Oberösterreichischer Familiennamen-Atlas. Namen und Berufe

In recent years, family name geography as part of the linguistic field of onomastics has experienced a considerable boom, firstly in academic form (such as the DFA, the German Family Name Atlas, Mainz/Freiburg), and secondly service providers such as Geogen now provide tools with which the layman can pursue pseudo-academic work in this field of knowledge. In connexion with these developments various projects have also been initiated in Austria. As far as synchronic and diachronic family name research in Austria as a whole is concerned, until very recently there has only been peripheral linguistic analysis. In Upper Austria linguistic and dialectological research has had a long tradition, family names, however, have not been a central field of research so far. The scope of the "Upper Austrian Family Name Atlas. Names and Professions" is to lay the foundation for the Upper Austrian family name research, focussing on family names based on names of professions, documented in the 19th century. More than 500 names were selected for analysis and are presented in extensively commented maps, as part of the results of comprehensive research based on the Upper Austrian Land Register of 1827. The research method is based on the model of the German Family Name Atlas (DFA), the most important of its kind in the German speaking area. It is the declared intention of the publication to present family name geography in a manner that is also accessible to the population while keeping its main focus on an academic approach and to demonstrate its value to society. Upper Austria is part of the Bavarian dialect region together with the largest part of Austria, excluding Vorarlberg. It comprises a number of sub-regions which are mapped by the distribution of family names. In addition the family names reflect the regional history and migration movements of the past centuries. Upper Austria (except for the Lower Mühlviertel) was already part of historical Bavaria between Lech and Enns, currently it stretches along the Danube between Inn and Enns. The publication presents family names that are related to a profession ("X exercises the function Y in his home district") and occur in appellatives. The family names are shown in maps. All maps are accompanied by explanatory texts based on general and specific onomatological and dialectological literature. Moreover references regarding etymology, variations, formation and related names are given. The structure is subject-based (eg medicine, music, commerce,).