|
|
The Family Name Schweigler
|
 |
|
|
Is the correct Schweigler only written with "ei" ?
A family name, surname, or last name is the part of a
person's name that
indicates to what family he or she belongs. The use of
family names today is
widespread in cultures around the world; each culture has
its own rules as to
how these names are applied and used. In practice, many
modern societies
no longer require that a family, or surname explicitly
indicate family relationship,
allowing parents and individuals to select the surname
according to personal
taste, if desired.
Schweigler Variants:
Schwaigl
Schwaigle
Schwaigler
Schwegeler
Schwegl
Schwegle
Schwegler
Schweigl
Schweigla
Schweigle
Schweigler
Schweiglova
Genreal Overview
The word surname is name prefixed by the French word sur
(meaning "on"), which derives from Latin super ("over" or
"above"), meaning "additional name." As early as the 14th
century it was also found spelled as sirname or sirename
(suggesting that it meant "man's name" or "father's name")
due to folk etymology.
The use of family names varies among cultures. In
particular, Icelanders, Tibetans, Burmese, and Javanese
often do not use a family name — well-known people lacking
a family name include U Thant (Burmese), Suharto and
Sukarno (see Indonesian names), and Dilber (Uyghur, a
Turkic language). Also, many royal families do not use
family names.
In some cultures, a woman's family name traditionally
changes upon marriage, although few countries mandate such
a change. Other modern options include combining both
family names, changing neither name, or creating a new
name, e.g. combining letters of previous surnames or
creating a pseudonym unrelated to the previous surnames.
In English-, Dutch-, German-, French- and
Scandinavian-speaking countries, people often have two or
more given names, and the family name goes at the end.
(Occasionally a surname is called the "second name", which
can be confused with a middle name.) In Spain and Hispanic
areas, people have one or more given names and two family
names, one from the father and one from the mother. In
Italy, people may have one or more given names, no middle
name, and a family name. In the Portuguese-speaking
countries, people can have one or two given names and from
one up to four family names taken from the father and/or
from the mother.
Surnames used to be taken from the towns or villages that
people lived in.
History
The oldest use of family or surnames is unclear. Surnames
have arisen in cultures with large, concentrated
populations where single names for individuals become
insufficient to uniquely identify them. In many cultures
the practice of using additional descriptive terms in
identifying individuals arose. These descriptors might
indicate personal attributes, location of origin,
occupation, parentage, or clan affiliation. Often these
descriptors developed into fixed clan identifications
which became family names in the sense that we know them
today.
In China, according to legend, family names originate
with Emperor Fu Xi in 2852 BC. His administration
standardized the naming system in order to facilitate the
census. In Japan family names were uncommon except in the
aristocracy until the 19th century.
In Ancient Greece during some periods it became common to
use place of origin as a part of their official
identification. At other times clan names and patronymic
names ("son of") were also common. For example, Alexander
the Great was known by the clan name Heracles and
therefore Heracleides(as a supposed descendant of
Heracles) and the dynastic name Karanos/Caranus referring
to the founder of the dynasty. In none of these cases,
though, were these names considered formal parts of the
person's name nor were they explicitly inherited in the
manner which is common in many cultures today. They did
however survice with a vengeance as clan names as 'Greeks'
or 'Hellenes' or 'Minoans' as opposed to the toponimic
'The Sea Peoples' used by the Egyptians or 'Ionians' which
is one of the names still used for the Greeks today by
Arab-speaking people as 'Younanis'.
In the Roman Empire clan/family names became very
standardized. At the beginning they were not strictly
inherited in the way that family names are inherited in
many cultures today. Eventually, though, family names
began to be used in a manner similar to most modern
European societies. With the gradual influence of
Greek/Christian culture throughout the Empire the use of
formal family names declined.
By the time of the fall of the Western Roman Empire in
the 5th century, family names were uncommon in the Eastern
Roman (i.e. Byzantine) Empire. In Western Europe where
Germanic culture dominated the aristocracy, family names
were almost non-existent. They would not significantly
reappear again in Eastern Roman society until the 10th
century, apparently influenced by the familial
affiliations of the Armenian military aristocracy. The
practice of using family names spread through the Eastern
Roman Empire and gradually into Western Europe although it
was not until the modern era that family names came to be
explicitly inherited in the way that they are today. Note
that in the case of the English, the most accepted theory
of the origin of family names in England is their
introduction to the Normans and the Domesday Book of 1086.
German-speaking countries
There are about 1,000,000 different family names in
German. German family names most often derive from given
names, occupational designations, bodily attributes or
geographical names. Hyphenations notwithstanding, they
mostly consist of a single word; in those rare cases that
the family name is linked to the given names by particles
such as von or zu, they usually indicate noble ancestry.
Family names in German-speaking countries are usually
positioned last, after all given names. There are
exceptions, however: In parts of Austria and the
Alemannic-speaking areas, the family name is regularly put
in front of the first given name. Also in many -
especially rural - parts of Germany, to emphasize family
affiliation there is often an inversion in colloquial use,
in which the family name becomes a possessive: Rüters
Erich, for example, would be Erich of the Rüter
family.
In Germany today, upon marriage both partners can choose
to keep their birth name or one of them can adopt a
hyphenated name of their birth names (the latter case is
forbidden for both partners and for the last names of
children), or one of them can switch to their partner's
name (if the partner keeps it). After that, they must
decide on one family name for all their future children,
by pretty much the same rules. (German name)
Changing one's family name for reasons other than
marriage, divorce or adoption is only possible in Germany
if the applicant can prove that they suffer
extraordinarily due to their name.
English-speaking countries
In Britain, hereditary surnames were adopted in the 13th
and 14th centuries, initially by the aristocracy but
eventually by everyone. By 1400, most English people and
Scottish people had acquired surnames, but many Highland
Scots and Welsh people didn't adopt surnames until the
17th century, or later.
Most surnames of British origin fall into six types:
- Occupations (e.g., Smith, Archer, Baker, Dyer, Walker,
Woodman)
- Personal characteristics (e.g., Short, Brown,
Whitehead, Long)
- Geographical features (e.g., Hill, Lee, Wood, Fields)
- Place names (e.g., London, Hamilton, Sutton, Flint,
Laughton)
- For those descended from land-owners, the name of
their holdings, manor or estate
- Patronymics and ancestry, often from a male's given
name (e.g., Richardson, Williams, Johnson) or from a
clan name (for those of Scottish origin, e.g.,
MacDonald, Forbes) with "Mac" Scottish Gaelic for son.
The original meaning of the name may no longer be obvious
in modern English (e.g., a Cooper is one who makes
barrels, and the name Tillotson is a matronymic from a
diminutive for Matilda). A much smaller category of names
relates to religion, though some of this category are also
occupations. The names Bishop, Priest, or Abbot, for
example, usually indicate that an ancestor worked for a
bishop, a priest, or an abbot, respectively.
In the Americas, the family names of many
African-Americans have their origins in slavery. Many of
them came to bear the surnames of their former owners.
Many freed slaves either created family names themselves
or else adopted the name of their former master. Others,
such as Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X, changed their name
rather than live with one they believed had been given to
their ancestors by a slave owner.
It has long been the patriarchal tradition for women to
change their surname upon marriage from their birth name
(or maiden name) to their husband's last name. From the
first known instance of a woman keeping her birth name,
Lucy Stone in the 19th century, there has been a general
increase in the rate of women keeping their original name.
This has gone through periods of flux, however, and the
1990s saw a decline in the percentage of name retention
among women. As of 2004, roughly 60% of American women
automatically assumed their husband's surname upon getting
married.[citation needed] Even in families where the wife
has kept her birth name, parents often choose to give
their children their father's family name. In
English-speaking countries, married women traditionally
have been called Mrs. [Husband's full name], although this
practice is now outdated and has been replaced by a title
of Mrs. [Wife's first name] [Husband's surname].
In the Middle Ages, when a man from a lower status family
married an only daughter from a higher status family, he
would take the wife's family name. In the 18th and 19th
centuries in Britain, bequests were sometimes made
contingent upon a man changing (or hyphenating) his name,
so that the name of the legator continued. Although it is
rare for English-speaking men to take the name of their
wives, some men still choose to do so (such as among
Canadian aboriginal groups) or, increasingly common in the
United States, a married couple may choose a new last name
entirely.
As an alternative, both the husband and wife may adopt a
double-barrelled name. For instance, when John Smith and
Mary Jones marry each other, they may become known as John
Smith-Jones and Mary Smith-Jones. However, some consider
the extra length of the hyphenated names undesirable. A
wife may also opt to use her maiden name for her middle
name, giving her the option of referring to herself as
either Mrs. Smith or Mary Jones Smith. An additional
option is when the spouses adopt a last name derived from
an aesthetically pleasing combination of the prior names,
such as "Simones".
In some jurisdictions, a woman's legal name used to
change automatically upon marriage. Although women may now
easily choose to change to their married name, that change
is no longer the default. In some places, civil rights
lawsuits or constitutional amendments changed the law so
that men could also easily change their married names
(e.g., in British Columbia and California).[4] (Note: many
Anglophone countries are also common-law countries.)
Many women choose to change their name when they marry,
while others don't. There are many reasons why women
maintain their surname. One is that the female surname
disappears throughout generations, while the male surname
survives. By keeping their surname and passing that name
down to the next generation, the female surname (and its
heritage) may also survive. Another reason is if the
women's surname is well known due to their family
heritage, she may choose to keep her surname. Yet another
is the identity crisis women may experience when giving up
their surname. Women in academia, for example, who have
previously published articles in academic journals under
their maiden name often don't change their surname after
marriage, in order to ensure that they continue to receive
credit for their past and future work. This practice is
also common among female physicians, attorneys, and other
professionals, as well as celebrities for whom continuity
is important. Though the practice of women maintaining
their surname after marriage is increasing, it hasn't
caught on in the general population. A possible reason is
due to the difficulty of distinguishing such a married
couple from one who is cohabiting without asking them
directly, and the associated stigma that may result.
Spelling of names in past centuries is often assumed to
be a deliberate choice by a family, but due to very low
literacy rates the reality is that many families could not
provide the spelling of their surname, and so the scribe,
clerk, minister, or official would write down the name on
the basis of how it was spoken. This results in many
variations, some of which occurred when families moved to
another country. The officially-recorded spellings tended
to become the standard for that family.
French-speaking countries
French-speaking countries have many similarities to
English-speaking ones in the way family names are used. In
France and the Canadian province of Quebec, name change
upon marriage is no longer automatic. Those who wish to
change their name upon marriage must follow the same legal
procedure as would be used under any other circumstance.
In France, until January 1, 2005, children were required
by law to take the surname of their father. From this
date, article 311-21 of the French Civil code permits
parents to give their children either the name of their
father, mother, or a hyphenation of both - although no
more than two names can be hyphenated. In cases of
disagreement the father's name applies [5]. This brought
France into line with a 1978 declaration by the Council of
Europe requiring member governments to take measures to
adopt equality of rights in the transmission of family
names, a measure that was echoed by the United Nations in
1979. Similar measures were adopted by Germany (1976),
Sweden (1982), Denmark (1983) and Spain (1999).
Furthermore, in French Canada, up until the late 1960s,
children of Roman Catholic origin were given three names
at birth (usually not hyphenated): the first, Marie or
Joseph, usually indicated the gender of the child. The
second was usually the name of the godfather or godmother,
while the third and last given name was the name used in
everyday situations. Thus, a child prenamed Joseph Bruno
Jean on his birth or baptismal certificate would indicate
the baby to be a boy, the godfather's first name to be
Bruno and that the child would be called Jean (and not
Joseph) for all intents and purposes of everyday life.
This naming convention was in the most part dropped
following the Quiet Revolution (late 1960s), and is now
seen much more rarely. Currently, most couples give the
child the surname of the father, though Quebec civil code
allows a couple to combine at most two of their surnames,
with or without hyphens. Thus a couple named Joseph
Bouchard-Tremblay and Marie Dion-Roy could give to their
children the surnames Bouchard, Tremblay, Dion, Roy,
Bouchard-Tremblay, Dion-Roy, Bouchard-Dion, Bouchard-Roy,
etc. Until the late 1800s, several families also had a
"nom-dit" tradition. This was a family nickname (literally
a "said name"). The origins of the noms-dits were various.
Some noms-dits were the warname of the first settler,
while he was a soldier: Hébert dit Jolicoeur
(Pretty Heart, cf. Braveheart), Thomas dit Tranchemontagne
(mountain chopper). Some denoted the place of origin of
the first settler: Langevin (Anjou), Barbeau dit Poitevin
(Poitou). Others probably denoted a characteristic of the
person or of his dwelling: Lacourse, Lépine,
Larivière.
According to some estimations, there would be some
900,000 surnames in France (not all of French origin).
External links
|
