ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3366 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3366 ************************************ 5 Dec 2008 From: Bronwyn ferch Gwyn ap Rhys Greetings from the Academy of St. Gabriel! You asked our help in determining whether the name would be a good name for a man living in Rhenish Germany between 1400 and 1600, noting that you intended it to be a typical construction of a given name and an occupational surname. You added that you didn't care whether the name belonged to the Low, Middle, or High German dialect groups. [1] (Throughout this letter, <"> stands for an umlaut over the previous letter.) The name is a fine name for your period. We have found four instances in tax rolls of 1495 from the Baden-Wu"rttemberg area near the Rhine. [2] In this case the form is High German. This means that it is unlikely that your persona would be located much north of Cologne, and our examples do come from much further south. Unfortunately, we were not successful in our search for a 16th century version of your chosen surname, . We found a number of occupational bynames with the same general meaning of 'forester, forest ranger, wood-keeper, forest guard,' but seems to be a more recent coinage. We've listed these below, giving first one or more modern forms of the surname and then one or more citations. Waldfo"rster Waldfurster 1568 Waldner, Wa"ldner, Weldner: Waldenarius 1286 Weldnarius 1286 Woldner 1372, 1400 Weldner 1395 Waldner 1397, 1405, 1414 The first two entries are Latinized; the corresponding Middle High German forms are probably and , respectively. is an eastern form that may not be appropriate for a Rhenish German. Waldpropst: prepositus silve 1260 Waltpropst 1288 These refer to the same person; the first is a Latin translation of the second (and German 'provost; prior' actually comes from Latin ). The modern spelling is fine for your period; the 1288 spelling is probably best restricted to the very beginning of your period. Waldschutz>, Waldschu"tz>: Waltschu"tz 1347 would be fine for your period; the 1347 form is probably best restricted to the very beginning of your period. Forster, Fo"rster, Vorster, Vo"rster: Forster 1270 Vorster 1288 c. 1396 der forster 1310x20 [3] Forster 1340, 1414 Vo"rster 1381 All of the cited spellings are possible in your period, though we do not recommend using the definite article (as in ). Forstner, Fo"rstner, Vorstner, Vo"rstner: Forstner 1396, 1421 and were evidently to some degree interchangeable: 1396 and ca. 1396 refer to the same person, as do 1421 and 1414. [4] Forsthey, Forsthei: Forstheie 1281 Both modern spellings should be fine for your period. Forstmann: Vorsterman 1607 The byname (e.g., 1285 was also used in this sense, but its primary meaning may have been 'one who lives in a wood.' [5] I hope that this letter has been useful. Please write us again if any part of it is unclear or if you have other questions. I was assisted by Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Talan Gwynek and Ursula Georges in writing this letter. For the Academy, Bronwyn ferch Gwyn ap Rhys 05 Dec 2008 References: [1] The High German dialects actually include the Middle German dialects; the remaining High German dialects are referred to as Upper German. [2] Aryanwhy merch Catmael (Sara L. Uckelman, "German Names from 1495" (WWW: privately published, 2002-2006) http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/german/german1495.html. [3] The expression "1310x20" means that the name occurs somewhere between 1310 and 1320, but we are not sure exactly when. [4] Brechenmacher, Josef Karlmann, _Etymologisches Wo"terbuch der Deutschen Familiennamen_. (Limburg a. d. Lahn: C. A. Starke-Verlag, 1957-1960); s.nn. , , , , , , , , [5] Schwarz, Ernst, _Deutsche Namenforschung I: Ruf- und Familiennanamen_ (Go"ttingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, 1950), s.nn. , , .