wolfgang

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wolfgang is a German male first name .

Origin and meaning

Wolfgang is made up of the Old High German wolf "wolf" and ganc "gait, walking, armed conflict, argument" and means something like "the one who goes into battle with the wolf".

Jacob Grimm understands the wolf here as a magical, holy (and valued by Wotan ) animal that prophesies victory in battle, and accordingly Wolfgang (Latinized Lupambulus ) as a “hero name” meaning “hero, preceded by the wolf of victory”.

The Teutons feared and revered the wolf as a strong and courageous fighter. “The man felt himself transformed into a devastating predator when he entered the battle; then he became 'a wolf himself' ”. Perhaps a warrior put on a wolf's fur to do this, believing that the strength and danger of the animal would be transferred to him. Or perhaps he had a way of walking or sneaking peculiar to the wolf.

In Germanic mythology , the two wolves Geri and Freki accompany the supreme god Odin ; that certainly had an influence on the naming. However, the name researcher Adolf Bach suspects that the parents' wish for their child, "that he would like to grant the admired properties of the animal [...] through a name magic," was the original motive for naming.

distribution

The earliest evidence (Vulfgang) comes from the 8th century. There is also an early evidence of the name in the Upper German spelling Vuolfkanc in the Reichenau fraternization book (begun in the first half of the 9th century) . But it was not until the cult of St. Wolfgang von Regensburg (10th century) that the name became widely known. Between the 15th and 17th centuries, Wolfgang v. a. one of the most popular boy names in southern Germany and Austria; later it was often given in memory of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (or Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ). In the 20th century the name came into vogue again, the high point was around 1960.

name day

Name day is October 31st , referred to as "(Saint) Wolfgang's Day".

Name bearer

A.

B.

C.

D.

F.

G

H

I.

J

K

L.

M.

N

  • Wolfgang Neuss (1923–1989), German cabaret artist and actor
  • Wolfgang Niedecken (* 1951), German musician
  • Wolfgang Nissen (1925–2008), former General Physician of the Air Force and 7th President of the German Society for Aviation and Space Medicine

O

P

R.

S.

T

U

V

W.

Z

Others

Similar first names

variants

  • Farkas (Hungarian)
  • Farkaš (Hungarian, alternative spelling)
  • Lope (Spanish)
  • Loup (French)
  • Lupo (Italian)
  • Lupus (Latin)
  • Lupambulus (Latin)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rosa Kohlheim, Volker Kohlheim (editor): The large first name dictionary . Third, completely revised edition, Dudenverlag, Mannheim / Zurich 2007, ISBN 978-3-411-06083-2 , keyword: Wolfgang.
  2. ↑ Otto Wimmer: Handbook of names and saints, with a history of the Christian calendar. 3rd edition Innsbruck / Vienna / Munich 1966, p. 526 f.
  3. ↑ Jacob Grimm: German Mythology. P. 954 (originally p. 1093), 4th edition, obtained from Elard H. Meyer, Berlin 1875–1878, licensed edition for VMA-Verlag, Wiesbaden 1968, Sp. 1649
  4. ^ Schramm, Gottfried: Namenschatz and Dichterssprache. Studies on the two-part personal names of the Teutons. (= Supplementary books to the Zs. F. Comparative linguistic research in the field of Indo-European languages ​​15), Göttingen 1957, p. 78, quoted from: Henning Kaufmann: Altdeutsche Personalennamen , supplementary volume (on Ernst Förstemann: Old German name book , first volume, Munich, Reprint of the second edition (1966), 1968, p. 416.
  5. ↑ Rosa and Volker Kohlheim: The large first name dictionary . Duden-Verlag, Mannheim 2003, p. 353; see. also Emidio De Felice: Dizionario dei nomi Italiani. Milan 1986, (reprint 2002), pp. 358f.
  6. ^ Adolf Bach: The German personal names. Heidelberg 1952 2 , Volume 1, p. 212
  7. ^ Ernst Förstemann: Altdeutsches Namenbuch , first volume, Munich, reprint of the second edition (1966), 1968, col. 596.
  8. ↑ Reichenauer fraternization book, p.126: Vuolfkanc at the bottom of the right column.