Names are a graveyard of words

Last week's Der Spiegel had an article about a "Namensforscher," a scholar who investigates the origin and life of personal names, named Jürgen Udolph, who says rather poetically that the ca. one million German names are a graveyard of words, a "Friedhof der Wörter." Words live, evolve, and die, but they sometimes they live on in names. Friedrich Schiller and Otto Schilly had cross-eyed ancestors ("schielende Vorfahren"). Heidi Klum's name comes from "klamm," which used to mean humble or miserable.