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Key Takeaways
- German surnames often reveal an ancestor's job, location, parent's name, or a personal characteristic.
- Many of the most common names, like Müller (miller) and Schmidt (smith), originated from an ancestor's occupation.
- Spelling variations are common due to regional dialects, so your surname might have several different historical spellings.
Germans have been drawn to the United Kingdom for centuries. If you are one of the many British people with a German surname, it could well yield some interesting clues to your family history.
The most common form of German family name is occupational. It can often be identified by its ending: -er, -hauer, -macher, or man/-mann.
Often a person was distinguished by a reference to his or her father. This is referred to as “patronymic.”
Many German surnames are descriptive names based on a physical characteristic, such as size or hair colour.
Lastly, geographical names derive from where a person lived or came from. They may stem from the name of a city or village or the location of someone’s home.
What does your last name mean? Find out.
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