Last Names question

[Charla]

You don't need to say WHAT your last name is if you don't want, but I know a lot of us have names from all over the world, and I'm curious.

What does your last name mean? Do you understand it in your language, or have you had to have people explain it to you?

My maiden name was very clear: Goodberry. When people asked how to spell it, I'd tell them "it's like the tasty fruit" :giggle:
My new name is Virkler. It's German, but I have no idea what it means. (German-speaking Chickies, can you fill me in??)

How about everyone else??

[AndreaBurns]

My maiden name was Lopez... just a very common hispanic ln. I'd tell people "It's the same as Smith or Jones in English" :giggle:

My married name is Burns... which is Scotts/ Irish for "by the small creek".

[JCSimon]

My maiden name was Cole - just a plain old English name. Our claim to fame is that our first ancestor in the US came in on the ship *after* the Mayflower and (gee, what a surprise!) opened the first tavern in the New World. :)

My married name is Simon and I have no idea where it's from. My husband is Jewish and I suspect Simon was shortened from something Polish.

[Vervegirl]

My maiden name was Salmeier {pronounced SAUL-myer} and I was told as a child it was German for salt miner, although I just believed my parents on blind faith on that one! No one could ever spell it or pronounce it, so I thought I'd traded up when I got married. There's actually only a handful of Salmeier's in the world now... a dying name. My brother is the last hope to carry on our leg of the family.

My married name is Tilman, but I have no idea where it came from or what it means. With my parents' logic, maybe hubbie's ancestors were tile men... or tillers of the field! :giggle:

[ccouch]

Maiden name was Walker. Hmmm....meaning one who likes to go forth on feet? I have no idea.

Married name is Couch, i.e. sofa, divan.... It is amazing to me how many people goof this one up. I get "cooooch," "crouch," "cooo-shay." Seriously, people. It's not hard. Couch. And, no, you can't sit on me.:rotfl:

[Charla]

Christine, I'm guilty of thinking it's Coooch, even though I know better :oops: I'm really not sure why, though, because it's pretty obvious how it should be said!

Speaking of mispronounced, I'm always hearing Vickler instead of Virkler. From Jasmine is one thing; the two Rs is hard. But it really isn't Vickler!! (or burglar :rotfl:)

[EliseH]

My maiden name was DeArton-- that's DEE-ART-ON-- and it was mispronounced pretty much any time anyone said it. Combine that with Elise, which is EE-LEESE, not L-C, and I spent my unmarried years constantly correcting my name.

BUT! Isn't Elise DeArton a very cool frenchy name if you say it right? I have some French royalty in my bloodlines somewhere, but no one is calling me "Your Majesty" around here. Maybe I should start demanding that? http://www.forumice.com/images/smilies/crown.gif

I still get L-C, but just have to say "E" when people say "is it 'e-n' or 'o-n'?" for Hansen.

My husband's great grandfather was originally named Aamodt (pronounced OH-MAHT), but he changed his name to Hansen to sound more American. Bummer-- Elise Aamodt is kind of cool, too.

[brookcampbell]

I'm a Campbell....we are Scottish Americans

[Dani Alencar]

Ok... Now I'm curious... all the names in the US are supposed to mean something? Because here in Brazil we have a lot that t mean nothing at now... (as much as I'm concerned). Here in Brazil we usually have 2 last names... one that comes from the mother and one that comes from the father... So my full name is Daniella Moraes de Alencar... and bothe Moraes and Alencar are Portuguese names... here in Brazil we have a lot of Spanish and Portuguese and Italian names...

[Charla]

Dani, as far as I know, most last names meant something at some point, but often it's from a different language so the meaning gets lost or forgotten.
In Turkey the names were always pretty easy to figure out: Lightning, Son of a Soup Maker, etc.
And a lot of the common American names are pretty easy, too: Johnson is son of John; Peterson, Hudson, Masterson, Dobson...all mean "son of _____".
But we have so many international names, it makes things harder to know and understand (and pronounce) :giggle:

[Dani Alencar]

It's nice to know!

[emarina]

My maiden name is Rendón. My family is originally from Mexico and we pronouce it literally (exactly as it sounds in Spanish). I've been told it is French in origin, but I don't know the meaning or pronounciation. My new last name is Cutterback, its Native American. I don't know if it has another meaning other than the literal one. All of the Cutterbacks in the US are related to my husband (not too many), but there are more Cutterbacks (no relation that we know of) in Canada, around Toronto I believe. My husband's family is originally from upstate New York. If anyone has additional info, I'd love to hear! :)

[jjstar]

My maiden name is Hout (H-out). I was always having to spell it for people growing up. I never really understood it. It is a German name but I'm not sure what it actually stands for...good point of discussion for my dad when he comes to visit next week!

Married name is Jarvis; which is also of German origin. Hubby has some family that has done research. I just reminded him to ask about it. Thanks for the reminder!!

[chloe]

My last name is Marcanti, it's italian. My mom did some genealogy for my dad's family so I have a lot of infos about it. It was originally MErcanti, which means "merchants", and it's funny to see that many people think it's mErcanti still today (and can't send me e-mails because of this mistake! LOL) At one point, the church records and the town records are different: one baby got recorded as Mercanti in one of them and the other as Marcanti... and Marcanti finally "survived".

What is fun is that my great great grandfather went to the US with all his kids, and my great grand father came back to Europe but his brothers and sisters stayed in the US. Well, one of them changed his name from Marcanti to Mac Canta because, at that time (early 20th century) it was easier to find a job as a scottish or irish immigrant than as an italian one!

We actually discovered we had some relatives in the US through one of those Mac Canta who did some genealogical research and discovered the original name of his family. He also found out that one of the children came back to Europe, found out in which country (Switzerland) and which town, looked out for that name in the phone book and found my grandparents. My grandfather had already passed away but my grandma was still alive. He called one day, and luckily it was a day when I was there, because my grandma didn't speak english and she already had memory issues, so she wouldn't have been able to remember the phone call. That's how we started to talk and we ended up visiting them twice. Long stoy, but I love it!! LOL

[jjstar]

Chloe, that is some great information! I wish I knew more about my family. I might just need to add that to my list of projects for the summer!

[MariKoegelenberg]

My maiden name is Hout (H-out). I was always having to spell it for people growing up. I never really understood it. It is a German name but I'm not sure what it actually stands for...good point of discussion for my dad when he comes to visit next week!

Hout = Wood (or it does in my language!) lol!

My Maiden Name was Kruger (I have no idea what it stands for except it is the same as our very first president Paul Kruger...the Kruger Rand...if any of you has ever heard about it!) My married name is Koegelenberg ( pronounced: Co-Gul-en-Burg) it is kind of funny...the poor sales clerks always stumble over it and I must admit I do feel sorry for them, not an easy one to pronounce at all! :giggle:

[Charla]

Hout = Wood (or it does in my language!) lol!

My Maiden Name was Kruger (I have no idea what it stands for except it is the same as our very first president Paul Kruger...the Kruger Rand...if any of you has ever heard about it!) My married name is Koegelenberg ( pronounced: Co-Gul-en-Burg) it is kind of funny...the poor sales clerks always stumble over it and I must admit I do feel sorry for them, not an easy one to pronounce at all! :giggle:

Not easy to spell, either :giggle: I think I've butchered it more than once when writing credits :cover:

Chloe, that is so cool!! :good: I love learning things like that about family, don't you?

[chloe]

My married name is Koegelenberg ( pronounced: Co-Gul-en-Burg) it is kind of funny...the poor sales clerks always stumble over it and I must admit I do feel sorry for them, not an easy one to pronounce at all! :giggle:

Hehehe... I love when we get phonecalls to sell stuff: when I'm in a bad mood (because they call at 9pm on a Saturday... seriously!) I use the fact that they mispronounce my name (or DBF's, which is terrible also) to end up the call with a "Learn to speak my name and maybe I'll listen to your speech then!". I know, I'm mean! :giggle: LOL

[MariKoegelenberg]

Want to know what is mean...Oh I feel bad even posting this but when I get those annoying calls I end up speaking in my own language so they dont understand me and they finally hang up!!! :giggle: usually makes my day! :)

[cherpea]

thats not bad Mari... drat I wish I could speak another language fluently!!!! I could use that one...

the last call we got like that I got three in the same day which was totally bugging me specially since they all came in the hour between 5.30 and 6.30 pm... what are you doing at that time of night if you have kids? getting dinner for heavens sake... instead I got three annoying calls and two of them asked if I owned my own home... to which I replied "No I don't the bank does... go hound them!" and it wasn't said with a friendly smile in my voice either!

[Charla]

:rotfl: Cheryl!

Mari, I did that all the time in Turkey. But I never got sales calls (at least I don't think so :giggle:) I just pretended I didn't speak any Turkish at all, saying "hello? hello?" until they hung up :rotfl:

[jjstar]

Hout = Wood (or it does in my language!) lol!


What language do you speak again (in addition to English)???? The totally funny party about it meaning wood is that my dad was a woodshop teacher growing up and now has a show on the DYI channel teaching woodturning. :teehee:

[MariKoegelenberg]

I speak Afrikaans but it is a mixture of Dutch, German and believe it or not English as well. :giggle:

[Charla]

I knew Afrikaans was close to Dutch, but I didn't realize it was a mixture of three languages!! crazy :giggle: