Liebe Forscherfreunde,
ich erhielt eine Anfrage von einer Ahnenforscherin, die gerne Informationen über (in Deutschland bzw. deutsch sprechenden Ländern) mögliche Vornamen-Schemata erhalten würde, da ihre Ahnen von hier stammen.
Dies könnte Ihr evtl. bei der weiteren Suche helfen. Vielleicht gibt es auch eine WEB-Seite über mögliche Systeme von Vornamen, Vornamensgebung, was ist der Rufname, regionale (Vor-)Namen-Systeme o.ä.
Wer könnte hierüber plausible Erklärungen bzw. Beispiele geben ?
Möglicherweise ist dies auch für einige andere Forscher interessant, die an einen Namen verzweifeln, weil er sich auf Grund von Eigenheiten/Orten und/oder besonderen Ereignissen evtl. geändert oder „angepasst“ wurde.
Folgende Anfrage erhielt ich von ihr (Ich habe sie nicht übersetzt, da mein simples Englisch evtl. etwas verfälschen könnte):
In the church records at my home church in Wisconsin there
were baptismal entries where the given names were separated
by commas (for example: Emma, Amelia, Katharina).
At first glance I thought it was several children of the same family.
But at closer inspection I realized that it was ONE child.
Do you know if that had any special meaning, or was it only to
separate the names? (The first pastors were born and trained in
Germany). Also, sometimes these children (and children without
the commas in the entries) were later called by what I had
thought was their middle name. So Julius Heinrich, for example,
was called Henry.
Meine etwas hilflose Antwort darauf:
I think, there gives NOT a rule/regulation. We can found a lot of different entries.
a) the given name(s)/Vorname(n) from the baptism, without a sign
at the ?calling? name ("Rufname" in german)
b) the given name from the baptism, with underlining the ?calling? name.
c) the ?calling? name at the first place/last place of the given names.
d) the ?calling? name was the shortest name - the name what the
mother/father like - the name what friends/neighbours/relations call
(before the Standesamt/registrars office were created).
(like me: Horst Hans Paul = my Vorname [Horst] - the Vorname of my
father at the second place [Hans] - the Vorname of my grandfather [Paul]
at the third place.
That ist NOT a rule/regulation from the Sachsen-area, that the given
names from the father and/or grandfather get the children, but it was
in my family. I've never heard before, the the given names will separated
with commas, maybe it is a speciality of this priest ?or of that area? ?or ...?
However, could you tell me what you know of the NORMAL
practice of entering names in the church records (mid 1800's).
[I was surprise to find in a marriage entry the middle and first
name reversed from the baptismal record and from what we
knew of their names!]
People do have "nicknames". There is no rule about them.
Sometimes they a shortened version of one of their given names
(first/vorname or other, such as middle, name). Sometimes they
are for a physical feature ("Red" perhaps for someone with red
hair, "Shorty" for a short person --- OR for a tall person, as for
a joke, etc.). Sometimes for a special reason ("Happy" or "Smiley"
for a person who always smiles).
There was a boy in my junior high school class we called "Reverand"
(his father was a pastor).
But I don't believe we would call it a nickname if it was the person's
middle name. (I was baptised Margaret Alma Lindner.
Alma is my middle name. At university I went by "Marge".
That was my nickname.) I had a second cousin who was called by
a shortened form of his middle name: Val Robert Lindner was
"Bob" (Bob is a common nickname for Robert). If someone is
known by a name other than his first/vorname, in descriptions of
that person, it will often be noted as "a.k.a." (Also Known As).
For example: Clifford MacDonald, aka Mac. Donald Christian Musial,
aka Chris. Val Robert Lindner, aka Bob. Margaret Lindner, aka Marge.
I've heard of similar naming schemes. And I know that people try
to find family connections after learning of such schemes.
In my mother's family (and in many of the church entries I transcribed)
apparently it was common to use the names of the godparents/sponsors
at the child's baptism. My mother had two godmothers and one godfather:
She and all her siblings had two middle names. Often the godparents are
relatives, but not always. I know that her godfather was her paternal
(half)uncle and one of my mother's godmothers was the wife of her
maternal uncle. I'm not aware of a family relation to the other godmother
(perhaps a friend).
Meine Antwort:
By the way - it is an interest question for a genealogy-list, specially the Sachsen-List.
I'm not the absolutely specialist for that questions - I know only the varieties what I have seen !
Will you send this question to the Sachsen-List or should I do it for you ?
Could you send it? More people would understand the question if put in German.
Mit freundlichen Grüßen
Horst Lindner Tel. 07146/8604-34
Haldenweg 1/1 Fax -35
71336 Waiblingen eMail: LindnerHo@aol.com