Submitted Name Revision History

In medieval German literature, Terramer is the name of a heathen king from the epic poem Willehalm (13th century) written by the German poet Wolfram von Eschenbach (died around 1220). He was based on Desramé, a Saracen king from the French epic poem Aliscans (12th century), which was the main source of inspiration for Willehalm.

The author likely altered the name in order to make it more palatable for a German audience, as the original name might have reminded them of medieval German des rame(n) meaning "of the frame". At the same time, he must have wanted to remain faithful to the source material and preserve the original meaning of the name, because it is probably no coincidence that Terramer closely resembles the Old French verb deramer meaning "to debranch, to prune, to trim (off)" as well as "to shed (off)". Also compare modern Spanish derramar or derramare (also derramaré) meaning "to spill, to leak" as well as "to shed".

However, it must be said that we cannot rule out the possibility that the author decided to make up a brand new name for the king instead: completely unrelated, but yet somewhat resemblant of the original name. In that case, Terramer might possibly be a combination of Latin terra meaning "earth" and Middle French mer meaning "sea".