The focus is on the name(s) of the Merovingian pretender Ballomeris–Gundovald (†585). Notwithstanding the prejudice of many historians Ballomeris is not an invective but a given name. The component -meris was characteristically for traditional names of princely Francs (4th to 6th century), the component gunthi- appears more ‘modern’. (Furthermore the stems balþa > ballo ‘brave’ and vald ‘to rule’ were often confused.) So the change of name reflects the changing role from illegitimate son of a king to a claimant for dynastical participation and at least for kingship. Unfortunately the perspective of the prejudice mentioned above hampered for a long time the consideration of Ballomeris as a name (not as a word) and blocked the use of onomastics in this case.

The onomatology traditionally assumes that -ingen (and -heim) ending toponyms are the oldest Germanic place names and date back to the Migration Period. Because these earliest place names always start with a personal name, it is believed that linguistic research could be able to reconstruct the names of the town founders out of them. However, the earliest place names are mentioned for the first time in the written records of the 8th to 12th centuries. The study shows that the personal names in the toponyms are still changing in the earliest documents of the 8th/9th century. Therefore, it seems not possible to reconstruct the personal names – and the persons – contained in the toponyms and to assign them to the town founders of the alemannic settlement period.

The article reviews vol. 6 of the significant Deutscher Familiennamenatlas (Atlas of German Surnames) by Kathrin Dräger. The book is considered to be an essential work on today’s patronymic surnames. By disclosing their structure and geographic distribution the author simultaneously takes an innovative approach to the occurence of the underlying first names in the (late) Middle Ages. Furthermore, the article emphasizes that the complete atlas as it now stands is not only a milestone in anthroponomastics but also a prime example of scientific organization and the sustainable promotion of junior scientists.

This paper provides an overview of the discussion on so called onymic phrasemes. In onomastics they are usually described as fixed combinations of words functioning as proper names (proper noun phrases). The focus hereby is on those names that are not only polylexical and semantically transparent (cf. the White House, the “new Länder“) but also have an apparent literal meaning (cf. appellative/ descriptive meaning) and a non-literal meaning (‘specific/ assigned meaning’). Phraseology integrates those names as a special class of phrasemes or more precisely as nominative phrasemes with the feature [+ onymic]. Like all phrasemes, they are polylexical and rigid and develop a “new meaning” which should be modeled along theoretical conceptions. Upon closer inspection one can also find correlations along the lines of questions of meaning, phraseologization, proprialization, as well as idiomatization and dissociation. Problems in lexicography and orthography result from the status of onymic phrasemes of the type the Far East. Whether or not onomastics and phraseology should work together more closely on this topic or distance themselves from one another can only be determined once the discipline of onomastics is more engaged with phraseolexemes of the type [+ onymic/ monoreferential]. The aim of this paper is to call attention to similarities and differences between these two fields.

Where there is the beginning of the mountainous range of the Scharten in the northern part of the Hausruckviertel in Upper Austria there are situated one opposite each other Vitta with originally three little farms and Fürling with only one big farm. There will be discussed the possible etymologies of there indoeuropean or celtic origin and their further romanic and german development.

German vineyard names often consist of terms like Berg, Buck/Buckel, Hang, Höhe, Kopf and Kupp to describe hills, slopes or mountains. This essay is concerned with names like Höllenpfad or Geiershöll. The element Höll(e) has nothing to do with Hölle in the sense of ‘underworld’. It derives from the Old High German haldi ‘slope, hill’. In accordance with phonetic laws, haldi develops from heldi > helde > helle into Höll(e). The names of vineyards with Hölle emerge particularly in West Middle German. Terms with Halde trace back to Old High German halda. Such forms occur primarily in the area of Upper German.

The term sustainability is an essential part of the languages of business (commercialese). A lot of enterprises consider it as an inherent part of their busines strategy and not as a marketing approach. How do enterprises cope with this term and which role does sustainability play in their names?

In onomastic and linguistic research literature, there are only a few works dealing explicitly with modern unofficial place names. The terminological delimitation of this name class alone presents some difficulties. For what an unofficial place name is is first of all explained by what it is not, namely officially fixed. Unofficial toponyms are essentially distinguished by the fact that they do not have an officially standardized status. They have mostly been developed in oral communication and are used by various groups of speakers at different times, above all to mark social affiliations. But it is precisely in their lack of official fixation that they allow an illuminating look at mechanisms of name genesis, name establishment and the social role of place names.

The aim of this study is to classify the names with which traditional local speakers designate places where springs and wells, sites of enormous economic importance especially in arid regions, can be found. The linguistic analysis of the material, extracted from an extensive corpus of toponymic material collected in a large part of the Spanish speaking area, unveils numerous data of interest for the lexicology and the dialectology of Spanish. Besides, its classification according to different motivational types reveals aspects of the referents considered especially relevant by the speaker. In this way, the names studied reflect the way in which the traditional rural population has been related to the geographic environment in which its daily life developed, and sheds light on the phenomenon of the creation of names.

This paper focuses on the reasons for the various designations for breakfasts which are to be found on current menu cards in Passau’s cafes, and which are not always transparent. Breakfast names can be considered to be trademarks. They fulfill informative, advertising, and contact functions. Against the background of our changing food culture, the context of names also raises questions concerning the definition of ‘breakfast’: What constitutes a contemporary breakfast? Is it the time we have it? Is it the food, which we consume? Literature concerning menu cards, cooking recipes, baking recipes, aliments and stimulants are thematically close to that topic and thus to be considered as well.