Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 851

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 851

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/851

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 Saint Gabriel!

You asked for information about <Kelton Loktil> and about the surname <Lydolf>, and about eastern German names. Here is what we have found.

We could not find <Kelton> as a German name. The element <-ton> is typically found in English place names and in surnames derived from them. Many English surnames were re-cycled as given names after the 17th century, but not in our period. There is an English places called <Kilton>, recorded as early as 1206, and <Kalton>, recorded as <Calton> in 1336 [1].

We could not find <Loktil> at all. If you can tell us where you found it, we may be able to find more information.

We could not find the spelling <Lydolf>, but it appears to be a variant of the very common German name <Ludolf>. There was a 10th century Saint Ludolf, and we find several examples of the name in its latinized form <Ludolfus>. One instance is recorded in 1135, several more in the late 13th century, and one in 1390. We also find examples of the pet forms <Ludeko> 1258, <Lu"deke> 1302, and <Ludeke> 1349. (The " represents an umlaut on the <u>.) The name was particularly popular in the north of Germany [2, 3, 4]. Because we haven't found the spelling <Lydolf>, we recommend using one of the forms we did find.

If you want to consider some other German given names, you can find a couple lists from period records at my medieval names website.

http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/

Follow the links for German names.

I hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if any part of it has been unclear or if you have other questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Walraven van Nijmegen, Zenobia Naphtali, Talan Gwynek, and Lindorm Eriksson.

For the Academy,

Arval Benicoeur


References

[1] Reaney, P. H., & R. M. Wilson, _A Dictionary of English Surnames_

(London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995).

[2] Brechenmacher, Josef Karlmann, _Etymologisches Worterbuch der deutschen

familiennamen_ (Limburg a. d. Lahn, C. A. Starke-Verlag, 1957-1960).

[3] Socin, Adolf, _Mittelhochdeutsches Namenbuch. Nach oberrheinischen

Quellen des 12. und 13. Jahrhunderts_ (Basel: Helbing &Lichtenhahn, 1903; Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1966).

[4] Mulch, Roland, _Arnsburger Personennamen: Untersuchungen zum

Namenmaterial aus anrsburger Urkunden vom 13. - 16. Jahrhundert_ (Darmstadt & Marburg: Hessischen Historischen Kommission Darmstadt and the Historischen Kommission fu:r Hessen, 1974).