The Wendish Research Exchange - Wenzel, Walter: Links Between Slav Personal Names and Place Names in Lower Lusatia

Lětopis Abstract 2013 1: Wenzel, Walter: Links Between Slav Personal Names and Place Names in Lower Lusatia

A major problem of research into Slav place names is that in a number of cases it is difficult to decide whether the relevant place name is derived from a common noun or from a personal name. This applies particularly to many Germanized place names ending in -itz and -witz, which can stem both from a common noun ending in -ica or -ovica or from a family name, here a patronymic, ending in -ici or -ovici, as, for example, Rakwitz, which could derive from Rakovica ‘Settlement on the Krebsbach’ or Rakovici ‘People of Rak.’ This applies similarly to names ending in -ov and -in. In a name landscape such as Lower Lusatia, where personal names are investigated in the whole area from numerous historical sources, when the personal name assumed to be in the place name also occurs in the immediate vicinity as a surname, it is possible to conclude with great certainty that the name is derived from a family name.