Hello David, a good source for German onomastics resp. onomatology are the following books (all in german, sorry): Konrad Kunze (2004); "dtv-Atlas Namenkunde - Vor- und Familiennamen im deutschen Sprachgebiet"; 5. Auflage; Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, München; ISBN 3-423-03266-9 Rosa und Volker Kohlheim (2005); "Duden: Familiennamen - Herkunft und Bedeutung von 20.000 Nachnamen"; Bibliographisches Institut & F. A. Brockhaus AG, Mannheim; ISBN 3-411-70852-2 I have got other books as well, but they are rather difficult to read for non-native speakers. The both books above include many very useful and interesting pictures and graphics for people interested in the origin, meaning and history of their names. In these books you will find a lot of background how and when surnames and last names (Be careful! Surnames and last names are not the same thing!!!) came up and when the last names stabilised. This depends on geographical considerations as well as whether the town was a city or more rural. For the city of Esslingen I know surnames came up beginning of the 14th century, so around 1300. Weil der Stadt is smaller, so it may have been 25 - 75 years later there. Only research in the local archive there will tell you more. You need to look how the ratio of first names mentioned only : first name + surname mentioned develops over time. It will be difficult indeed to get much further back than where you are today with your research. This is because there are certainly no church records or other systematic records available at 1400. You will need to dig through court records, tax records etc. which do not have genealogy as motivation. So there won't be comments such as "son of XYZ" so often. You also may face the situation, where you need to jump a generation because you don't find enough source materials. I would rather do this in order to investigate for how long a certain clan already lived in that specific town, rather than hoping to be able to trace your ancestor's list back into the middle ages. Data is just too thin there unless you have aristocratic ancestors, where more materials may be available. I have posted the reply to your email to the entire list, as the books above may be interesting for others as well. Kind regards, Thierry   Dr. Thierry P. Dietrich D-61250 Usingen

Hello Thierry and David, I have also found the following very useful, and it is in English: Hans Bahlow, Dictionary of German Names, translated and revised by Edda Gentry, 2nd edition, Madison, Wisconsin: Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies, 2002. I obtained the book at reasonable cost through Amazon. Sincerely, Doug Nicol Norman D. Nicol, Ph.D. Professional Genealogist/Family Historian Specializing in NE Pennsylvania, England, esp. Cornwall, and Scotland