About renaissance (german) names
Unstandardized spelling is the signature, so "Margreth von Zÿmmern" and "Jodocus Rotenstain" read exactly as a sixteenth century town clerk might have scratched them, while "Gretken Wirtz" shows the diminutive forms common in records of women. These fit Reformation dramas, imperial free city intrigue, and printer's workshop subplots. Keep the odd spellings, they are the point.
How renaissance (german) names are built
This set uses gender-specific surname banks. A male pull joins one of 211 given names to one of 761 masculine-slot surnames; a female pull joins one of 275 given names to one of 408 feminine-slot surnames. So a man gets a male given name plus a masculine-slot surname (Friedrich Denkingen, Arnt Bettinger) and a woman a female given name plus a feminine-slot surname (Chatrine Mutzhasen).
Friedrich Denkingen
male given name from the 211-entry bank plus a surname from the 761-entry masculine slot
Chatrine Mutzhasen
female given name from the 275-entry bank plus a surname from the 408-entry feminine slot
Arnt Bettinger
male given name plus a 761-entry-slot surname
Naming notes
Unlike the shared-surname sets, both the given and surname slots are split by gender, and the masculine surname bank is nearly twice the feminine one (761 against 408), so men's surnames vary more. The set carries an early-modern German label, and its period spellings are preserved from the source data.
Questions about renaissance (german) names
- Why are men's and women's surname banks separate?
- The set splits surnames into a 761-entry masculine slot and a 408-entry feminine slot, so a male and a female result draw family names from different banks.
- What period label do these fit?
- A Renaissance and Reformation-era German label, with the period spellings preserved from the source data.
- Which slot is larger?
- The masculine surname slot at 761 entries is almost twice the 408-entry feminine slot, so men's surnames vary more before repeating.