25
votes
Accepted
How to pronounce "Gröbner"?
The letters "ö" and "o" represent two different vowels, so "o" as in soft or ocean is not correct (both would be "o" in German, too), and the short "oo&...
- 28.2k
24
votes
Trying to decipher a German name
This is Sütterlin script (i.e., a later version of the Kurrent). Apart from that, I agree with @HalvarF that the text reads:
Erinnerung an Neapel
which translates to:
Memory of Naples.
Details
It ...
- 7,762
19
votes
Accepted
How should I read "Julius Wilhelm Richard Dedekind" in German?
This name is pronounced [ˈdeːdəˌkɪnt].
His whole name is "Julius Wilhelm Richard Dedekind", but he became known as "Richard Dedekind" which is pronounced [ˈʁɪçaʁt ˈdeːdəˌkɪnt]
...
- 126k
18
votes
Accepted
What is the 'mit A-Y' in 'ist dort die Firma Mayer mit A-Y'?
In ancient times, a Meier was a land agent (the administrator of an estate). The estate that he administrated was called Meierei.
Today many people have the name of this old profession as their ...
- 126k
17
votes
Is 'Th.' in a name the short form of Theodor?
Th as an abbreviation name can stand for many first names and is not explicitly intended for ONE first name. It can be for "Theodor", but it can also be "Thomas", "Thaddäus&...
- 2,260
16
votes
How to pronounce "Gröbner"?
HalvarF already said it in his answer: Letters with umlauts (ä, ö, ü) are distinct letters in German language. Historically they derived from the letters without dots, and there are still connections (...
- 126k
14
votes
Accepted
Warum gibt es keine traditionell deutschen* Vornamen, die mit "Sch" beginnen?
Namen verhalten sich grundsätzlich wie alle anderen Wörter, was die Etymologie betrifft. »Traditionell deutsche Vornamen« lassen sich einteilen in:
von Germanischen Vorläufern abgeleitete Namen
aus ...
- 38.9k
14
votes
Accepted
Indicate vowel hiatus in non-German family name
Comedian Bernhard Hoecker —pronounced Ho-ecker– doesn't want to be called Bernhard Höcker. As oe is also an alternative writing of ö. That's why he writes his name as Hoëcker. Though Höcker would be ...
- 64.6k
13
votes
Accepted
Wie spricht man den Namen Pahl aus?
The h after the a is a length marker. The h itself is silent. It marks only, that the vowel before it is a long vowel. So, you pronounce "Pahl" exactly the same way as "Paal": [...
- 126k
13
votes
Accepted
Is the name Alfred derived from Abraham?
That does not seem to be the usual derivation, but rather a compound of two old German words, 'alb' and 'rad' (according to Wikipedia or Wiktionary):
From Old English Ælfrǣd, from ælf (“elf”) and rǣd ...
- 11.9k
11
votes
How to pronounce Zoe(y), Lucy, Amy and Stella as German names?
The appropriate thing to do would be to ask them. People with "foreign" names often want their name pronounced differently than German-speakers might otherwise pronounce them.
- 4,458
11
votes
Is 'Th.' in a name the short form of Theodor?
In your example it's indeed short for Theodor Gabler.
Doctor theologiae is in short Dr. theol..
As @guidot pointed out in a comment: Any specification following Dr. is lower-case, as
rer. nat.
h.c....
- 9,120
11
votes
Was bedeutet „Feuchtwangen“ auf Englisch?
The problem with names is that long age often obscures their origin: The original meaning is lost or reinterpreted; changes in pronunciation and spelling occur.
The German Wikipedia entry for ...
- 27.3k
11
votes
Is the name Alfred derived from Abraham?
A lot of Jewish folks have a Hebrew name used in synagogue; often there is an English (or German, or French, etc.) name too. Sometimes it's a straight cognate -- "Joseph" for "Yosef&...
- 211
11
votes
Why is a definite article required here?
As soon as you're adding adjective attributes to a name, you need an article.
Frau Calvin hat mir das gesagt.
Die alte Frau Calvin hat mir das gesagt.
Die heute besonders auffallend frisierte Frau ...
- 28.2k
10
votes
How do you pronounce 'René', a German male given name, in German?
My first name is René. I call myself [ʁe:ˈne:] and most people default to this pronunciation even when they never spoke to me. Using the French pronunciation makes you sound smug. It's not commonly ...
- 227
10
votes
What is the 'mit A-Y' in 'ist dort die Firma Mayer mit A-Y'?
It's simply spelling out a and y for clarification.
That's done often with last names like Mayer, because there are many other common spellings of that name like e.g. Meier or Maier.
- 8,532
10
votes
Accepted
Pronunciation of "Dirichlet"
Wikipedia says there are two possible pronunciations for »Lejeune Dirichlet« (last name of Johann Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet):
[ləˈʒœn diʀiˈkleː]
[ləˈʒœn diʀiˈʃleː]
I do not speak french, so i ...
- 126k
10
votes
Accepted
Wie schreibt man polnische Namen? (Grzegorz Brzęczyszczykiewicz)
Es ist im professionellen Schriftsatz nicht üblich, Namen, die in der Ursprungssprache mit lateinischem Alphabet geschrieben werden, im Deutschen irgendwie anders zu schreiben als in der ...
- 31.2k
10
votes
Is 'Th.' in a name the short form of Theodor?
In Germany, the degree Doctor theologiae is abbreviated as Dr. theol. Here, Th. abbreviates the given name of Dr. Gabler, which could be, for example
Theodor
Theodora
Thomas
Theolen
Theobald
Thaddeus ...
- 22.9k
10
votes
What does Droßelmeier name mean in Hoffmann's The Nutcracker and the Mouse King?
As mentioned in other answers, Meier and its variations is a very common name. It is as ordinary as names like Smith or Farmer or Taylor in English, not unusual at all as the name of a real person or ...
- 101
10
votes
Accepted
Gottemeitschi is from which German language?
I speak the language, Gottemeitschi means goddaughter. Meitschi is a Term for Mädchen (Girl) commonly and specifically used around Bern. Most Swiss German speakers in northeastern Switzerland would ...
- 116
9
votes
Accepted
How to pronounce Zoe(y), Lucy, Amy and Stella as German names?
English names are pronounced the English way, just as you described. (Another example is Justin)
This is also true for most names from other languages. Just when such names contain consonants or ...
- 126k
9
votes
Accepted
Deutsche Entsprechung zu Karen?
Ich habe nicht den Eindruck, dass es das Phänomen in Deutschland oder Europa in wirklich vergleichbarer Form gibt.
Die typische "Karen" ist eine amerikanische weiße Generation-X- oder Boomer-...
- 28.2k
9
votes
Was bedeutet „Feuchtwangen“ auf Englisch?
The German Wikipedia entry to Feuchtwangen offers the etymology.
Der Name geht auf das Bestimmungswort fiuchta (Fichte) und das Grundwort -wang (Wiesenhang, Aue) zurück. Es liegt *Fiuhtinwanga (mit ...
- 18.6k
9
votes
What does Droßelmeier name mean in Hoffmann's The Nutcracker and the Mouse King?
Droßel
I'm not sure when the spelling »Droßel« was correct. I guess this must have been before 1876, this is the year in which German spelling was unified for the very first time. Since then the ...
- 126k
8
votes
Wilhelm II. und Ludwig XIV
... aber ich hätte Wilhelm den zweiten erwartet. Ist Wilhelm zwo einfach umgangssprachlich?
Ja, Wilhelm zwo ist umgangssprachlich.
Könnte ich auch Ludwig vierzehn für Ludwig XIV. sagen?
Genauso ...
- 8,532
8
votes
Trying to decipher a German name
I'd say it's "Erinnerung an Neapel" (Memory of Naples), The capital N is kind of distorted, but I don't think any other capital letter comes nearer to it.
For a reference for the strange p, ...
- 28.2k
8
votes
Accepted
Where does the "z" in "Heinz", "Fritz" and "Lutz" originate?
Probably nobody will be able to give you the exact origin, but shortening names with -(t)z is very common:
Ulrich: Utz
Friedrich: Fritz
Ludwig: Lutz
Heinrich: Heinz
Konrad: Kunz
Dietrich: Dietz
...
- 66.4k
8
votes
Accepted
Are "Tannhäuser" and "Tannenzäpfle" related?
Short answer:
Yes, they are related.
In detail:
There is this old and outdated German noun that nowadays is only used in poems and similar artistic text types:
der Tann (masc.) = the coniferous ...
- 126k
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