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ArchivesRe: Why so many JOHANNs in the Bach family?
in reply to a message by Andy ;—)
It was not completely unusual among some European families that used two or three names or a compound name to use the same "filler" name as familiar tradition.
In English the first name is usually the main name, but this use is not universal.
In French, the concept of "middle name" is inexistant as in many languages (Spanish, e.g.). In case of several names, it can be a compound name or a set of names, where the main name is usually the first, but not necessarily: Aurore Dupin, aka George Sand (in fact, Amandine Aurore Lucile Dupin).
In German the use of the second name as main name was usual: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (in fact, Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgang Theophilus Mozart), Johann Christoph Friedrich Schiller, Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht, Wilhelm Richard Wagner...
So Bach brothers probably were known by their second name (Rudolph, Sebastian, Christoph...).
Lumia
http://onomastica.mailcatala.com
In English the first name is usually the main name, but this use is not universal.
In French, the concept of "middle name" is inexistant as in many languages (Spanish, e.g.). In case of several names, it can be a compound name or a set of names, where the main name is usually the first, but not necessarily: Aurore Dupin, aka George Sand (in fact, Amandine Aurore Lucile Dupin).
In German the use of the second name as main name was usual: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (in fact, Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgang Theophilus Mozart), Johann Christoph Friedrich Schiller, Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht, Wilhelm Richard Wagner...
So Bach brothers probably were known by their second name (Rudolph, Sebastian, Christoph...).
Lumia
http://onomastica.mailcatala.com
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Replies
In some parts of India (like Bengal), people usually go by a name other than their formal name. I know a person whose name is Abul K. Azad (never asked him what the K. was), but he usually signs off as Ratan except in official setting. A lady called Aparimita Lahiri introduces herself as Sona.
Is this common elsewhere: this official/personal distinction in usage of names?
In Bengal, actually, things can be more complex in a family setting: almost everyone calls everyone close by pet names or relationship terms. My father, my mother, my father's sister, my sister, my cousin, and my late grandmother all call(ed) me differently. That is a different phenomenon, though one that I haven't seen (in this magnitude) commonly outside this culture either.
Is this common elsewhere: this official/personal distinction in usage of names?
In Bengal, actually, things can be more complex in a family setting: almost everyone calls everyone close by pet names or relationship terms. My father, my mother, my father's sister, my sister, my cousin, and my late grandmother all call(ed) me differently. That is a different phenomenon, though one that I haven't seen (in this magnitude) commonly outside this culture either.
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My husband was at university in England once with a man from Shanghai - since he wrote his surname first and then his given name, which confused the Brits, he was known interchangeably as Chun Hua and Hua Chun. This bothered him not at all, because in his family (or perhaps his country - I could never quite nail him down on that!) the same thing happened as in yours: the name he was called depended on who was doing the calling.
China is so vast that I wouldn't care to generalise about it, but if you don't mind anecdotal evidence ...
China is so vast that I wouldn't care to generalise about it, but if you don't mind anecdotal evidence ...
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