Meet the Schweinsteigers and learn about the Tragedy of Philipp Lahm’s Great-great-great-great-grandfather.

June 28th, 2008 | By: Jan | 9 Comments »

Pig PenWe know that names like Klose, Löw, Frings and Ballack offer creative headline writers plenty to work with. We know that Schweinsteiger can be a bitch to pronounce for some non-German speakers. I know that every English article mentioning Schweinsteiger will tell you that his name translates to pig climber or pig mounter. But according to Prof. Dr. Jürgen Udolph that’s not the accurate meaning or translation of Schweinsteiger. Udolph is Germany’s only professor for Onomastics and decrypted a couple of family names of German national team players for n-tv.de.

Bastian Schweinsteiger. A Schweinsteige was actually the Old High German word for pigpen (or Schweinestall in modern German). So it’s not pig climber but Bastian Pigpenner. According to Udolph that means that his family lived in a pigpen when they got their name. Not too flattering, but as we will see with Philipp Lahm’s case, those medieval people were very pragmatic.

Philipp Lahm. Lahm is the German word for lame and apparently when someone decided to give Philipp’s great-great-great-great-grandfather’s family a name, his great-great-great-great-grandfather was lame or gelähmt (lamed / paralysed).

Per Mertesacker. Per’s forefathers worked on Merte’s (variation of Martin) Acker (acre). Quite straightforward.

Christoph Metzelder. Metzelder is derived from Macellarius - latin for butcher. To our butcher’s credit, he hasn’t received a single yellow card this tournament. He probably hasn’t defended a single ball either.

Mario Gomez. While his father is Spanish, a lot of Spanish names actually have some Germanic roots and Gomez is derived from the Old High German word for man (gomo).

Michael Ballack. Ballack is a sorbic name derived from Balthasar. Balthasar is of Babylonian origin and means “God look after his life”.

Joachim Löw. Löw is a short form of Löwe (lion). A name that was adapted by families with similar characteristics: athletic, strong, courageous and brave. Brave as in letting Jens Lehmann play in a European Championship final.

Oliver Bierhoff. The Bier in Bierhoff has nothing to do with the German word Bier (beer), but is a Low German variation of the word Birne (pear). Add a Hof (yard) to the mix and you’ve got a pear yard.

Franz Beckenbauer. Last but not least The Kaiser. Beckenbauer’s ancestors were versatile people, who were both Bäcker (baker) and Bauer (farmer) at the same time. Just like our Kaiser was a defensive (swee) and an attacking (per) footballer at the same time.



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Comments
Username By diana | June 28th, 2008 at 4:54 am
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Ha. I had always knew there was something about Jogi’s surname. I had tried to search for the meaning of his surname before and I always ended up with ‘Loewe’.

Anyhow, other than always wondering how did the surname of Schweinsteiger came about (I only knew that was the most longest surname in the World Cup two years ago)…mystery solved, in all areas. Danke, Jan! :)

And regarding my own name…its mythical origins was not on my father’s mind when he gave it to me. Simply because of a certain Diana, Princess of Wales (when I was born, she was still alive). My father jumping on the bandwagon (he admitted it himself when I asked him about it once) like many parents when naming their daughters after Diana married to Prince Charles.

For a moment I thought the picture reminded me of Snoopy. Okay, not really Snoopy but one of his many friends. Ah, the childhood days…

Posted from Singapore Singapore

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Username By Nobody You Know | June 28th, 2008 at 9:20 am
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good article. amusing. i don’t even want to know what my name means… hahahaha

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Username By j | June 28th, 2008 at 9:55 am
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Jan, I have to agree with Diana as you had me in my youth with the image of the Peanuts gang but any mention of Der Kaiser ups the quality ante in my opinion. I think Mr. Löw won’t mind be known as Joachim Coeur de Lion : )

Posted from Bulgaria Bulgaria

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Username By diana | June 28th, 2008 at 10:07 am
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j, I got two valid reasons from my childhood days why it reminded me of Snoopy and his friends. Not only is that when growing up it’s one of my favourite comic strips…I still remembered among the first few spectacles I had wore (I am actually short-sighted) since as a young girl, it’s a Snoopy brand.

How much has changed since.

Posted from Singapore Singapore

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Username By j | June 28th, 2008 at 10:31 am
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that’s great, now of course the question was whether you identified more with Peppermint Patty or the little red-haired girl : )

Posted from Bulgaria Bulgaria

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Username By jason | June 28th, 2008 at 10:33 am
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but where does ‘Frings’ come from, then?

Posted from United Kingdom United Kingdom

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Username By Karl | June 28th, 2008 at 11:16 am
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I once read Frings is an old german word for (holy) severin/severus = strict.
Btw. his nickname is “Lutscher” what means “sucker”. o_O

Posted from Germany Germany

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Username By diana | June 28th, 2008 at 11:26 am
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Jason, you have raised a good point.

Posted from Singapore Singapore

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Username By diana | June 28th, 2008 at 11:32 am
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‘that’s great, now of course the question was whether you identified more with Peppermint Patty or the little red-haired girl : )’
That I have no idea actually, j.

Okay. Now we have a problem. Maybe a serious one. Ballack didn’t take part in the training sessions since Friday. According to the DFB, he has a calf muscle injury.

http://football.uk.reuters.com/euro2008/news/L28626671.php

Only one word - Yikes!

Posted from Singapore Singapore

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