Meaning of Seghieri further clarified

Friday, April 12, 2013

I have read that a sciopero dei treni is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m., but I must go to Viareggio to meet Eberhard and Dorothea, friends who have a house in Pian di Mommio where I will stay for a couple of days. I have carefully planned out a tight schedule that will have me arrive before the strike takes effect, around 8:30 a.m. I must change trains in Pescia and Lucca, and my first train is four minutes late, throwing my plans into jeopardy. However, I make both transfers with seconds to spare, avoiding the fiasco of being stuck all day in the wrong city, and I arrive in Viareggio only a few minutes late. My friends are waiting and we drive to their house.

This is the real stemma of the Seghieri Bizzarri noble family. It is located on a little street about 100 feet north of Porta Fiorentina in Montecarlo. Here you can really see the teeth on the blade of the sega.

My family history research has been a series of fortunate coincidences, and now I can add one more. Eberhard once studied Old German at his university, and he can shed more light on the meaning of the Seghieri name. He too is almost certain the name is Germanic in its origins. He confirms that sieg means victorious, but he doubts that the second part of the name would be heer, or army. For one thing, it would be unusual for a single man to be called victorious army. Much more likely is that the second part of the name came from heri, which is the Old German word for the modern German word herr—lord. He says that other very old German names also incorporate heri in combination with other words. He also explains that although people in the media today use herr as a common title, like the English mister, it formerly was reserved only for the most respected and wealthy individuals—like an English lord. Thus Seghieri would most accurately be translated as victorious lord—much more intriguing than sawyer, which I previously thought was the meaning. Now in my family history I have two of the very coolest Italian surnames: Spadoni—big swords—and Seghieri, which came from a lordly man who perhaps even used a big sword to achieve his victory.