ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3044 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3044 ************************************ 2 May 2005 From: Aryanhwy merch Catmael (no address) Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You wanted to know if is an appropriate name for a German Landsknecht living in the early 16th century. Here is the information that we have found. In our period, there wasn't a uniform German language, but rather a collection of dialects that varied from one region to the next. These dialects fall into two major groups: Low German in the north and High German in the south, including Bavaria and Austria. Some names were used only in one region (and therefore only in one dialect) or another; other names were used in all dialects but spelled or pronounced differently in each dialect. Therefore, your choice of name may depend on exactly what part of Germany you want to re-create. is a Danish derivative of the Biblical name . One of the earliest examples is a man whose name is recorded in 1326 as , , and . [3,5,11,12] The name spread to Sweden in the late 14th century and to Norway in the 16th century. [6,7] While we have found the German bynames in 1274 and in 1413 (both Latin forms deriving from the given name [2], we have not found the short form in Germany before the 17th century. [13] Because of its popularity in Denmark, it's not impossible that was also used in northern Germany in the late 16th century, but because we haven't found any examples of this we cannot recommend it as the best re-creation. literally means 'iron-head', and was used as a nickname for stubborn, pig-headed people. We find it spelled as in 1418. [1] Modern German 'iron' comes from Middle High German , earlier ; typical medieval spellings include , , , and . [9] By the early 16th century, it was spelled and in most southern and central German dialects, very likely pronounced roughly \EY-zen\ as in modern German, where \EY\ rhymes with . [10] Based on this, is a fine spelling for your period. We hope that this letter has been useful to you and that you won't hesitate to write us again if any part was unclear or if you have further questions. Research and commentary on this letter was provided by Arval Benicoeur, Maridonna Benvenuti, Talan Gwynek, Juliana de Luna, Walraven van Nijmegen, Gunnvor silfraharr, and Barak Raz. For the Academy, -Aryanhwy merch Catmael, 01 May 2005 -- References: [1] Brechenmacher, Josef Karlmann, _Etymologisches Woerterbuch der deutschen Familiennamen_ (Limburg a. d. Lahn, C. A. Starke-Verlag, 1957-1960), p. 394, s.n. Eisenkopf [2] Bahlow, Hans, _Dictionary of German Names_, tr. Edda Gentry (German-American Cultural Society, 1994 ISBN: 0924119357). p. 2, s.n. Absalon [3] Lind, E.H., _Norsk-Isla"ndska Dopnamn ock Fingerade Namn fra*n Medeltiden_ (Uppsala & Leipzig: 1905-1915, sup. Oslo, Uppsala and Kobenhavn: 1931). s.n. Axel [4] Talan Gwynek, "Late Period German Masculine Given Names" (WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1997). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/talan/germmasc/ [5] Knudsen Gunnar, Marius Kristiansen, & Rikard Hornby, _Danmarks Gamle Personnavne_, Vol. I: Fornavne (Copenhagen: 1936-48). s.n. Absalon [6] _Sveriges Medeltida Personnamn_, Vol. 1- (Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1967-. bd. 1, h. 3: isbn: 91-7192-123-8; bd. 1, h. 4: isbn: 91-7192-223-7; bd. 1, h. 5: isbn: 91-7402-044-7; bd. 2, h. 6: isbn: 91-7402-104-4; bd. 2, h. 7: isbn: 91-7402-136-2, h. 8: isbn: 91-7402-115-x; bd. 2, h. 9: isbn: 91-88096-00-9; bd. 2, h. 10: isbn: 91-88096-01-7; Lund: Bloms Boktryckeri AB, 1983 bd. 2). s.nn. Absalon, Axel [7] Kruken, Kristoffer, ed. _Norsk personnamnleksikon_, 2nd ed. (Oslo: Det Norske Samlaget, 1995) s.n. Aksel [8] Von Kienle, Richard, _Historische Laut- und Formenlehre des Deutschen_ (Tu"bingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag, 1960). p. 34 [9] Paul, Hermann, & Walther Mitzka. Mittelhochdeutsche Grammatik, 19th edn. (Tu"bingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag, 1963). p. 101 [10] The change in spelling from to modern represents a change in pronunciation, roughly from \ee\ to \ey\, the sound of English . This change started in Austria in the 12th century and gradually spread north and west, expanding through Bavaria by about 1300, through Bohemia, Silesia, and east-central Germany by about 1400, and by the early 16th century through most of the High German dialects. (The main exceptions are the Upper German dialects of the far southwest.) Although the sound first changed to something like \ay\, the further change to \ey\ (or at least a sound close to this) followed in fairly short order in most dialects. [8] [11] Before the 14th century the usual form of the name in Danish records is , from Late Latin . This was pronounced roughly \AHP-s@-l@n\, where \@\ stands for the sound of the in and . It seems that by the 14th century some speakers, substituting \ks\ for \ps\, said \AHK-s@-l@n\, \AHKS-l@n\, or \AHK-seln\ and even dropped the final \n\. The intermediate forms persisted at least through the 14th century -- we have an example of from 1402 -- but it was the short that eventually won out. [6] [12] We found a few examples of being used as a short form of , but we could not determine any dates for these examples. [13] [13] Seibicke, Wilfried. _Historisches Deutsches Vornamenbuch_, 4 vols. (Berlin & New York: Walter De Gruyter, 1996-2003). s.n. Axel