The names of saints in particular

Firstly, it should be noted that, with this name type, the proportion of female saints is significantly higher than with female names in place names generally.

Next to Anna,²⁴ Katharina,²⁵ Klara,²⁶ and Margarethe,²⁷ Maria is the name most often used,²⁸ appearing in approximately 30 names. Names of male saints

23 For example, Münster-Dom is a district of Münster named after Münster cathedral.

24 In Sankt Annen in the district of Osnabrück, † Annenhusen close to Peckelsheim in the district of Höxter, and St. Annen in the district of Dithmarschen.

25 In Kathrinhagen in the district of Schaumburg and Katharinenheerd in the district of Nordfries-land.

26 In Klarenberg, city of Dortmund.

27 In Margarethenkoog in the district of Nordfriesland and Sankt Margarethen in the district of Steinburg.

28 These are: Heiligenberg in the district of Diepholz (in older records as Mons sanctae Mariae);

Marienwehr in the district of Emden; Mariaspring in the district of Göttingen; Mariengarten in the district of Göttingen; Frenswegen in the district of Grafschaft Bentheim (older nemus beate Marie and St. Marienwolde); Marienau in the district of Hameln-Pyrmont; Mariensee in the region of Hannover; Marienwerder in the region of Hannover; Marienberg in the district of Helmstedt; Marienthal in the district of Helmstedt; Marienhagen in the district of Hildes-heim; Marienburg in the district of HildesHildes-heim; Marienrode in the district of HildesHildes-heim;

Marienchor in the district of Leer; Marienthal in the district of Lüneburg; Marienau in the district of Lüneburg; Scharnebeck in the district of Lüneburg (older as in rivo St. Mariae quod vulgo dicitur Scerembeke); Marienhafe in the district of Norden; Marienstein in the

are naturally more numerous in this group as well. Although numerous in the sense that the number of individual names is higher, concerning absolute frequency, Maria is by far the most often applied name. None of the male names appears as often as Maria does. The most frequent male saints’ name is Georg, sometimes in its Low German variation Jürgen.²⁹ Peter,³⁰ Johannes³¹ and Michael³² also feature somewhat frequently. All others can only be found once or twice in place names. These are Andreas (Sankt Andreasberg in the district of Goslar), Antonius (Tönnieshof in the district of Northeim; Tönnies-häuschen in the district of Warendorf), Appollonius (Plönjeshausen in the district of Rotenburg), Cyriacus († St. Cyriacus in the city of Braunschweig), Crispin (Schützenhof in the district of Osnabrück, which for some time was named Crispinsburg after the secondary patron of the cathedral; cf. GOV Osnabrück Nr. 1292), Dionysius (Sankt Dionys in the district of Lüneburg), Jakob (Jakobsberg in the district of Höxter), Jodocus (Sankt Joost in the district of Cuxhaven; Sankt Joost in the district of Friesland), Leonhard (†

Sankt Leonhard in the city of Braunschweig; and temporarily Sankt Peterskoog in the district of Nordfriesland, named Leonhardskoog after Saint Leonhard for some time, cf. LAUR 1992: 564), maybe Magnus (in Sankt Magnus which belongs to the city of Bremen nowadays; cf. GOV Bremen Nr. 214),³³ Markus (Marx in the district of Wittmund), Martin († Mertesloh in the district of Minden-Lübbecke), Mauritius ~ Mauritz (Moritzberg in the district of Hildes-heim, as well as Sankt Mauritz close to Münster, which 1142: in suburbio maioris ecclesie situs est, WUB II, Nr. 240), Nikolaus (Nikolausberg in the

district of Northeim; Hude in the district of Oldenburg (older as rubus sanctae Mariae);

Marienkamp in the district of Wittmund; Marienmünster in the district of Höxter; Marienloh in the district of Paderborn; † Marienau in the district of Dithmarschen; Marienwohlde in the district of Lauenburg; † Marientempel in the district of Ostholstein; † Marienfeld in the district of Plön; † Marienhude in the district of Stormarn. There are other names of which the eponym is unclear or the names refer to a monastery or cloister without an adjecent settlement.

29 In Georgswerder in the city of Hamburg; the borough of Sankt Georg, the name of which derives from the St. Georgs leprosarium founded around 1200 (and therefore is not a genuine place name); Sankt Georgiwold in the district of Aurich; Sankt Jürgen in the district of Osterholz; Jürgensby in the district of Flensburg; Jürgensgaard (also originally a leprosarium) in the district of Flensburg; St. Georgsberg in the district of Lauenburg; † Jürgensburg in the district of Schleswig; Sankt Jürgen in the district of Schleswig.

30 † Petershof in the district of Hameln-Pyrmont; Petershagen in the district of Minden-Lübbecke;

Sankt Peter in the district of Nordfriesland; Sankt Peterskoog in the district of Nordfriesland (also recorded as Leonhardskoog for some time); † St. Peterswarf in the district of Dith-marschen.

31 Sankt Johanniskoog in the district of Nordfriesland; † St. Johannis in the district of Nord-friesland; † Johannisborn in the district of Ostholstein.

32 Michaelstein in the district of Goslar; † Michaelshagen in the district of Osterode; St. Mi-chaelisdonn in the district of Dithmarschen.

33 Since no earlier records could be found it is included, but not without reservations.

district of Göttingen), Pantaleon († Pentling in the district of Soest),³⁴ Viktor (Victorbur in the district of Aurich) and Vitus (Sankt Vit in the district of Gütersloh; † Vitho in the district of Nordfriesland). Concerning to other names like Liudger (situated in † Ludgerskerk which was lost in the Dollart) or Udal-ricus (Ulrichshagen in the district of Holzminden, for which KRUMWIEDE

1960–1988: II, 119 deduces a patrocynium for Ulrich on the basis of the place name) it is debatable, or at least somewhat unsafe, whether they constituted a patrociny place name. It is also possible that the personal name of somebody who was named after a saint is the actual referent. Three place names are special cases. Mönkhof in the district of Lübeck was earlier on named after the Heilig-Geist-Hospital (a local hospital; cf. 1316: curiam Sancti Spiritus;

LAUR 1992: 564) and therefore did not bear the name of a saint. The syntagmatic determiner in † Unserer-lieben-Frauen-Hove near Hemme in the district of Dithmarschen refers to Maria. For Heiligenberg (1198: Sanctus mons; WUB II, Nr. 575) in the district of Höxter, the saint in question is St.

Michael. The plural determiner in Heiligenkirchen in the district of Lippe refers to the patrocynium Cosmas and Damian.

Because of the saint in the place name I will go into more detail about Sankt Hülfe in the district of Diepholz. Originally, the place was called Nutlo. This original name was by and by superseded by the name of the patrocynium belonging to a chapel that was erected at Nutlo in the 14^th century and over time became a popular place of pilgrimage (cf. e.g. 1396: Zunte Hulpe to Nutlo, GOV Hoya Nr. 1841). The patron of this chapel is Sankt Hülfe, a saint that cannot be found in the catholic canon. She is in fact a mythological saint of popular belief who was never formally canonized. The Church tolerated her cult anyway. Legend has it that she was the daughter of a pagan Portuguese king. In order to avoid marriage with a pagan duke, she got engaged with Jesus and prayed for a beard to distort her face. After her plea was granted, her father ordered her to be crucified. Other than the saint described thus far, Sankt Hülfe is a non-real, legendary figure. In the known figurative depiction of her, she is seen as a crucified, crowned, bearded and wearing a long garment. HERMANN GROTEFEND believes that these pictures are actually older depictions of the vested and bearded Jesus Christ and did not show a woman (1891: 86). They were combined with legends of Wilgefortis ~ Liberata or Sankt Kümmernis (cf. also KRUMWIEDE 1960–1988: II, 165, where additional literature can be found) only at a later date. It is to be noted that Sankt Hülfe was popular with the people in Northern Germany until the 18^th century,

34 The settlement was in possession of the monastery St. Pantaleon of Cologne, where the name derives from. Thus, it is not a genuine patrociny place name but named after its proprietors.

The suffix -ing here is a possessive suffix which refers to the inhabitants or property of St.

Pantaleon.

pendent of the origins³⁵ of such of a saint. Furthermore, she was the patron of the travelling people (cf. SCHUBERT 1995: 148). Patrocynia are detected in Braunschweig, Bremen, Dorstadt, Hildesheim, Sankt Hülfe, Lüdingworth and Oldenburg. With the exception of the chapel patrocynium in Sankt Hülfe, these are all altar patrocynia. Church patrocynia do not exist. These findings show how unusual the appearance of the name of a popular saint in a place name really is.