Bauer - farmer
Becker - baker (it sounds similar and the spelling is similar
Berger - from a mountain (Berg is mountain)
Blau - blue
Braun/brun - brown hair or dark complexion
Busch - bush
Fleischer - butcher (fleisch-flesh)
Geduld - patience (same surname could be Dutch)
Geiger - violin player
Gross - big
Grossman - big man
Hertz - heart
(either from the biblical tribe based on the animal the hart or deer, or meaning big-hearted - translated into English as Hart)
Kauffman - shopkeeper or merchant or seller
Kissinger (as in the US statesman Henry Kissinger)
Klein - small - or Kleinmann - small man
Metzger - butcher
Muller - miller
Metzger - butcher
Schmidt - smith
Schneider - taylor
Schwarzkopf - literally black head, meaning black hair, as in Elizabeth Schwarzkopf the classical music and opera singer
Springborn - spring or well
Wagner - carter/ cartwright - like the English word waggoner - I never realised the famous composer Wagner had a name which meant carter, nor that the English surname carter meant somebody who worked with a cart
Weber - weaver
When people with German names immigrated into England they often Anglicised their names by translating them, so lots of people were called Taylor when they got off the boats in the East End of London and settled in the garment district.
With my elementary self-taught German, I can now stop a passer-by and say in German
Wo ist der becker - where is the baker/bakery/baker's shop?
Using Google translate on a smart phone (mine or somebody else's) I could find a more accurate translation.
More information from:
http://blogs.ancestry.co.uk/cm/there-are-four-common-types-of-german-surnames-which-one-is-yours/
If you want to remember somebody's surname which derive from a place name, or remember the name of a city by recalling a person with the same name, many surnames come from places.
Berliner (A Berliner is a sausage from Berlin, just as a frankfurter is a sausage from Frankfurt. Kennedy said Ich bin in Berliner and caused laughter. The correct phrase would be .........
Lemberg (town now in Ukraine, on the border, known as Lvov or Lviv.)
Lemberger - person who has immigrated to (eg UK or USA) from Lemberg in Ukraine
The site behind the name gives the word origins, mainly names used as first names, although many first names become part of surnames. I was interested to see that they translate Friedmann as a peace loving man rather than a freed man, and horrified to learn that Emil, Emma and Emily are derived from Latin for Aurelius meaning rival, and Gerald from a man with a spear in a wood. (W a l d is wood and Waldman is woodman.)
http://www.behindthename.com/names/usage/german
Angela Lansbury BA Hons , author, travel writer and photographer, speaker.
Becker - baker (it sounds similar and the spelling is similar
Berger - from a mountain (Berg is mountain)
Blau - blue
Braun/brun - brown hair or dark complexion
Busch - bush
Fleischer - butcher (fleisch-flesh)
Geduld - patience (same surname could be Dutch)
Geiger - violin player
Gross - big
Grossman - big man
Hertz - heart
(either from the biblical tribe based on the animal the hart or deer, or meaning big-hearted - translated into English as Hart)
Kauffman - shopkeeper or merchant or seller
Kissinger (as in the US statesman Henry Kissinger)
Klein - small - or Kleinmann - small man
Metzger - butcher
Muller - miller
Metzger - butcher
Schmidt - smith
Schneider - taylor
Schwarzkopf - literally black head, meaning black hair, as in Elizabeth Schwarzkopf the classical music and opera singer
Springborn - spring or well
Wagner - carter/ cartwright - like the English word waggoner - I never realised the famous composer Wagner had a name which meant carter, nor that the English surname carter meant somebody who worked with a cart
Weber - weaver
When people with German names immigrated into England they often Anglicised their names by translating them, so lots of people were called Taylor when they got off the boats in the East End of London and settled in the garment district.
With my elementary self-taught German, I can now stop a passer-by and say in German
Wo ist der becker - where is the baker/bakery/baker's shop?
Using Google translate on a smart phone (mine or somebody else's) I could find a more accurate translation.
More information from:
http://blogs.ancestry.co.uk/cm/there-are-four-common-types-of-german-surnames-which-one-is-yours/
If you want to remember somebody's surname which derive from a place name, or remember the name of a city by recalling a person with the same name, many surnames come from places.
Berliner (A Berliner is a sausage from Berlin, just as a frankfurter is a sausage from Frankfurt. Kennedy said Ich bin in Berliner and caused laughter. The correct phrase would be .........
Lemberg (town now in Ukraine, on the border, known as Lvov or Lviv.)
Lemberger - person who has immigrated to (eg UK or USA) from Lemberg in Ukraine
The site behind the name gives the word origins, mainly names used as first names, although many first names become part of surnames. I was interested to see that they translate Friedmann as a peace loving man rather than a freed man, and horrified to learn that Emil, Emma and Emily are derived from Latin for Aurelius meaning rival, and Gerald from a man with a spear in a wood. (W a l d is wood and Waldman is woodman.)
http://www.behindthename.com/names/usage/german
Angela Lansbury BA Hons , author, travel writer and photographer, speaker.
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