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Here are some more (some just educated guesses)
("XYZ" Germanic root; > closest form I could find; ??? I'm not sure at all)CHARIBERT = Herbert
CHEREBERT = Herbert
CHILDEBERT = Hildbert
CHILDERIC = Hildrich
CHILPERIC = Hilfrich
GENEBALD „gen“ > probably from „gagin“ (against) + „bald“ (bold)
HERIMERUS „heri“ (army) + „mari“ (famous) / „mari“ (sea) ???
LIUBIGOTONA „liob“ (dear, beloved) + Goth ???
MARCOMIR „marha“ (horse) / „marco“ (boundary) + mari“ (famous) / „mari“ (sea) ???
RECASWIND > Recesvinth? (5. cent.) – „ricja“ (rule) + „svintha“ (strong)
REKIBERGA > Ricberga (8. cent.) –„ricja“ (rule) + „berga“ (rescue)
SUAVEGOTHA „swaba“ (Swabian, name of a Germanic tribe, Svebes? „of the own people“?) + „Goth“ ???This is mostly taken from:
Ernst Förstemann: Altdeutsche Personennamen (1906)
Henning Kaufmann: Altdeutsche Personennamen, Ergänzungsband* (1968)
(* supplement)
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I just found information which leads me to this: could Marcomir be a Gaulish* name? I found out that the Gaulish word for horse was 'marka', and that they also had a word 'maru', which meant 'great.' These elements combined, it should be 'Markamaru', which meant 'great horse.'But Marcomir could be a Germanic name after all - from 'marco' (boundary) and 'mari' (famous), as you said.Btw, you apparently named 'marha' (horse) as a Germanic element, while the Germanic equivalent of horse actually should be 'hros'. Or did your book also list it as a Gaulish word?
* Gaulish is an extinct Celtic language (it was spoken in Gaul) of which very few records and names survive.
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Various horsesYes, "marha" can well be a Germanic element, living on in the English word "mare" and the German "Mähre" (nowadays a word for an old, bad horse; up to the 16th cent. it just meant "mare", later "horse" in general, and towards the end of the 17th cent. took the above meaning) and "Marschall". It is likely to be of Indoeuropean origin, but also may be loan word from Celtic. (This is taken from: dtv Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, München 1993)
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Thank you, Andy!I'll see if I can get my hands on the books you listed as a source - I hadn't yet found literature I could use on the subject of ancient Germanic names, you see. :) If you know any other good books, please let me know. ;)Thanks again,Lucille :)
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The question is: Can you read German? Latin would do, too: Förstemann gives many Latin translations of the Germanic name elements. But the most interesting part is the lists of names he gives, including century and source. Together with the supplement mentioned, Förstemann still is the standard work on old German names.
Another book is: Wilfried Seibicke: Historisches Deutsches Vornamenbuch I-IV, 2000 ff. (This includes foreign names as well as long as they appear in Germany)
A book to buy (if you know German) would be: Rosa und Volker Kohlheim, Das große Vornamenlexikon, Mannheim 2003
The rest you may be able to get hold of in a good libraryAndy ;—)
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I can definitely read German; I live 5 minutes from the Dutch-German border, after all. Not to mention my grandfather is German and that I have had German at school. ;) So that won't be a problem at all. :)But thank you for your tip! :) I'll also try a few antiquarian bookshops to see if I could possibly buy the books that I otherwise would only have found in a library. :)
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Sorry, I couldn't guess this from your name (if Lucille is your name). I tried to buy Förstemann and Kaufmann second hand, but they were beyond my means. So I got them from a library and copied them (1200 pages all together). But it was worth the effort!The Duden Lexicon costs less than 10,- Euro!Andy ;—)
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