All European languages, probably, have some family names that are a bit comical in effect.  Some examples

Crane, Frederick

Digital Commons @ Butler University

32 WHIMSICAL GERMAN SURNAMES FREDERICK CRANE Mount Pleasant, Iowa All European languages, probably, have some family names that are a bit comical in effect. Some examples: French: LESUEUR sweat, BOILEAU drink water Hungarian: CUKOR sugar, LISZT flour Czech: KRUTA turkey Ukrainian: GROMYKO noisy Russian: TOLSTOY fat Dutch: DE GIER vulture English: GOLIGHTLY, CAKEBREAD, PIGG, HOGG, BUGG, SHAKESPEARE, WAGSTAFF Italian: BEVILACQUA drink water, MANGIAPANE eat bread, MANGIAVACCA eat cow, MAZZAPICA kill magpie, QUATTROCCHI four eyes Most family names were derived from patronymics, place names, occupational names, and sobriquets or nicknames. Appellations of the last type are often complimentary: GOODFELLOW, BIEDERMAN (upright man) ­but these are no fun. Very often they were applied in jest, at the expense of someone who was thought to look or act like some animal, or had a strange habit, such as avoiding alcoholic drink, or had a favorite expression (German BEYGOTT, HERRGOTT, WISSGOTT). The humor may be directed at downright antisocial behavior; the original targets of the last two English names above might have been guys of an irascible, threatening nature, but they might also have been exhibitionists, a notion that I favor: the islanders who later gave us the limerick were quite capable of this sort of humor. As the reader will already have noted, a good many famous persons were not immune from inheriting these whimsical names. It is German speakers who seem to have had the greatest penchant for adopting these comical, not always complimentary family names. Practically the whole dictionary appears. Among attitudinally neutral names, there are all the seasons of the year, and every day of the week except maybe Tuesday; Sunday is the most popular, with Friday a strong second ("Dank sei Gott, 's ist Freitag!"). The list that follows was compiled without putting much effort into it. If your name has a seriously pejorative meaning, please don't take it too seriously - quite I a few of these names are considered to have been corrupted over the years from the original form to a word that has an altogether different t meaning in modern German. Alas, this is the case with my favorite German surname, KATZENELLENBOGEN eat's elbow, which is derived from a place name that was originally the Celtic tribal name Chattimelibochi of unknown meaning. My sources have been German and American telephone directories, newspapers ana onomasticians. article was cr Dictionary of 1988) . AHL eel ANGSTWURM fr BAUCH belly BEYGOTT by G BLEIBIMHAUS BUTTERBRODT DONNERSTAG T DREYFUS thre EIDAL'1 son-in FEIGE fig (c FEYERABEND q FICKER fucke FINGERHLTT th FLECK spot FLIEGE house FREITAG Frid FROESCHLE fr FRUHAUF up e FRUHLING spr GNADE mercy GOTT God GOTTSCHALK G GROSSKOPF bi HANDSCHUH gl HERBST autun HERRGOTT Lor HUFNAGEL hor HUNDERTWASSE IGEL hedgehc KAFER beetle KASEBIER che KATZENELLENE KERAUS clear: KNOBLAUCH gs KRATZER scr~ KREBS crab KUCKUCK cud KUSSMAUL kif LANGHALS 101 LIEBESKIND LUSTGARTEN 1 MAUS mouse MITTWOCH Wei MONTAG Mond MORGENSCHWE NACKTGEBORE PFLUGHAUPT 33 newspapers and other ephemera, and the publications of various onomasticians. Most of what appears to be scholarship in the present article was cribbed from Patrick Hanks and Flavia Hodges's marvelous A Dictionary of Surnames (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, that are a ~E, WAGSTAFF ~GIAVACCA eat kmes, inS of the lpright man) ­, at the ! animal, or lad a favorite may be 7gets of the lscible, mists, a tmed ck were ~eady have ~riting these ;tenchant for nes. Lly neutral y of the week fay a strong 1988). ARL eel ANGSTWURM fright wormt BAUCH belly ~ BEYGOTT by God BLEIBIMHAUS stay at home BUTTERBRODT bread and butter DONNERSTAG Thursday DREYFUS three foot EIDk~ son-in-law FEIGE fig (cowardly) FEYERABEND quitting time FICKER fucker FINGERHUT thimble FLECK spot FLIEGE housefly FREITAG Friday FROESCHLE froggie FRUHAUF up early FRUHLING spring GNADE mercy GOTT God GOTTSCHALK God's rascal GROSSKOPF big head HANDSCHUH glove HERBST autumn HERRGOTT Lord God HUFNAGEL horseshoe nail HUNDERTWASSER hundred waters IGEL hedgehog KAFER beetle KASEBIER cheese beer KATZENELLENBOGEN cat's elbows KERAUS clean out KNOBLAUCH garlic KRATZER scratcher KREBS crab KUCKUCK cuckoo PILZ mushroom QUADFLIEG nasty fly REHFUSS deerfoot ROSWAENGE rosy cheek ROTHFUSS red foot RUSSWORM soot worm (a blacksmith) SAFT juice SALPETER saltpeter SALZ salt SAMMET velvet SAMSTAG Saturday SCHADE what a pity SCHADEL skull SCHAAF,SCHAF,SCHAFF sheep SCHALK rascal SCHARFSPITZ sharp point SCHAUFFEL shovel SCHAUM foam SCHEMEL footstool SCHERTZ joke SCHEU shyness SCHIMMELPFENNIG moldy penny (miser) SCHMALTZ lard SCHOCK shock SCHOLL clod SCHON beautiful SCHRECK fright SCHWAMM sponge, fungus SCHWEINFEST pig festival SEEHASE sea hare (the lumpfish) SENF mustard SOMMER sununer SONNABEND Saturday SONNTAG Sunday TAUSENTTEUFEL thousand devils TEUFEL devil TRINKAUS drink up:>llows was KUSSMAUL kiss mouth TRUMP trump, Jew's harphas a LANGHALS long neck UNGEHEUER monsteriously - quite I LIEBESKIND love child UNREIN unclean over the , LUSTGARTEN pleasure garden WALFISCH whale her different MAUS mouse WEICHBRODT soft breadavorite German MITTWOCH Wednesday WINTER winter om a place MONTAG Monday WISSGOTT God knowsbochi of MORGENSCHWEISS morning sweat ZICKEFOOSE goat foot NACKTGEBOREN born naked ZIPFEL tip, point PFLUGHAUPT plow head ZITTERBARTH tremble beardtories, 

Whimsical German Surnames

http://digitalcommons.butler.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4033&context=wordways

Whimsical German Surnames

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Digital Commons @ Butler University