Handbooks often insist on the popularity of male and female names from the Old Testament after the Reformation. Studies on name-giving practice in Westfalia by Michael Simon, in the Upper Palatinate by Rudolf KleinÖder and in the small town of Maulbronn in the Southwest of Germany by Horst Naumann and Konstantin Huber do not confi rm this assumption, neither does our own analysis of the names contained in the inscriptions of three graveyards in Nuremberg dating from 1581 to 1608 sustain this opinion. It is worth mentioning that Nuremberg adopted the Reformation in 1525. Our material clearly shows that the Reformation did not bring immediately a new way of personal naming and that Old Testament names were neither numerous nor very frequent.

Im Heft 97 der Namenkundlichen Informationen hat Karlheinz Hengst 2010 einen Überblick über 100 Jahre Namenforschung am Institut für Slavistik an der Universität Leipzig gegeben. Dem seien einige Bemerkungen zum germanistischen Anteil hinzugefügt.

Alpine Berge sind in der Regel gewaltige Gebilde, die man nicht wie einen Acker, eine Wiese, ein Waldstück, eine Geländeform oder einen Bach einfach benennen kann, denn solche Kleinelemente sind ja in der Regel nur Teile des Gesamtgebildes Berg, das keine persönlichen Eigentümer hat und das sich nicht einer einzigen Art von Bewirtschaftung fügen wird.

Im Nachfolgenden werden einige Ausschnitt e aus den Untersuchungen der historischen Familiennamen in der Raabau angeführt. Die Raabau liegt in Nordwest-Transdanubien in Ungarn. Das Zentrum des Forschungsgebietes ist die Kleinstadt Kapuvár. Im 18. Jahrhundert befanden sich hier kleine Siedlungen mit ungefähr je Tausend Einwohnern. In diesem Gebiet wurde Personennamenforschung in 26 Siedlungen durchgeführt. Die Zusammensetz ung der Bevölkerung zeichnet sich durch ihre Homogenität aus. Die Bewohner der Raabau gehörten der katholischen Kirche an, und nach ihrer Herkunft waren sie Ungarn. Diese letz tere Feststellung muss im 18. Jahrhundert – wegen der historischen Lage von Ungarn in früheren Jahrhunderten – betont werden. Vor der Darstellung der Forschungsergebnisse wird ganz kurz die historische Lage von Ungarn erklärt.

Seit Jahren steige ich am Magdeburger Hauptbahnhof ein und aus. Wenn dann die Ansage kommt, man sei in Magdeburg, kann man immer wieder bei einigen Fahrgästen ein ironisches Grinsen erkennen. Warum? Nun, in dem bei der Deutschen Bahn offenbar zentral erstellten Ansagetext wird Magdeburg mit langem -a- gesprochen, so wie auch das Wort Magd im Allgemeinen im Hochdeutschen artikuliert wird. Dieses kleine Beispiel ist für die Frage nach der Herkunft und Bedeutung des Ortsnamens Magdeburg von einiger Bedeutung, zeigt es doch, dass der Ortsname natürlich mit dem Wort Magd in Verbindung gebracht wird. Man spricht in derartigen Fällen bekanntlich von volksetymologischen Umdeutungen oder – vor allem in der Leipziger Onomastik – von (scheinbarer) sekundärer semantischer Motivierung. Im Fall von Magdeburg ist die Annahme, es liege das Wort Magd zugrunde, in fast einmaliger Weise seit Jahrhunderten nachgewiesen.

The names of the months corresponding to December in the Gothic calendar – jiuleis, in the English calendar as described by Bede – Giuli, and in the Old Icelandic semester-reckoning (misseristal) calendar – Ýlir, are cognates. I suggest that this occurrence is not a coincidence. I propose that certain features found in those calendars raise the possibility they are descendants of the Jubilees calendar, as formulated in the pseudepigraphical books of 1 Enoch and Jubilees.

The question “What is a name?” is often answered in different ways and out of extreme positions (from: names are “meaningless marks” unto: names have “the greatest number of attributes”). In this article the formal and semantic aspects of a name are discussed in comparison with those of a word. Name-giving and name-usage are subjects of consideration and ‒ in addition to that ‒ the traditional sentence “nomen est omen” is discussed.

The term distinctive signs refers to trademarks, geographical Indications and appellations of Origin, Domain and other Names. EU law only provides rules on trademarks and geographical indications. All other characteristics and distinctive signs are subject to the national legislation. European trademark law and harmonized national trademark law in principle permit the registration of any sign as a trademark. In particular, all kinds of words, including personal names have the general capacity to constitute a trademark. The protection afforded by registration is however dependent on whether the concrete sign shows distinctiveness to which products or services it relates and alludes to its business origins. General terms or descriptive terms do not always provide sufficient distinctiveness to a sign. The combined use however of those general terms with descriptive terms can indeed be registered because they constitute a distinguishable identity. Artistic terms contrarily are mostly advantageous. Upon registration of a certain sign the owner obtains an exclusive right and as proprietor is the only one permitted to use said sign for labelling his / her products or services with the terms provided at registration. Trademark law stipulates use of a sign not only in relation to its respective product / services but also in relation to similar products / services where there is a likelihood of confusion to the consumer. Famous trademarks are in addition protected from measures of image transfers. The owner of the trademark can take actions against both the actual usage of identical signs or signs which induse confusion, and / or to achieve removal of a violating sign which is itself registered as a trademark. It is still possible to use one’s own name in business operations although a third party has previously registered it as a trademark or as a part of a trademark, as long as it is only used within reasonable habits of trade so that the identity or similarity will not be misused to gain the reputation of said third party’s trademark. It is possible to use third party trademarks to for the purpose of identifying or referring to goods or services as those of the proprietor of that trade mark, in particular, where the use of that trade mark is necessary to indicate the intended purpose of a product or service, in particular as accessories or spare parts.

Surnames can be analyzed from three perspectives: as a linguistic sign (M+o+z+a+r+t), as a feature related to an individual (Leopold Mozart), or as a feature of a group (Leopold, Wolfgang, Konstanze Mozart). In this article, juridical regulations concerning these three aspects are discussed with special focus on the linguistic perspective. It is shown in which way juridical regulations influence the identification function of names and how they can lead to the impoverishment or the extension of a language’s surname inventory. From a linguist’s viewpoint, it is advisable to relax the strict juridical regulations relating to the use of personal names. Introducing personal numbers would facilitate this process.

Until the 18th century the name of a natural person was not a legal issue in Germany. The determination of a person’s name – first and family name – was rather a matter of custom. According to Roman tradition which German law adopted generally it was allowed to change the name without any involvement of the State – no person was legally bound to his or her previous name. The article describes the development to a legal regulation of personal names by the State and describes the rules currently in force in Germany. It is shown that the first name of a child is determined by the (relatively) free choice of the parents, while the child himself is bound to the given name normally through all his life. A change of name is allowed only on the basis of an administrative decision of an authority which requires the person to show an important reason for the change of his or her name. The family name is also set by law. Traditionally, the name of the husband was transferred to the wife. This approach violated the principle of equal rights of men and women guaranteed by the German constitution of the 20th century. The article reports on legal reforms which introduced step-by-step a rather surprising freedom of choice for married couples in the determining their marital name.