Latinization of Germanic names.
(I warn you, this is going to be a bit of a vage post, since it's late and my brain is foggy.) :-SI have a vague suspicion that with Germanic names beginning with a 'K', their latinized version often starts with a 'C' instead. Like: Karl -> Carolus.Now, one of the middle names of my ancestors is Cunibert (I've read it that way in his marriage book), but it was hard to find more people with this variant of the name - more people seem to write it as Kunibert. Then perhaps Cunibert is a short version of the latinization of Kunibert - Cunibertus?
One of this ancestor's aunts was called Cunigundis. Now this definitely seems to be a latinization of Kunigunde, so in short, could I be right about the 'K to C' thing?And finally, there's another thing I'd like to know. The father of this ancestor was called Gottlieb - is there also a Latin variant of this name? My grandfather is named Gottfried, and I know that its Latin variant is Godefridus, but I'm wondering about Gottlieb. It can't possibly be Gottlibus or something, right?Thank you in advance,Lucille
vote up1vote down

Replies

Hi Lucille,First of all - you are right of course: Germanic K-names are latinized with a C.Yes, there is a latinized version of Gottlieb: Godelivus. Maybe there are some more versions, but I just know of this one.In addition to the information for Gottlieb given here on the site, the name Gottlieb is older and not created in the 17th century. In the 17th century the name got a new meaning.Originally it was a newer form of the Old High German name Goteleib (got = God, leib = descendent, son) and in the 17th century the last part of the name was understood to mean "love", because of the word "lieb" = love, dear. So that Old German name was used as a "translation" for the Latin name "Amadeus" and vice versa. So "Amadeus" would be another possibility of a latinized Gottlieb!Regards, Satu
vote up1vote down
Thank you very much for your answers! :-D
vote up1vote down