An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Name

by Friedrich Kluge

Name, masculine, ‘name,’ from the equivalent Middle High German name, Old High German namo, masculine. This word, to which there are corresponding terms in all the Teutonic and Aryan languages, is of the greatest antiquity, and is most widely diffused. Compare Old Saxon namo, Dutch naam, Anglo-Saxon nǫma, nama, masculine, English name; Gothic namô, neuter Old Icelandic nafn, neuter (for namn), ‘name’; equivalent to the corresponding Sanscrit nãman-, Greek ὄ-νουα, Latin nômen, Old Slovenian imę, neuter (from *ĭn-men, *n-men), Prussian emmens, Old Irish ainm. The Aryan primitive form may have been nō̆men-. Aryan nômen is indicated by Middle High German bennomen and Dutch noemen, ‘to name,’ yet the Old Slovenian and Old Irish words present some phonetic difficulties. Formerly Greek ὄνομα and Latin nômen were derived from the root γνω-, gnô-, ‘to recognise’ compare English to know, see kennen), so that Aryan nō̆men would represent gnômen, and have originally signified ‘means of recognition’; this view wants phonetic confirmation. Others derive Name from the root nem in nehmen, so that the word would mean ‘that which is accepted,’ which is likewise improbable; see further nennen and nämlich.