by Stephen B. Aranha COB History Lecturer

Many places in the New World were given names of places in the Old World, where the colonial rulers inevitably came from. Nassau's name, too, can be traced back to "Old Europe" - a term coined by U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld for countries such as France and Germany. Rumsfeld meant it negatively because of their being opposed to the war in Iraq, but Europeans have now begun to use it with a sense of pride.

And indeed it is Germany that the name Nassau can be traced back to. How can it be that The Bahamas' capital bears a German name? The Bahamas were discovered by the Spanish in 1492, who wiped out the indigenous population. A first attempt to resettle the islands was probably made by the French in 1565 (on Abaco, see The Guardian, September 14, 2004), but it was finally a group of English colonists (the Eleutheran Adventurers led by William Sayle, see The Guardian, August 6, 2004) who established a new colony on this archipelago in 1648. In fact, in Germany 1648 marked the end of the Thirty Years War. The country was divided, devastated and debilitated; it was not about to embark upon any colonial adventures.

Nassau is on the island of New Providence and was probably first settled in the 1660s. In 1670, The Bahamas were included in a grant to the proprietors of the Carolinas, despite the fact that they had already been colonised by the group of settlers around William Sayle, who most likely had some authorisation from the government in London, too. However, 1660 marked the year of the Stuart Restoration in England, when the Catholic monarch Charles II was reinstated as the King of England and ended the period of revolutionary republican rule by Parliament and Oliver Cromwell. Whatever authorisation the Eleutheran Adventurers may have had, Charles II did not feel obliged to recognise it.

These were the political circumstances when the first permanent settlers arrived on our island. Whether it was out of conviction or gratitude or whether it was out of opportunism is hard to tell, but they named their settlement Charles Town. However, both England and The Bahamas would experience tumultuous years ahead.

In The Bahamas, wrecking, privateering and piracy had become notorious, and it was not long before Spain's patience would run out. In 1684, Don Juan de Larco attacked New Providence and almost wiped out the colony; most surviving settlers sought – at least temporarily – refuge in other British territories.

In England, the Catholic House of Stuart faced staunch opposition from the Church of England. This led to the Glorious Revolution of 1688, placing the Protestant William III on the English throne. William III was also the Prince of Orange-Nassau.

It is against this backdrop that Charles Town became Nassau. But was the city renamed, as some accounts suggest, or was it in fact a new city after Charles Town had been raided by the Spaniards? Bahamian historian Paul Albury suggests the latter, when he writes, "Nicholas Trott ... built a new fort and a new town, both of which were named Nassau in honour of the Prince of Orange-Nassau who then sat on the English throne as William III."

Nassau, Bahamas, was named after an English King, but we can trace the King's name back further than that. The genealogy of aristocratic families in Europe is far too complex to be examined here in detail. For our purposes, we will look at the roots of the name Nassau: Within today's boundaries of Nassau an der Lahn, Germany, we find the remnants of an old castle, which was built between 1100 and 1125 and named Nassau. Around the year 1160 the castle's rulers adopted its name. It is reasonably safe to assume that the castle was named after the nearest village, which was first mentioned in 915 AD as villa Nassowa, and which in return was probably named after the nearby creek *Nassaha.

There are three etymological theories trying to explain this name. The first one claims that it is from the Latin nasci (= born). This, however, fails to explain the "au"-ending of the word; it also fails to explain why the name seems to come from a creek originally.

A second theory explains the name as follows: "Nass" is an Gypsy and vagabond term meaning "for free," and "Au" is a term in both the (southern) German and Slavic languages meaning grasslands. Earlier spellings include forms such as "Owe," which would come very close to the 915 AD village name "villa Nassowa." German as well as Slavic dialects in return had strong influences on the Gypsies' terminology. This may indicate that they could freely use the water of the creek and the land around it, without a charge from a feudal lord and/or fear of prosecution. However, the central Gypsy term "nass" is first recorded for some time in the 14th century.

The third theory may appear to be the most obvious one. "Nass" also means "wet" in modern German. With "Au" meaning grasslands, we could assume that the village and the creek were near fertile, grassy plains or maybe a swamp. However, the old German word "naz" for wet is first recorded for the time around 1320 AD.

Both of these last two explanations are rather appealing, and just because the central terms cannot be traced back to a time before the 14th century, does not mean they were not used earlier. I tend to go for the second theory. If the third one were the right one, it should be likely that the "z" from "naz" (= wet), a spelling which was used in the 14th century, would have survived in the place name, which is recorded with "ss" as early as the 10th century.

Even today, the word "Nassauer" (someone from Nassau) has another meaning in German. It is used to describe someone who tries to get things for free all the time, and as such it has even become a verb. However, this is not a result of the old Gypsy term, but the result of the fact that in the early 19th century Nassau, Germany, provided free meals for its college students abroad. Other people who were not entitled to these free meals would pretend to be Nassauvians ("Nassauer") – almost like gatecrashers. However, we the people of Nassau – no matter which one, Bahamas or Germany – should always remember that it can only be people from outside of Nassau who can be guilty of being guilty of being "Nassauvians" in the bad sense.