Many
German names have their roots in the Germanic middle ages.
(1000 ad)
A
name identified a specific person and later a group of persons (family name); at
first through verbal usage, it was later fixed through writing. All social
classes and demographic strata aided in the development of names.
The
earliest are the names derived from the area that they lived in and the
location
of their home. If a person or family migrated from one place to another, they
were identified by the place they came from, such as
names ending with -burg or -berg would mean by a castle.
Also
the region could make a difference in the spelling.
The largest group and the most
easily recognizable names are those derived from the vocation or profession of
the first bearer. They tell you what the first bearer did for a living.
Some
people chose names that were their profession. There were also people that chose
names that had to do with a physical characteristic. Like "Schwartzkopf"
could mean black hair.
or
maybe it could be a personality trait like Lustig
(happy person). You could also be named after an object
such as Nagel (a nail) or a Saint .
Names
derived from profession of first bearer:
Arzt - doctor;
Bader
- barber:
Bauer
-farmer;
Bauman(n)
- builder;
Becker
- baker;
Brenner
- distiller;
Brauer,
brower, brewster;- brewer,
Eisenhauer,
Eisenhower - iron cutter, miner;
Farber
- painter;
Fischer
- fisher;
Fleischer
- butcher;
Gebauer
- peasant or tiller of the field;
Gerber
- tanner;
Kellerman
- worker or dweller in a wine cellar or tavern;
Kessler
- coppersmith, own who sold or made kettles;
Kramer
- merchant;
Krieg,
Krieger - war, warrior, in Yiddish could mean tavern keeper;
Kuster
(Kuester) - sexton,
Kunstler
- artist or skilled artisan;
Lederer, Lederman(n)
- leather maker, tanner;
Lehrer - teacher;
Lesser
- custodian of a forest, game keeper;
Lichtermann - one
who lit lamps, lamplighter;
Lichtman - candle maker;
Maurer - stone mason;
Mehler (Mahler) - painter;
Mehlinger,
Mehlman(n), Melman - one who works with
flour;
Metzger
- butcher;
Muller
- miller;
Nachtman(n) - night watchman;
Pfannnenschmidt - maker of pots and pans;
Postman(n) - postal worker, (also a
person from Postau);
Puttkam(m)er - person who cleans rooms;
Rader -
wheelwright, one who makes wheels; or a person from Raden (moor, reedy place),
one who thatched with reed;
Reifsneider, Reifsnyder - one who made barrel hops;
Reiter - horseman, also one who cleared land for tilling;
Richter
- judge or
magistrate;
Saltz, Saltzman(n) - one who processed and sold salt;
Sandler
- one
who carts sand, repairs shoes, a cobbler;
Schafer
(German with Umlaut) was a sheperd;
Schenker - one who kept a public house;
Scherer - one who shaved
others, a barber;
Schlosser - lock smith;
Schluter
Schlueter, Schluter (with
Umlaut) - the keeper of supplies;
Schmidt - smith;
(Blacksmith)
Schmuker, Schmu(c)kler - one
who decorates, ornaments;
Schneider and Schroeder - tailor;
Schultz, Schultheis
- village mayor;
Schreiber - secretary or scribe;
Schreiner
- cabinet maker;
Schubert - one who made or sold shoes;
Schulman(n) - school or synagogue man;
Schumacher, Schu(h)man(n), Schuster - shoe maker, cobbler;
Steinhauer
- one who
cuts and breaks stone;
Studebaker - one who prepared or sold pastries;
Wagner
-
wagoner, wagon maker;
Weber
- weaver;
Wechsler - money changer.
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Names
derived from location of homestead:
Zumwald - at the forest;
Kaltenbach - cold creek;
Waldschmidt - smith at/in the
woods.
Meer - from the sea, ocean;
Borg
(northern German) or Burg - from or near
a fortified castle;
Bullwinkel
- corner where bulls were kept;
Adler
(zum Adler)
- eagle, may have derived from a house name;
Rabe - crow.
The
place a person came from:
Cullen from Koeln/Cologne;
Dannenberg, town of Dannenberg - pine tree covered
mountain, three places in Germany;
Dresdner from Dresden;
Halpern or Halperin -
one who came from Heilbronn in Wurttemberg;
Mel(t)zer - can be a brewer or a
person who came from Meltz;
Berlin, Klutz and Lowenthal - place names in
Germany;
Silberg
- two place names in Germany;
Stein - numerous villages in
German-speaking countries; stone, rock, marker;
Sternberg
- name of ten places
in Germany;
Shapiro, Shapira, Shapero, Shapera
- one from Spyer, in the middle
ages spelled Spira, and by Jews spelled Shapira;
Pollack - one who came from
Poland;
Frank
- from Franconia;
Rockower, Rockow
- ow is frequent and only in
the low lands of Germany;
Schlesinger
- one who came from Silesia or
Schleusingen in Thuringia;
Schwei(t)zer - person from Switzerland, but also a
dairyman.
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First
names of first bearer:
Friedric ,Fritz, Albrecht (Albright), Dietrich, Dietz, Eberhard(t), Georg(e),
Heinrich, Heinz, Hinz, Konrad, Kunz, Ludwig, Lutz, Ott(o), Paul(us), Reinhard,
Werner.
Names
derived from a physical or other characteristic of first bearer:
Altmann - old man;
Hellmann - light man;
Dick
- fat person;
Klein
- short;
Lange
- the long one;
Kurz - the short one.
Lustig
- happy person;
Grossmann - the big
one;
Rot(h)bart - red beard;
Weiss - white appearance;
Schwar(t)z
- black
appearance;
Schwarzkopf
- black haired;
Sus(s)man - affectionate person;
Unruh
-
agitator or trouble maker;
Schatz - treasure;
Stamm, Stump - trunk (as of a
tree);
Stammler - stutterer;
Stock -
stick, tree trunk.
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Dating
back to the old Germanic world:
Albrecht (Albright), Die(d)trich, Gunther, Hagen, Hildebrandt, Hillenbrand,
Oswald, Siegfried (Seyfried). Short forms: Konrad-Kunz, Heinrich-Hinz.
Names
of saints:
Lukas, Matthias, Matthaeus, Paulus, Ruprecht and Nikolaus, which became family
names.
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After
days of the week:
Montag,
Freitag, Sonntag; or Month: May.
Relating
to objects/materials:
Hammer - hammer;
Nagel
- nail;
Knopf
- button,
Stahl
- steel;
Eisen - iron;
Erzberger - ore mountain;
Gold - gold;
Silber
- silver;
Baum - tree;
Holz -
wood;
Stroh
- straw;
Keller - cellar,
food storage space.
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Regional
differences:
Diminutives (-chen, -lein, -lin) can indicate regional origin. Examples:
Buechlein, Boeglin.
Allemanic
(Switzerland, Alsace, Baden) endings in -li; Swabian: -le; Bavaria/Austrian: -erl;
North German: -gen, -ken.
Schleswig-Holstein
and Friesland share the North-European tradition of adding -sen or -so(h)n to
the father's name: Hansen, Claussen, Petersen, Petersohn, Jacobsohn, T(h)omsen.
Where
immigration from the northeastern provinces of Mecklenburg and Pomerania was
strong, you will find names ending in -ow (but note that Polish and Russian have
that ending too).
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References;
Hans
Bahlow, Dictionary of German Names, 1993, 641 pp., $22.50, ISBN 0-924119-35-7,
Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison,
901 University Bay Drive, Madison, WI 52705
George
F. Jones, German-American Names, 1995, 320 pp., $25.00, ISBN 0-8063-1481-8,
Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc. 1001 N. Calvert St., Baltimore, MD 21202-3897
From
the Max Kade Center's Teaching Unit: GERMAN-AMERICANS AND THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS TO
THE AMERICAN MAINSTREAM CULTURE: GERMAN NAMES AND WORDS http://www-lib.iupui.edu/kade
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