Beraht, harti, kuoni, gund. Heroic traits in Germanic names and surnames

Abstract

The present study aims to analyze important features of the heroes who fought the Germanic wars of antiquity, starting from Old German words that have been preserved until today in the names of individuals. Thus, in both German first names and surnames, we find the following appellatives from the semantic sphere of war and weapons (ēra ”honour”, gund, hadu, hiltja, wīg ”war”, sigu ”victory”, ask ”ash pike”, brant ”sword”, gēr ”spear”, helm ”helmet”), wild animals (wolf ”wolf”, bero ”bear”, arn ”eagle”, ebur ”boar”, falco ”falcon”), the sovereign (burg ”fortress”, fridu ”protection against weapons”, rīhhi ”ruler, power”, thiot ”people”), as well as adjectives that refer to the attributes of warriors (adal ”distinguished, noble, chosen”, beraht ”bright”, kuoni ”brave”, liob ”kind, dear”, māri ”famous”, trūt ”close, beloved”) (e.g. Erhard, Gunter, Hilger, Siegbert, Wighard; Aschwin, Gerhard, Helmut; Wolfgang, Bernhard, Eberhard; Adalbert, Konrad, Liebward, Dietmar, Trudbert and others). The work also presents the most frequent surnames of Germanic origin in Germany (2005) and Transylvania (1935). With the weakening of gentile and tribal organizations, and with the advent of Christianity, many names of Germanic origin in the German language were replaced by names of saints and names from the New Testament.