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Only in the southern/upper Germany, where /d/ becomes /t/. There are actually two related words, an adjective (Hold- in English) and a noun (Hyld- [in which y is equivalent to German ü] later Hild-/Held- in English) describing the reciprocal obligations between a lord and a retainer, but also between husband and wife, which encompasses loyalty, kindness, grace etc.. In West Norse however this pair is Holl-/Hyll- (in many dialects the ll is pronounced as in Welsh). In the North then Holta must have another root (e.g. Holt "coppiced wood") or be borrowed from the more southern High German. The Albanian name is more plausibly from High German/Austrian, but could be an unrelated Illyrian name (mandatory during the communist era), or be borrowed from yet another source (few cultures in history use names exclusively or even mostly derived from the local language and most Albanian names before and after the Communist era were either Christian or Muslim religious names—i.e. Greek, Hebrew or Arabic).

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I will also note that although Holta could be short for a High German name such as Holtberga, as a terminal element -holt is masculine (from the adjective), the feminine terminal element (from the noun) is -huldi (modern German Huld — with Huldi/Hyld/Hyll in the North one would expect Hült in High German, which is why Forstemann posits an original Hulthi-, Gothic hulþs, although that is correctly the equivalent of the adjective holt).

This message was edited 7/12/2018, 11:50 PM

Interesting... It could be of Germanic origin. I just found out today, that it is also a farm area in Norway called Holta. Whereas in Albania I am told it is a female first name.

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Thanx
Tom