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Help[Facts] Various Names from East Germany
Does anyone have any idea as to some of these names: Erkmons, Asmys, Aduzze, they are all names of my husbands ancestors from East Prussia, and I cant find any translation of them either in German or Lithuanian
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Aduzze
Aduzze was a fairly common variant of Aduze.
Aduze and the diminutive forms Aduzele, Aduzike and Aduzyte are mentioned in Friedrich Kurschat's 1870/1883 German-Lithuanian dictionary "Wörterbuch der Littauischen Sprache" (there is a digitalized version online if you like to check).
Unfortunately, Kurschat doesn't mention the meaning of the name, except for stating that Aduzele, Aduzike and Aduzyte mean "little Aduze" (and thus confirming their diminutive status).
19th-/20th-century linguist Aleksandras Kuršaitis (also known as Alexander Kurschat) mentions Aduze as well. He considers this name a diminutive of Adele, Adelis, etc.
Less reliable but equally plausible and certainly worth further investigation: some (amateur ?) genealogists* have put forth the theory that Aduze/Aduzze might have been a diminutive of names beginning with the Germanic element "adal" in general (including but not limited to Adele). From what I have read, they noticed that one and the same woman was occasionally listed as Aduze/Aduzze/etc. in one document and as Adele in others - while other Aduzzes/Aduzes appeared as Adelheid or Ada or Adelinde or Adelina, etc. respectively.
* No, not me ;)
Aduzze was a fairly common variant of Aduze.
Aduze and the diminutive forms Aduzele, Aduzike and Aduzyte are mentioned in Friedrich Kurschat's 1870/1883 German-Lithuanian dictionary "Wörterbuch der Littauischen Sprache" (there is a digitalized version online if you like to check).
Unfortunately, Kurschat doesn't mention the meaning of the name, except for stating that Aduzele, Aduzike and Aduzyte mean "little Aduze" (and thus confirming their diminutive status).
19th-/20th-century linguist Aleksandras Kuršaitis (also known as Alexander Kurschat) mentions Aduze as well. He considers this name a diminutive of Adele, Adelis, etc.
Less reliable but equally plausible and certainly worth further investigation: some (amateur ?) genealogists* have put forth the theory that Aduze/Aduzze might have been a diminutive of names beginning with the Germanic element "adal" in general (including but not limited to Adele). From what I have read, they noticed that one and the same woman was occasionally listed as Aduze/Aduzze/etc. in one document and as Adele in others - while other Aduzzes/Aduzes appeared as Adelheid or Ada or Adelinde or Adelina, etc. respectively.
* No, not me ;)
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I can't say anything about Erkmons or Aduzze, but I'm guessing that Asmys may be a variant of Asmus, which comes from Erasmus (meaning "beloved"). Erasmus is Greek in origin but, so far as I can tell, Asmus and its many variants are largely German in usage.
I did find one thing on Aduzze; apparently it occurs in the book "Coming of Age in War - Torn Lithuania and Germany" By George P. Blum, where it's the given name of the author's mother's maternal grandmother. About the names, the author writes, "It is interesting that the names of all these maternal ancestors have a Lithuanian ring, suggesting that they were Germans who lived in a predominantly Lithuanian area of East Prussia and therefore used Lithuanized German names."
I did find one thing on Aduzze; apparently it occurs in the book "Coming of Age in War - Torn Lithuania and Germany" By George P. Blum, where it's the given name of the author's mother's maternal grandmother. About the names, the author writes, "It is interesting that the names of all these maternal ancestors have a Lithuanian ring, suggesting that they were Germans who lived in a predominantly Lithuanian area of East Prussia and therefore used Lithuanized German names."
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Judging from the ending, the names are definitly Baltic (Lithuanian, Latvian, or from the now extinct Prussian language). However, this all the help I can give you.
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