T.A.T.
OUR FOREIGN SURNAMES.
It is interesting as well as amusing to read the foreign names upon the
signs in the streets of our cities and towns, and observe the number of
nationalities thereon represented, together with the peculiarities of
form and meaning displayed by the names themselves.
German names meet the eye everywhere, and are usually very outlandish in
appearance, while many of them have significations which are
conspicuously and ludicrously inappropriate. For example, a lager-beer
saloon in one of our large cities is kept by Mr. Heiliggeist ("Holy
Ghost"); a cigar-shop in another place belongs to Mr. Priesterjahn
("Prester John"); while the pastor of a devout German flock in a third
locality is the Rev. Mr. Wuestling ("low scoundrel"). The Hon. Carl
Schurz, too, is hardly the sort of man to be named "apron," though it is
certainly true that his name is in this country sometimes pronounced
"Shirts."
Other branches of the great Teutonic family have many representatives
among us, and their names seem, to the uninitiated, even more fearfully
and wonderfully constructed than those of their German cousins. It
produces a good deal of surprise in the mind of an American to see on
the sign of a tradesman from Belgium the familiar name of Cox spelled
"Kockx;" and the Norwegian patronymic Trondhjemer ("Drontheimer"),
though a very mild specimen of the language, has a formidable aspect to
the general beholder.
Pages:
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312