For information on the Soundex, see the Soundex article in the FamilySearch Research Wiki. German Surnames in America BECKER - BAKER ZIMMERMANN - CARPENTER SCHWARZ - BLACK KLEIN - LITTLE The American Santa Claus as well as the British and Anglo-Canadian Father Christmas draw on his legend. Few of the latter are on the following list, but examples include Brinkmann, Berger, and Frank. Often an ancestor’s name is distorted in such ways that even at close analysis it is difficult to find a German origin in it. Thomas is a common surname of English, Welsh, Irish, Scottish, French, German, Dutch, and Danish origin.. For instance, in eastern Pennsylvania, early-day officials who were Scotch-Irish translated German names ending in –bach to –baugh. Some of the most common last names that are unforgettable are Graf, Einstein, Becker, Kahn, Klose, Ballack, Bach, and so on. Do you know what an “umlaut” is? Adalbert, Low German) BRAND (2) German From Old High German brant "fire", originally a name for a person who lived near an area that had been cleared by fire. Therefore, the German name Strasbach became Strasbaugh, and Richardsbach became Rickbaugh. Some 50 million people there are primarily of German descent. 26). The acronyms OHG and MHG stand for Old High German and Middle High German, respectively. An “umlaut” a “double dot” mark over a vowel, to indicate a more fronted or rounded pronunciation. Ancestors from Southern Germany (Württemberg, Pfalz) came before immigrants from Saxony and Westphalia. “Wherever there was an obvious near-equivalent in English to the German surname, American officials were likely to use it, with or without the permission of the bearer; thus, Schmidt-Schmied-Schmitz usually was recorded as Smith, Müller-Möller became Miller, Braun became Brown.” This practice was especially true for Germans immigrating in the 18th century. The list was initially created by searching for the most common last names in German telephone books. Read on and find out more about the German surnames. This is in response to the post of Gwynne Geyer. This list is different than one showing popular German surnames with their English translations. If a German moved onto someone else's farm, it was not uncommon to change his last name to that of the farm. It is a toponymic name referring to people who originally came from the city of Aachen in … Many German surnames are self-explanatory as they were derived from people’s jobs. The Davises were born, ca 1790s, in Charles Co., MD perhaps they were Germans who had migrated down from the Pennsylvania Dutch area? Your email address will not be published. Even with less transparent names, a lingering knowledge about the meaning of the family name is handed down from generation to generation in most families. Most German surnames derive either from archaic professions (such as Schmidt, Müller, Weber, or Schäfer) or places. His American name was Uno Byers. The largest single ethnicity/ancestry group in America is German. Jensen Ackles – actor. The meaning of surnames and linking them to traceable lines in ancestral homelands remains a complex issue for the family historian. It derives from the medieval personal name, of Biblical origin, from Aramaic תאומא t'om'a, a byname meaning 'twin'. German Americans (German: Deutschamerikaner, pronounced [ˈdɔʏ̯tʃʔameʁiˌkaːnɐ]) are Americans who have full or partial German ancestry. Achen. The following tables include all surnames with over 0.001% frequency in the US population during the 1990 census. According to the above table, from the 2000 Census, 17.11% of Americans have a surname among the top 100. BRAND (1) German, English Derived from the Germanic given name BRANDO or its Old Norse cognate BRANDR. Updated data Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Population Division, Population Analysis & Evaluation Staff There are some people in Germany whose last names are more popular than their first names. Actors. In some cases it may have originally denoted inhabitants of one of several places in Germany bearing the same name, such as ‘Nolle’ in Lower Saxony and ‘Noll‘ in Rheinland-Pfalz. Thus, when interpreting a family name, the preservation of the original pronunciation should be kept in mind. List of the least common surnames [last names] in America, rank 16,001-20,000 The following tables include all surnames with over 0.001% frequency in the US population during the 1990 census. Or derived from Old German "Brook" or "Brauk," for people near a marshy landscape, common in northern regions. Occasionally, surname charts surface that we cannot contribute to any one individual. A famous bearer of this surname was the German composer Johannes Brahms (1833-1897). October 8, 2014 Josiah Schmidt German Genealogy Tips. The table below includes the 1000 most common last names in America. If a German name was spelled awkwardly but the pronunciation was similar, names would change according to American spelling rules, such as Cook for Koch, Bower for Bauer, Myer for Meier, etc. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Another tricky thing about German last names: A last name could be what you would call a farm name. With an estimated size of approximately 44.2 million in 2018, German Americans are the largest of the self-reported ancestry groups by the United States Census Bureau in its American Community Survey. German Genealogy Tip #8: German Umlaut Names Became Double-Vowels in America. Because of this, German last names can be found throughout bordering countries, including Poland, Austria, France and Spain. This German surname derives from the Middle High German word ‘noll’ meaning ‘hill’. The most common German surname, Müller (miller), is shared by around 700,000 people. Surname A-G. Surname H-K. Surname L-R. Surname S-Z. She has a teaching degree and an M.A. ThoughtCo uses cookies to provide you with a great user experience and for our, German Last Names and Their English Meanings, The Meaning and Origin of Famous German Names, The History of Popular German Last Names (Nachnamen), A List of Common German Names for Boys and Girls, Everything you need to Know About German Names, German for Travelers: The Basic Travel Phrasebook, A German-English Glossary of Popular German Abbreviations, "Young Frankenstein" and Those Whinnying Horses, German First Names and Their English Equivalents, Difference Between Samstag, Sonnabend, and Sonntag, Learn How to Say the Days of the Week in German, Roy Black's Version of "Jingle Bells" in German. , in eastern Pennsylvania, early-day officials who were Scotch-Irish translated German names in. 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