The meaning of the first element was suddenly changed to "royal" in the update from December 2022. This is wildly incorrect and also baseless, as it is not backed up by Förstemann at all!In his "Altdeutsches Namenbuch" (1900), Ernst Förstemann mentions Kunibert in the entry for Cunibert on page 379:https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_doEFT5vbo2kC/page/n210/mode/2up (in German)In turn, Cunibert is listed as belonging to the element CUNI, which Förstemann clearly states means "genus" (which is Latin for "kin, family") on page 378:https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_doEFT5vbo2kC/page/n208/mode/2up (in German)There is absolutely no reference to anything royal whatsoever. In fact, Förstemann never even included a name element in his book that resembles 'kuni' and has a meaning along the lines of "royal".I wonder if the sudden change in meaning might perhaps be due to an automatic update of the name elements (or something like that). In the past, the meaning of "clan, family" used to be assigned to the element 'kuni', but at some point this was transferred to the element 'kunni':https://www.behindthename.com/element/kunni (in English)The entry for this element was created in December 2022 (same time as the name update), but no names were ever connected to it. That doesn't seem right... maybe 'kunni' was meant to be connected to Kunibert during the name update, but something went wrong?Anyway, here are some other sources for the meaning of the first element of Kunibert:• https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunibert (in German) • https://www.nordicnames.de/wiki/Kunibert (in English) • https://nvb.meertens.knaw.nl/verklaring/naam/Kunibert (in Dutch)
The meaning given for Kunibert does not make sense in this entry. I mean: the entry says that the name means "brave and bright", but it should be "bright family". After all, the entry states that the name is derived from /kuni/ "clan, family" and /beraht/ "bright". None of those elements support the "brave" part of the meaning. Besides, "brave" in ancient Germanic is /bald/, so a Germanic given name meaning "brave and bright" would be something along the lines of Baldbert, instead of Kunibert. [noted -ed]
The first element is actually Gothic 'kuni' ('chunni' in Old High German) "family, descent, stock, tribe." It is common that people confuse it with 'cônja' ('kuoni' in Old High German) "brave" - but the correct element here really is 'kuni', not 'kuoni.' [noted -ed]
In his "Altdeutsches Namenbuch" (1900), Ernst Förstemann mentions Kunibert in the entry for Cunibert on page 379:
https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_doEFT5vbo2kC/page/n210/mode/2up (in German)
In turn, Cunibert is listed as belonging to the element CUNI, which Förstemann clearly states means "genus" (which is Latin for "kin, family") on page 378:
https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_doEFT5vbo2kC/page/n208/mode/2up (in German)
There is absolutely no reference to anything royal whatsoever. In fact, Förstemann never even included a name element in his book that resembles 'kuni' and has a meaning along the lines of "royal".
I wonder if the sudden change in meaning might perhaps be due to an automatic update of the name elements (or something like that). In the past, the meaning of "clan, family" used to be assigned to the element 'kuni', but at some point this was transferred to the element 'kunni':
https://www.behindthename.com/element/kunni (in English)
The entry for this element was created in December 2022 (same time as the name update), but no names were ever connected to it. That doesn't seem right... maybe 'kunni' was meant to be connected to Kunibert during the name update, but something went wrong?
Anyway, here are some other sources for the meaning of the first element of Kunibert:
• https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunibert (in German)
• https://www.nordicnames.de/wiki/Kunibert (in English)
• https://nvb.meertens.knaw.nl/verklaring/naam/Kunibert (in Dutch)