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Germany Naming Customs: Difference between revisions
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*Germans occasionally use -chen and -lein as diminutive endings meaning “little.” Gretchen could be translated little Greta (Margret). The endings -s or -es show possession. Hermann Josefs Sohn would mean Joseph's son Hermann. | *Germans occasionally use -chen and -lein as diminutive endings meaning “little.” Gretchen could be translated little Greta (Margret). The endings -s or -es show possession. Hermann Josefs Sohn would mean Joseph's son Hermann. | ||
* In West Low German parlance the ending "…sch(e)" is sometimes added to surnames of women, related to the standard High German adjective ending "…isch" (cognitive to English "…ish"), suffixed to nouns or adjectives indicating belonging / pertaining to, being of the kind described by the suffixed word: for example, de Smidtsche, is Ms Schmidt (Smith), but literally about the Smithian (the woman pertaining to a man/family named Schmidt).[19] | * In West Low German parlance the ending "…sch(e)" is sometimes added to surnames of women, related to the standard High German adjective ending "…isch" (cognitive to English "…ish"), suffixed to nouns or adjectives indicating belonging / pertaining to, being of the kind described by the suffixed word: for example, de Smidtsche, is Ms Schmidt (Smith), but literally about the Smithian (the woman pertaining to a man/family named Schmidt).[19] | ||
*Another form, indicating a female bearer of a surname, was the addition of a genitive "s", the daughter or wife of Mr. Bäcker (literally Baker) would appear as Ms Bäckers (in German without an apostrophe), as being Bäcker's daughter or wife.<ref>"German name", in Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_name, accessed 12 February 2021.< | *Another form, indicating a female bearer of a surname, was the addition of a genitive "s", the daughter or wife of Mr. Bäcker (literally Baker) would appear as Ms Bäckers (in German without an apostrophe), as being Bäcker's daughter or wife.<ref>"German name", in Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_name, accessed 12 February 2021.</ref> | ||
=== Names in Foreign Languages === | === Names in Foreign Languages === | ||