Toettcher
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My grandfather came to the UK from Hanover to avoid Bismark's draft (so family history has it). He was an only child, from the Linden district where his father was a tanner.
I find many names like ours, but beginning with 'B' instead of 'T' - in fact nearly all Toettchers live in the USA now, there are just 3 in the UK, 2 in Ireland, 1 in China and 1 in Denmark - me.
It would be interesting to know if our name is simply a spelling mistake (!) or does it have its own meaning?
The normal 'B' version has the same meaning as the English word 'bodger'. Unfortunately, if the initial 'b' in that spelling is transposed with *t*, it is slang for 'penis', so I try to keep that quiet!
Translation: (Tarzius)
Mein Grossvater kam ins Vereinigte Königreich von Hannover. (gem. Familiengeschichte). Er war ein Einzelkind vom Lindenbezirk, wo sein Vater ein Gerber war. Ich finde viele Namen wie unseren, aber die beginnen mit B statt T. In der Tat, beinahe alle Toettchers leben in den USA. Gerade mal drei. Im Vereinigten Königreich 2, in Irland, China und Dänemark je Einer.
Es wäre interessant, zu wissen, ob unser Name einfach ein Rechtschreibfehler ist oder hat es seine eigene Bedeutung?
Oh, this is so interesting! - so now maybe the first part of the name is actually cognate to Teut(on)/Deut(sch)/Duit(s)Dut(ch)/Ted(esco)/Ty(sk) etc., while the second part is a long, thin, round piece of wood, 'ger'.
Well, I happen to have lived in Russia for 5 years, in those republics (Tyva, Buryatia, Kalmykia) where the people are mongol, traditionally nomads living in round felt tents (yurts) constructed entirely of long, thin, round pieces of wood, and would you believe, these are called, in their ural-altaic language : 'ger'!
Indeed, I found several interesting probable links between their language and the indo-european ones I speak (12), such as English 'mare', German 'mähre', Kalmyk 'myrren' (horse). I was really surprised when I heard them call to their cats: 'mis, mis' - here in Denmark that is the same as 'puss/pussy'.
These are, of course, all very ancient words, from the time when our ancestors and theirs were neighbours on the Pontic and Kazakh steppes.
Finally, it seems I am a 'ger-man'!
toettcher wrote: - so now maybe the first part of the name is actually cognate to Teut(on)/Deut(sch)/Duit(s)Dut(ch)/Ted(esco)/Ty(sk) etc., while the second part is a long, thin, round piece of wood, 'ger'.
Yes indeed, "deutsch", "Teutone", "Dutch", etc. and names like Teutbert, Dettlef, Dieter and hundreds of similar surnames did derive from diot, sometimes spelt thiot.
OHG ger can also mean greedy, by the way, although in names such as Rüdiger, Ro(d)ger, (the Danish King) Hrothgar and others the meaning usually attributed to this morpheme is spear.
There are 11 more TÖTTGER and over 60 DÖTTGER in the German phone directory www.telefonbuch.de . However, the real number of residents with this surname should be about threefold.
diogenes
The 'Teutger' basis seems very plausible - does it still contain the idea of the spear in the suffix? I looked for 'thiod' through Google and discovered a vast network of enthusiastic germanic-style heathen 'tribes', eg: http://sahsisk.org.hosting.domaindirect.com/Marklo/religion/what_is_thiodisc_gelobo.htm
I am actually a Buddhist, so technically heathen as Buddha was a teacher not a god. And no mixed offal pie or mixed liquor for me!
I tried 'Teutger' on Geogen, no luck - but 'Töttger' had a few results - just 9, again, all around Hanover, so very possibly we are related. And there are several sites on the web that are very anxious to sell me my 'genuine' Teutger coat of arms. Mmmmh . . . . . I think I'm too red for that!
In 'Nederlandsche Doopnamen', by Jacobus Joannes Graaf, 'Teutger' is actually listed next to 'Dietger'. It's online at
http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?fk_files=748754&pageno=2
It's also listed on p 231 of the 'Teutsch-lateinisches Wörterbuch' by Johann Leonhard Frisch
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=QKbpcWhMwCEC&pg=PA341&lpg=PA341&dq=teutger&source=web&ots=AkE5fdNstY&sig=gaZXUvq4U-pX3Mut6a2Xt8L0pww&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=7&ct=result
Thank you very much for your interest and help - I'm so happy that I can now reasonably well explain my 'weird' name: in English people can hardly believe me when I spell it! Sometimes for a joke I continue with '...xqzwy' just to see the look on their face !!!
I believe TOETTCHER is not a variant of BOETTCHER. Instead I would consider the names TÖTTCHER and DÖTTCHER an alternative spelling of TÖTTGER and DÖTTGER, like BÖTTGER is a variant of BÖTTCHER. In German dialect the pronunciation of G and CH can be the same.
In this case TÖTTGER consists of two components:
TÖTT- derived from Old High German diot = people and
-GER derived from Old High German gar = spear
diogenes