LL-L "Names" 2007.03.22 (03) [E]

[Lowlands-L List]

L O W L A N D S - L - 22 March 2007 - Volume 03

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Names

Felix,

Could the -ey part in Hülsey have come from a word for "island"?

Old English: éaland, íegland
Old Frisian: āland, eiland
Old Norse: ey-, -ey
Modern English: island
Modern Dutch: eiland
Modern German: Eiland

I'm aware that islands in rivers and lakes tend to be called Werth, -worth,
etc. (e.g. Old Frisian werth, Old Saxon werith, Old German werid, similar to
Nordic holm, hulms?), but you never know what the story behind it is.

Note Island names such as Norderney, Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Orkney,
Lindsey and Shelvey.

This is widely believed to be derived from words for "water" (hence
"water-land"), related to Old Frisian ā, Old Saxon aha, Old German aha, Old
English éa < Germanic *aha < Indo-European *akŭā (cf. Latin aqua).

Anyway, it's just a thought.

Reinhard/Ron

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From: Jonny Meibohm <altkehdinger at freenet.de>
Subject: LL-L "Name" 2007.03.22 (02) [E]

Beste Felix,

Du schreyvst:

My family name is Hülsey.

Searching on the internet resulted in nothing much; I found a few sites
about names but none of them included mine. But I came across the
Wikipedia article about the European Holly (Stechpalme, Ilex aquifolium)
which is called hulst in Dutch and seems to be called Hülse in certain
(not specified) German regions.

Felix- what a kind of 'Stacheltier' (poetical name of hedgehog) are you
to deserve this name ;-)?

But- it's correct: 'Hülsen' here is the LS-name for Ilex.

In our region there are living some families with the name 'Hülsen'. I guess
them to originate from the 'Lipper Land' which also belongs to Westphalia.
They possibly came into the Lower-Elbe-region during the 18th century as
workers in one of the many brickyards which could be found along the rivers.

A good friend of mine is named 'Uhlendorf', which doesn't mean anything else
than 'Oulet Dörp', E: 'Old Village'. Any good day I told him that I'd guess
his family's origin in the Lipper-Land. He even didn't know but his
researches proved my assumption. (BTW: aged 32 he is my youngest 'partner'
to speak LS continuously, and both of us are really crazy Metal-freaks...)

My personal assumption to your name: I shouldn't think that the 'Ilex' was
godfather of your name. Couldn't it originally have been something like
'Hüs-e-ler', Middle High German *'hiuseler'* meaning 'a poor farmer with
just few own land but living in his own house'?

Allerbest

Jonny Meibohm
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