Work is in progress to create an Atlas of Lower Sorbian Surnames with approximately 70 colered name cards on the basis of circa 63.000 records of names taken from sources of the 14. to 18. century. The cards will include the surnames which developed from Slavic composita as well as from their contracted and/or affectionate forms, and in addition surnames derived from occupational names and official titles, and from nicknames and ethnonyms. A few cards will be dedicated to anthroponymic suffixes as well as to combined areals. Every card will have a commentary to verbally describe the geographical distribution of the names. Statistical data concerning the number of diverse names as well as bearers of the names provide information about the productivity of each anthroponymic basis, and in addition, their occurrence in deanthroponymic place names in Lower Lusatia will be included. The submitted paper presents an introduction to the subject, goal, method and initial results of our research to date. As an example, four colered cards illustrate the territorial distribution of 68 diverse surnames and two suffixes.

Heretofore unknown and misinterpreted Sorbian surnames. In the first part of the article 38 previously unknown surnames found in archival sources in Upper Lusatia which were not taken into consideration earlier are explained. These include 1586 Tradell, Old Upper Sorbian *Tradula < *Stradula, to Proto-Slavic *stradati ‘to starve, suffer a shortage’, 1598 Twur, Old Upper Sorbian *Twoŕ < twoŕ , to Upper Sorbian tchor, Proto-Slavic *dъchorь ‘fitchew’, among others. They are also of special significance for the history of the Sorbian language. In the second part, upon critical perusal of the “Historical- etymological Dictionary” of “Studies of Sorbian Personal Names”, 104 names (1,3%) among the various 8.171 names listed, are rendered a new interpretation. These include for example 1568 Schorad, an old apotropaic name, 1422 Lemisch, an occupational nickname for the maker of plowshares. Several surnames are derived from place names, among them 1575 Zschygeran. In occasional instances a new interpretation resulted for the respective place name.

This text contains a comparative evaluation of street names of the urban periphery. Starting with Erfurt, street names of other Thuringian and German cities of the late Middle Ages and the early modern period are examined. In doing so, different groups of people are contemplated, such as prostitutes, barber surgeons and knackers, whose appellatives finally found their way into street names. The focus is on accumulations of such names in certain areas of a city; differences between large and small cities are illustrated as well. In the end, the conclusion highlights the hitherto underutilised significance of these street names.

Wir wollen an dieser Stelle in Thesenform Prinzipien des toponymischen Vergleichs zwischen Böhmen und Sachsen darlegen, um Anregungen für künftige komparative Forschungen zu geben.

The article continues to discuss the origins and the history of the Saxon place name Leipzig. Several questions are under scrutiny. Starting out from recent research which gives the oldest historical evidence of the place name Leipzig as Lib-, it deals with certain new doubts regarding explanations that try to date the origins of the place name in pre-monolingual times. The question whether one can assume an original Slavonic form to the Slavonic root *lib- is dealt with in detail. The results of this discourse are: Today’s research cannot give a satisfactory explanation that the primary place name is derived from Slavonic. Furthermore, the hypothesis of an existing pre-monolingual form is newly evaluated. In this regard also the formerly existing geographical setting of the area around Leipzig is considered as the deciding motive in naming the place.

Das "Etymologische Wörterbuch der geographischen Namen Schlesiens" (Słownik etymologiczny nazw geograficznych Śląska) gehört zu den vier großen wissenschaftlichen Projekten im Bereich Namenkunde und Dialektologie, die Schlesien betreffen und von großer Bedeutung sind. Zu den anderen Vorhaben gehören: Słownik nazwisk śląskich [Wörterbuch der schlesischen Familiennamen; Bde. 1–2: A–K. Wrocław 1967–73], Atlas językowy Śląska [Schlesischer Sprachatlas von Alfred Zaręba. Bde. 1– 8. Katowice 1967– 80] und Słownik gwar śląskich [Wörterbuch der schlesischen Dialekte. Hg. von Bogusław Wyderka. Bde. 1–10. Opole 2000 – 08]. Von den erwähnten Abhandlungen wurde nur der „Sprachatlas Schlesien“ als Ganzes veröffentlicht. Vom „Wörterbuch der schlesischen Familiennamen“ sind lediglich zwei Bände (einschließlich Buchstabe K) erschienen. Am „Lexikon der geographischen Namen Schlesiens“ und am „Wörterbuch der schlesischen Dialekte“ wird weiter gearbeitet, und hoffentlich werden wir in absehbarer Zeit den Abschluss dieser Projekte sehen. Wie zu ersehen ist, könnte Schlesien als einzige Region unter den slawischen Ländern eine volle namenkundliche und dialektologische Dokumentation vorweisen. Die Beendigung dieser grundlegenden Werke wird eine wichtige Forschungsetappe abschließen, deren Ziel es ist, die umfangreichen Quellenbestände dieser Region zugänglich zu machen. In meinem Referat möchte ich sowohl die Genese, die methodologischen und theoretischen Grundlagen des Wörterbuches „Geographische Namen Schlesiens“ als auch seine Perzeption in den polnischen und internationalen wissenschaftlichen Kreisen darstellen.

Why did the German author Jean Paul Richter (1763 ‒1825) choose the isle of Isola Bella in Lago Maggiore as the locale for the first chapters of his novel Titan? He had never been to Italy and had known this place only from travel guides and etchings. Moreover, this completely artificially modelled island, a terraced garden in the Italian style, could not suit his taste which clearly tended to the more recent English style of gardening. In this article the point is made that he chose the place for its name which contains the personal name Isabella. To prove this the psychoanalytical method as developed by Freud and Lacan is employed, starting from the assumption that the poet’s choice of his names is largely dominated by subconscious motives.

This contribution presents the 164 villages (including one small town) which are to be equiped with bilingual "place name signs" according to 2011 amendment to the "Ethnic Group Act" (1976) on the basis of article 7 paragraph 3 of the Austrian "State Treaty" (1955), in which is provided, that the topographical terminology and inscriptions in the bilingual Carinthian districts shall be in the Slovene language as well as in German. Every village is presented with his German and Slovenian name including etymology and typological remarks.

The article is a review of the newly published Atlas of German Family Names. Vol. 1. The authors determine the place of this publication in the history of anthroponymic research as a completely new type of map book. Its results are achieved with the aid of a special software, that turns out to be a mighty means of creating distributional maps of present-day German family names on the basis of digitally stored phone connections (CD-ROM). – Within the scope of grammatical and lexical issues number 1 in a series of volumes to be published deals with the vocalism of family names. After summarising the structure of the book and the new impetus it gives not only to anthroponymy but, beyond that, to further linguistic and historical disciplines, the authors also point to some shortcomings that should be avoided in the following volumes. On the whole, the atlas is appreciated as an important step to a deeper insight into the growth and linguistic structure of both widespread and, as to the respective problem, typical German family names.

Since the 1960s Germany has seen the arrival of a considerable number of immigrants, mainly from Turkey. The Turkish language, the religion of the Turkish people and other Turkish groups manifest themselves in their naming traditions. The Turkish history, culture and language (also of other groups who speak a Turkish language) is unknown in Germany. The present paper is the beginning of a project of a Turkish dictionary with Turkish names.