Mozart's name

The baptismal register of the cathedral parish contains the entry shown below, written down in Latin by city chaplain Leopold Lamprecht.

[1] Mozart's father Leopold announced the birth of his son in a letter to the publisher Johann Jakob Lotter with the words "... the boy is called Joannes Chrisostomus, Wolfgang, Gottlieb" ("der Bub heißt Joannes Chrisostomus, Wolfgang, Gottlieb" in German).

The earliest (18th century) biographers of Mozart, such as Friedrich Schlichtegroll and Franz Niemetschek, used "Gottlieb".

However, in 1798 the publishing firm of Breitkopf & Härtel began to issue a (partial) Complete Works edition under the name "Amadeus".

The dominance of "Amadeus" began around about 1810; Romanticism, notably in the person of E. T. A. Hoffmann, "seized upon this name to proclaim its veneration for Mozart".

Although various scholars since that time have made use of "Amadè" or "Gottlieb", "Amadeus" remains by far the most familiar term for the general public.