Gothic name

Onomastics of the Gothic language is an important source not only for the history of the Goths themselves, but for Germanic onomastics in general and the linguistic and cultural history of the Germanic Heroic Age of c. the 3rd to 6th centuries.

The names of the Goths themselves have been traced to their 3rd century settlement in Scythia. The names Tervingi and Greuthungi have been interpreted as meaning "forest-dwellers" and "steppe-dwellers", respectively, and the later Ostrogothi and Visigothi as "oriental Goths" and "occidental Goths", respectively, although all four etymologies are not without detractors.[1]

Gothic given names are recorded from the 4th century, but often in corrupted Latinized forms, so that in many cases their etymology is open to speculation. Jordanes gives partly mythological genealogies leading up to historical 4th to 5th century rulers:

An important source of early Gothic names is the hagiography surrounding the persecution of Gothic Christians (by the pagan Therving Gothic authorities) in the second half of the 4th century. Many of the Gothic saints mentioned in these sources bear Syrian, Cappadocian and Phrygian names, however, perhaps reflecting a practice of assuming a baptismal name.

Numerous Gothic names are recorded for the 5th to 7th centuries. After the Muslim in invasion of Hispania and the fall of the Visigothic kingdom in the early 8th century, Gothic tradition was largely interrupted, although Gothic or pseudo-Gothic[2] names continued to be given in the Kingdom of Asturias, the remnant of the Visigothic state and nucleus of the Christian reconquest of Andalusia. Thus, Alfonso I of Asturias (recorded as Adefonsus), born one generation after the Muslim invasion, was given the Gothic name *Adafuns or Adalfuns, which as Alfonso would become a frequently used royal name in the medieval Iberian kingdoms. In the Gothic March north of the Pyrenees, the remnant of the Visigothic state conquered by the Franks in the 9th century, Gothic names continued to be common until the 10th centuries, with an example of a record of a mother and her eight children all bearing Gothic names dated to 964.[3]

Gothic names of the 4th to 6th centuries include:

recorded name Gothic form
(reconstructed) 		etymology lifetime identity/source
Ariaricus fl. 330s Balthi Therving king
Aoricus fl. 340s Therving king
Athanaricus Aþanareiks aþni "year" + reiks "ruler" fl. 369, d. 381 Therving king
Ermanaricus Airmanareiks c.f. Arminius, Herman fl. 370 Amali king of the Greuthungi
Odotheus/Alatheus Audaþius or Alaþius auda- "wealth", or ala- "all"(?)[4] plus þius "servant" fl. 380s king of the Greuthungi
Alaricus Alareiks ala "all"(?)[4] + reiks fl. 395–410 Visigothic king
Fritigern Friþareiks(?) fl. 370s Therving leader
Friþareikeis Friþareiks friþa "peace" + reiks "ruler" (i.e. Frederick) d. 370s martyr[5]
Wingourichos, Jungericus Wingureiks fl. 370s Therving official
Gainas fl. 390s Gothic Magister militum
Sigericus sigu "victory" + reiks "ruler" Amali king of the Visigoths
At(h)aulphus Aþaulf or Ataulf aþa(l) "noble" or ata "father" + ulf "wolf" r. 410–415 Balthi king of the Visigoths
Theodericus Þiudareiks þiuda "people" + reiks "ruler" (see Theodoric) r. 418–451 Balthi king of the Visigoths
Ragnaris Raginariþ[6] ragina (c.f. Vandalic Raginari ) and riþ, both meaning "counsel" d. 555 A Hunnic leader allied with the Ostrogoths

References

  1. ↑ Arne Søby Christensen, Heidi Flegal (trans.), Cassiodorus, Jordanes and the History of the Goths: Studies in a Migration Myth 205f.
  2. ↑ H Reichert, "Sprache und Namen der Wandalen in Afrika" in: Albrecht Greule, Matthias Springer (eds.), Namen des Frühmittelalters als sprachliche Zeugnisse und als Geschichtsquellen, 50f.
  3. ↑ Wolfram (1990:p. 233)
  4. 1 2 the element ala- may be polygenetic.
  5. ↑ recorded in the Gothic calendar fragment
  6. ↑ Schönfeld (1911), p. 184.

See also

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