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  • German American Surnames

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    This page is still in creation. It was created by Katie.Garner at July 21 2024.

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    German American history

    Germans have migrated to America since the 17th century. Many came from the Palatinate and settled in Pennsylvania and the surrounding areas. Some settled in Louisiana. Many Germans came to America seeking freedom from religious or political oppression. Many others came for better economic opportunities. German immigration continued through the 19th and 20th centuries, slowing down during the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Civil War, and WWI.[1]

    The German immigrants in America and their descendants held on to their language and culture for many generations. This included continuing their naming patterns.[2]

    Types of German surnames

    German surnames originated during the Middle Ages and came from several sources.

    Occupational surnames

    Many of these end in -er , -mann , -macher (maker) or -hauer (cutter). [2] Most German surnames derive from archaic professions or places.[3] The surnames from hunting and fishing are Jaeger and Fischer. Schmidt and Müller are other common occupational surnames.

    Terrain and place surnames

    These can be specific, after the name of a town or village. Such names were usually given to ancestors after they left the place to indicate where they were from. These can also be general, such as mountains (-berg), trees (baum), bogs (moor), hills (hügel), castles (-burg), etc.[2] Böhm(e) means someone from Bohemia.

    Patrionymic surnames

    These surnames used the father's first name as the child's last name, and changed from one generation to the next until fixed surnames were mandated.[2] Martin and Peters are patronymic surnames.

    Characteristic surnames

    Descriptive terms were often used as surnames. Lang, meaning long, may have been used to describe a tall ancestor, or it may have been given to a short ancestor as a joke.[2] Other descriptive surnames include Klein (small), Gross (big), and Krauss (curly-haired).

    Anglicization of German surnames

    As the German Americans interacted with English-speaking Americans, they encountered people who couldn't spell or pronounce their names. Spelling was not standardized until the 20th century. In many cases, an ancestor's name was not written how they spelled it, but rather how others spelled it for them.[4] Even though the Germans were more literate than many English sea captains, the English were unable to read the German script. This necessitated spelling the German names according to English spellings.[5]

    In other cases, the change was intentionally done by the German immigrant.[4] Often, German Americans would use their German names with their German communities and use the English equivalent when dealing with non-Germans.[6] With the onset of WWI came anti-German sentiment. This prompted some German Americans to change their names to the English equivalents.[6]

    There were several ways in which a German could anglicize their name.

    spelling

    The spelling of surnames was changed to accommodate the phonetic spelling in the English language.[6] A literate German might correct their neighbor on the spelling of their name but get tired of doing so. Or they might forget the original spelling.[7]

    Changes in spelling would include removing extra consonants to simplify a German cluster of letters or changing a double consonant to a single. For German names that end in -e, the e is pronounced in German but not in English. German Americans would add a y to change the spelling to -ey to retain the pronunciation. [7]

    The letter ß exists in German but not English, so names containing it would replace it with ss. The German language also uses the Umlaut (two dots over the letter) for some vowels, which changes the vowel sound. In the English language, this would be replaced with an e next to the vowel. (ä, ü, ö would be replaced with ae, ue, and oe).[7]

    Examples include:

    translate to English

    Some surnames were translated directly into English.[6] In other cases, part of the surname would be translated, usually the part that sounded the most similar between both languages. A telltale sign that a name was translated from German to English is its absence in an English surname dictionary. Translation of names was not very common during the mass German immigration in the 19th century.[7]

    Examples include:

    pronunciation

    In some names, letters pronounced in German were silenced, and letters silent in German were pronounced. Sometimes, this resulted in re-syllabification of the name. In other cases, the name would take on an anglicized pronunciation.[7]

    Some names were substituted with similar-sounding English names.[7]

    examples include:

    Explore more German Surnames

    References

    1. ↑ "The Voyages of Our German Immigrants". Legacy Family Tree Webinars. Retrieved 2024-07-17.
    2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 "German Names and Naming Patterns". Legacy Family Tree Webinars. Retrieved 2024-07-17.
    3. ↑ "What Do the Most Popular German Last Names Mean?". ThoughtCo. Retrieved 2024-07-17.
    4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "German Names: Origins and Pronunciations • FamilySearch". FamilySearch. 2022-12-09. Retrieved 2024-07-17.
    5. ↑ "German Surnames – Their Meaning & Origin - New Bremen Historic Association". newbremenhistory.org. Retrieved 2024-07-17.
    6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 "Germany Naming Customs". FamilySearch Wiki. 2024-03-20. Retrieved 2024-07-17.
    7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 Eichhoff, Jürgen. "German Surnames in America: Types of Changes and Adaptations." The Pennsylvania State University.


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