ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3092 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3092 ************************************ 28 Nov 2005 From: Gunnvor Silfraharr Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked for our opinion of as a German name ca. 1500-1550 for a man from Amberg in Bavaria. Here is what we 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 [1]. The name is a fine choice. It became popular in the 11th and 12th century [2, 3] and remained in use throughout our period, at least in some parts of Germany. In Bavaria during your period, however, this name appears to have been quite rare. We found two examples of in 1495, as well as one instance each of and . In 1497, we found one instance of out of over 7,000 names [4, 5]. Your surname, , is not quite right. The German preposition literally means "from, of", as in the name , which means "from Dresden". This form of byname originally developed as a way of identifying where a person came from or what lands he possessed. is a modern alternative spelling of , used when the umlaut is unavailable. (Here <"> stands for an umlaut, or diaresis, over the preceding letter.) The surname is a variant of ; both derive from Middle High German occupational term , "toll collector". Since this is not a place-name, the preposition is inappropriate [6, 7]. We found examples of the name in 1142, 1414, and 1495 [8, 9, 10]. We did not find any period examples of , but they doubtless existed. Not only does the surname still exist today, but there were dialects of Middle High German in which the ending <-er> frequently caused umlaut of the preceding vowel; it just happens that our examples are from dialects in which this rarely happened [11]. To summarize, is a fine name for your persona. 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 Arval Benicoeur, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Talan Gwynek, and Walraven van Nijmegen. For the Academy, Gunnvor Silfraharr 28 November 2005 ----------------------------------------------------- References [1] German Dialects 2 with Dialect Map. (WWW: About.com, 2005). http://german.about.com/library/weekly/aa051898.htm [2] Socin, Adolf. _Mittelhochdeutsches Namenbuch nach Oberrheinischen Quellen des Zwoelften und Dreizehnten Jahrhunderts_. (Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1966). Ch. XV, XVI, especially pp. 303, 310. [3] Seibicke, Wilfried. _Historisches Deutsches Vornamenbuch_. (de Gruyter, series, various dates). S.n. . [4] Uckelman, Sara L. "German Names from 1495". (WWW: privately published, 2002-2005). http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/german1495.html [5] Uckelman, Sara L. "German Names from Nu"rnberg, 1497". (WWW: privately published, 2005). http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/german/nurnberg1497.html [6] Schwarz, Ernst. _Deutsche Namenforschung I: Ruf- und Familiennamen_. (Goettingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1949). Pp. 101ff. [7] In the 18th and 19th centuries the preposition was sometimes added to surnames that were not based on place-names, probably because by then it had come to be associated with the nobility, but this practice is not found in the SCA period. [8] Brechenmacher, Josef Karlmann. _Etymologisches Woerterbuch der deutschen Familiennamen_. (Limburg a.d. Lahn, C.A. Starke-Verlag, 1957-1960). S.n. . [9] Schwarz, Ernst, _Sudetendeutsche Familiennamen aus vorhussitischer Zeit_. (Koeln: Blehlau Verlag, 1957). S.n. . [10] Uckelman, Sara L. "German Names from 1495", op. cit. [see note [4] above]. [11] Von Kienle, Richard, _Historische Laut- und Formenlehre des Deutschen_ (Tu"bingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag, 1960). Section 31.2(d).