Hello Barb, According to Ernest Thode's "German-English Genealogical Dictionary", Ludovicus is a male given name, a form of Ludwig. Ludwig is a form of Louis or Lewis. Larry ----Original Message---- From: baschr@yahoo.com (Barbara Schroy) Date: Thu, Jul 31, 2003, 11:13am (EDT-3) To: HESSE-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [HESSE] German Given Names I am trying to read LDS files, old German church records. One given name has me stumped. It is in records around 1760's and the name looks like Ludovius or Lectovius maybe. Has anyone ever heard of a first name for a man anything like that in that time period? Barb