German names are notoriously difficult to decipher. Between the (at times questionable) handwriting, numerous spelling variations, and general transcription challenges like smudges or tears in a page, German records do not make it easy to determine what a last name really is.
If you’re able to decipher someone’s last name despite all these challenges, your difficulties still may not be over. It’s little wonder that Mark Twain once argued that “the inventor of the language seems to have taken pleasure in complicating it in every way he could think of.”[1]
In this article, we’ll focus on the patronymic system that formed German last names.
[1] Twain, Mark: The Awful German Language, 1880, https://faculty.georgetown.edu/jod/texts/twain.german.html
Patronymics
Generally speaking, a patronymic is a name derived from a father or other male ancestor. Patronymics were most commonly found in the Schleswig-Holstein and Ostfriesland areas in northern Germany, perhaps influenced by their Danish neighbors. If your records are from these parts of Germany, there’s a high likelihood that you’ve encountered patronymics – but you may see them in other areas as well.
Figure 1: Ostfriesland and Schleswig-Holstein in the 19th century
How are patronymics formed?
Patronymics are created using a man’s first name + a suffix. The most common patronymic suffixes are -en / -ens, -s, -sen, and -i.[2]
Suffix | Notes | Examples |
-en | -en was used with names that ended with a vowel or the consonants -t, -s, or -z | Otten (from Otto), Kürten (Kurt), Hansen (Hans) |
-s | -s is based on the genitive ending (which indicates possession) in German | Peters (from Peter), Burns (Burn), Eilerts (Eilert) |
-sen | -sen follows the Danish model of adding -sen “son” at the end of a name | Johannes (from Johann), Paulsen (Paul), Carlsen (Carl) |
-i | -i is a Latin variant. | Pauli (from Paul), Wilhelmi (Wilhelm), Jakobi (Jakob) |
So, if a man named Johann had a son named Jakob, the son would be called Jakob Johannsen (aka Heinrich son of Johann).
[2] Baker, Theola Walden: Internal Dialectical Clues in German Surnames, 2005, http://www.mstonegenealogy.org/dialectical.html
Potential Problems with Patronymics
The problem with patronymics is that they change from generation to generation. Continuing with Johann and Jakob from above, if Jakob Johannsen had a son, the child’s patronymic would not be Johannsen, but it would change to Jakobsen. This change would continue with each subsequent generation, making it difficult to keep track of family connections from an administrative perspective.
In Schleswig-Holstein, decrees were passed in 1771, 1820, and 1822 that required its subjects to adopt a permanent hereditary surname. As you can probably gather from the multiple dates, people were reluctant to discontinue using patronymics, especially in the villages, so several decrees were needed. In Ostfriesland, a decree was issued in 1811.
While the patronymic naming system was undoubtedly difficult administratively in the 18th and 19th centuries, it can become a downright headache for modern-day genealogists because of two key issues:
1. The changing of surnames with each generation makes it difficult to locate the christening record of a person and to establish the names of the parents.
- The constant repetition of given names can result in two or more Jens Nissens, for example, being born to different Nis Petersens in the same parish and in the same time period.”[3]
Luckily, Jensen also provides a recommendation for how to overcome these hurdles – spoiler alert, there’s no quick solution. He stated, “To resolve this type of research problem, you must use the process of elimination in order to determine and verify you own ancestor and eliminate the others.”[4] This process of elimination can be done using baptismal, death, and marriage records.
- Use baptismal records of siblings to determine the mother’s name.
- Use death records to eliminate those with the same name that died before or after the person in question died.
- Use marriage records to eliminate those with the same name who married earlier or later and married someone other than the person in question.
Patronymic suffixes only scratch the surface of what meaning lies behind a last name. Surnames could also reveal where someone was from, an occupation, or even their gender. So, what’s in a German last name? Turns out a lot of information!
[3] Jensen, Larry O: Naming Practices. A Genealogical Handbook of German Research, 1980, p 39.
[4] Ibid. p 40.
Additional Resources
If you want to look up a specific last name to try and determine its meaning, there are some great resources online. If you are curious about the meanings of the surnames that you’re encountering in your document, there are some tremendous English-language resources online that can tell you a name’s meaning:
- Behind the Name: German Surnames
- Behind the Name: German Given Names
- German Surnames and their meanings
- Friesland specific resources
- The Genealoger has an entire page dedicated to German Name resources. Note that it contains a mix of German- and English-language resources that are either print or online.
2 Responses
Great resources! Thanks so much!
Glad they could help!