Germanic personal names in Galicia

Germanic names

Germanic names were the most common personal names in Galicia during the Early and High Middle Ages, surpassing Christian and Roman names in number and popularity. These names were mostly of East Germanic tradition, the ones used by the Suebi, Goths, Vandals and Burgundians, among other people. Together with these names Galicians inherited also the Germanic onomastic system, so that a man or a woman was characterized exclusively by a single name (or/and by a nickname or alias), with no surname, and only occasionally using also a patronymic. More than a thousand of such names have been preserved in local records and in local toponyms.

Many of these Germanic names were composite, dithematic names, were the second element or deuterotheme was usually a noun with the same gender of the bearer. Others were hypocoristics, either directly formed from a composite name, or derived from any of the themes usually found forming them. Less frequently a name was per se an appellative, a noun, either an adjective or a substantive.

While these names were transmitted among the Suevi following the usual Germanic rules of inheritance, which were variation (passing just one element of the name: king Rechiar was son of king Rechila, who in turn was son of king Hermeric) and alliteration (names beginning with the same sound: king Maldras was the son of a nobleman named Masila) later on full names were transmitted from grandfather to grandson (commemoration), following a trend common until the present in most of Western Europe.

Adaptations

Aside from the conversion of many Germanic endings into Romance or Latin standards, these names suffered other major phonetic adaptations, like the change on the stress of the word from the first to the penultimate syllable, the conversion of most [þ] into [t] or [d], and the conversion of [h] into [k] before a consonant, getting lost in most other instances. [W] was initially preserved, although noted as [u], or [oy], before becoming [gw], or less usually [b]. Later on these early inherited names suffered most of the changes that took apart Western Romance languages, and namely Galician, from Latin, such as consonant lenition, diverse palatalizations, and the conversion of the vocalic system. All of these phenomenons contributed to the existence of a very large number of variants for every recorded name: a single name such as Ostrofredus, was in fact recorded in Galicia as Ortofredus, Ostofredo, Ostouredus, Ostrofedone, Stobredo, and Strofredo.

Names used by the Suevi

This is a relation of names used by the Suevi of Gallaecia during the 5th and 6th century, and which had been recorded in a few surviving chronicles, inscriptions, and in the acts of local ecclesiastical councils:

Many of these names, used by notable kings such as Miro, Reckila and Theudemirus, were extraordinarily popular during posterior centuries, and have originated also large number of local toponyms: Mirón, to Miro; Requián, Requiás, Requiás, Receá to Reckila; Tuimil, Toimil, to Theudemirus.

Protothemes

Here is a list of many of the first themes which were used for the formation of Germanic personal names in Galicia and NW Iberia. Many of them are related to war, victory, fame, boldness, strength and war-like qualities (bald-, funs-, hild-, gund-, nand-, rod-, seg-, send-), totemic animals (ar-, wulf-, ber-, ebur-), and weapons (brand-, bruni-, rand-, saru-), while many others refer to knowledge, love, and other peaceful qualities (fred-, leob-, mun-, ragi-, rad-, uin-). Some notable ones refers to the condition of ruler or master (fro-, ric-, vald-, Froya, Theodinus, Tructinus, Hendinus). Another group refers to the own tribe, nation or country (conia-, fulc-, teod-, leod-, man-, truct-, gavi-, gogi-, kend-); while other appear to make an explicit reference to Huns (Hun-), Suevi (Sav-), Goths (Gut-), Vandals (Vandal-), Celts (Vala-), Vendians/Slavs (Venet-), Galindians/Balths (Galind-), Franks (Frank-), Saxons (Sax-), Angles (Engl-), Danes (Dan-), and other Germanic and non Germanic peoples. Finally, while some elements are identical to others found in Celtic anthroponymy (And-, Dag-, -mar, -riks) some others appear to be adaptations of Latin words and names incorporated in the Danube regions: Florens, Fortis, Crescens...

Forms marked with an asterisk are unrecorded, and hence hypothetical. PGmc is a common abbreviation for Proto-Germanic.

Feminine deuterothemes

Elements commonly found as second element of feminine names include:

As for the suffixes used for deriving hypocoristic feminine names, they include:

Masculine deuterothemes

Elements commonly found as second element of masculine names include:

As for the suffixes used to derivate hippocoristic masculine names:

Superlative and comparative suffixes were also used for the formation of personal names: -iza: Boniza, Wittiza. -istaz: Ariastre, Belestrio, Fromesta, Remestro, Segestro.

Other suffixes imply origin of a person, or some other kind of relation:

Toponyms

Many of these names have also originated local place names (towns, parishes, villages, hamlets and fields), usually in the form of a Latin or Germanic genitive of the name of the proprietor, sometimes preceded by the type of property, a Galician word of Latin, Germanic or pre-Latin origin: vila (meaning 'villa, palace, state'), vilar ('hamlet') castro ('castle'), casa ('house'), porta ('pass, ford'), agro ('field'), sa (to Germanic sala 'hall, house'), busto ('dairy'), cabana ('cabin'), lama ('pastures'), fonte ('well, spring'), pena ('fort'), pumar ('orchard'), val ('valley'), among others. As an example, some 5% of the names of the 315 municipalities of Galicia have this kind of origin:

Several thousand of such toponyms are known in Galicia, Northern Portugal, Western Asturias, and other territories which belonged to the Suebi kingdom.

Proto-Germanic reconstruction

Germanic personal names

Galician Medieval onomastics

Germanic toponymy in Galicia