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.

About Balzac’s naming in the ‘Comédie humaine’. A contribution to literary onomastics. What do Gobseck, Grégoire Rigou and La Torpille have in common? There are three of about 2000 characters’ names of the ‘Comédie humaine’ (1842-1855) by Honoré de Balzac. However, they not only designate the figures, they also draw them: in character, biographically, mystifying, playing with semantics, sound, intertextuality and the theory of predetermination by a name. The essay, basing on the author’s MA thesis in 2002, deals with the wide landscape of personal names in Balzac’s cycle of 98 novels and short stories, embedded in the typologies of literary names of Lamping, Birus and others. Numerous examples show how Balzac understood names as action-bearing and connecting text elements and how he used the expressiveness of names as a great narrator. His special gift of finding names does not contradict his intention to create fictionally a realistic image of the French society. By analyzing Balzac’s names, the essay seeks to sensitize the readers for their own excursions into literary onomastics.

The present study is intended to contribute to a deeper insight in the field of nomination for commercial purposes by means of phraseological units. The article focusses on French names of restaurants and stores, which can be considered at the intersection of brand names, as they have much in common with their functions, and names of settlements. The investigation reveals that phrasemes are not only widely used in advertising in general, but that their occurrence in nomination deserves more attention. These reflections lead us to the term of “phraseonymy”, a phenomenon that ought to be studied at a larger scale, including other romance languages and also considering the recipient’s perspective.

Das neue Personennamengesetz in Schweden – einige mögliche Konsequenzen für den Namengebrauch. Der Ausgangspunkt des Beitrages ist die ambivalente Relation zwischen einer relativ strikten Namengesetzgebung und den offiziellen Aufforderungen zur Namensänderung, die seit der ersten Namenverordnung im Jahre 1901 in Schweden vorliegen. Es werden im Beitrag einige problematische Bereiche des neuen Personennamengesetzes vom 01.07.2017 aufgegriffen, unter anderem wie gut das Gesetz an die multilinguale Gesellschaft des heutigen Schwedens angepasst ist und wie die beiden Möglichkeiten, Doppelnamen als Familienname zu benutzen und bei einer Namensänderung von den gewöhnlichsten Familiennamen frei wählen zu dürfen, auf den künftigen Familiennamenbestand einwirken wird.

The article deals with the question of whether the Reformation influenced the naming in Saxony – on the example of Leipzig. On the basis of church books of the Leipzig region and baptismal entries of St. Thomas church in the city of Leipzig can be shown that the Reformation (1539 introduced in Leipzig) has virtually no influence on the naming. One of the reasons for this is the simultaneous advent of naming after godparents.

This paper analyzes the personal names contained in the 1499 tax roll of the St. Klara Monastery at Hof, a town on the north-eastern border of Upper Franconia in Bavaria. At the end of the 15th century among the tenants of this monastery first names of Germanic etymology are already in the minority; names of foreign origin, exclusively saints’ names, are significantly more frequent. – In 1499 also in the rural anthroponymy of the Hof area the system of first name and surname is completely established. Most tenants bear surnames derived from nicknames. The next frequent groups are surnames derived from first names, mainly from first names of Germanic origin, followed by occupational names. Considerably less tenants bear surnames derived from place names or from special traits of their respective residences. All in all, the tax roll of the St. Klara Monastery gives a representative impression of the rural anthroponymy of a small South German area at the end of the Middle Ages only a short time before the Reformation.

Der verschwundene Lancashire-Ort Lox(h)am lag vermutlich in der Gemeinde (parish) Penwortham. Der Ortsname Lox(h)am, der als Familienname überlebt hat, ist ein Kompositum, das aus einem Fluss- oder Bachnamen Lox < britisch *Losko- ‘der Verbogene’ und der Dativpluralform hūsum ‘bei den Häusern’, die formal sowohl altenglisch wie altskandinavisch sein kann, gebildet wird. Die Bedeutung wäre dann ‘bei den Häusern, die in Verbindung mit dem Flüsschen Lox stehen’. In diesem Beitrag wird vielmehr eine skandinavische Etymologie für hūsum bevorzugt. Die Anwesenheit von Skandinaviern in diesem Teil von Lancashire in der Wikingerzeit wird durch das Vorhandensein von skandinavischen Personennamen in mittelalterlichen Privaturkunden bestätigt.

Two historical documents from the 11th and 12th centuries and their onomastic problems for historical and linguistic researches. The paper presents documents about an agreement between the famous bishop Benno of Meißen and a single noble slave named Bor. Some villages near the Elbe River were exchanged in the western territory not far from Dresden. Up till now a convincing localization of some of them is missing. And it is unusual that five villages are named with nine different names. Therefore the article treats some questions with consideration of historical and ecclesiastical connections. The results of an interdisciplinary analysis try to show the progress of Christianizing in the 11th century as well as the foundation of new villages in the 12th century. And a consequence of this development was that the majority of German speakers used new names for old and meanwhile enlarged settlement.

Taking the oldest city directories of Dresden as an example, the article wants to draw the onomasticians’ attention to a special kind of research sources which has been largely ignored thus far. Initial analyses of selected linguistic and onomastic items show that due to the digital accessibility of these corpora more detailed knowledge, mainly concerning the development of personal names in the 18th and 19th centuries, should be possible.