-au (from Slavic suffix -ov, -ów). Examples: village and town names' suffixes on formerPolabian Slavs territories:Lübbenau,Plau. See also: German naming convention of Polish town names duringWorld War II as an analogy.[1]
-au,-aue (related to rivers or water), see German wordsAu or Aue. This meaning of-au (earlier spellingow,owe,ouwe) describes settlements by streams and rivers. Examples:Passau, the townAue, rivers named Aue.
-ing or-ingen, -ungen, -ung, -ens (meaning "descendants of", used with a personal name as the first part; cf. Englishing as inReading). Examples:Göttingen,Esslingen,Straubing,Esens.
Prefixes can be used to distinguish nearby settlements with an otherwise same name. They can be attached or stand alone. Both settlements that are to be distinguished can have opposing prefixes (e.g.Niederschönhausen andHohenschönhausen), but it is also common to attach the prefix only to one of them (e.g.Stettin andNeustettin).
Wendisch-,Windisch- (Slovene) ("Wendish") . Examples:Wendisch Baggendorf,Windischgarsten. This sometimes refers (particularly in present and former Austrian territories) to the original language of the inhabitants. Other examples: Böhmisch Krummau (Česky Krumlov), Unter-Deutschau (Nemška Loka).
Prefixes can also have a descriptive character. Examples areLichten- orLichter- ("open range", e.g.Lichtenhagen),Schön- orSchöne- ("nice", e.g.Schönwalde),Grün- orGrüne- ("green", e.g.Grunwald).
Prefixes can also be used to indicate an (earlier) possession of the site. Examples areKirch- ("ecclesial possession", e.g.Kirch Jesar),Bischofs- ("a bishop's possession", e.g.Bischofswerda),Grafen- ("a count's possession", e.g.Grafenwöhr),Königs- ("the king's", e.g.Königs Wusterhausen,Königsberg),Kron- (possession of the crown, e.g.Kronstadt,Rügenwalde (once belonging to theprinces of Rügen).
The prefixBad ("bath") indicates the place is an officially acknowledged spa. See Bad Kissingen, Bad Pyrmont, etc. Some places, like Aachen, do not use it although they could.
Often the name of the village founder or of the first settler constitute the first part of the place name (e.g.Oettingen, the founder was Otto;Gerolfingen, the founder was Gerolf,Rappoltsweiler, the founder was Ratbald or Ratbert). Mostly in the formerOstsiedlung area, the locator's name was sometimes included as the first part of the name (e.g.Hanshagen, the locator was Hans).
Some settlements have the name of a river or the province attached to their name to distinguish it from an (even distant) one carrying the same name. The distinguishing word can be added in parentheses, or connected to the name with prepositionsan der/am ("at"),ob der ("upon"),auf ("on") orin/im ("in"), or separated by a slash. Examples are:
Sometimes, a descriptive word is attached to a new settlement, that was once budding of another one and except for the attached word has the same name.
(...)-Siedlung ("settlement")
(...)-Hof ("farm"), sometimes carrying an additional Roman number (e.g.Sanz Hof IV)
The old GermanicGaue districts were established by Charlemagne; earlier derivations wereGowe" and "Gouwe. One can still find the oldGouwe (Gau) for example in Haspengouw (Dutch name ofHesbaye) or Gäu as inAllgäu.
Celtic names, used inprehistoric times in the southern and western parts of the German language area. Examples:Mainz (from LatinMoguntiacum, derived from a Celtic name),Remagen (from CelticRigomagos ("king's field"), Latinized asRigomagus),Wien (Vienna) (from CelticWindobona ("fair bottom country") [Latinized asVindobona] or CelticWedunia ("forest brook") [Latinized asVedunia]),Zürich (from the Celtic wordturicon, derived fromturus; the old name of the town in its Romanized form wasTuricum.)
fromclassical times, when the southern and western parts of the German language area belonged to theRoman Empire. Examples:Koblenz (fromConfluentes "joining rivers"),Köln (Cologne) (fromColonia "colony"),Aachen (fromAquae "springs"),Augsburg andAugst (fromAugusta "city ofAugustus" and the Germanic suffix-burg).
frommedieval times, when Latin was the language of church and administration. Examples:München (Munich) (frommonachus, "monk", ultimately from Greek μοναχός -monachos),Münster (frommonasterium, "monastery", ultimately from Greek μοναστήριον -monastērion),Neumünster,Fraumünster,Grossmünster. See alsominster.
Slavic names: Prior to the medievalOstsiedlung,Slavic languages likePolabian,Sorbian,Pomeranian, andSlovenian were spoken in the eastern parts of theHoly Roman Empire. The German settlers and administration in many cases adopted existingWendish placenames, for exampleRostock (from Old Polabianrostok, "river fork"),Dresden (from SorbianDrežďany), andBerlin (possibly from a Polabian word meaning "Swamp"). For the same reason, many German placenames ending in-anz (e.g.Ummanz),-gard (e.g.Burg Stargard),-gast (e.g.Wolgast),-itz (e.g.Lancken-Granitz),-ow (e.g.Gützkow), and-vitz or-witz (e.g.Malschwitz) have Slavic roots. Due to spelling and pronunciation changes over the centuries, the original Wendish term in most cases is not preserved. Also, some placenames combine a German with a Wendish term (e.g.Altentreptow). The German suffix-au can be related to the Slavic-ow and-ov when derived from the Old German spelling (u= w =double u; e.g.Prenzlau was earlier spelledPrenzlow).
Scandinavian names: The region ofSouthern Schleswig was part ofDuchy of Schleswig on the Jutland peninsula, which belonged to the Crown of Denmark until Prussia and Austria declared war on Denmark in 1864, leading to dozens of placenames of Danish origin, except in North Frisia and the southernmost area. Typical Scandinavian endings include -by, -bøl, -trup, -lund, -ved, -toft (in German form: -by, -büll, -trup, -lund, -witt, -toft). In some cases the South Jutlandic form has been eradicated from the Standard Danish variety of the name, but is still visible in the Germanised version:[3]
Standard Danish
South Jutlandic
German
Meden
Mejn
Meyn
Bilskov
Bilskau
Billschau
Agtrup
Achtrup
Achtrup
Jydbæk
Jybæk
Jübek
Sønderup
Synnerup
Sünderup
In many other cases the Germanised versions are out ofetymological context. Examples include the Danish ending-næs (peninsula) being replaced by-nitz, an unrelated Slavic ending which is common in eastern Germany. Such arbitrary translations were often made by the central Prussian government after the whole of Slesvig was ceded toPrussia after thewar of 1864.
The South Jutlandic name of the town ofSchleswig (Slesvig), from which the region derives its name, wasSljasvig with the stress on the second syllable.
