![[Image: Cropped map of 1871–1914 Europe; Text: Irish-Danish-German Heritage]](../images/europe_1911_6164_closeup_masthead12.png)
Barthmann [Barthman]
Irish–Danish–German Heritage
People | Surname meaning | Reference list
People
The immigrant Barthmanns—Barthmann later Americanized to “Barthman”—came from the village of Vordorf in Bavaria, Germany; immigrated to the United States in the early 1880s; and settled in Iowa and Wisconsin.
Relevant individuals:
- Andreas Barthmann [Andrew Barthman]
- Anna Margaretha (Barthmann) Harder [Margret Anna Harder]
- Erhard Barthmann [Erhardt Barthman]
- Johann Georg Barthmann [George Barthman]
- Johann Valentin Barthmann [John V. Barthman]
- K. Barbara (Müller) Barthmann [Barbara Barthman]
- Emelia S. (Olson) Barthman
- Laura E. (Patchin) Noakes Barthman
- Sabina (Strößenreuther) Barthmann [Sabina Barthman]
| House number in 1812 | House number in 1787 | Built | Names of relevant owners |
|---|---|---|---|
Source: Data from Thiem 1973, 204–213. Note: Excluding seven houses built in the 20th century, there were 47 houses in Vordorf. |
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| 21 b | XIV | probably ca. 1850 | Sabine Barthmann (wife of Erhardt Barthmann, farmer) … |
| 25 | XXXI | before 1727 | … Bartholomäus Barthmann (1763) … |
| Rank | Administrative district | Number of entries |
|---|---|---|
Source: Data from Absolute Verteilung des Namens “Barthmann” [Absolute Distribution of the Name “Barthmann”], ca. 2008, Verwandt.de, http://www.verwandt.de/karten/absolut/barthmann.html [with color-coded map]. Note: Each telephone-directory entry may represent several individuals. | ||
| 1 | Mittlerer Erzgebirgskreis [in Saxony; part of Erzgebirgskreis, Saxony, since 2008] | 12 |
| 2 | Hamburg [city state] | 11 |
| 3 | Wunsiedel [in Upper Franconia, Bavaria] | 9 |
| Rank | Administrative district | Number of entries |
|---|---|---|
Source: Data from Absolute Verteilung des Namens “Bartmann” [Absolute Distribution of the Name “Bartmann”], ca. 2008, Verwandt.de, http://www.verwandt.de/karten/absolut/bartmann.html [with color-coded map]. Note: Each telephone-directory entry may represent several individuals. | ||
| 1 | Hochsauerlandkreis [in Arnsberg, North Rhine–Westphalia] | 68 |
| 2 | Unna [in Arnsberg, North Rhine–Westphalia] | 55 |
| 3 | Soest [in Arnsberg, North Rhine–Westphalia] | 50 |
| … | ||
| ? | Wunsiedel [in Upper Franconia, Bavaria] | 1–15 |
Surname meaning
![[Image: Germanic Gothic script; Text: Barthmann]](../images/barthmanngothic.png)
Barthmann (TH pronounced T) is a variant of the German descriptive or nickname-based surname Bartmann—Americanized to Bartman. Barthmann was Americanized to Barthman (TH usually pronounced as English voiceless TH).
| Meaning of surname | Meaning of parts | Source | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bart | -man(n) | ||
Note: A German noun Bartmann ‘man with a full beard or with a heavy growth of beard’ also exists (Mulch 1965, s.v. “Bart-mann”; translation by IrishDanishGermanHeritage)—at least in the regional dialect of Southern Hesse, to the northwest of these Barthmanns’ northern Bavaria. |
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| 1. bearded man | beard | man | Bahlow 2002, Hanks 2013 (also for American Bartman), Jones 2006, Kohlheim & Kohlheim 2005 |
| 2. [maker / merchant of] thick stone jug | — | — | Jones 2006 |
Two old sources give “axe” not “beard.” They might be wrong, or they might be accurate for an unrelated Anglo-Saxon (Germanic) surname Bartman, or the surname of some German families might come from one meaning and some from the other.
The following table shows this and other proposed meanings:
| Meaning of surname | Meaning of parts | Source | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bart | -man(n) | ||
Note: Modern German (ModG) has the word Barte ‘broadax’ (for battle), from Middle High German barte, from Old High German (OHG) barta, from OHG bart (ModG Bart) ‘beard’—the broadax blade being beard-shaped (Duden Online; Whitney & Edgren 1915). |
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| — | probably: axe (OHG barta) possibly:
| man | Ferguson 1864, 221–222 |
axe-man; possibly:
|
axe (OHG root bard) | man | Virkus 1929, 84 [preview in Google Books] |
Reference list
- Bahlow, Hans. 2002. Dictionary of German Names. 2nd ed. Trans. Edda Gentry. Madison, WI: Max Kade Institute for German–American Studies, University of Madison–Wisconsin, s.vv. “Barth” and “Bartmann.”
- Duden Online, http://www.duden.de/woerterbuch [site in German], s.vv. “Bart,” http://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Bart, and “Barte,” http://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Barte_Beil_Axt; translation by IrishDanishGermanHeritage.
- Ferguson, Robert. 1864. The Teutonic Name-system Applied to the Family Names of France, England & Germany. London: Williams & Norgate, https://books.google.com/books?id=fGUUAAAAYAAJ.
- Hanks, Patrick, ed. 2013 [online]. Dictionary of American Family Names New York: Oxford University Press, s.v. “Bartman,” http://www.ancestry.com/name-origin?surname=bartman.
- Jones, George Fenwick. 2006. German–American Names. 3rd ed. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., s.vv. “Bart, Barth” and “Bartmann.”
- Kohlheim, Rosa, and Volker Kohlheim, eds. 2005. Duden Familiennamen: Herkunft und Bedeutung von 20 000 Nachnamen [Duden Family Names: Origin and Meaning of 20,000 Surnames]. Mannheim: Dudenverlag, s.vv. “Bart,” “Barth,” “Bartmann,” and “-mann.”
- Mulch, Rudolf, ed. 1965. Südhessisches Wörterbuch [Southern Hessian Dictionary], vol. 1. Marburg, Germany: Elwert, http://www.lagis-hessen.de/de/subjects/index/sn/shwb.
- Thiem, Rudolf. 1973. “Vordorf, Kr. [Landkreis] Wunsiedel: Geschichte einer Landgemeinde,” in Archiv für Geschichte von Oberfranken [“Vordorf, Wunsiedel: History of a Rural Community,” in Archive for the History of Upper Franconia], vol. 53. Bayreuth, Germany: Bayreuth Historischer Verein für Oberfranken [Bayreuth Historical Society for Upper Franconia], 179–260.
- Virkus, Frederick Adams. 1929. Derivation of Surnames. Magazine of American Genealogy. Chicago, IL: Institute of American Genealogy, [preview of Magazine of American Genealogy in Google Books].
- Whitney, William Dwight, and August Hjalmar Edgren. 1915. A Compendious German and English Dictionary, with Notation of Correspondences and Brief Etymologies. New York: Holt, s.v. “Barte,” https://books.google.com/books?id=yaZHAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA54.