[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Suffix -ke

[Helen Gillespie]

Have to chuckle on this one.

My grandfather Emil Bethke was definitely not "diminutive" - he was 6'4"
and his father August Bethke was from the Brandenburg area.  Supposedly
many people with -ke ending names in that region - as already mentioned by
others.  Don't know if the true origins are from elsewhere.  Maybe HIS
ancestors were shorter!

Helen Gillespie
Seeking: Kukasch, Bethke, Baier, Koenig, Pufahl, Kelm in
Solomka/Boruwka/Berestovets/Konstantynow and Sierakowickie Holendry,
Gostynin and Chelm



On Sat, Nov 16, 2013 at 2:26 PM, Karen Anderson <kander25 at gmail.com> wrote:

> -ke is a diminutive ending. It doesn't have a meaning by itself. It makes
> the word or name  it's added to "smaller".  A name like Rotke would roughly
> translate to Little Red. There are similar endings in English that work the
> same way, such as -let in booklet. So instead of book you get a diminutive
> or little book.  Another English example is -ette such as kitchenette, a
> little kitchen. Hope this helps.
> Karen
> Hi,
>
> could somebody explain me the meaning or origin of the suffix -ke in many
> German family names - like Radke, Reschke, etc. etc.
>
> Katrin Hanko
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