Lead name

In historical studies and especially in genealogy, a lead name is one (or more) given names that occur frequently or dominantly within families.

Origin and change

Key names are probably derived from the custom of the hereditary name custom, which is still practiced today, of naming the first son after the paternal grandfather (and the second son after the maternal grandfather). When this son gave his firstborn his father's name and this custom was continued from generation to generation, two leading names emerged, which were used alternately. But there was also the tradition of giving the firstborn the same name as a feudal heir in each generation. If the firstborn died before his brother was born, he was often given the same name in order to continue the lead name.

If the mother came from a very distinguished family, it also happened that the firstborn was named after the maternal grandfather. In addition, it often happened in the Middle Ages that children in general and thus also firstborns died as children or adolescents, so that later-born sons inherited their father's inheritance and continued the line. In both cases, lead names could arise from the maternal name.

Finally, there were lead names that were preferred for later sons, e.g. B. Hermann with the Billungers .

A guiding name could disappear completely or for a long time from the use of a clan if the name was stained with blood or a name bearer had become dishonorable and judged by another serious crime. The name Egilmar disappeared from the Counts of Oldenburg for centuries due to fratricide.

Female lead names are more difficult to determine within a clan, since women - if at all - are only mentioned in the sources when they are married or widowed. It is only rarely possible to make reliable statements about which clan they came from. By marrying their names into the family of her husband. In addition, names such as B. Oda, Ida and Mathilde so often in the high nobility that they could not be assigned to any particular family as a guiding name. An exception is the name Richenza, which has been used by Haus Oldenburg from 1108 to the present day.

Key names were used primarily in the early Middle Ages , at a time when

Gentile names (such as Iulius or Claudius in the Roman Empire ) no longer in use,
Name of origin or title (such as Albert von Aachen or Gottfried von Bouillon ) individually and
Family name not yet known

were to express the common belonging to a clan.

Leading names fell out of use again - at least among the nobility - when family affiliation was more clearly defined by title and property (for example, by turning away from the Carolingian count as an interchangeable regional representative of royal power and the enforcement of the hereditary title of count including property in land and people) could be made and thus other criteria for the choice of first names came to the fore.

For historical research, the lead name has the advantage that if several people have the same first name there are indications of a family relationship, but also the disadvantage that the individual members of the family bearing the lead name are more difficult to distinguish from one another. In addition, the main name is often used here to give the clan a family name afterwards .

For example, due to the lead name Burchard, it is assumed that the Hohenzollern (whose line of trunks begins with Burchard I. von Zolorin , † 1061, ) descended from the Rhaetian Burchardinger (Duke Burchard III. Von Schwaben † 973).

Examples

Head names were rather uncommon within the royal families, here the affiliation was obvious and did not have to be emphasized separately:

The Merovingians knew no key names; the royal names Clovis, Chlothar, Childerich, Dagobert, etc. do not appear frequently.
Even among the Carolingians , no guiding name has emerged. The first name Karl appears for the first time with Karl Martell , and the other first names also point more to models than to systematics: Pippin was taken over from the maternal side, the Pippinids , with Ludwig and Lothar, modifications of the Merovingian names Chlodwig and Chlothar, should the own legitimacy should be supported.
The first name Konrad was often seen among the Konradinians , but only next to other first names such as Gebhard, Udo or Hermann.
With the Liudolfingern or Ottonen , the names Brun, Liudolf, Thankmar, Heinrich and Otto appeared equally in the early generations, before the latter prevailed due to the importance of the people who bore this name.
With the Salians , the name Werner is identifiable as a leading name for the first generations in a counting position, but disappears the moment the family takes over the leading position in the empire, in favor of the emperor names known from previous dynasties.
The Hohenstaufen , whose guiding name was Friedrich, held on to this as German emperor - and in the case of Duke Friedrich VI, left. von Schwaben even went so far as to subsequently rename him from Konrad to Friedrich, after an older brother with this lead name died in childhood.

Below the ruling level, the use of lead names is much more common, here the prominence of the individual is missing, the affiliation to a family group is more essential:

The Robertines , attested since the 7th century , used the lead name Robert, who as Chrodobertus or Rupert pervades the family tree into the 11th century , until he lost its unifying function when Hugo Capet gained royal power in France .

The Swabian Guelphs used the lead name Welf until they achieved the title of duke in Bavaria and Saxony , and the name Welf was replaced by the name Heinrich.

With the Hohenzollern the name Friedrich was a clear key name; Later, Wilhelm (often called "Friedrich Wilhelm") came into use in Prussia, after the nickname of the Great Elector .

Reuss

An extreme example of the use of a guiding name is the Reuss Princely House , which has only used the first name Heinrich for male family members since the 12th century (at that time as Burgvögte von Plauen ), presumably to refer to the Staufer Emperor Heinrich VI. to honor who had raised Heinrich the Rich von Weida († 1209) to the Quedlinburg monastery bailiff . The older line counted all male family members up to one hundred, while the younger line started over with each new century - a regulation that was fixed by house law in 1668 and that is still practiced in the house that ruled until 1918.

literature

Matthias Becher: The Merovingians renamed it between family self-image and political instrumentalization . In: onenological information . tape 103/104 , 2014, pp. 43–57 , urn : nbn: de: bsz: 15-qucosa-179533 .
Dieter Geuenich: Personal names and the early medieval family / clan / dynasty . In: Ernst Eichler, Gerold Hilty, Heinrich Löffler, Hugo Steger, Ladislav Zgusta (eds.): Name research. An international handbook on onomastics . tape 2 . Berlin / New York 1996, p. 1723-1725 .
Friedrich von Klocke: The filiation, its conjecture and injection, especially with nicknames as "after-names" in the family of earlier times . In: Family and People . tape 4 , 1955, pp. 130-137, 168-171, 200-204 .
Michael Mitterauer : ancestors and saints. Naming in European history . Munich 1993, p. 367 ff .
Michael Mitterauer: For renaming after the living and dead in royal houses of the early Middle Ages . In: Michael Mitterauer (Ed.): Traditions of naming . Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2011, p. 73-89 .
Wilhelm Störmer: Early nobility . Part 1. Stuttgart 1973, chap. 2 Noble naming in family, clan and rule.