Gothic names

[ualarauans]

--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, Michal Cigan <michalcigan at ...> 
wrote:
>
> Hi,
> Im interested in some aspect of gothic noble names,
> maybe someone has any idea...
> 
> 1) Can we say, that endings of names of gothic nobles and leaders, 
like -mund,
> -rich or -mer are thypicaly gothic? - or they are rather common 
germanic endings
> of dynastical or "heroic" names...
> 
> 2) And what about etymology of this endings, what do they mean?
> 

Hi Michal!

I don't think these endings are specifically Gothic as they are 
attested everywhere else in Germania. Complex two elements names 
could be a particular feature of the noble, or they could be not. 
You know, the most Old Germanic and particularly Gothic recorded 
names were names of high class people, since it were they who were 
most often put in songs, legends, chronicles etc. But as I said I'm 
not an expert on this. I can remember a discussion about the name of 
Ermanaricus and the way it spread in other Germanic areas due to 
wandering epic singers (see Tim Caldwell vs. Ingemar Nordgren post 
#8770, Wed Mar 29, 2006 – sorry I've got no idea how to make it a 
cyber-link), so it is how the names of great heroes (and great 
trouble-makers as well, if it was not the same in that time-:) could 
penetrate from one people to the other. And I don't know whether it 
was possible that a thrall could be named, say, 
*Thiudareiks "people's ruler". In the Eddic Rigsthula the offspring 
of different social classes (or castes) bear different names, but 
did it reflect the actual reality?

What of their meaning, so I suppose PG *–meriz meant "known by smth" 
(cf. Go. waila-mereis "well-reputed", waja-merei "bad repute"). This 
ending was borrowed by the Slavs (as a name-word) and produced 
Slavic –mErÚ in names like Vladimir (Old Russian Volodi-mErÚ, if 
this one is not a wholly borrowed Go. *Walda-mers). As the Slavs 
didn't understand it they had it folk-etymologized as being cognate 
to Slavic –mirÚ (semantically = ON heimr), so e.g. Vladimir became 
a "rule-the-world" phrase-name.

*-munduz means "protection' or "protector" (cf. Go. mundon "pay 
attention to smth."), like Gesimundus (Go. *Gaizamundus M. -u), 
Ermanaricus' grandson (? – Get. 247), who, staying loyal to the 
Great Hun (Balamber), was sent by him with a punitive expedition 
against Uinitharius after this had accomplished his Antish campaign 
(we're back with it again).

*-ri:kiz stood for "prince" or "nobleman", attested in Bible Gothic 
as a consonant stem reiks which translated Greek 
ARCWN "ruler", "archon", e.g. reiks this aiwis "ruler of this aeon" 
= Satan. Adjective being reikeis "mighty", "noble"; the verb 
reikinon "to rule"; abstract noun reiki "power". As commonly 
believed, it is a Celtic loanword (Gaulish ri:x, gen. ri:gis; Old 
Irish ri:, gen. ri:g – very often in Gaulish personal names). It is 
a Celtic mutation IE long /e:/ > Celtic long /i:/, so a pure 
Germanic development from the same IE root would yield Go. *reks 
etc. One could observe a similar process here: both –mers and –reiks 
were borrowed (Germanic > Slavic resp. Celtic > Germanic) as name-
words in the direction "from West to East". Maybe it means something?

Ualarauans





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