[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] First name Reginald

[Günther Böhm]

Am 22.03.2012 13:33, schrieb Eduardo Kommers:
> I would like to know your opinion about the possible origin of the first
> name Reginald ? (Reginald Hubert born 1829 - son of Jacob and Johanna
> Hubert)

Sorry Gary,
I imagined that Eduardo asked for the actual reason to choose this given name.
We should consider that in 1829 as much as no one knew the linguistic [i.e. germanic] origin of a given name. The 
motivations were either religious or dynastic which depended on the actual authority of the local priest and landlord. 
In some cases it was familial (name of grandfather, father or godfather). Admittedly, Reginald was an old high German 
name, but it was transported and kept alive or revitalized as a saint's name. In the eighten-fiftees and later, 
literature became a source of given names. So in my family the name Emil originated in the famous educational novel 
"Emile" by Jean Jacques ROUSSEAU and symbolized a growing resistance against the catholic clerus. En passant, its 
religous origin was the late Roman martyr AEMILIUS of Carthage who again was a member of the gens Aemilia, one of the 
most ancient patrician houses at Rome - which of course was not considered by most of the parents. But the linguistic 
source of this Roman name (from Greek Αιμυλος = smart, crafty) was absolutely disregarded.

Günther