The Alemanni

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07.

Alemanni

Germanic tribe, a splinter group of the Suebi. The Alemanni may have been a confederation of smaller tribes. First mentioned (A.D. 213) as unsuccessfully assaulting the Romans between the Elbe and the Danube, they later settled (3d cent.) in upper Italy. By the 5th cent. they occupied territories on both sides of the Rhine south of its junction with the Main (present Alsace, Baden, and NE Switzerland). Their westward expansion brought them into conflict with the Franks, whose king Clovis I defeated them in 496. In 505 he forced them to retire into Rhaetia, and in 536 they passed under Frankish rule. By the 7th cent. they had accepted Christianity. Swabia is also known as Alamannia, and the High German dialects of SW Germany and Switzerland are called Alemannic. In French speech the name Allemands came to signify all Germans.

Hueglin is believed to be an Alemannic name that has, for centuries, been used in parts of Germany, France and Switzerland as both a Christian name, and a surname.

One French reference dealing, in part, with patronyms, states:" Dans le domaine des patronymes, on saura que … HÜGELE,HIGELE, et HÜGLIN sont trois manières d’écrire le nom de quelqu’un qui habite à côté ou sur une colline".

"That is to say HÜGELE, HIGELE, and HÜGLIN are three manners of writing the name of somebody who lives at the side of or on a hill;" http://fgha.fr/.

One of the earliest use of the name I have found was around 1354 by the Ritter Hüglin von Schönegg. He was the son of a Basler painter who, in his youth, left Basel, entered the papal military service, and became a Marshal of the Duchy of Spoleto. He died in 1386.

Le Bâlois Hüglin von Schönegg servait le pape dans la garde du palais en 1354, sous les ordres du cardinal Gil Albornoz en 1360 et comme premier officier civil et militaire à Spolète en 1376. http://www.hls-dhs-dss.ch/textes/f/F7342-1-1.php.

Other early uses of the name include:

Jacob Hüglin, who was born in 1400 and died in 1484. He was a notary from Ingersheim, Alsace who served the Roman Catholic Church in various capacities. After 1461 he was a leading member of the Basel University.

Magdalena Hueglin or Huegelin who was born before 1450. She was the daughter of Johannes Haug. She married Balthasar Marstaller.

Johann Hüglin who was born in Lindau, Bavaria, and died on 10 May 1527 in Meersburg, Baden-Wuertemburg. He was parish priest in the village Sernatingen - today's Ludwigshafen on LakeConstance. He spoke up for the farmers in the peasant wars. After the defeat of the uprising, he was accused of heresy and burned at the stake.