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Re: Confusing Name
Nery (or Neri) looks very unusual for a German name. Are you really sure that your grandmother's husband was German? There are no German names that have a natural short form or nickname like Neri or Nery.There is a Norwegian name Neri and Neri was also used in Italy. The Biblical character named Neri is very marginal (only occurring in a genealogy, no story about him) and Biblical naming wasn't as popular in Germany as it was and is in the USA.
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It's a Germanic prototheme (first element of a two-element "dithematic" name), recorded in Saxon England (Neribeorht, Nerienda, Neriolf) and Norse (Nereiðr). The primary onamastic sense is "refuge, sanctuary", but the prosaic uses are in verbs referring to rescue and salvation and their derivatives (of which Nerienda is one). Norse næra, German nahren, "feed, nourish, refresh" are presumed to be related (a shifts to e under the influence of the i in Neri). The Gothic form is Nas- (original s becomes z and then r through rhotacism in West and North Germanic languages), and the s is preserved in North and West Germanic "nest". As its use as a prototheme spans geographically from Nas- forms in the south to Neri- forms in the north, it would be unusual for there not to be some record of its use in Germany, even if it's rare in modern German. As a name by itself it's probably originally short for a longer dithematic name.
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