AboutCornelia Neumann Expertise I can answer questions regarding grammar and style, as well as many questions about German culture, history, and literature.
Experience I am native speaker with a German degree in Teaching English as a Foreign Language and German. I lived and worked in the USA for seven years (taught high school and all college levels) and spent three years as a high school teacher of German and EFL at an international school in Mexico. In 2006 I returned to Germany, where I am currently working as a teacher in Hamburg.
Expert: Cornelia Neumann Date: 7/3/2008 Subject: Don't know what this translates to??
Question I am working on a family tree for my father. The last name of someone in his tree is listed as Hörz. Could you help me with this? I would like to be sure I get it correct. I have seen is as Horz, but don't know if that is right or not.
Thanks
Terri Jo
Answer Hi Terri Jo,
I'm sorry but I don't think I can help you with this - both words can be names in German but I couldn't find anything on the possible meanings. One word that might be related is Harz, which is a) a mountainous region in central Germany (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harz) and b) sticky tree sap (resin). Another similar word is Herz (heart).
Since family names were often derived from a family's/person's home town or profession, it isn't impossible that they originally came from that region or collected tree sap, but then the name changed when people moved to areas with different dialects.
Some names are so easy to explain - too bad this isn't Meyer or Schmidt. :-)
Regarding the spelling, I'd go with the older variant. As I said above, both are possible.
