Grafe (family name)

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The family name Grafe can be derived in different ways.

etymology

According to the entry in Grimm's dictionary, the earliest evidence for the word from Merovingian and Carolingian sources from the 6th to the early 9th century is to be found as grafio, graphio, graffio, grauio, gravio, grafionus . The Old Frisian Greva is in Swedish to Grêve , in Old High German to Gravo, in Middle High German to Grave .

Word meaning

In early Merovingian times, Graf was the name of a police and enforcement body. In Merovingian law, Graf has referred to royal officials since the 6th century, who are called iudex fiscalis , d. H. Chairman of the court, exercise judicial functions and also be entrusted with administrative and military tasks.

Persons and family name

According to Grimm, the variants Grave , Grêven , Grefen , Graffe , Grâve Greven have been identified as personal or family names since the early 15th century.

origin

There are several possibilities for the origin of the name Grafe, some of which can be traced back to non-aristocratic officials, on the one hand to decorators of judicial offices with administrative powers, such as an exempt count who was appointed by the court lord or chairman as chairman of a voyage court. Any innocent free person could become the chairman or lay judge of a veek court .

Another possibility would be a derivation from a count who was elected by the rural residents and confirmed by the sovereign as peasant judge of a larger district; Such a peasant judge was also called Gohgreven in Low German. In 1463, a Johan Vrygreve or Vrygrave was named as a gographer of Osnabrück in a document from the city of Osnabrück. Here, too, it can be assumed that he traces his name back to his profession.

Another possibility is to derive administrative officials, some of whom had judicial powers. There is, on the one hand, the Hansegrave or Hansgrave , whose profession has been documented in Regensburg since 1184, who were mostly officials for Hanseatic, market or trade matters. Apart from that, there are also other possibilities, such as that of a dikemaster as ancestor. Deichgraf, also in Low German Diekgreve, was the name of the chairman in some dike cooperatives in northern Germany. In addition to the dichgrave , there was also the lumbergrave, who was a chairman for forestry and was elected by the so-called march comrades, and the bordegrafen, a manorial messenger or subordinate of a judicial district in the Börde. Another possibility would be to derive it from an important count who was subordinate to a bishop. In addition to the variant of the origin of a non-noble bearer of the name, there are also those who have a count as their namesake, whereby this does not refer to the actual family name, which has been passed on for centuries, but to the conversion of the count's title to the family name.

Related spellings

• Grave
• Grefe
• Greve
• Counts

Geographical distribution of the name variants in Germany

• Distribution of the name Grafe in Germany
• Distribution of the name Graf in Germany
• Distribution of the name Grave in Germany
• Distribution of the name Grefe in Germany

Web links

• Lower Saxony State Archives

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Graf. In: Jacob Grimm , Wilhelm Grimm (Hrsg.): German dictionary . tape 8 : Glibber – Gräzist - (IV, 1st section, part 5). S. Hirzel, Leipzig 1958 ( woerterbuchnetz.de ).