Spätmittelalterliche Personennamen im Bayerischen Vogtland: Die Namen des Urbars des Klosters St. Klara in Hof von 1499

Abstract

This paper analyzes the personal names contained in the 1499 tax roll of the St. Klara Monastery at Hof, a town on the north-eastern border of Upper Franconia in Bavaria. At the end of the 15th century among the tenants of this monastery first names of Germanic etymology are already in the minority; names of foreign origin, exclusively saints’ names, are significantly more frequent. – In 1499 also in the rural anthroponymy of the Hof area the system of first name and surname is completely established. Most tenants bear surnames derived from nicknames. The next frequent groups are surnames derived from first names, mainly from first names of Germanic origin, followed by occupational names. Considerably less tenants bear surnames derived from place names or from special traits of their respective residences. All in all, the tax roll of the St. Klara Monastery gives a representative impression of the rural anthroponymy of a small South German area at the end of the Middle Ages only a short time before the Reformation.