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ArchivesGottfried and Gottlieb - Christian names in origin, or heathen names?
Hello,
I was just wondering if the names Gottfried and Gottlieb are created in a time where christianity was the dominant religion, instead of the ancient heathen religion (with gods like Wodan and Thor). Does the 'Gott' in Gottfried and Gottlieb refer back to the Christian God, or to one (or all) of the heathen gods (Wodan perhaps?)?
I would like to know that. :)
Thank you very much in advance! :)
I was just wondering if the names Gottfried and Gottlieb are created in a time where christianity was the dominant religion, instead of the ancient heathen religion (with gods like Wodan and Thor). Does the 'Gott' in Gottfried and Gottlieb refer back to the Christian God, or to one (or all) of the heathen gods (Wodan perhaps?)?
I would like to know that. :)
Thank you very much in advance! :)
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Replies
Thank you for your help, everybody! :)
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Considering Gottlieb was created in the 17th-century...
Gott probably does refer to the Judeo-Christian-Islamic god in that case. I don't think there were very many "heathens" in 17th-century Germany. (I could be wrong, but...)
Gottfried is just the modern German form of the much-earlier name Godfrey, which itself is the English version of Godafrid, a Germanic name composed of god "god" and frid "peace" (and thus interpreted as "peace of god" or "god's peace"). I'm not very sure, but I think that in this case god refers to the Abrahamic god too.
EDIT: Corrected and expanded Gottfried info
Miranda
"...his fingers trailing over your belly, your thighs quacking..." — From a The Lord of the Rings crapfic
Proud adopter of 15 punctuation marks.
Gott probably does refer to the Judeo-Christian-Islamic god in that case. I don't think there were very many "heathens" in 17th-century Germany. (I could be wrong, but...)
Gottfried is just the modern German form of the much-earlier name Godfrey, which itself is the English version of Godafrid, a Germanic name composed of god "god" and frid "peace" (and thus interpreted as "peace of god" or "god's peace"). I'm not very sure, but I think that in this case god refers to the Abrahamic god too.
EDIT: Corrected and expanded Gottfried info
"...his fingers trailing over your belly, your thighs quacking..." — From a The Lord of the Rings crapfic
Proud adopter of 15 punctuation marks.
This message was edited 5/9/2005, 2:23 PM
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Probably yes. There are two homographic protothemes possible in most cases. Single syllable long-vowel God "good" is probably the original. Two syllable short vowel Goda- "god" however is routinely syncopated to one syllable by the systematic loss of unaccented vowels. So short syllable Godfrid "God-peace" (from Godafrid) becomes indistinguishable from long syllable Godfrid "good-peace" in the written record. So why do I say the short syllable is late and refers to the Christian god? Because the standard word for a deity in the classic Germanic onomastic tradition is not "god" but "Ans-/As-/Os-". The elevation of "god" over "Ansuz" is entirely the result of it's application to the Christian god. Indeed the use of Goda- is infrequent prior to the 11th C., and aside from Godefrith, the majority may be explained as cognomen or occupations rather than the usual personal names(Godaman for a monk, Godacild "godchild", Godesceald "gods servant" etc.)
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There are quite a number of German names starting with "Gott-". They were not coined at the same time, some are old, others fairly young, some were translated from other languages or reinterpreted.
Recent coinages are:
GOTTHELF/GOTTHILF ("God, help!")
GOTTLOB ("Praise God!")
FÜRCHTEGOTT ("Fear God!")
and others. They appeared in the 17./18. century in Germany among the so called Pietist,s an evangelical movement within (and sometimes outside) the Protestant church, that put a lot of stress on a personal and somewhat emotional relationship to God. Giving such names to your children would express your wish that they should fear God or praise God or experience His help in their lives.
GOTTFRIED („God“ + „peace“) and GOTTLIEB („God“ + „love“?) are older names and of heathen Germanic origin. The Germanic word for "God" was "gutha", it was neuter by gender and could refer to any pagan deity around. When the Germanic tribes came in touch with Christianity (in times of the migration of nations or later during the mission among the Teutons), the gender was changed to masculine and „God“ of course now was the Christian God. „Friede“ (peace) was now referred to the peace granted by the Christian God.
With GOTTLIEB it is not clear at what time the second part of the name suffered a reinterpretation. Originally it meant „son, descendant“ (from Old High German „leiba“), but was influenced by „lieb“ („dear, beloved“). It may also be a translation of the Greek THEOPHILOS and the Latin „AMADEUS“ (like FÜRCHTEGOTT is a translation of the biblical name TIMOTHEOS). They were both revided during Pietism (see above) and maybe the new understanding of the names didn’t spring up until then.
Recent coinages are:
GOTTHELF/GOTTHILF ("God, help!")
GOTTLOB ("Praise God!")
FÜRCHTEGOTT ("Fear God!")
and others. They appeared in the 17./18. century in Germany among the so called Pietist,s an evangelical movement within (and sometimes outside) the Protestant church, that put a lot of stress on a personal and somewhat emotional relationship to God. Giving such names to your children would express your wish that they should fear God or praise God or experience His help in their lives.
GOTTFRIED („God“ + „peace“) and GOTTLIEB („God“ + „love“?) are older names and of heathen Germanic origin. The Germanic word for "God" was "gutha", it was neuter by gender and could refer to any pagan deity around. When the Germanic tribes came in touch with Christianity (in times of the migration of nations or later during the mission among the Teutons), the gender was changed to masculine and „God“ of course now was the Christian God. „Friede“ (peace) was now referred to the peace granted by the Christian God.
With GOTTLIEB it is not clear at what time the second part of the name suffered a reinterpretation. Originally it meant „son, descendant“ (from Old High German „leiba“), but was influenced by „lieb“ („dear, beloved“). It may also be a translation of the Greek THEOPHILOS and the Latin „AMADEUS“ (like FÜRCHTEGOTT is a translation of the biblical name TIMOTHEOS). They were both revided during Pietism (see above) and maybe the new understanding of the names didn’t spring up until then.
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