German name

Personal names in German-speaking Europe consist of one or several given names (Vorname, plural Vornamen) and a surname (Nachname, Familienname) The Vorname is usually gender-specific. A name is usually cited in the "Western order" of "given name, surname", unless it occurs in an alphabetized list of surnames, e.g. "Johann Sebastian Bach".

In this, the German conventions parallel the naming conventions in most of Western and Central Europe, including English, Dutch, Italian, French, etc. There are some vestiges of a patronymic system as they survive in parts of Eastern Europe and Scandinavia, but these do not form part of the official name.

Women would adopt their husband's name upon marriage and retain their maiden name by hyphenation, in a so-called Doppelname, e.g. "Else Lasker-Schüler". This has changed in recent legislation motivated by gender equality and the various states of German-speaking Europe have gone through a number of legislative changes which now tend to allow either part of a married couple to choose which combination of surnames they want to use.

The most common given names either Biblical ("Christian", derived from the name of Biblical characters or saints; Johann/Hans "John", Georg/Jörg "George", Jakob "Jacob"; Anna, Maria, Barbara, Christina) or from Germanic names (Friedrich "Frederick", Ludwig "Louis", etc.) In recent years, say since the 1990s, there has however been a trend of parents picking non-German forms of names, either for originality, or influenced by international celebrities, e.g. Liam (Gaelic form of William) rather than the German equivalent Wilhelm, Leon/Leonie, Kevin, Laura, etc.

Most surnames are derived either from occupations, or from geographical origin, less often from bodily attributes. They became heritable with the beginning of central demographic records in the early modern period.

Forenames

The Vorname (in English forename) is given to a child by the parents shortly after birth but not in all cases. It is common to give a child several Vornamen (forenames). Usually, one of them is meant to be normally used and called the Rufname (call name). This is often underlined on official documents, as it is sometimes the second or third name in the sequence of given names on official record, even though it is the given name in daily use from childhood. For example, in the resume submitted by mathematician Emmy Noether to Erlangen University in 1907,

Ich, Amalie Emmy Noether, bayerischer Staatsangehörigkeit und israelitischer Konfession, bin geboren zu Erlangen am 23. März 1882 ...

"I, Amalie Emmy Noether, of Bavarian nationality and of Israelite confession, born in Erlangen on 23 March 1882 ..."

the underlining of Emmy communicates that this is the Rufname, even though it is the second of two official given names.

In Germany, the chosen name must be approved by the local Standesamt (civil registry office or Office of Vital Statistics). The name must indicate the gender of the child and not negatively affect the well being of the child. Last names or the names of objects and products are not acceptable. For example, "Matti" was rejected for a boy's name because it did not indicate gender. However, these types of names are permissible if combined with a second name which clears up the gender, for example: "Matti Oliver" or "Matti Julia". The decision of the Standesamt may be appealed after submitting of a fee. The Standesamt refers to a book that translates to "the international manual of first names".

Among German nobility, a fashion arose in the early modern period to give a large number of forenames, often six or more. This fashion was to some extent copied by the bourgeois class, but subsided again after the end of the 19th century, so that while two or three forenames remain common, a larger number is now rare. The practice persists among German nobility, e.g. Johann Friedrich Konrad Carl Eduard Horst Arnold Matthias, Prince of Saxe-Meiningen, Duke of Saxony (b. 1952).

Popular given names

Traditionally, there are dialectal differences between the regions of German-speaking Europe, especially visible in the forms of hypocorisms. These differences are still perceptible in the list of most popular names, even though they are marginalized by super-regional fashionable trends: As of 2012, the top ten given names of Baden-Württemberg (Southern Germany) and of Schleswig-Holstein (Northern Germany) share the entries Ben, Paul, Finn, Luca, Max (male), Mia, Emma, Lea, Leonie, Anna, Lena, Hanna, while Schleswig-Holstein retains the traditionally northern (Low German) forms Lasse (male) and Neele (female) in the top ten.

year	feminine	masculine
2006 (Germany)	Marie Sophie/Sofie Maria Anna, Anne Leonie Lena Emily Johanna Laura Lea/Leah	Leon Maximilian Alexander Lukas/Lucas Paul Luca Tim Felix David Elias
1957 to 2006[citation needed]	Andrea, Angelika, Anja, Anke, Anna, Anne, Annett, Antje, Barbara, Birgit, Brigitte, Christin, Christina, Christine, Claudia, Daniela, Diana, Doreen, Franziska, Gabriele, Heike, Ines, Jana, Janina, Jennifer, Jessica, Jessika, Julia, Juliane, Karin, Karolin, Katharina, Kathrin, Katrin, Katja, Kerstin, Klaudia, Kristin, Laura, Lea, Lena, Lisa, Mandy, Manuela, Maria, Marie, Marina, Martina, Melanie, Monika, Nadine, Nicole, Petra, Sabine, Sabrina, Sandra, Sara, Sarah, Silke, Simone, Sophia, Sophie, Stefanie, Stephanie, Susanne, Tanja, Ulrike, Ursula, Uta, Ute, Vanessa, Yvonne.	Alexander, Andreas, Benjamin, Bernd, Christian, Daniel, David, Dennis, Dieter, Dirk, Dominik, Eric, Erik, Felix, Florian, Frank, Franz, Jan, Jens, Jonas, Jörg, Jürgen, Karl-Heinz, Kevin, Klaus, Kristian, Leon, Lukas, Marcel, Marco, Marko, Mario, Markus, Martin, Mathias, Matthias, Max, Maximilian, Michael, Mike, Maik, Nicolas, Niklas, Patrick, Paul, Peter, Philipp, Phillipp, Ralf, Ralph, René, Robert, Sebastian, Stefan, Stephan, Steffen, Sven, Swen, Thomas, Thorsten, Torsten, Tim, Tobias, Tom, Ulrich, Uwe, Wilhelm, Wolfgang
1900[citation needed]	Frieda Anna Martha Erna Gertrud Emma Elisabeth Margarete / Margarethe Marie Else	Walter Karl Heinrich Wilhelm Hans Ernst Otto Paul Friedrich Hermann
1616 (in Darmstadt, Hesse):		Johann, Johannes Hans Georg Henrich, Heinrich Caspar Balthasar Conrad Melchior Jost Adam
1600 to 1900 (in Württemberg)[citation needed]	Anna Maria/e Katharina/Catharina Barbara Christina/Christine Margarethe/a Elisabeth/Elisabetha Rosina Magdalena Agnes	Johann, Johannes, Hans Georg, Jörg, Jerg Jakob/Jacob Michael/Michel Martin Friedrich Christoph Ludwig Konrad Andreas

Surnames

Distribution of the surname Bachhuber in Germany (2005). As a name denoting geographical origin (lit. "tenant of an estate near a stream"), its Bavarian origin remains clearly visible.

Distribution of the surname Hoffmann in Germany (2005). As a generic occupational name ("a tenant"), the name could originate independently all over Germany, although its concentration is most pronounced in Central Germany.

Family names were introduced during the late Middle Ages in the German-speaking area. Usually, such family names are derived from nicknames. In etymology, they are generally classified into four groups, based on the origin of a nickname: given names, job designations, bodily attributes, and geographical references (including references to named buildings). Also, many family names display characteristic features of the dialect of the region they originated in.

• Given names often turned into family names when people were identified by their father's name. For example, the first name Ahrend developed into the family name Ahrends by adding a genitive s-ending, as in Ahrend's son.
  Examples: Ahrends/Ahrens, Burkhard, Wulff, Friedrich, Benz, Fritz. With many of the early city records written in Latin, occasionally the Latin genitive singular -i was used such as in Jakobi or Alberti or (written as -'y') in Mendelssohn Bartholdy.

• Job designations are the most common form of family names; anybody who had an unusual job would have been bound to be identified by it. Examples: Schmidt (smith), Müller (miller), Meier (farm administrator; akin to Mayor), Schulze (constable), Fischer (fisherman), Schneider (tailor), Maurer (mason), Bauer (farmer), Metzger or Fleischer (butcher), Töpfer, Toepfer (potter) or Klingemann (weapons smith). Also, names referring to nobility such as Kaiser (emperor), König (king), Graf (count) are common, with the name bearers probably only a minor functionary of a monarch.

• Bodily attribute names are family names such as Krause (curly), Schwarzkopf (black head), Klein (small), Groß (big).
• Geographical names are derived from the name of a city or village, or the location of someone's home. They often have the '-er' postfix that signifies origin (as in English New Yorker). Examples: Kissinger (from Kissingen), Schwarzenegger (from Schwarzenegg or Schwarzeneck), Bayer (from Bavaria, German Bayern). Böhm indicates that a family originated in Bohemia.

• A special case of geographical names were those derived from a building or landmark, e.g. a Busch (bush) or Springborn (spring/well). Before the advent of street names and numbers, even for long times afterwards, many important buildings like inns, mills and farmsteads were given names (see also Der Lachs zu Danzig). Such a place was often better known than the people living in it; the people would get their 'family' name from the building. This name could be combined with a profession: Rosenbauer (rose-farmer, from a farmstead called 'the rose'); Kindlmüller (child's miller, from a mill named 'the Christmas child', 'the prodigal child' or 'the king's child'). The name of the building could also be used as is: Bär (Bear); Engels (from Engel, angel).

• Immigration, often sponsored by local authorities, also brought foreign family names into the German speaking regions. Depending on regional history, geography and economics, many family names have French, Dutch, Italian, Hungarian or Slavic (e.g. Polish) origins. Sometimes they survived in their original form; in other cases, the spelling would be adapted to German (the Slavic ending ic becoming the German -itz or -itsch or Baltic "-kis" becoming "-ke"). Over time, the spelling often changed to reflect native German pronunciation (Sloothaak for the Dutch Sloothaag); but some names, such as those of French Huguenots settling in Prussia, retained their spelling but with the pronunciation that would come naturally to a German reading the name: Marquard, pronounced marcar in French, ended up being pronounced Markuart much like the German Markwart from which it was originally derived.

The preposition von ("of") was used to distinguish Nobility; for example, if someone was baron of the village of Veltheim, his family name would be von Veltheim. In modern times, people who were elevated to nobility often had a 'von' added to their name. For example, Johann Wolfgang Goethe had his name changed to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. This practice ended with the abolition of the monarchy in Germany and Austria in 1919. Some times von is also used in geographical names that are not noble, as in von Däniken.

With family names originating locally, many names display particular characteristics of the local dialects, such as the south German, Austrian and Swiss diminutive endings -l -el, '-erl, -le or -li as in Kleibl, Schäuble or Nägeli (from 'Nagel', nail).

The surnames of the German Jews are a special case, as they were introduced later, in the late 18th to early 19th century, per fiat. The Prussian authorities imposed made-up and sometimes derogatory names.

Marriage

Traditionally, the wife adopts her husband's Nachname on marriage and drops her own. However, due to the legal equality of sexes, the opposite is possible as well, though rare.

A few examples of the practice under German law, if "Herr Schmidt" and "Frau Meyer" marry:

1. They can keep their former Nachnamen. (Herr Schmidt and Frau Meyer). In the 1990s, the law was thusly changed. They can later change to variant 2, though the inverse is not possible.
2. They can declare one name as a "marriage name" (Ehename). In doing so, they can either both adopt the husband's name, or both adopt the wife's name as an Ehename. (Herr Meyer and Frau Meyer; Herr Schmidt and Frau Schmidt)
3. There is the possibility that one partner can combine both names by a hyphen. Thus, one of them then bears a double name (Doppelname). (Herr Schmidt and Frau Meyer-Schmidt (or Frau Schmidt-Meyer); the children have to be called Schmidt). Only one partner can take this option, making it impossible for both partners to have Doppelnamen (So no Herr Meyer-Schmidt and Frau Meyer-Schmidt)

All children of a family have to receive the same non-hyphenated Nachname at birth, which may be either the mother's or the father's Nachname (traditionally it was the father's). If the parents adopted an Ehename this is the Nachname of the child. It is strictly forbidden to give children Doppelnamen if it is not the Ehename. The latter case can arise with traditional aristocratic Doppelnamen (e.g. Faber-Castell).

In Austria (§ 93 ABGB), a couple can choose either of their surnames as married name. In the default case, this is the surname of the groom. The partner who is changing surnames (usually the bride) has the possibility to use their unmarried name alongside the married name with hyphenation.

In Switzerland (Art. 160 ZGB), the couple can opt to both retain their unmarried name, or the couple can choose to use either surname as their married name. If both retain their name, they need to declare which will be the surname of any future children.

Nobility

Titles of former aristocrats (like Graf for "Count") have become parts of the Nachname in Germany, giving longer names of several words, usually including the nobiliary particle von (meaning "of") or zu (meaning "to", sometimes "at"), often von und zu are also found together (meaning "of and to/at"). The legal rules for these names are the same as those for other Nachnamen, which gives rise to a number of cases where people legally bear such names but are not recognized by the associations of formerly noble families in Germany, which continue to apply the old rules of the German Empire in their publications. Most of these cases come about when a woman of noble descent marries a man with no title, and the two adopt the woman's name as their common Nachname, which was impossible under imperial law.

In Austria, titles of nobility including certain other orders and honours held by Austrian citizens have since 3 April 1919 been abolished, including nobiliary particles such as von, the use of such titles by Austrian citizens is an offence punishable with a financial enforcement penalty. For example, Otto von Habsburg, Austria-Hungary's last crown prince, was referred to as Otto Habsburg(-Lothringen) in Austria. In Switzerland, where titles of nobility have been rare for several centuries, they can be used in private conversation, but are not officially recognised.^{[citation needed]}

Common surnames

The most common surnames in Germany are reportedly:^{[citation needed]}

1. Müller, Möller ("miller")
2. Schmidt, Schmitt, Schmitz ("smith, blacksmith")
3. Schneider ("tailor")
4. Fischer ("fisherman")
5. Meyer, Meier, Meir, Meyr, Mayer, Maier, Mair, Mayr ("mayor, bailiff")
6. Weber ("weaver")
7. Wagner ("carter, cartwright")
8. Becker, Bäcker ("baker")
9. Schulz, Schulze, Schultze, Schulte ("constable")
10. Hoffmann, Hofmann ("steward; tenant/leaseholder")

These are all occupational names, designating common occupations around 1600 when surnames became heritable, so that these names arose independently across Germany.

Gender-specific surname variants

Traditionally, there was a differentiation of surnames of women from those of their male siblings (as is still a rule in Czech, Eastern Slavic, or Polish female surnames), widespread in Germany until the 18th century. Thus, in old records, especially church registers on rites de passage, such as baptisms, deaths and marriages etc., women may appear bearing regionally typical female surname variants. With the establishment of general official registration of legal names, this practice was abolished in the 18th and the 19th centuries, depending on the legislation of the respective states.

Also, the spelling of given and surnames, varying previously from author to author, or even entry to entry, was then mostly fixed according to the official recorded form. Former noble titles appearing in male and female variants were transformed by the Weimar Constitution, article 109, into parts of the surnames in Germany, but a new tradition of gender-specific variants, for official registration, was established for these surnames. This practice was confirmed in a judgement by the Reichsgericht on 10 March 1926.

Colloquially, surname variants for women continue to appear in some German dialects. In Bavarian dialect surnames of women sometimes are formed by adding the ending "-in", used in standard High German to indicate noun variants for women or items of grammatical feminine gender, such as Näherin (seamstress), with Näher (seamster) being the male form. In West Low German parlance the ending "…sch(e)" is sometimes added to surnames of women, related to the standard High German adjective ending "…isch" (cognitive to English "…ish"), suffixed to nouns or adjectives indicating belonging / pertaining to, being of the kind described by the suffixed word: for example, de Smidtsche, is Ms Schmidt (Smith), but literally about the Smithian (the woman pertaining to a man/family named Schmidt).

Another form, indicating a female bearer of a surname, was the addition of a genitive "s" (like the Saxon genitive), the daughter or wife of Mr. Bäcker (literally Baker) would appear as Ms Bäckers (in German without an apostrophe), as being Bäcker's daughter or wife.

Pseudonyms

Pseudonyms can be used by artists (Künstlername, "artist's name") and members of religious orders (Ordensname); If a pseudonym is widely known in public it can be added to the passport of that person (under the weaker legal status of Künstlername) and be used instead of the original name in most situations. The same field in the passport also serves to show religious names, i.e. the new name somebody takes on when becoming a monk or nun.

Academic degrees and titles

The academic degree of Doktor (Dr.) and the academic title of Professor (Prof.) are not part of the name in Germany but can be entered into an identity card or passport and are frequently used in documents and addresses. In Austria, this is substantially different.

They are, however, always used in a written address (e.g., Dr. Meier, Prof. Dr. Müller), and will often be used in formal speech or sometimes by lower-ranked persons such as students, though many academics prefer being addressed just like anyone else, i.e. by Herr or Frau alone (see below).

Hofname (estate name)

In rural areas it is common that farmers are known by the traditional name of their Hof (farm or estate). Because of the long-standing tradition of impartible inheritance in German-speaking Europe, ownership of a Hof had often been tied to direct patrilineal descent over centuries. Thus, farmers were traditionally known by their Hofname even before the development of the Nachname in the early modern period, and the two systems came to overlap. Many Nachnamen are in fact derived from such Hofnamen, but in some instances, the Hofname tradition survived alongside the official Nachname

Historically, the Hofname was the first type of commoners' family name to become heritable. This process began still in the Late Middle Ages (14th to 15th century); e.g. Ulrich Zwingli (b. 1484) inherited his father's surname, in origin a Hofname (from the term Twing, denoting a type of walled-in estate) even though he did not inherit his estate.

In cases where Nachname and Hofname are not identical (usually because there was no male heir at some point in the family history) they are joined in official documents by genannt (abbr. gen.), e.g. Amann gen. Behmann. In Austria the term vulgo (abbr. vlg.) is used instead of genannt.

Name changes

There are only four circumstances in which one is allowed to change one's name:

1. On marriage: the couple can choose the name of either partner, they can both keep their original names, or (provided the original family name of neither partner contains a hyphen), one partner can modify their own name, appending the partner's family name to their own, creating a hyphenated name ("Mr. Schmid and Ms. Meier-Schmid" or "Mr. Schmid-Meier and Ms. Meier").
2. Correction of a name: if the state has made an error with the name and this can be proven, the original name can be restored. Example: "Maſs" became "Mahs" and is corrected to "Mass".
3. Gender reassignment in case of transsexuals.
4. Naturalisation of a foreigner in Germany (Art. 47 EGBGB). In this case, the person may choose to adopt German forms of his first and last name, or a new first name if the old first name cannot be translated into German.

Adding the Doktor (Ph.D.) degree (in Germany), or any other academic degree (in Austria), into one's identity card or passport is not considered a name change.

Order of names and use of articles

The Nachname is put after the Vorname. In the rural use of several regions where heavy dialect is spoken (i.e. Bavaria, Saxony, the Palatinate or the Saarland), the order is reversed, e.g. "der Mühlbach Klaus" instead of "Klaus Mühlbach". The definite article is always added in this style of naming. Especially in these regions, it is also the usual administrative way, but with a comma; the said person would appear in documents as "Mühlbach, Klaus" or even, with a title or profession "Mühlbach, Klaus, Dr./OLt/Bäcker".

Except for Southern Germany, usage of the definite article with the name outside of dialect is uncommon, and considered a mistake in standard High German. It is considered familiar language, but not as a mark of rough, rural manners as in French. It is used especially when talking of and/or with children, but also in some other situations. E.g., "Ich bin der Nils", or even "Ich gab der Eva eine Süßigkeit". Respectively, these sentences mean, "I am [the, masculine] Nils", and "I gave [to the, feminine] Eva a sweet". Once again, such usage varies and is optional, and is often used in clarification or in emphasis.

In Austria, the definite article is always used in informal spoken language, but most of the time not in very formal or written language.

In some dialects (such as those spoken in the Western Palatinate and parts of the Rhineland), the article used with women's and girls' names is not the female, but the neuter article. This is because the German word for "girl", Mädchen, is a neuter noun, due to the diminutive suffix -chen.

Addressing people

Main articles: T–V_distinction#German, Du (personal pronoun), and Fräulein

German is a language with a clear T–V distinction. It is common that people who are informally addressed with the familiar du (friends, relatives, children) are also called by their first name, while people who are formally addressed with Sie are called by their last name, with Herr or Frau ("Mr." and "Mrs.") put in front.

Addressing unmarried women as Fräulein ("Miss") remained standard well after 1945 and fell out of use only during the 1970s to 1980s, as ideological feminism of the era took to objecting to the term's origin as a diminutive, and by the 1990s had fallen out of common use except in rural areas and by the elderly. But a minority of unmarried women, especially elderly ones, may still insist on being addressed as Fräulein, understanding the address Frau as implying a habitual sexual relation or an oblique comment on their virginity.

At the transition from childhood to adulthood, one might be called in a third form, namely using Sie with the forename (the so-called Hamburger Sie). Sie is now widely used in formal settings to address persons over the age of 15. This is how high school teachers may address their pupils about 16 and 17 onwards, and parents might rarely use the same way to address their teenage children's friends if they have not known them since childhood. The formal addressing of teenagers however retains a certain "highbrow" connotation; noted humorist Max Goldt has commented that this is the way upper-class parents would address their daughter's boyfriend over the breakfast table.^{[citation needed]}

The formal address Sie arose during the Baroque period and long marked a class distinction, i.e. members of the upper class would be addressed with Sie regardless of age or relation, and members of the lower class as du also regardless of age or familiarity. Use of the formal address survived into the bourgeoisie of the 19th century, but has now become extremely rare and considered the pinnacle of stiff, old-fashioned etiquette.

The opposite form, du with the last name (the so-called Berliner Du), but leaving away Herr or Frau, is frequently used among retail workers or enlisted men in the military wearing badges with just their title and last name (for example, Herr Schmidt, Frau Müller), who will address each other in the colloquial way while, for convenience, sticking to the name form on the badge. It is also common among kindergarten teachers who thus address each other the same way small children, who have yet to learn the Du/Sie distinction, address them under inclusion of Herr and Frau. The latter usage is a product of pedagogical reform in the 1960s and 1970s; before then, children in kindergarten addressed their teachers as Tante ("aunt") or Onkel ("uncle") and with their first names.

Further, in some areas it is common in schools that students are addressed by their family name or an abbreviation of it as a nickname by classmates if two or more share the same given name (which given that all students are born at about the same time while certain names are high in fashion, is a very frequent occourance). In any other, somewhat more formal surrounding, whether private or professional, this form of addressing someone would be considered rude at least ('Kasernenhofton', Drill Seargent's tone).^{[citation needed]}

Similarly, addressing a woman by her husband's first name is largely unknown or at most considered archaic. In times of increasing equality of treatment, many would even regard it an outright offence to practically degrade her into nothing but her partner's appendix. Laura Bush would not be Mrs. George W. Bush (Frau George W. Bush), but Mrs. Laura Bush. Thus, the wife of Gerhard Schröder, Doris Schröder-Köpf, is referred to as Frau Doris Schröder-Köpf, never Frau Gerhard Schröder. In spite of this, it is possible for women to be addressed by the profession of her husband. The most common example would be Frau Doktor (Mrs doctor) being the wife of Herr Doktor (Mr doctor). In certain situations it is thus possible for Doris Schröder-Köpf to be called Frau Altbundeskanzler (Mrs former chancellor, note the usage of the male form Altbundeskanzler not Altbundeskanzlerin in this case).

See also

• Germanic name
• English name

References

• Rosa Kohlheim, Volker Kohlheim : Familiennamen: Herkunft und Bedeutung von 20000 Nachnamen (Family Names: Origin and Meaning of 20,000 Last Names), 2000, Duden, ISBN 3-411-70851-4

External links

• German names
• Onomastik: Names and Name meanings The site has information on the etymology of German family names as well as a community section, where questions about names origins are discussed
• The Information Universe