The last issue of the magazine " German Life " arrived recently. An author of a note in the back writes about the confusion that newcomers to genealogy have with German names. If you are baptized Hans Leonhard, why aren't you called Hans? Or why are you called Johann sometimes?
As we know, the first name was not usually used much after Baptism, but in some communities it was used frequently. Why was that? The reason that it was usually forgotten, is that the first name was your personal Saint's name. The second of your names was your own name. Or as the Germans say, the second name was your Rufname , or calling name.
In Gemmingen, the use of both names on formal occasions was not unusual. Hans Leonhard, Hans Heinrich, and Hans Conradt were common. In the Baptismal Register about half of the fathers gave both of their given names. The women many times used both given names, especially if the Saint's name was Anna or Maria. Perhaps if the Rufname were longer, the Saint's name would be dropped.
The use of what we would say was a nickname was common. A boy would often be baptized as Hans something or other and perhaps would go through life as Hans Peter or Hans Georg. Then again, he might say his name was Johann. My n th -great-grandfather was baptized as Hans but married as Johann. I don't think the Germans viewed names such as Hans as a nickname but as an alternative way of saying and writing the same name.
If you are looking through an extensive index of Schmidts, try J. Schmidt, H. Schmidt, or Wilhelm Schmidt if his full name was Hans Wilhelm Schmidt.
It has been observed that many German nicknames are formed by dropping the first syllable. This is the reason that Hans came from Johann, Klaus from Niklaus, Bastian from Sebastian. Catharina might become Trina or Margaretha becomes Greta. In English we tend to drop the second syllable so that Donald becomes Don, Samuel becomes Sam, and Matthew becomes Matt.
Some name interchangeability confuses us. Margaretha and Rebecca don't strike us as similar. Some names may go into another but the inverse is rare. People baptized as Adolf might become Adams but rarely did it go the other way. Melchior might become Michael but not the converse. Theobalds became Davids but Davids never became Theobalds.
We are also confused by the practice of dropping names and inventing new names as the centuries roll on. Philippina was not an unusual name in Eighteenth Century Gemmingen, but is very infrequent today. The boy's name I read as Plaickhain is totally strange to us.
(24 Sep 03)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.