What is "huoching"

Huoching of Alamannia (ca. 675-744) was an Alamannic nobleman. According to the 9th century '' Vita Hiudowici'' by Thegan, he was the son of Gotfrid Agilolfing (ca. 650-709). Huoching's son Hnabi (Nebi) was the founder of the Ahalolfings dynasty which rose to prominence in Alamannia in the Carolingian period. The Agilofing descent has been doubted in scholarship. Wenskus (:497-500) has suggested a connection of Huoching and Hnabi to the historical Nibelungs. Jänichen (1976) compares the father-and-son pair Hoc and Hnaef in Old English heroic poetry ( Beowulf, Finnsburgh fragment, Widsith) suggesting that Huoching and Hnabi are the historical template for these names in later heroic poetry. In this, Jänichen is following a suggestion made as early as 1849 by John Mitchell Kemble in History of the Saxons in England (p. 419).