German-American Names [Paperback]

This is an A-Z dictionary of German-American names with the spellings, meanings, and variants of about 15,000 names. The lengthy introduction discusses the development of German names, name sources, name variations, and some of the special characteristics of German-American names. Here is explained the meanings of names borne today by Americans which derive from the German language or its dialects. It also deals with the Americanization of some of these names, explaining the social and historical matters that contributed to the distinctive character of German-American names. And it deals as well with names many of us would never have thought of as German. The vast amount of information on German-American names in this work is unequaled in any other book on this subject. This second edition is fifty pages longer than the previous edition and has several thousand more entries.