Given present-day distribution of the German family name Nobis in two main areas, the article examines its original meaning as far as the chiefly rural Erzgebirge region in the South West of Saxony is concerned. The author has his doubts about the widely held opinion that Nobis, derived from remote taverns of the same name (Nobiskrug, Nobishaus), is alleged to designate the ‘devil’, or rather, a person of this kind. Instead, the negating, slightly pejorative argot term nobis/Nobis involving the idea of smallness is taken up to explain this family name.

This paper takes a closer look at different contemporary and historical modes of naming, which are used to refer to well-known historical figures, focussing especially on women. Mainly based on the example of Christiana von Goethe (née Vulpius), social and pragmatic dimensions of divers naming practices are discussed. Therefore, using different names is not only essential for reference and identification but also depends on the speaker’s/sender’s objectives speaking/writing about the historical figure. A specific mode of naming, e.g. using a pet name or using only a person’s surname, can express closeness and distance, intimacy and reticence, respect and affection, but also degradation and disregard. Concerning the naming of well-known German women of the 18th century, conventions evolved which also serve as a base of present-day usage. Examining the self-reference of Christiana von Goethe compared to the modes of naming in modern biographies show inconsistencies and partly even contradictions, mostly due to the change of name after marriage or remarriage. Furthermore, differences between naming practices referring to women and men are investigated.

In contrast to generic names, proper names primarily serve to highlight the uniqueness of an object. This task is also fulfilled by personal names, which are intended to characterize people in their uniqueness. The first and last names, which are used most frequently in linguistic communication, play a special role here. If, in most instances, the first names used in the German language are assigned to concrete meanings only in an etymological approach, they often also call particular associations and lead to the formation of assumptions, e.g. With regard to the question, with which other cultural circle, apart from the German, the respective person or their ancestors could be connected additionally. In this way, the first names of the Upper Silesians and their use in the colloquial language show that they come to the interweaving of German and Polish elements, which in turn can be regarded as the linguistic peculiarity of the group.

Luther, Calvin, Protestant or the early perception of the European Reformation in Portugal and the New World: Mostly uncommented compilation of some early records or echos.

Leipzig – the origin of the name is purely Slavonic! – It thanks to Karlheinz Hengst that the centuries-old onomastic legend about the name of Leipzig as Old Sorbian *Lipsk- meaning ‘place of lime-trees’ has been called in question. Instead of that legend and a possible new one consisting in the recent interpretation as ‘place in an area abounding with river water’ to a pre-Slavonic (Germanic) root the paper shows that the oldest evidence of the toponym finds an easy explanation as a purely Slavonic one. The <Libzi> from Thietmar’s chronicle is nothing else than Old Sorbian *Liḃci/*Liḃcě, formed as a plural inhabitants’ name on the basis of *liḃc ‘a lean, feeble, puny person’. This explanation is well founded by a series of similarly structured and semantically comparable Czech place names on the one hand and by the historical evidence of the root *lib- in several Slavonic languages on the other. Further, the author questions that later forms of the name containing -<zik>, -<zk>, -<zig> etc originally represent the suffix -sk-. They probably are an early alternative deminutive form *Liḃčky increasing the nature of the toponym as a nickname, the forms Lipsk, Lipsko of modern Polish, Sorbian and Czech presumably being the result of interpreting (written and spoken) Germanized forms from the 14th century.

Leipzig – Slavonic origin can be possible. This article is a positive and critical reflection on the opinion of Bernd Koenitz in this volume. The paper is an answer and tries to give acceptable reconstructions also by reason of the historical tradition of the local name Leipzig. The aim is to continue the discussion about the difficulties connected with the interpretation of the historical forms of the local name. Therefore some particularities in the process of reconstruction will be shown. On the one side the experience after a long time of investigations in the field of Slavonic-German contacts allows agreeing with a primary Slavic name formation. But the attempt to reconstruct further derivations of the primary Slavic form of the toponym is refused. Therefore on the other hand more convincing reconstructed Slavic forms are given.

The previous interpretations of the place name Leipzig, 1015 in urbe Libzi, as Old Sorbian *Liṕsk(o) ‘Lindenort’ (place of linden trees) and as the Germanic-Slavic compound name *Libьcь or *Libьsk(o) ‘place in an area of abundant fluvial water’ are found questionable by Bernd Koenitz and rightly so. His new explanation of the name as Old Sorbian *Lib́cě ‘settlement of the weaklings’ from the Proto-Slavic *libъ ‘weak, lean, sickly’ or as ‘settlement of the Lib́c family’ with the personal name Proto-Slavic *Libьcь is well founded. This interpretation is further supported by the Russian surnames Liba, Libov and others, additionally by the Czech place names Studce, Trubce, Chylec among others, which are more supportive of *Lib́cě ‘settlement of the weaklings’, as a nickname, rather than ‘settlement of the Lib́c´ family’.

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In the first part of this article definitions of the terms nomeme, allonome, and type of realization are given. Any analysis of a given set of proper names must part from spoken or written realizations, which, in analogy to the term allophone, shall be called allonomes. It is the analyst's task to find out which of these allonomes were or are functionally identical for the group of speakers in question. Thus Mathias and Matheus are two different names for the speakers of modern German, but were functionally identical for the inhabitants of medieval Regensburg. Therefore we may say, for them Mathias and Matheus were allonomes of a mental unit which we call the nomeme /MATHEIS/. However, as the realization of the different nomemes is not quite arbitrary, but works according to specific patterns or types, the existence of a third, intermediate level must be assumed, on which the speaker decides, which type he will apply in order to realize a certain nomeme. This level shall be called the level of the types of realization. - The second part of this article applies the nomematic point of view to toponymy. Also in toponymy the nomeme serves as a means to individualize and to identify a real object. As such the nomeme is stored up in the brain, awaiting to be realized either as phono-allonome in speech or as grapho-allonome in writing. Thus the nomeme /K/ refers to at least ten real objects, being realized in a limited number of grapho-allonomes and a considerably larger number of phono-allonomes, most of which are known to local speakers only. The nomematic point of view is especially useful in historical onomastics insofar as it gives a more precise insight into the processes underlying place name transfer in language contact areas and diachronic change in toponymy in general. Finally differences between the anthroponymic and the toponymic nomeme are pointed out.