Alamanni - Name

Name

According to Asinius Quadratus (quoted in the mid-6th century by Byzantine historian Agathias) their name means "all men". It indicates that they were a conglomeration drawn from various Germanic tribes. This was the derivation of Alemanni used by Edward Gibbon, in his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and by the anonymous contributor of notes assembled from the papers of Nicolas Fréret, published in 1753, who noted that it was the name used by outsiders for those who called themselves the Suevi. This etymology has remained the standard derivation of the term.

Walafrid Strabo, a monk of the Abbey of St. Gall writing in the 9th century, remarked, in discussing the people of Switzerland and the surrounding regions, that only foreigners called them the Alemanni, but that they gave themselves the name of Suevi.

The name of Germany and the German language, in French, Allemagne, allemand, in Portuguese Alemanha, alemão, in Spanish Alemania, alemán, and in Welsh (Yr) Almaen, almaeneg are derived from the name of this early Germanic tribal alliance.

Arabic also designates Germany Almanya, and the German language as ʾAlmaniyya. In Turkish, Germany is Almanya and German is Alman, and in Persian Germany is Almaan, and German is Almaani.