[47] This name may be, not improbably, one of those that were brought over after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
[48] We also find the other form, Hlud, in Hludes beorh, Hlud's barrow, or grave.
[49] Some further remarks on this Frankish prefix will be found in the succeeding chapter on Italian names.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE GERMAN ORIGIN OF GREAT ITALIANS AS EVIDENCED IN THEIR NAMES.
The successive waves of German invasion that swept over Italy, leaving their record in the name of one of its fairest provinces, while they added a few German words to the language, left a much larger number of German patronymics in the names of its families. The Christian names borne by well-known Italians, such as Alberto, Arnolfo, Bernardo, Carlo, Enrico, Federigo (Frederic), Francesco, Leonardo, Luigi, Ludovico, Mainardo, Odoardo (Edward), Ridolphi, Sinibaldo, Ugo (Hugo or Hugh), Onofrio (Humphrey), all of German origin, sufficiently attest this to have been the case. And I think we shall be warranted in assuming, as in the case of France, that if this be the case with Christian names, it cannot be essentially different with regard to surnames.
But inasmuch as I have not had the same opportunity of collating and examining the mass of Italian surnames that I have had in the case of those of France, I propose to shape the comparison into a rather different form, and, without departing from its etymological purpose, to endeavour to give it something of an ethnical interest as well. This admixture of German blood could not fail to have an influence—and, we can hardly doubt, an invigorating influence—upon the character of the softer and more receptive Italian race. It may not then be without interest—though we need not attach more importance to the result than it deserves—to endeavour to trace the result of that admixture in the names of illustrious Italians. For it is somewhat remarkable how many of the men most distinguished in the council and in the field, in science, literature, and in art, bear names which testify to a German origin. And we are even able, in certain cases, to indicate with a fair amount of probability the particular race of Germans from whom these names may be taken to be derived. The rule laid down by Max Müller (Science of Language) that words in Italian beginning with gua, gue, gui, may be taken to be pretty certainly of German origin, holds good also of Italian names. Now this form of gua, gue, gui represents the prefix of g before w, which was a special characteristic of the Franks, as it is still of their descendants, the French, in such names as Guillaume (=Gwillaume) for Wilhelm or William. In some cases, though more rarely, this prefix of g, in accordance with a High German tendency, becomes a hard c and is represented by q, as in Queringi and perhaps Quirini. Such names then as Gualdo, Guardi, Guido, Guicciardini, Guarnerius, may be taken as certainly of German, and I think, more especially of Frankish origin.
To begin with the names of warriors, the list may well be headed by that of the old hero, Garibaldi. Garibald (gar, spear, and bald, bold) was a well-known Old German name, being borne, among others, by a Duke in Bavaria in the sixth century, by six bishops in the three centuries following, and, what is more to the purpose, by two Lombard kings in Italy. We ourselves have the name in its Saxon form (gor for gar) as Gorbold and Corbould (O.G. Kerbald), and the French have it as Gerbault. "Blind old Dandalo" may also be claimed as German; Dandalo, corresponding with an O.G. Dantulo, being formed as a diminutive from the Old German name Dando. I have elsewhere made the suggestion, which I venture here to reproduce, that Bonaparte may also be a name of German origin, slightly changed to give it a seeming meaning in Italian. The case stands thus. Bonibert and Bonipert are found as Old Frankish names, respectively of the seventh and the ninth centuries. In that part of Italy which was overrun by the Franks, namely at Turin, is to be found the present Italian name Boniperti, which we can hardly doubt to be derived from the Old Frankish Bonipert. Now from this part of Italy came originally also the Bonapartes, and the question is simply this, May not the name Bonaparte originate in an attempt to give something of an Italian meaning to this other name Boniperti, which would convey no sense to an Italian ear? The French still have the Old Frankish name as Bompart (changing n before a labial into m, as they do in Edimbourg for Edinburgh); there was a vice-admiral of that name who proved his courage by engaging, though unsuccessfully, an English frigate of superior force. And we—or at any rate the Americans—have it in a Saxon form as Bonbright (Suffolk Surnames). And very appropriate, if we were to translate it, would be the meaning—bona, a slayer, and bert or pert, illustrious.
The two distinguished families of the Adimari at Florence and of the Grimaldi at Genoa both give evidence of German descent in their names (O.G. Adimar and Grimwald); as regards the latter indeed it is to be traced historically, though the position of the present representative, as ruler of the principality of Monaco and recipient of its doubtful gains, is perhaps hardly in accordance with the higher traditions of his family. The name, Alphonso, of a Duke of Ferrara in the middle ages, was one given also by the Germans to a still more illustrious lineage in Spain. Alphonso is a contraction of the O.G. Adalfuns (adal, noble, funs, eager). The Saxon form of funs being fus, it seems to me that our name Adolphus may be properly Adel-fus, and not a latinization of Adolph. German also are the names of the two great rival factions of the Guelphs and the Ghibellines, Guelph being a Frankish form of Welf or Welp, Eng. whelp, and the Ghibellines deriving from an Old German name Gibilin, traced by Mone to a Burgundian origin. Thus the Guelphs, given originally by Germany to Italy, were afterwards transplanted again to Germany, and thence to England, to rule far above all factions. And again, we find the Bonaparte, whose ancestor was expelled from Italy as a Ghibelline, come forward to pursue on a grander scale his hereditary feud with the Guelphs.