Von: Hgurski@aol.com () Datum: 09.10.98, 04:22:16 Betreff: "Rufnamen" Friends, seems to be good to explain the difference between a Christian name and a "Rufname" - the name by which a person is known, and why such nicknames often are used. Think it´s a little bit confusing just (but NOT ONLY) for our American friends. :-)) My daughter is baptized on the three names Johanna Sophia Friederike Gurski. We named her after her great great (!) grandmother my wife was so lucky to know and loved her very much. But we just use to use the name Sophia to call her! This is an extract from my book "444 years EISSLER" describing the Wuerttemberg families from up 1550 through to todays. You may look at the registers of the mentioned names and surnames on my homepage: http://members.aol.com/hgurski/Register/htm The naming of new borns in these times (around 1600 and earlier) were rather monotonous. In many cases families teemed with Hans and Michael or Anna and Maria without their relationship to each other being apparent. A further difficulty is that many people had nick names resulting from their occupations or their bodily characteristics (some such examples the "Black Matheis" or the "Fat Michele"). These names were recorded in the parish registers. But they sometimes changed during the course of a life depending on the changing situation. For example Johannes Eissler was first called the Cobbler-Jones (Schuster- Jones) because he was a cobbler by profession and another Johannes of the same age lived in the town at the same time. After his marriage he took over the inn Crown from his in-laws, now becoming the Crown-Hans (der Kronen-Hans) for many years. In his old age he became Old-Hannes (Alt-Hannes) to differentiate between him and his son Johannes, who in turn took over the Crown. And the son again shows up as Crownhans (Kronenhans) or as Younghans (Junghans), and closing the circle, eventually as Old- hans (Althans). This shows that the same name does not have to mean the same person - vice versa that different names mean different persons. Without further comparisons with other records or information from other sources there is no certainty. The custom still lives on in some regions. A friend of my family living in the Black Forest who is a butcher by profession is only called "Koppe-Max" just like his father and his grand-father before him even though his christian name is Dieter (Kopp) and his elder brother is named Max. Here again the family resemblance and the same profession for over three generations play a big role. And to continue this tradition he baptized one of his three daughters on the name Maximiliane ! The names of wifes are another problem. Right up to the last century the woman is often only called by her christian name and by the profession of the husband. This would look like: "Cramer - Cathrin, former wedded housewife of the deceased Schulze-Mattheis" The assumption lies near that we are dealing with Katharina, the widow of the town major (Schultheiß) Matthias Cramer. But what is one to do if it turns out that during the time in question neither a Schultheiß (town major) Cramer or Kramer existed nor that such a wedding was registered? One puts aside the found Kramer-Cathrin as a "dead point". That this Cathrin was in truth Anna Catharina, daughter of Johann Widmann and the Anna Maria Majer of Oeschingen who as widdow of the former Schultheiß (town major) Matthäus Eissler who in her later years had a grocery shop (Krämerladen) was found out later just by chance. END of the extract.