhochdeutsches Handwo"rterbuch von Matthias Lexer_. Zugleich als Supplement und alphabetischer Index zum Mittelhochdeutschen Wo"rterbuche von Benecke-Mu"ller-Zarncke. Nachdruck der Ausg. Leipzig 1872-1878 mit einer Einleitung von Kurt Ga"rtner. 3 Bde. (Stuttgart: S. Hirzel 1992.) [8] Brechenmacher, op. cit., s.nn. Bai{sz}, Bei{sz} [9] Brechenmacher, op. cit., s.n. Pei{sz} [10] Ko"bler, Gerhard, _Althochdeutsches Wo"rterbuch_, 4th edn. (WWW: Self-published, 1993). http://www.koeblergerhard.de/ahdwbhin.html [11] The example of in [3] was borne by a man who's father's byname was . [12] Krahe, Hans & Wolfgang Meid, _Germanische Sprachwissenschaft_, vol. III, Wortbildungslehre, Sammlung Go"schen Band 1218/1218a/1218b (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co., 1967), pp. 87ff [13] Socin, op. cit., pp. 115-6 has a few 12th century masculine names with .