[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] You clod! WAS: Grudzienski Alternate Name

[Günther Böhm]

Sorry but I used German "Umlaute".

AlbertMuth at aol.com schrieb:

 >However, my family tradition is that we originated in Alsace-
 >Lorraine, where the surname was Demuth. I have lost the link to a 
French website there
 >that gave the etymology of local surnames, including both Muth and 
Demuth--"courage" had
 >nothing to do with the origin and historical development of the 
surname. (Sadly, the link
 >no longer works)
 >

Hello Al,
but another one (
http://home.t-online.de/home/tommy.bln/Namensdeutung.htm ) is still
working and states that DEMUTH originates from the old German name
Dietmuth (tiot = people + muot = power of thinking, soul, heart, mood
[!], feeling, intention, affection) which was assimilated to the
christian sounding DEMUTH yet in the middle ages.

By the way, I don't agree with the insult theory. Mostly names like the
mentioned KLUTH originated from profession or farm names and have been
applied to character properties much later when the original meaning was
forgotten. In Middle Lower German Klut (in Russian gluda, in Polish
gruda) ment lump, clod, farmland. So the name could simply stem from a
farm with clayey soil. Related location names in Germany - where the
insult theory doesn't work - are Kluet (near Detmold, NRW), Kluetz and
Klaeden (Mecklenburg), Kloetze, 2 x Klaeden, Kloeden and Klueden
(Sachsen-Anhalt), Klotten (Rheinland-Pfalz), Klotzhoefe (Baden-Wurttemberg).

Guenther Boehm
of Hilden, Germany