Rare personal names in the Early Middle Ages. – Numerous Germanic personal names can only be evidenced a few times, some of them no more than once. The historical and geographic frames of reference for their respective classification as ‘rare’ are mainly the known inventory of Germanic names from the 4th until approximately the end of the 8th century within the Frankish territories east of the Rhine river as well as Gallo- and Italoromania. Obviously, there are various reasons for classifying a personal name as rare. The form of its tradition – perhaps accidentally and with great regional differences – certainly plays a role; but there is also a variety of linguistic and onomastic phenomena that could have greatly influenced the frequency of Germanic anthroponyms. They are criteria of both selection and limitation as well as new creativity. This article focuses on important features and mechanisms of name-giving, particularly regarding their potential for enabling names to remain rare.

The Merovingian Practice of Naming after Relatives: Family Traditions and Politics. – The name-giving habits in the Early Middle Ages are often connected with the traditions of a kin group. But the Merovingian example shows the importance of politics: During the course of its existence the Merovingian Frankish Kingdom was often separated into Teilreiche. Their kings were closely related which led to a claim to succeed one another. This is the context of the beginning of the Merovingian naming after relatives. Giving a name which was a popular part of the tradition of another Teilreich was a means to express one’s political claim on said kingdom. It is interesting that Clothar I – the weakest king of his generation – used this instrument most frequently. As did his son Chilperic I who at first also was at a disadvantage compared to his half-brothers. Chilperich even used the name Merowech which shows his ambition to rule the Gesamtreich, at least around Clothar’s I death in 561. Naming after a direct ancestor (especially after the grandfather) was comparatively seldom. Maybe because naming generally did not serve as stabilisation of a family tradition (as in later centuries) but current political concerns. In the 7th century the naming after direct ancestors or relatives prevailed.

Basic Research on the Relation between Toponymy and Surnames from the Areal Point of View. – The article thoroughly reviews vol. IV of the high-profile German Atlas of Family Names covering present-day anthroponyms after origin (place names etc.) or habitation (field-names and the like). Its focused approach to various methodical problems the authors were faced with permits us to recognize their theoretical performance and their etymological achievements as well. The effectively used principle to go from the general to the particular, which enables them to overcome the difficulties of delimiting both classes of names, to form subcategories, and to examine typological and singular phenomena – not to forget the wealth of conclusive maps –, is especially pointed out. In view of the extensive and sophisticated problems that had to be tackled some additional remarks and supplements on the part of the reviewer can in no account depreciate the authors’ further substantial contribution to anthroponomastics.

Der Beitrag ist um eine Erklärung von Herkunft und Entwicklung des Gewässernamens Zschopau in Sachsen (Deutschland) bemüht. Anhand von urkundlich überlieferten Namenformen seit rund einem Jahrtausend erweist sich einerseits eine Herleitung aus dem Slawischen als verfehlt und andererseits eine Erklärung als Bildung in germanischer Zeit als begründet. Die ermittelte sprachliche Semantik des Hydronyms wird durch die geographische Situation am Flusslauf gestützt. / Why did the river Zschopau get this name? Is it of Slavonic or Germanic origin? – The article tries to give an explanation of origin and development of the river name Zschopau in Saxony (Germany). On the base of documents all historical forms since about thousand years are discussed. The main issue is to prove whether the hydronym is of Slavonic origin. Further the name’s origin is explained as a Germanic nomination. The original meaning is compared with the geographical situation along the river.

Social Change and Binominality in the Eleventh Century – a French perspective. – The paper treats the spread of second names in the eleventh century France and its underlying causes on the basis of sources from the counties of Anjou and Maine in Western. Previous research has focused mostly on toponymical surnames of nobles and seen them as a part of the “mutation féodale” and connected changes in noble family structure. An examination of the sources, however, reveals the importance of the urban population in the development of surnames. After the presentation of some examples of naming in charters and a section on sobriquets, individual variations and the inheritance of surnames are discussed. The second part of the papers treats the sobriquets of the counts of Anjou and Maine in the tenth and eleventh century and the discussion of their meaning in near contemporary texts. It is shown that the sobriquets appear only in the course of the eleventh century and are only contemporary for the counts after 1060. The increasing use of surnames appears to be the result of two coinciding developments of densification: The first is the growth of the (urban) population, the second is an increasing genealogical interest in the families of princes, leading to the creation of genealogies and historiography centered on princely families. Both of these changes resulted in an increasing desire to differentiate individuals bearing the same (first) name.

The Lingual Situation in the Area of Leipzig Around 1000 AD. – For the first time a medieval area of Central Germany is under focus for the time after its integration into the German political and lingual domain. Around 1000 AD the area along the rivers Elster, Parthe and Pleiße was mainly settled by Slavs. It belonged to the Slavonic region Chutici. In the tenth century the Christianization of the area took place. From 968 awards it belonged to the diocese of Merseburg within the archdiocese Magdeburg. With the help of documents and narrative sources the linguistic data is analyzed to answer the question of the linguistic predominance there around 1000 AD. The resulting conclusions are relevant for the complete Central German region around the year 1000.

On the historical source value of toponyms. Toponyms as a source for the reconstruction of ethnic relations. – Besides constituting a crucial source material for linguistic history and onomastic research, toponyms occurring in historical sources (medieval charters) can be exploited also for the (history-related) purposes of other fields of research such as historiography (settlement and demographic history in particular), historic geography, ethnography, etc. When trying to map the ethnic composition of earlier times, representatives of historiography like to rely on data extracted on the basis of different layers of the origins of toponyms. However, it needs to be emphasized that such examinations presuppose special circumspection in order to avoid typical stumbling blocks exactly in the field of ethnic reconstruction whose possibilities I want to highlight here. My paper explores the question if toponyms occurring in early Hungarian linguistic monuments could be used for ethnic identification, and if this is the case, how we can draw conclusions related to questions of ethnicity based on linguistic results. In this respect we also need to examine the criteria based on which toponymic data appearing in charters can be linked to certain (Hungarian, German, Turkish or any of the Slavic) languages. Onomastic correlations, information on the evolution of names as well as certain phonetic changes may provide us with some clues in the definition of such links. / Vom historischen Quellenwert der Toponyme. Toponyme als Quelle zur Rekonstruktion ethnischer Beziehungen. – Ortsnamen sind nicht nur eine wertvolle Quelle für die Sprachgeschichte und Namenforschung. In historischen Quellen (mittelalterliche Urkunden) überlieferte Ortsnamen können ebenso von anderen, historisch ausgerichteten Forschungsdisziplinen wie der Geschichte (insbesondere Siedlungs- und Bevölkerungsgeschichte), historischen Geographie, Ethnographie usw. ausgewertet werden. Wenn die ethnische Struktur früherer Zeiten kartographisch dargestellt werden soll greifen Historiker gerne auf Daten zurück, die auf der historischen Schichtung der Ortsnamen beruhen. Es muss allerdings nachdrücklich darauf hingewiesen werden, dass derartige Untersuchungen eine besondere Vorsicht voraussetzen, um typische, gerade im Bereich der ethnischen Rekonstruktion begegnende Hürden zu überwinden. Die Möglichkeiten dieser Rekonstruktion möchte ich hier besonders hervorheben. Mein Beitrag geht der Frage nach, ob die in frühen ungarischen Sprachdenkmälern überlieferten Ortsnamen für eine ethnische Identifizierung herangezogen werden können. Und wenn ja, wie können Fragen der Ethnizität auf der Basis linguistischer Erkenntnisse beantwortet werden. In diesem Zusammenhang sind auch die Kriterien zu untersuchen, auf deren Basis aus toponymischen Angaben der Urkunden auf bestimmte Sprachen (Ungarisch, Deutsch, Türkisch oder eine slavische Sprache) geschlossen werden kann. Onymische Wechselbeziehungen, Informationen zur Namenentwicklung oder bestimmte lautliche Veränderungen bieten uns Anhaltspunkte für die Definition solcher Beziehungen.

„Conclusio“ – Versuch einer Zusammenfassung der Zusammenarbeit zwischen Geschichtswissenschaften (z. B. Historical Sciences) und Namenforschung (onomastics). Problemfelder sind Funktion (Sozialgeschichte) vs. Interpretation (Namenforschung), Zeitpunkt und Umstände der Namengebung (naming), Verschriftung vs. Namengebrauch im Alltag, Namengrammatik und Adaptation fremder Namen. / “Conclusio” – Attempt to summarize the cooperation between Historical Sciences and Onomastics. Problem areas are function (Social History) vs. linguistic interpretation (Onomastics), time and circumstances of naming, transcription/ transmission versus name usage in daily life, name grammar vs. adaptation of foreign names.

No description available.

Bishop names and kinship in the early medieval Libri memoriales. Comments on the social origins of the bishops in the Carolingian Empire. – The following article deals with kinship and social origins of bishops in the Carolingian Empire. Based on selected entries in the Libri memoriales of the early Middle Ages it especially asks for how much bishops came from the highest aristocratic ruling class. Using the entries in the Libri vitae it has to be noted that the bishops of the Carolingian Empire not only came from the aristocratic elite. Obviously, the climb to a bishop was conceivable and possible for a serf through personal excellence too, even if only rarely and in exceptional cases. Nevertheless, however, the majority of the bishops is not to relate to the “Hocharistokratie” as Schulte and later on others asserted. As far as the entries in the Libri memoriales make clear, the identifying of people is often difficult; but in the cases in which the identification is possible, they can certainly provide valuable information on the relationship of bishops and thus contribute to their social origins. As the studied items with their name material let see, bishops like Salomon III. of Konstanz, Hunfrid of Thérouanne or Hartbert of Chur belong to the nobility. However, apparently their families did not belong to the “elite” of the aristocracy, the so-called “Reichsaristokratie”. Rather, the memorial book entries at the most indicates a very extensive relationship to nobility, which were active in a leading position. For this reason the frequently encountered statement, the bishops of the Carolingian period were primarily attributable to the highest nobility must be reviewed and modified. Certainly bishops among in very much cases from the nobility, but obviously they came not from those families, who were very closely related to the king.