Looking for ancient Germanic female names

Germania_Echoes · Sep 8, 2010

Hi, all. Hope the day finds you well!

I had a stupidity moment and posted this same thread in the War & Military section (I was browsing the Crusades posts and posted my own without switching gears

) and I was drawing a blank on how to delete it, so I hope it's okay to just post it here in the right place.

After having successfully removed writers' block, I'm back to my short stories set in ancient Germania. I've found one large obstacle, though . . . female names. I'm really grateful for the posts on Historum; Salah ad-Din posted Germanic and Celtic names, I believe. Yet I found few female names and my secondary character is, of course, female!

I am considering the name "Braduhenna." Anyone know anything about it?

And what about "Aurinia"? She was supposedly a Germanic priestess. When did she live? What did the name mean? Was "Aurinia" the original spelling or was that a Latin spelling (which I suspect)? I've heard it could have been Alruna, Albruna, etc. Which spelling would have been used among Germans circa 12 - 10 BC?

Was "Freyja" used this long ago? Or, if it was a goddess' name, would it have been considered "off-limits" to name a child?

Thanks for any help! And if anyone has any other female Germanic names viable in this time period (12 - 10 BC), I'd really appreciate the help.

Germania_Echoes

beorna · Sep 8, 2010

we know just of a few female names of that period. One is veleda, another thusnelda, we have gambara, albruna or ganna.

But e.g. the name veleda could be of celtic origin.

we are better informed about later eras

Salah · Sep 8, 2010

Whoops...I responded to the one you posted in the military section

beorna · Sep 8, 2010

i did it the other way

Germania_Echoes · Sep 8, 2010

Hi, all.

Thanks for the responses! That opens many possibilities if feminine forms of masculine names are acceptable. I am currently thinking about the name "Ariovistus" -- could "Ariovista" then be a name? Ariovistus is supposedly a Suebian name . . . am I recalling that this name might have Celtic origins? (I don't want this, as I want my Germanic characters to have purely Germanic names. My Celtic characters will have the same honor . . .)

Would "Segimera" from "Segimerus" actually be Gaulish in origin? (in his name list Salah ad-Din suggested, I believe, that Segimerus might be Germanicized from "Segimaros").

O why must I be interested in a time period where names are so hard to find??

Germania_Echoes

beorna · Sep 8, 2010

i wouldn't give every male name a female form. For example Segimerus means "famous by his victories", that wouldn't be a good name for ......

You can also short name e.g. thietlinda could be short Thedda.
there is as well another problem, we have male Teja, Totila, badwila but female Hildiko

Salah · Sep 8, 2010

I think my answer to this thread got deleted

Germania_Echoes · Sep 8, 2010

Good point, Beorna. I hadn't thought that same name meanings wouldn't be appropriate for females

What about "Gambara" and "Ganna" that you mentioned? Any information on those names?

Germania_Echoes

beorna · Sep 8, 2010

I am not sure about ganna in the moment, Gambara comes from gambr-powerful (as far as I remember). ganna could be short for Gambara, but I am not sure.

Salah · Sep 8, 2010

Germania_Echoes said:
O why must I be interested in a time period where names are so hard to find??

I know the feeling! I know much less about Germanic names than I do Celtic ones, so I am of little use to you here. The Suebi and other tribes living in the western part of Germania (e.g. the Cherusci) do appear to have had Celtic names - or at least names that look Celtic when you Latinize them.

If you want pure Germanic names from the first few centuries AD, maybe do some research on the Gothic language - though that may be a little too far removed both geographically and linguistically.

Beorna also makes a very good point that you wouldn't want to turn just any name into its feminine form without knowing what it means.

You could probably take names from Roman writings or any of my name lists and give them more of a genuine Germanic feel - Segimerus, for instance, could be something like "Sigmar".

But I think Beorna, and probably other folks around here, are much better qualified to help you with Germanic names.

beorna · Sep 8, 2010

I havn't read this side, but here you have some germanic names. perhaps you have somebody who can translate it

http://www.spatha.de/namen.htm
http://www.burg-assum.de/articles.php?article_id=56
http://www.onomastik.com/vn_rufnamen_glieder.php
http://www.heidenhemd.de/germanische-namen/

usually not all those names are translated correct, so if you have questions to those names, ask

Germania_Echoes · Sep 8, 2010

Thanks for the responses, everyone. I have some hours of research ahead of me, then hopefully the right name will pop out of nowhere (it usually does!

)

Germania_Echoes

Lucius · Sep 8, 2010

I could be totally full of crap here, but what about Germanic equivalents of Rose, Lily, Tulip, etc?

Germania_Echoes · Sep 13, 2010

Thanks for the replies. And thanks for the links, Beorna. Unfortunately, as many of you said, the most accurate German names hail from much later dates. I will peruse some old inscriptions and such and hopefully it will "pop out" at me as names usually do

Germania_Echoes

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