Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 527

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/527

Greetings,

Here's the information we found on "Jaeger," which you wanted to use as a German given name.

We found no evidence that "Jaeger" was used as a German given name in period, but we do have an answer to your problem.

There are many examples of "Jaeger," in various spellings, as a German byname meaning "hunter." In early period, "Jeger" was the most common spelling. The spellings we found, with dates, are below: (1,2,3)

• Ja:ger (1280, 1456) ("a:" is "a" with an umlaut)
• Jeger (1411, 1439)
• Jegere (1367)

You could definitely use this as a byname if you found a given name you wished to use. Since bynames were given as nicknames, it's not at all inconceivable that someone named (for example) "Heinrich Jeger" would have been called "Jeger" by people who knew him. So if you picked a German given name, it would be reasonable to be known as "Jaeger" in daily life.

There are lists of medieval German men's names in the Academy Library, at

http://www.itd.umich.edu/~ximenez/s.gabriel/docs

Talan Gwynek and Arval Benicoeur contributed to this letter.

We hope this has been helpful. If we can be of further assistance, please let us know.

In service,
Alan Fairfax
Academy of S. Gabriel

(1) Brechenmacher

(2) Schwarz

(3) Mulch, R. "Arnsburger Personennamen: Untersuchungen zum Namenmaterial aus Arnsburger Urkunden vom 13. - 16. Jahrhundert."