What's In A Name? Some I've Found Intriguing

We are all fascinated by our names.

An icebreaker I've often used is one in which each person in a group introduces themselves by their first, middle and last name, then shares one or more interesting thing about their name. Examples may include who they were named after, whether they liked or disliked their name (and why), and whether they had any nicknames.

I have the dubious distinction of having no middle name, not unusual for someone from an Amish family, but something I've often had to explain when filling out an official form. In my community it was customary for sons to use the first letter of their father's first name (mine was Ben) as their middle initial, which would have made me Harvey B. Yoder. But unlike my two brothers, I chose not to use a middle initial or name.

Meanwhile, here are some interesting things I've learned about some of the names in my family:

Yoder, an Americanized variation of Jöder (the German "J" is pronounced like our "Y"), is derived from Theodore, or Theodorus, the patron saint of the part of Switzerland most of my ancestors are from.  Theodorus was a well known fifth century Catholic bishop in Westphalia, who according to one source was also an early missionary. Joderhügel (Yoder Hill) was one of numerous landmarks bearing his name, and as surnames came into more common use, many chose their location as a part of their name or title, as in Jacob von (from) Jöder.

Nisly, my mother's maiden name, is an Anglicized form of Nüsli, which refers to a small nut tree or "Nussbaum." Kniss is a related name, as are Nissley, Knicely and many other variants. Our Nisly is the only spelling of its kind, which means I'm probably related to every other Nisly on earth.

Miller is my paternal grandmother Elizabeth's maiden name. She died giving birth to her fourth child when my father was only three years old. Hers is an example of one of many surnames indicating an occupation.

Troyer, my maternal grandmother Fannie's maiden name, also relates to an occupation. Among her ancestors are David and Veronica Dreher, who appear more than once on both sides of my ancestral chart, and whose next generation of descendants adopted the anglicized "Troyer" as their surname. A "dreyer" is a "turner," one who works with a lathe, likely in making wood furniture. I have a number of local friends with the surname Turner.

Fannie was the name chosen for one of my older sisters in honor of her grandmother Fannie. To avoid confusion she was the only one of my siblings given a middle name, Mae. My sister never liked the name "Fannie" and insisted everyone call her Fannie Mae. Later in life I informed her that Fannie is a derivative of Veronica, the name of the ancestor mentioned in the former paragraph. In German, a "V" is pronounced like an "F" (as in Volkswagen, "folks-vagen," or "people's car"), so Veronicas were often nicknamed "Vreni" (Frennie) or "Fannie".

Harvey is not the name I would have chosen, but who gets to choose? I was named after one of my father's half brothers, Uncle Harv, who never lived in our community. He was a strict Old Order Amish who didn't approve of my parents' more progressive(?) ways. Then there's the 6-foot 3 1/2-inch pooka by that name in Mary Chase's well known play, and more recently, an infamous Harvey Weinstein, and a terrible and destructive Hurricane Harvey. But there are also lots of good folks named Harvey as well.

I hope I can be remembered as one of those!

Here are link to two other posts on my unusual  family of origin:
https://harvyoder.blogspot.com/2014/07/my-name-is-harvey-yoder-nisly-troyer.html
https://harvyoder.blogspot.com/2014/05/grandfather-daniel-j-yoder-man-of.html