View Message

[Facts] Gozewiena
When I was looking at one of the links for the submitted name Judig, I encountered the name Gozewiena, which I had never heard before. The bearer. an ancestor of Dutch princess Mabel (a sister-in-law of the current king), was Dutch and born in 1806. Does anyone have any idea as to what Gozewiena means?

This message was edited 3/30/2024, 4:16 PM

vote up1vote down

Replies

I suspect it is a rare feminised variant of Goswin. Some common variants in Middle Dutch include Gozewijn, Gosewijn, and Goswijn.
vote up3vote down
To be fair there are a number of different deuterothemes both masculine and feminine which due to regular sound changes become homographs. Of the top of my head -wen, -wine and -wynn all regularly become -wen in Southern England, so that out of context it becomes impossible to tell gender or origin.Also this name looks to have an oblique case marker. This is more common for feminine names which are less often recorded as grammatical subjects, but it can get confusing for people who no longer use case markers (as case markers) in personal names.

This message was edited 4/14/2024, 9:31 PM

vote up2vote down
Thanks!
vote up1vote down