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Old Frisian given names
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
There are very few surviving early Mediaeval Frisian given names. Surviving texts in Old Frisian date only from the second half of the 13th century [1]. This article presents a list of 10th century Frisian names recorded in Latin documents [2].
A document that dates to around the year 900 deals with the rents due to the abbey of Werden lists several names. The abbey was located on the Ruhr river near modern Essen. This was near the western edge of Saxon territory. To the west were the Franks, and to the north, the Frisians [3]. The abbey held land in all three linguistic areas, and its tenants included native speakers of Old Saxon, Old Low Franconian, and Old Frisian. It is unclear how the names were identified as being Frisian. Old Saxon scribal tradition may have impact the spellings of the names. However, they are thought to be compatible with Frisian dialect characteristics [4, 5].
Surnames were not common in Continental European documents of this period [6]. It would be very much in keeping with Frisian practice in this period to use just a single name.
See a list of names at Wiktionary:Appendix:Frisian given names.
[1] Robinson, Orrin W, Old English and Its Closest Relatives (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1992); p. 181. Scattered words and phrases appear in earlier texts. [2] Stark, Franz, Die Kosenamen der Germanen (Wiesbaden: Dr. Martin Sändig oHG., 1967 [1868]); pp. 8, 181.
[3] Robinson, p. 103 (map).
[4] Tiefenbach, Heinrich, Schreibsprachliche und gentile Prägung von Personennamen im Werdener Urbar A, in Nomen et Gens, Dieter Geuenich, Wolfgang Haubrichs, & Jörg Jarnut, eds. (New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1997).
[5] The name Egildag may show Old Saxon influence; Egildeg would be more in keeping with the Frisian dialect. The Frisian form Tiad- could be substituted for Thiad- in any of the names beginning with that element (Tiefenbach, 273). I don't know whether the Frisians also used Thiad-.
[6] Schwarz, Ernst, Deutsche Namenforschung. I: Ruf- und Familiennamen (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1949): p. 63f.
[7] Tiefenbach, pp. 271, 272. Notheri, Frithunath, and Edulf are inferred from place-names; Raeddeg is inferred from a Latin genitive case Raeddegi.
[8] Robinson, p. 179.