Urte

Origin

Über die Herkunft und Bedeutung des Vornamens Urte wurde noch im Jahr 1974 gesagt, beides sei ungeklärt. Anfang der 1980er-Jahre allerdings fanden diesbezüglich verhältnismäßig umfangreiche Untersuchungen statt: Man stellte zunächst fest, dass der Name wahrscheinlich erst im 20. Jahrhundert in Deutschland gebräuchlich geworden sei. Regarding the origin and meaning of the first name Urte, it was still stated in 1974 that both were unresolved. At the beginning of the 1980s, however, relatively extensive investigations took place on this matter: it was first established that the name had probably only become common in Germany in the 20th century. Furthermore, the approach of connecting Urte with the Germanic Urd 'that which has become, that which is past', the name of a Norn in Old Norse mythology, was abandoned, as no evidence for this could be produced. It results, however, from Herbert Heinrich's and Ruth Küfner's booklet Gefragte Vornamen of 1964, that Urte became known in Germany through Hermann Sudermann's tale Jons und Erdme. On the basis of the fact that Sudermann was East Prussian, it is concluded that Urte could be of Lithuanian or Latvian origin, or else a Baltic short form of a name that has been borrowed from German.

Translated by Arcanes from the German Wiktionary, entry “Urte”, text and translation under CC BY-SA 4.0.