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Re: Harlachen (place name)
Unfortunately, there are many possibilities and without going to historical records it cannot be easily detemined.Dorchadas already put a lot of good facts together, read her answer first since I try not to repeat.For places in Baden-Württemberg, there is another splitting possible: Harl-ach with ach meaning "water; creek, small river" but I have not immediate idea on harl.Than, we cannot exclude that the place is named for a given name, there are given names ending in -lach from laic "play" like Gundlach or Gerlach. The name *Hari-laic (or a form of it) isn't attested in Förstemann 1900, but it is an entirely plausible medieval German name.--elbowin

This message was edited 11/3/2019, 1:29 AM

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True, a great many of this sort of given name are not recorded until they appear much later as family names. To complicate things, H- appears as a later addition to the beginning of names which originally began with a vowel.
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