The German Language / Family Names

The origin of family names goes back to the 13th and 14th centuries. The four basic types of family names can be described in terms of their historical origin:

• Patronymics, i.e. surnames derived from the first name of the father; for example: Adam, Bast (short form of Sebastian), Jahner/Jantzer (variation of John), Lipp (abbreviation of Phillip), Lutz (abbreviation of Ludwig), Mischel (variation of Michael), Peters, Philipps, etc.
  
• Surnames which are derived from nicknames relating to a distinctive physical or mental characteristic; for example: Braun (brown), Ell (noble), Groll (anger), Gross (big), Klein (small), Lang (tall), Klung (wise), Reichert (rich + heart = brave), Reihl (mighty), Stolz (proud), etc. Other nicknames are derived from names of animals or plants; for example: Baum (tree), Fuchs (fox), Schaf (sheep), Stroh (straw), Wolf, etc.
  
• Surnames which are derived from the name of a locality (town or village) or from some feature of the landscape; for example: Acker (field), Bach (brook), Bayer (from Bavaria [Bayern], Germany), Böspflug (poor land), Frank (French/France), Hatzenbiehler (from the city of Hatzenbühl, Pflaz, Germany), Hof (yard), Landauer (from Landau, Pfalz, Germany), Koffler (hut/cave), Schweizer (from Switzerland), etc.
  
• Surnames which are derived from a trade, profession, or occupation; or some product or tool distinctly associated with a particular craft; for example: Amann (official), Bauer (farmer/peasant), Beck/Becker (bake/baker), Deck/Decker (roof/roofer), Ferderer/Föderer (plaintiff), Fitterer (feeder/provides fodder), Germann (spear + man), Hellmann (warrior), Kary (St. Eucharius [Karius]), Kessel (kettle), Koch (cook), Nagel (nail/peg), Schröder (tailor), Zander (Alexander/tooth extractor), Zentner (tithe/tax collector), Zimmermann (carpenter), etc.

Other distintive German name characteristics include prefixes (name beginnings) and sufixes (name endings) like "s", "er", "berg", etc. Add "er" to each of the following to change the meaning from, for example, bach (a creek or small river) to bacher (someone who lives by a creek or small river). "er" and "ern" = "someone from..." or "someone who is a (trade/profession/occupation)..."

"bach" = "creek or small river" "bacher" = someone living by a creek or small river"
"berg" = "mountain or high hill" "berger" = "someone from the area of a mountain/high hill"

and so on........
"burger" = "someone from a castle/fortress"
"dorfer" = "someone from the village of..."
"erer" = "an apprentice to someone from... or is a..." (double er: erer)
"felder" = "someone from a field"
"grosser" = "someone bigger/larger"
"heimer" = "someone from the home of..."
"hofer" = "someone from a farmstead/yard"
"kleiner" = "someone smaller/shorter"
"stadter" = "someone from the city of..."
"taler" = "someone from the valley of..."

Others....
"mann" = "man" but "man" = "one", as in "One must learn to speak other languages."
"s" = "son of"

German Common First Names: Understanding a person's first name in old documents can be very confusing. For example, you will find Anna or Maria, which was followed by Margaretha, Katharina, etc. etc. So the middle name was used. You will often find a family with many sons with exactly the same first name; Johann, for example. The middle name then became the public and official name for the rest of that persons's life. But, if the name was Johannes instead of Johann then his name was really Johannes and that is the name used - but not always.  For many 1800's German-Russian relatives, it was considered an "honor" if a child was named after them. Frequently, if one child dies, the next same-sex born child would be given the same name. Another "quirk" was to reuse a favorite name if that first child was no longer living in the home! The first name/middle name combination would be different, but the child would go by that particular given name that the family liked. In many cases, children were named after godparents, or grandparents. If one grandparent was Johann, and the other Ludwig, then the child might be named Johann Ludwig.

Religion had a profound impact on our German ancestors as most of the children were given biblical or Saint's names. Every newborn was considered a blessing from God. With each succeeding "gift" children, the more the parents believed God bestowed His grace on the family and community. Hence, the frequent use of Johann and Maria.

There were many German variations of names as seen with "George" and "John".
"George" =  "Georg", "Jürgen", (German form), "Georgi,"  (Latin form).
"John" = "Johannes" (Latin form), "Johann", "Joann", "Hannes", "Hans" (German form).
Nicknames were very common in Germany. For example, "Josef" (Joseph) nicknames include "Peppi", "Jupp", "Sepp", "Josel", etc. "cher" added to a name made it a term of endearment, such as "Seppelcher,"
Geraldcher," but "Mariachen."

German is a language of the Teutonic division of the Aryan family of speech.  Its development followed from the seventh century onward, along two main lines; High German (Hoch-Deutsch), which became the official language; and Low german (Platt-Deutsch), which is spoken principally in Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg, Pomerania, Hanover, and Westphalia.  Both have attained the dignity of literary tongues. High German has gone through three stages of development known as Old, Middle, and New, respectively.  During the first two stages, books were generally written in greatest part in one or another of the local dialects.  The language of the third stage is due to a fusion of dialects. It grew out of the style and diction adopted in the administrative chancelleries of the German states and owed its widespread acceptance to the fact of Martin Luther choosing it as the speech into which to translate the Bible. In other words, modern classical German was in its origin a book language. Some of the old dialects, however, still survive and even possess literatures of some distinction.

German is spoken in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. Records written in German may be found in these countries and also in parts of Poland, Denmark, Luxembourg, Czech Republic, Hungary, and wherever German people settled. There are several different dialects in the German language. For example, in the province of Westphalia and other areas of Germany that border the Netherlands, you may notice words that are closely related to Dutch words. It seems that each village or town has its own dialect, often serving as a "secret handshake" known only to its speakers.

German words for persons, places, and things (nouns) are always capitalized. All nouns are classified as masculine, feminine, or neuter. This classification is called gender. The gender of a noun is indicated by der (masculine), die (feminine), and das (neuter), which translates as "the". Word endings may vary, depending on the way the words are used in the sentence.

Surname History & German Script Translation Chart

Surname usage began in Germany around 1100 and first appeared in parts of Switzerland around the 1000's (11th century). By 1600 surnames were commonly used in German-speaking Europe. Between 1670 and the early 1800's, surnames became permanently attached to a family by decree. Prior to the 1800's, name spellings were far from an exact science and were often done phonetically. To further confuse things, there were many German scribes who misinterpreted the old script and confused one letter for another which produced many variations of the same name. The following is a sample of German lettering idiosyncrasies and how they are many times translated to English. The two dots above a letter (ä, ë, ö, ü) are called "umlauts". You can type umlauts on your keyboard by using the [Alt] key.

Upper Case (hold down the   [Alt] key and use the numeric keypad to enter the number ... 'numbers lock' should be on)
À  0192	Á  0193	Â  0194	Ã  0195	Ä  0196	Å  0197	Æ  0198	Ç  0199
È  0200	É  0201	Ê  0202	Ë  0203	Ì  0204	Í  0205	Î  0206	Ï  0207
Ð  0208	Ñ  0209	Ò  0210	Ó  0211	Ô  0212	Õ  0213	Ö  0214	×  0215
Ø  0216	Ù  0217	Ú  0218	Û  0219	Ü  0220	Ý  0221	Þ  0222	ß ("ss")  0223
Ÿ  0159	Š  0138	SHORTCUT --------------->	Ü 154	Ö  153	Ä 142
Lower Case (hold down the   [Alt] key and use the numeric keypad to enter the number)
à  0224	á  0225	â  0226	ã  0227	ä  0228	å  0229	æ  0230	ç  0231
è  0232	é  0233	ê  0234	ë  0235	ì  0236	í  0237	î  0238	ï  0239
ð  0240	ñ  0241	ò  0242	ó  0243	ô  0244	õ  0245	ö  0246	÷  0247
ø  0248	ù  0249	ú  0250	û  0251	ü  0252	ý  0253	þ ("ss")  0254
ÿ  0255	š  0154	SHORTCUT ---------------->	sZ or ss  225	ü  129	ö  148	ä  132

p used for b
a used for e
t used for d or dt
s used for z
ck used for k
y used for i or j
v used for w or f
k used for g
tz used for z
ig used for isch or ich
t used for th
u used for i
Examples, old German to new German:
Freytag for Freitag
Burckhart for Burkhard
Waldpurga for Waldburga
undt for und

German Script Handwriting (Suetterlin)

Suetterlin script: a script, created by L. Suetterlin, Berlin (1865-1917) , which was taught from 1915 to 1941 in German schools. It is also called the "German handwriting". The writing is a standard form of the earlier, very different chancery-writings. If you will study and memorize these, you can translate many old German letters into modern German.

Those of the Suetterlin generation often cannot write any other way and yet both the postman and the grandchildren have trouble reading their envelopes and letters written in this script. When old family documents taken out of church books are to be read, the knowledge of this writing is absolutely necessary, but most young Germans do not want to bother to learn it.

This writing is rarely written precisely; therefore, even an experienced reader must "read himself into" the handwriting, until the text becomes understandable.

Today in Germany some remainders of this writing are still in use, for example, "ß" which represents a combination of s and z, and which looks something like the English letter B.

Special german characters : ä, ö, ü have two dots above. In the Middle Ages it was a tiny "e" above,  similar to two tiny strokes (compare the Sütterlin "e"). Nowadays there are two dots. You are writing correctly if you write ae, oe, ue instead of ä, ö, ü.  For example, Doerling is same as Dörling.  The "ß" that looks like "B" means "sz" and can understandably be written as "sz", but is usually written as "ss".

Please notice:
1) With the "e" the second hook is connected above, with the " n " the second hook is connected lower.
2) The "u" gets a round bow. The "nn" has an straight line.
3) The normal "s" is called long s, and the ending "s" is called round s. The long "s" is normally in the center of the word, the round ending "s" at the words ending. With assembled words both forms of "s" can meet one another. Example: Hausschlüssel (house key), combined of Haus + Schlüssel.

RETURN TO HOME PAGE

RETURN TO TABLE OF LINKS