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Archiver > GEN-DE > 1996-07 > 0836670339


From: <>
Subject: Re: Weckbacher/Veckbacker
Date: Sat, 6 Jul 1996 16:25:39 GMT


() wrote:

>From: (Ernest Thode)
>Subject: Re: Weckbacher/Veckbacker

>Joe Weckbacher () writes:
>> Currently dispute amongst family members is the correct spelling,
>> and meaning, of surname. My German friend, Helmar, tells me it
>> is bread baker as in, Weck, and ends in ker not her; with an umlatt
>> over the a. Another native German friend tells me Helmar may be wrong
>> and the spelling and meaning may vary with place from whence my
>> forefathers came. If Hannover be that place, what be that spelling and
>> meaning?
>>
>> Thanks

>The WECKBACHERs here in Washington County, Ohio, near Marietta, come from
>Gersprenz near Reichelsheim, Hesse-Darmstadt. The spelling here in this
>area is definitely WECKBACHER. VECK- would be pronounced differently in
>German than WECK-; the V would be pronounced like an F: FECK-.

>The suffix -BACHER on surnames comes from place names ending in -bach.
>The original WECKBACHER got his name from a place called Weckbach. I
>suspect the brook was fairly loud, one that would wake people up (from the
>German _wecken", meaning "to wake(n)."

>The suffix -BECKER on surnames comes from the occupation _Ba"cker_,
>meaning "baker." There are some compounds with -BECKER such as
>PFANNENBECKER (one who bakes in a pan), which becomes garbled into
>PENNYPACKER in Pennsylvania, and STUTENBECKER (one who bakes a kind of
>bread called Stuten, which my mother baked when I was a child), which
>becomes garbled into STUDEBAKER, which at least my generation will
>recognize as a make of automobile named after a person, like FORD or
>CHRYSLER. But these compound surnames are _much_ less common than
>surnames with -BACHER. And I don't have a meaning for _Weck_ that would
>make sense in WECKBECKER; perhaps there is a regional type of bread called
>"Weck" that I don't know about, though.

>Ernest THODE, Washington County Public Library, Marietta, OH 45750

>--
>Ernest Thode, Washington County Public Library,
>Marietta, OH 45750-1973
>
>--
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