Medieval Naming Guides: German
German Names
German today is a common language spoken in Germany and Austria, with
dialects in neighboring countries. The situation is our period was
more complex: There was large range of dialects spoken across the
German world. The primary division was between Low German,
spoken in the north, and High German, spoken in the south, with
an intermediate band which used Middle German. We've found a
description of where each dialect is spoken
High German
-
Some Early Middle High German Bynames, by Talan Gwynek
- About 140 bynames (descriptive epithets) recorded before 1240,
mostly from the south of Germany and Switzerland.
-
Names from Hebrew Chronicles of the 12th Century, by Julie Stampnitzky
- A list of names of Jews in France and Germany, part of
the author's
Database of Medieval Jewish Names.
- Mittelhochdeutsches Namenbuch. Nach oberrheinischen Quellen des 12. und 13. Jahrhunderts, by Adolf Socin
- A complex analysis of Middle High German names from the 12th and 13th C, available either to read online or to download as PDF.
- German
Given Names 1200-1250, by Talan Gwynek
- Men's and women's given names from Arnsburg, in Hessen.
- Medieval German Given Names from Silesia,
by Talan Gwynek
- A large collection of masculine and feminine given names from
Silesia, in eastern Germany near the modern borders with Poland
and the Czech Republic.
-
German Names from Kosice, 1300-1500, by Guntram von
Wolkenstein and Anya Mstyslavyaya
- A collection of names from the register of offices of a prison in
Slovakia. The article contains surnames as
well as given names. The given names are Latinized; most of the
surnames are not. Most of the names are German; a few are
Slavic. Master Talan has provided
notes on
the surnames in the articles. Also
posted by the SCA
Shire of Adamastor.
- A Jewish Memory Book: Nuremburg, 1349, by Eleazar ha-Levi
- Names of Jewish people massacred in the German city of Nuremburg in 1349.
-
15th Century German Women's Names, by Talan Gwynek
- A small collection of women's given names from Arnsburg, in Hessen.
- German Names from Rottweil, Baden-Württemberg, 1441, by Aryanhwy merch Catmael
- Names of 1350 men and women, with a partial list of surnames.
-
German Names from 1495, by Aryanhwy merch Catmael
- About a hundred masculine and feminine given names collected from an
edition of taxrolls from the south of Germany; also includes an alphabetical
list of surnames.
- German Names from Kulmbach, 1495, by Aryanhwy merch Catmael
- Masculine and feminine given names and surnames.
- German Names from Nürnberg, 1497, by Aryanhwy merch Catmael
- Masculine and feminine given names and surnames from a tax record.
-
Women's Surnames in 15th Century Germany, by Aryanhwy merch Catmael
- Late Period German Masculine Given Names,
by Talan Gwynek
- The names are collected from documents from Arnsburg, in Hessen, and from Plauen, in eastern German near the modern Czech border.
- 16th-17th Century Hessian Given
Names and Surnames
- Masculine names, feminine names, and surnames from the register of a
church near Frankfurt.
Low German
- Women's Surnames in 15th- and 16th-Century Germany, by Aryanhwy merch Catmael
- Discusses feminine naming patterns in both High and Low German.
- 15th Century Low German Men's Names from Mecklenburg, by Aryanhwy merch Catmael
- Masculine given names and place names.
- Frankish Names
- See elsewhere.
- Gothic Names
- See elsewhere.
- Names from Switzerland
- See also French and
Italian, as appropriate.
- German Place Names
-
German Place Names from a 16th C Czech Register, by Aryanhwy
merch Catmael
- More than 700 place names mentioned in a 16th century document
written in a dialect of Lower Bavarian.
- 15th Century Low German Men's Names from Mecklenburg, by Aryanhwy merch Catmael
- Includes 15th-century spellings of the names of towns.
The Medieval Names Archive is published by
Ursula Georges. It was historically published by the Academy of Saint Gabriel.
Copyright on individual articles belongs to their authors.
http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/german.shtml