-
Gegen means
"against", that's right, of course.
-
Heim doesn't mean
just "house", but "own house", better "home" in the meaning of "home
sweet home".
However, you shouldn't translate German names
word by word or letter by letter, but look at the origin of the name. German
names usually originate from:
a). Professions
(e.g. Müller, Meier, Schmidt)
b).
Countries or towns the person
came from (e.g. Schwab, Hesse, Bayer, Ulmer)
c).
Attributes (e.g. Klein, Gross,
Weiss, Braun, Schwarz, Kraus)
d).
Names (e.g. Dietrich, Ernst,
Junghans)
e).
Foreign (mostly Slavic) names
(e.g. Nowotny, Doleschal)
f).
Animals (e.g. Löw, Adler,
Vogel, Fink)
g).
Other sources
After "Gegenheimer" was written "Geckenheimer"
in the early years (before 1600), it is supposed the first one called "Geckenheimer"
was a person who came from Geckenheim, a little village near Nuremberg.
by: Markus Gegenheimer |
