Garibald

I would like to point out that Förstemann keeps Garibald and Gerbald entirely separate in his "Altdeutsches Namenbuch" (1900). In other words: he does not necessarily think that they are the same name.

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Garibald is listed under the element GARVA ("paratus, promptus" i.e. "prepared, ready"), where the name has its own entry on page 602. You will see that there is no mention of Gerbald there:

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https://archive.org/details/altdeutschesnam00seelgoog/page/n313/mode/2up (in German)

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Gerbald is listed under the element GAIRU ("hasta" i.e. "spear"), where the name appears in the entry for Gairebald on page 575. You will see that there is no mention of Garibald there:

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https://archive.org/details/altdeutschesnam00seelgoog/page/n301/mode/2up (in German)

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However, on page 601, Förstemann does make the general statement that the elements GAIRU and GARVA can get mixed up with each other here and there:

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"Hie und da mag GAIRU und GARVA sich vermengt haben; wo GARVA den zweiten teil bildet, ist es zuweilen von HARJA schwer zu scheiden."

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So, technically, there can indeed be cases where Garibald and Gerbald are confused with each other... or even intended or thought to be the same name. These sources are already an example of that:

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• https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garibald (in German)
• https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garibaldo_(nome) (in Italian)

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All in all, I think it would be sensible to put GARVA in the entry for Garibald and mention that the name often gets confused with Gerbald (and vice versa).

The first element of this name is derived from Gothic gairu (gêr in Old High German) "spear", or from garva (garo in Old High German, and gearu in Anglo-Saxon) "ready, prepared." The second element is derived from Old High German bald "bold, brave."

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(Information from name #11628 originally submitted by user Lucille)