Hohenstaufen

Borrowed from German Hohenstaufen, from hohen (“high”) + Staufen (from Staufer (“member of a Swabian dynasty”), from Old High German stouf (“chalice”), related to Proto-West Germanic *staupijan (“to pour”)), first used to distinguish a hill called Staufer in the Swabian Jura from the village of the same name in the valley below. (See Hohenstaufen § Name on Wikipedia.Wikipedia ).

Hohenstaufen

1. (historical) A mediaeval (11th—14th centuries) German dynasty of Swabian origin, from which came numerous monarchs, including dukes of Swabia and emperors of the Holy Roman Empire.
   • 1889, Ugo Balzani, The Popes and the Hohenstaufen‎, Longmans, Green, and Co.:
   • 1970, Patience Andrewes, Frederick II of Hohenstaufen‎, Oxford University Press:

Members of the family did not refer to themselves as Hohenstaufen, instead occasionally using variations of the toponymic surname de Stauf. It was not until the 13th century that the name came to be applied to the family as a whole.