German names in old German script: Karl

This article is part of the series “Get Familiar With German Given Names In Old German Script” where you will find similar articles about other German names, including name variations and examples out of old documents. In this article we’ll deal with old German script Karl.

Some of the name variations are mainly used in certain German regions so it might well be that you’ll never ever see them in your own research. But according to the “better safe than sorry” it’s not one of the worst ideas to list them all, don’t you think? Please have a look at the list below.

Male variations

• Carl, Karl
• Carolus
• Charles

Female variations

• Carla, Karla
• Carola, Karola
• Caroline, Karolina
• Charlene
• Charlotte

Interesting name website

For more and international variations of Karl resp. Karla please have a look at “Behind the name“, an incredible name website with more than 200k of names all over the world. Please also pay special attention to the very interesting internal links on the right side of their page:

• Expand Name Links
• See All Relations
• Show Family Tree

Examples of old German script: Karl

Now let’s have a look at the snippets I collected for you. Of course I don’t have a snippet for each and every possible variation but I’ll add them when I stumble over them.

Here and there you’ll notice that I meddled with the snippets. I erased all leftovers and cutoffs from other words and letters to make it easier for you to spot the single letters.

We’ll start easy. These are the first five versions of the name “Karl”, all from civil register entries.

• In the first three snippets you see the variation “Carl”. Compare the capital Letter “C” in these snippets with what it’s supposed to look like in the last snippet. You’ll see that the writers didn’t use the “correct” Kurrent letter for the name but the Latin version of the capital “C”. Which is – admit it – easier for us to read anyway…
• The last two snippets show the variation “Karl”, which is more typical for German names. The Kurrent capital “K” can be easily mixed up with the capital “R”. But have a look at a cheat sheet with Kurrent letters and you’ll notice the difference. Sometimes not easy but the more you pay attention to it, the easier it will become.
• The second letter in all five snippets is an “a”. Compare them all to see the similarities (even if it looks like there aren’t any…):  a circle, open on top, then after a small gap ending with a downstroke. That way the “a” often almost looks like two letters – but don’t be fooled. Sometimes the circle doesn’t look roundish any longer, but quite squeezed…
• The third letter is an “r”, a short upstroke, two vertical strokes with a bar connecting them at the bottom, sometimes with a visible swirl.
• The last letter should be fairly easy to read: a lot of us write the lower case “l” in a very similar way.

In these five snippets you see one more “Carl” for comparison, then we have two “Caroline” and two “Charlotte”. Compare the letters with each other to see mainly the similarities – but also the differences due to different writers.

More snippets with other variations are on their way, please check back now and then for new additions. Come time, come snippets…

If you start transcribing several documents done by the same clerk or priest, compile your own cheat sheet based on how this particular scribe writes the letters. Does he use many squirls and squiggles or is his writing plain? Does he make a difference between “n” and “u” (the latter “should” have an arc over it, theoretically…)? Where does he put the dots over the “i”, right above the letter – or two letters later?

Such a special cheat sheet will help you see the writer’s characteristics which may or may not be compliant with how the letters “should” be written.