Name Ludovici

hannover-l
1

You are right to some extent. Ludovicus is the Latin form of Louis (Fr), Lewis (Eng), Ludwig (Germ), Luigi (It), Luis (Sp) and many others. Even Ludeke in Old Low German. However, as a surname it was probably carried over from pre-Reformation times and would have no connection to given names. The "i" ending indicates either plural or Possessive (genitiv) case, meaning, in the case of names, "belonging to". This can give you almost no genealogical clue except to say that it is a very old name, and possibly not even German. However, before the Reformation many German names were Latinized (you should see some of the weird ones I've found) so it could be the result of this. (I was a trained philogilist) Jane

Jane Swan
jeswansong@earthlink.net
Why Wait? Move to EarthLink.

2

Jane,
Basicly you are right.
But just one small remark: The latinization of surnames was not only done in pre-reformation times, but also later on in wealthy protestant families this could be observed, specially when one or more memberg graduated from University. One family I traced back some time ago changed its name from Joachim to Joachimi in the late 16th century.
Juergen E.W. Meyer

"Jane Swan" <jeswansong@earthlink.net> schrieb: