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The Family Name Schweigler
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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).
Spanish-speaking countries
In
medieval times, a patronymic system similar to the one still used in
Iceland emerged. For example, Álvaro, the son of Rodrigo would
be named Álvaro Rodríguez. His son, Juan, would not be
named Juan Rodríguez, but Juan Álvarez.
Over time, many of these patronymics became family names and are some
of the most common names in the Spanish-speaking world. Other sources
of surnames are personal appearance or habit, e.g. Delgado ("thin") and
Moreno ("tan"); occupations, e.g. Molinero ("miller") and Guerrero
("warrior"); and geographic location or ethnicity, e.g. Alemán
("German").
However, nowadays in Spain and in many Spanish-speaking
countries
(former Spanish colonies, e.g. Philippines, Mexico, Guatemala,
Colombia, Peru, Chile, Venezuela), most people have two surnames,
although in some situations only the first is used. The first surname
is the paternal one, inherited from the father's paternal surname. The
second surname is the maternal one, inherited from the mother's
paternal surname. (As an example, Mexican boxer Marco Antonio Barrera's
full name is Marco Antonio Barrera Tapia,
though Barrera is the only one used in general conversation.) In Spain,
a new law approved in 1999 allows an adult to change the order of
his/her surnames, and parents can also change the order of their
children's surnames if they agree (if one of their children is at least
12 years old they need his/her agreement too). [6] (Link in Spanish)
Depending
on the country, the surnames may or may not be linked by the
conjunction y ("and"), i ("and", in Catalonia), de ("of") and de la
("of the", when the following word is feminine). However, in many South
American countries, people have now adopted the English-speaking custom
of having a single surname (e.g., in Argentina).
Sometimes a new father transmits his complete surname by creating a new
one, combining his two surnames, e.g., the paternal surname of the son
of Javier (given name) Reyes (paternal surname) de la Barrera (maternal
surname) may become the new paternal surname Reyes de la Barrera.
At
present in Spain,
women upon marrying keep their two family names. In certain rare
situations, especially the nobility, she may be addressed as if her
maternal surname had been replaced with her husband's paternal surname,
often linked with de. For example, a woman named Ana García
Díaz, upon marrying Juan Guerrero Macías, could be called
Ana García de Guerrero. This custom, begun in medieval times, is
decaying and only has legal validity in Ecuador, Guatemala, Peru and
Panama. In Peru, women normally conserve all last names after getting
married. For example, if Rosa María Pérez Mártinez
marries Juan Martín De La Cruz Gómez, she will be called
Rosa María Pérez Mártinez de De La Cruz, and if
the husband passes away, she will be called Rosa María
Pérez Mártinez Vda. de De La Cruz
(Vda. is the abbreviation for Viuda, "widow" in Spanish). In Ecuador, a
couple can choose the order of their children's surnames. Most choose
the traditional order (e.g., Guerrero García in the example
above), but some invert the order, putting the mother's paternal
surname first and the father's paternal surname last (e.g.,
García Guerrero from the example above). Such inversion, if
chosen, must be maintained for all the children.
In Argentina
only one surname, the father's paternal surname, is commonly used and
registered, as in English-Speaking countries. Women, however, do not
change their surname upon marriage and continue to use their maiden
name instead of their husband's last name.
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