[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Name translations

[rlyster at telusplanet.net]

Hi Miles,
  I noticed the name Boelter--can this also have evolved to Belter?
(my grandfather August Belter to Canada in 1929 from Mydzk)

Rita Lyster




Quoting Miles Ertman <milesertman at shaw.ca>:

> Oh my, and I was going to ask about the origins of the family names  
> in my ancestry:
> 
> Erdmann, Schmidt, Keller, Scheler (Schaeler), Kost (Kust), Borchert,  
> Leschert (Laeschert), Ehmke, Weschke (Waeschke), Rohr, Braun, Rosin,  
> Schendel, Neumann, Hintz, Fercho (Ferchau), Eschner, Arndt, Tiede,  
> Walter, Zentz, Nitz, Zuelse, Peters, Eppel (or Appelt), Boelter,  
> Jaenke, Doms, Littmann, Buk, Bris (or Brus), Rehl (or Roehl), Jobs,  
> Thom (or Tomse), Gienau, Frank, Grueger (or Groeger).
> 
> 
> Miles Ertman
> 
> 
> On 12-Oct-06, at 4:37 PM, Richard Benert wrote:
> 
> > Well, well.  I've certainly reaped a harvest of confusion from my  
> > little
> > seed of a question about my surname, "Boehnert"!  Let's see if I  
> > got it
> > straight.  First of all, my little seed was not a bean.  I had  
> > suspected
> > that the umlaut might be a problem for my bean-theory, and Otto  
> > confirmed
> > this. Otto thinks that I may be descended from the Celtic tribe of  
> > Baii,
> > living in Bohemia, and it's only the elimination of one down-stroke  
> > to an
> > "m" (to make it an "n") that distinguishes my clan from the Boehms  
> > and the
> > Boehmerts.   Or at least that's a possibility.
> >
> > Günther Boehm will have none of this, and I don't blame him.  An  
> > "n" not
> > only looks different from an "m"; it also sounds different.  I'd think
> > someone would have caught the mistake before a whole slew of Boehmerts
> > discovered that they were now being called Boehnerts.  I kind of  
> > like the
> > idea Günther offers that my name was originally Bernhard, the heart  
> > of a
> > bear.  Growwwlllll.   But then to use terms like "erosion" (even if  
> > it is
> > onomastical [and I have to admit I had look this up]} to explain  
> > how it
> > became "Benert" is also a bit hard on the familial ego.  But it is  
> > true, it
> > became Benert for at least one 17th-century Prussian peasant,  
> > although I've
> > found mostly Behnerts and Bohnerts, along with Boehnerts, in later  
> > Prussian
> > lists.  But I'm gratified somewhat by Günther's belief that the  
> > scribe who
> > "mistakenly" transformed the "e" into "oe" was rendering the name into
> > HOCHdeutsch!
> >
> > At this point an elephant enters the room, either being pushed or  
> > pulled by
> > Otto, depending on which end is the onomasiological and which the
> > semasiological.  I'm guessing that the head end is the onomasiological
> > (seeing things from the top down), while the other is the  
> > semasiological
> > (seeing things from the bottom up).   Otto is pushing the  
> > elephant.  The
> > elephant tells us that neither the top-down nor the bottoms-up  
> > approach can
> > see the whole animal.  Which is just about what I was thinking  
> > before the
> > beast came in and confirmed it.  Elephants can be very convincing.
> >
> > But then today a bird flew quietly into my study bearing a private  
> > message
> > from Irene (Kopetzki) König, who I hope will not mind if I share the
> > message:
> >
> > "Richard, [she says]
> > I'll quote from Max Gottschald's "Deutsche Namenkunde" of 1932.
> >
> > B O N: zu altnordisch bôn, angelsächsisch bên: "Bitte, Forderung".
> > Einfluß von lateinisch, bonus "gut". [Influence from Latin,  
> > bonus=good]
> > --
> > Example of names:
> >
> > B o n a r d: Bo(h)nard, Bonatz, Böhnhart, Böhnert, Bönet, Ponader  
> > [plus many
> > others]
> > --
> > Sorry that Gottschald's explanation may not be as nourishing as the
> > bean-grower version. But then, ich hatte kein Latein und mußte die
> > Bedeutung nachschlagen: bonus=gut=tüchtig=tauglich=brav, das ist ja  
> > auch
> > nichts, dessen man sich schämen müßte. [But then, I did not study  
> > Latin, and
> > had to look up the meanings:  bonus=good=competent=worthy, this is  
> > indeed
> > nothing to be ashamed of.]"
> >
> > The elephant then left, with the bird trying to decide which end to  
> > ride on.
> > I was left feeling pretty good about my family, until I remembered  
> > Otto's
> > parting thoughts:  "not knowing...confusion; and  
> > knowing...delusion".  Is my
> > "bonus" family merely a delusion, after all?  And then Otto reminds  
> > me that
> > I have also to take into account my mother's heritage, not to  
> > mention all
> > the others that have "halved" into the genetic structure.  So, to  
> > start
> > with, what is known about the name, Bartel?  Some of my uncles  
> > loved the
> > story about a left-behind Napoleonic soldier (it sounds French,  
> > after all),
> > but I don't believe it.
> >
> > Thanks to you three for your help!  And as you say, Otto, my  
> > exclamation
> > points are laden with emotion!  But as I often say when thoroughly  
> > confused,
> > "Oh, beans!".
> >
> > Dick Benert
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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> 
> 
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