12 December 2007

The Name Game

My Mother's maiden name is Schreiber.
She gets angry when I tell folks that name means "horse thief" in German...

maybe because I'm lying.

I've always been fascinated with names... Schreiber's a simple one. It's an easy process to see "scriber" in the name and guess it's origins.
Other names that end in "er" are obvious... "Barber", "Carpenter", "Fisher".
Others were more difficult and took a little research:
Fletcher,
Chandler,
Frobisher?

Last night I came home to find Sara Jean watching the wonderful
"How Green Was My Valley" on TCM. My ears perked as I heard "Collier". The context in which it was used gave me a clue.

Got an interesting or unusual name?

You may find it at the bottom of the page here.
(The -ters surprised me... Baxter, Brewster, Webster.)

I have a couple friends named "Fleener".
That one appears to be a mystery.

1 comment:

cary said...

"Horse thief" in German - that's a good one!

Obviously, mine has to do with transporting items on large wheeled contraptions.

As a side note, did you know that "La Quinta" is Spanish for "Next to Denny's"?