The Cyriax name, appearing around the Gotha-Erfurt-Weimar area of south-central Germany, may represent the oldest form of the name in Germany.  The Erfurt family represented in the tree shown here evidences the earliest graduates of higher education.  Having the resources needed to attend institutions of higher learning implies that this family continued a long line of males passing along familial resources from one generation to the next.  The system of primogeniture begun by the Romans, where the eldest son inherited everything, preordained that that name and those resources would continue so long as there were 'eldest sons' alive to continue the cycle.

Most of the resources being passed along in disparate branches of the family involve the land and buildings associated with farming or the highly technical skills and tangible assets involved with a specific trade.  In almost every case, the spelling of the name remains unchanged so long as the 'occupation' and presumably the wealth is being passed along.  Higher education appears to be the valuable item passed along and thereby maintaining the Cyriax spelling in this branch of the family.

Family Newsletter article - 1976

SYDNEY, Australia.  A tiny Bible, believed to date from the 12th century or earlier and written in Cyriac, has been offered for sale by a Turkish migrant in order to raise money for the Syrian Orthodox Church in Sydney.  The price being negotiated is in the six figures. (Cyriac may just be a mispelling of Syriac in this article.)

    The 2 inch x 2-1/8 inch Bible was acquired about 1914 by the migrant's grandfather, a priest in the same Syrian church, from a Moslem Kurd.  He gave 150 acres of land in exchange for the book.  Bishop Mar Yawanis of the city of Gargar, now in Turkey, copied the four Gospels on heavy paper in black, red, blue and gold inks.  (Syrian Orthodox Resources site.)

Something else to consider is how the X got there in the first place.  I'd always considered it to be another among the various linquistic idiocyncracies devolving from practices within one or another region of Germany.  But, considering the ancient Christian connections our family may have had BEFORE EMIGRATING to Germany, the X may have served the dual purpose of satisfying local linquistic norms AND self-identifying the family (to insiders) as Christian - ancient Christian.

After all, the 3rd century Christian catacombs contained many sly representations of the cross, in the form of anchors, shovels, etc. that seemed to have signified the trade of the decedent as well as their connection to Christianity while it was still illegal.  Many representations involved the , or cross, in some way and eventually evolved into the purely Christian Chi-Rho monogram.  It's possible that, if it's true that our family did migrate from Rome just before the FINAL Great Persecution destroyed everything having to do with Christianity, they immediately took hold of the X in Cyriax, instead of the alternative Cyriacus or Kyriacus spelling to maintain that link to Christianity. (When was the X introduced into the German alphabet?!)

The August 15, 2005 issue of Newsweek Magazine, under the "ASK TIP SHEET" section on page 50 indicates that:

"... the early Christian era when the X was used as a legal signature by those who couldn't read or write.  The letter, which also represents a cross, doubled as a religious symbol, and kissing the X (similar to kissing the Bible) sealed the signer's sincerity. ..."

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Website link/location/URL: http://Cyriax.Cyriac-FHP.com or www.Cyriac-FHP.com/cyriax.htm