18th Century PA German Naming Customs
Filename: GERMNAME.HTM
Internet: http://www.kerchner.com/germname.htm
Date: Written: 18 Aug 1995
Published Online: 2 Oct 1996
Last Updated: 28 Mar 2022
Author: Charles F. Kerchner, Jr.
3765 Chris Drive
Emmaus PA 18049-1544 USA
Subj: 18th Century Pennsylvania German Naming Customs & Patterns
Keywords: GERMAN NAMING CUSTOMS PATTERNS NAMES TRADITIONS PA PENNSYLVANIA
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1. At baptism, if two given names were given to the child, the
first given name was a spiritual, saint's name. The second given name
was the secular or call name, i.e., "rufnamen", which is the name the
person was known by, both within the family and to the rest of the
world. This custom was originally adopted in Germanic and other
regions in Europe from Roman Catholic tradition and continued by
the Protestants in their baptismal naming customs. The immigrants
from these areas brought the custom with them to Pennsylvania. The
spiritual name, usually to honor a favorite saint, was used repeatedly
and was usually given to all the children of that family of the same
gender. Thus the boys would be Johan Adam Kerchner, Johan George
Kerchner, etc., or Philip Peter Kerchner, Philip Jacob Kerchner,
etc. Girls would be named Anna Barbara Kerchner, Anna Margaret
Kerchner, etc., or Maria Elizabeth Kerchner, Maria Catherine
Kerchner, etc. But after baptism, these people would not be
known as John, Philip, Anna, or Maria, respectively. They would
instead be known by what we would think of now as their middle
name, which was their secular name. Thus these people would be
known respectively as Adam, George, Peter, Jacob, Barbara,
Margaret, Elizabeth, and Catherine in legal and secular records.
For males, the saint's name Johan or John for Saint John was particularly
heavily used by many German families, but also Saint George was
used by some families for male children. The child's secular name
was really John, if and only if, at baptism he was named only
John, usually spelled as Johannes, with no second given name.
The name John spelled as Johannes is rarely seen spelled as
Johannes as a spiritual name, i.e., you rarely will see the name at
baptism recorded as Johannes Adam Kerchner, etc. It is generally
always found spelled as Johan or Johann when used as a spiritual
name. Thus, you find the spiritual name of John recorded as Johan
Adam Kerchner or Johann Adam Kerchner, not Johannes Adam Kerchner.
Many researchers, new to German names, who find a baptism of an
individual with a name such as Johan Adam Kerchner, thus
mistakenly spend a lot of time looking for a John Kerchner, in
legal and census records, when he was known after baptism, to the
secular world, as Adam Kerchner. Also when reading county
histories, etc., especially those written by individuals in the
20th century, and the author is referring to someone as John
Kerchner, and you are not looking for a John Kerchner, but the
history sounds otherwise familiar, further research may turn up
that this person was really not a John Kerchner, but instead was
someone else such as a Johan George Kerchner. You would thus
find all his 18th century records recorded under the name
George Kerchner and not John Kerchner and therefore after checking
the data and correlating the facts you may find this is really a
story about your missing George Kerchner.
As I said, the use of Saint John was the most common example of
this custom, but Saint George was often used too. And thus one would find
children in a family named George Heinrich ......, George Jacob ......,
George Frederick ....., and of course simply George ..... by itself. In
these examples the secular or call names would respectively be Heinrich,
Jacob, Frederick, and George.
This naming custom slowly died out in Pennsylvania during the
later part of the 19th century, i.e., after the 1870's.
Classic examples of errors caused by not knowing of this naming
custom are seen in a work titled "Genealogical and Biographical
Annals of Northumberland County PA", It was published in 1911 by
J.L. Floyd & Company of Chicago IL. One specific example of this
misnaming error in that work is on page 659 in the paragraph in
the upper left column which begins, "John Wetzel ...". This person
is not a Johannes or John Wetzel but is instead a Johan "George"
Wetzel and is known secularly in all legal records as George Wetzel.
He was married to Eva Elizabeth Kerchner. There are many more
examples in this work and other county histories written by people
unfamiliar with 18th Century PA German Naming Customs.
Modern computer programs which generate automatic reports and
books from genealogical databases are compounding the confusion
because these programs tend to generate paragraphs and sentences
using the first given name only, which as I have explained was not
the real call name of the person in the 18th century. Computer
programs need to be modified to allow the user to select which
given name of the full series of given names is the proper call
name, i.e, the first or second given name. Or better yet, the program
should have a setting whereby both given names are always used
together in tandem in the computer generated text when referring
to an individual. Oh well, one can only hope. :-)
2. The term "Senior" and "Junior" following a name did not
necessarily imply a father and son relationship, as it does now.
It could have been an uncle and nephew who had the same name and
lived near each other. It could be a grandfather and a
grandchild living together, where the father has died. It could
even be two unrelated individuals with the same name but of
different ages who lived near each other. So to help friends and
business associates keep track of who-was-who in their
discussions and records, they added on the "Sr." or "Jr." which
merely meant the older and the younger, respectively.
3. The term cousin was widely used to mean an extended family,
not the specific legal definition we understand it to be today.
4. It was a common practice in some German families to name the
first born son after the child's paternal grandfather and the
second born son after the maternal grandfather. Here are several
more detailed naming patterns practiced by some families.
Pattern A
1st son after the father's father
2nd son after the mother's father
3rd son after the father
4th son after the father's father's father
5th son after the mother's father's father
6th son after the father's mother's father
7th son after the mother's mother's father
1st daughter after the mother's mother
2nd daughter after the father's mother
3rd daughter after the mother
4th daughter after the father's father's mother
5th daughter after the mother's father's mother
6th daughter after the father's mother's mother
7th daughter after the mother's mother's mother
Pattern B
The pattern B for the sons is the same as the above
but this pattern for daughters was different
1st daughter after the father's mother
2nd daughter after the mother's mother
3rd daughter after the mother
4th daughter after the mother's father's mother
5th daughter after the father's father's mother
Pattern C
1st son after the father's father
2nd son after the mother's father
3rd son after the father's oldest brother
4th son after the father
1st daughter after the father's mother
2nd daughter after the mother's mother
3rd daughter after the mother's oldest sister
4th daughter after the mother
Whenever a duplicate name occurred in these patterns, the
next name in the series was used. If a child died in infancy
the name was often reused for the next child of the same gender.
A rare twist occurred sometimes. A child's name would be reused
when a spouse died and the surviving spouse remarried and had
more children with the next spouse. I found this happened when
a spouse had children in Germany and then his spouse died. He
left his children behind in Germany, possibly with the grandparents,
and then emigrated to Pennsylvania. Sometime after arrival he
remarried and named his eldest son born in Pennsylvania by his new
spouse with the same name as the son still living in Germany. This
results in two adult children with the same name.
If you are lucky enough to find a family with a lot of
children, who strictly followed one of these naming patterns,
then it may give you useful clues to determining the possible
names of family members in earlier generations.
5. An "in", added to the end of a name, such as
Anna Maria Kerchnerin, is a Germanic language name ending suffix
denoting that the person is female. Thus the correct spelling of
the last name in the example would be Kerchner, not Kerchnerin.
6. An "er" or "ner", added to a surname based on the name of something,
denoted that the person worked with that object or at that occupation,
if the main portion of the name was an object or an occupation, or that
the person was from that geographic location or city, if the main portion
of the name was a geographic location. Examples: Forst is German for a
forest, thus Forster is one who worked in a forest or with woodlands or
was from a forest. Berlin is a city in Germany, thus Berliner is one who
is from Berlin. Since English is a Germanic rooted language we do the same
thing in English, i.e., Paint(er), Garden(er), New York(er).
The suffixes mentioned in 5. and 6. above are compounded in many
cases. The nouns Kirche and Kerche are German words for church. Thus for
the surname spelled in an early record as Kerchnerin, i.e., Kerch(ner)(in)
we have a family name which means a person who worked in or near a church,
and this particular person is female.
7. Frequently the secular name given to the child was also the same as the
secular given name of one of the baptismal sponsors for the child. Said
baptismal sponsors frequently were close relatives but also could be
close and trusted friends and neighbors.
8. In the last half of the 19th century after the first and middle name
naming convention switched to the way it is today, some families gave all
the children the same middle name, which was often the maiden name of the
mother of the children. This same middle name, which if it was a surname,
could also be that of a famous patriot, such as Benjamin Franklin or George
Washington. But, if all the children had the same middle name, this could
be a clue to the maiden name of their mother.
I hope that the above information will be of assistance to individuals
researching 18th Century Pennsylvania-German names and records.
Sorry, but I cannot give you specific advice or answer questions about
individual German names. For information on specific names consult one
of the following excellent books.
For additional information on "German-American Names" consult the
book by that name written by Professor George F. Jones. See link below.
For additional information on German names, consult the 1967 book
written by Hans Bahlow. The English version titled "Dictionary of German
Names" was translated by Edda Gentry. It was published in 1993 by the
Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies, University of
Wisconsin-Madison, Madison WI. See link below.
Review, and order on-line if desired, the following research books
in association with Amazon.com.
German-English Genealogical Dictionary, by Ernest Thode
German-American Names, by George F. Jones
Dictionary of German Names, by Hans Bahlow, translated by Edna Gentry
Some other good genealogical research books:
If I Can You Can Decipher Germanic Records, by Edna Bentz
Evidence!: Citation & Analysis for the Family Historian, by Elizabeth Mills
German Church Books: Beyond Basics, by Kenneth L. Smith
Learn How to Use DNA Testing & Genetics to Aide Your Genealogy Research.
Other PA Deutsch Research and Help Pages:
PA Dutch Are German Not Dutch
PA German Nicknames
PA German Name Spelling
Genealogy Research Tips
1812 Project Home Page
Kerchner Genetic Genealogy DNA Testing Info & Resource Page
Kerchner Genealogy Home Page
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Charles F. Kerchner, Jr.
3765 Chris Drive
Emmaus PA 18049-1544 USA
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Copyright ©1995-2023
Charles F. Kerchner, Jr.
All Rights Reserved
Published online - 02 Oct 1996
Last Revised - 11 Jul 2023