[ANSTHRLD] German naming ?

[Christina Norman]

Thanks for you help.  The actual legend I believe has three different
versions by three different authors - french, german and english.  A version
was written by Gottfried von Strassburg in 1226.  But I guess then I would
still have to show Isolde as a German name?

-----Original Message-----


Quoth "Christina Norman":
> I would like to use the name Isolde von Wittenberg and have started
> researching this name, hopefully for around the 1200s.  Obviously, the
first
> name is from the legend.

But it's from an English legend, not a German one, at least as far
as I'm aware.  You still need to show that <Isolde> is a reasonable
choice for a German name.

> The last name I took from the village in the
> northwestern part of Germany.  What I am having difficulty with is showing
> the von as in Isolde from Wittenberg.  Can someone please point me the
> correct direction to look this up?

The fact that <von> means 'of' and is used in locative bynames is, as
far as I know, one of those things that is taken for granted and
needn't have explicit documentation.  Oftentimes, however, if you look
up a locative surname in Bahlow or Brechenmacher, you can find dated
citations that use <von>, and that's sufficient.

-Aryanhwy