Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 712

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 712

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/712

Some of the Academy's early reports contain errors that we haven't yet corrected. Please use it with caution.

Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel!

You asked about <Krag von Bergen> as a possible period name for someone living in the Dano-German border region.

First, thank you for including the results of your own research; that was both thoughtful and helpful.

With very minor changes this is in fact a perfectly reasonable 15th century Dano-German name. There is a Danish personal name <Krak> that was recorded as <Krac> 1339 and <Kragh> 1408. Its genitive (or possessive) case appears as <Kraags> in 1401, and as <Krags> in 1487; these imply that the name itself could also be spelled <Kraag> and <Krag>. [1]

The byname is most likely to refer to the Norwegian city of Bergen. It occurs in Danish records in a variety of forms: <fan Berghen> 1458, <van Berghen> 1441, <van Bergen> 1443, etc. The most common form seems to be <van Berghen>, but there are a few without the <h>. [2] The Low German <van> is far more common than High German <von>, which is only to be expected: the German dialects spoken near the Danish border are all Low German dialects.

All in all, <Krag van Berghen> and <Kragh van Berghen> seem to be the likeliest forms of the name, but <Krag van Bergen> is within the range of attested variation. In the 15th century the same person would probably have used all of these forms at one time or another.

I hope that this information is helpful and that you will write again if you have any further questions.

For the Academy,

Talan Gwynek


[1] Danmarks Gamle Personnavne. I: Fornavne. G. Knudsen, M. Kristensen, & R. Hornby, eds. (Copenhagen, 1941-48).

[2] Danmarks Gamle Personnavne. II: Tilnavne. G. Knudsen, M. Kristensen, & R. Hornby, eds. (Copenhagen, 1948-53).