Your brief remarks on first name acquisition in Prussia prior to 1850 raise some critical questions. Did the state give names or were parents free to choose names? Naming a child after a monarch was common in some European countries such as Bohemia and would be in the spirit of honorific surnames such Baron, Prinz or Graf. Biblical names from the New Testament were also common, often drawn from restrictive name lists. Some choices such as Mary Magdalena, however, do appear astonishing, especially when the father was a community slaughterer well-versed in Jewish ritual. Did other German principalities follow the first name regulations of Prussia?

Paul King
Jerusalem