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German

Variants

Origin

Saints

Development

Variants

Known variants of the name Prieske are:

Prieske
Priske
Pryske
Prisk
Priscu

The variants Prieske and Priske can be found mainly in former German areas, in today's Germany and Poland. One track even leads to the far Odessa. Pryske is mentioned once in the area of Friesland and was most probably caused by an incorrect documentation.

Priscu can be found in Romania, the former German spoken Region of Siebenbuergen, where many German Emigrants moved to. The variant Prisk appears regularly in England (Cornwall), America and New Zealand.

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Origin

The Latin variant of Prisk would most probably be Priscus (priscus, prisca, priscum) and means "old, ancient", but could also be translated as "the old one, or the older one"

As name we first find it around 600 B.C.:

Lucius Tarquinius Priscus (reigned 616 - 578 BC), according to tradition, the fifth king of Rome and the son of a Corinthian refugee who is said to have settled at Tarquinii in Etruria. In Rome he changed his name from "Lucumo" to "Lucius". Tarquinius was the guardian of the sons of the fourth king of Rome, Ancus Marcius (reigned 641 - 616 BC), and supplanted them on the death of their father. Public works attributed to Tarquinius were the construction of the great sewers, called "cloacae"; the laying out of the Circus Maximus; and the founding of the temple of the Roman deity Jupiter on the Capitoline Hill. He is said to have instituted the Roman games, and he fought successfully against the Sabines, who were the neighboring people. (refer also to www.prisk.org)

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Saints

There are some catholic saints with this name or a variant of it:

St. Prisca, in Germany known as Priska:
Priska, a young virgin roman, christened by Apostle Petrus and martyred with the age of 13. It is said, that she was thrown to the lions, but they didn't touch her. So she was decapitated (1st century.). Feastday: January, 18th.

(see also http://www.heiligenlexikon.de , english translation available)

There are more saints, whose names or feastdays are obviously not known in Germany:

St. Priscus (March, 28th): Martyr. He was put to death with Malchus and Alexander. They were thrown to the animals in the amphitheater of Caesarea in 260.

St. Priscus (May, 26th): An officer in the Roman Legion, put to death in 272 in France during the persecutions of Emperor Aurelian.

St. Priscus (September, 1st): African bishop (5th century);

St. Priscus, Crescens, and Evagrius (October, 1st): Martyrs who were put to death in the town of Tomi, on the Black Sea.

(Source: Catholic Online - Saints and Angels, http://saints.catholic.org/stsindexp.html)

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Development

The name Prieske, or one of its variants can be found worldwide today. Besides the Corinthian refugee and the fifth King of Rome, we found the name in "Friesland" (northern Germany) in the 18th century as well as several times in Cornwall (England) back to the 16th century. Later it's found in America and New Zealand.

The name Prieske came from Corinth to Rome. Probably the romans brought it to Germany and Cornwall (England) where english sailors later brought it to America and New Zealand.

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