Guardian (family name)

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Wächter or Waechter is a family name that is common in the German-speaking world .

origin

Like Wärter, Dankwart, Burgwart etc., the name goes back to the job title of the guard and thus the root word "wachen /wart" and corresponds outside the German-speaking area, for example, to the family names Guardian (English), Guardien (French) and Guardini (Ital.) as well as Gregor (Greek: the vigilant, guardian) and Küster / Köster (from Lat. Custos = the guardian).

It comes from the word ward ("Wächter, Hüter", cf. in today's German words like Sportwart, Zeugwart, etc.). Wächter / Wärter also comes in names such as Burckhard, Borckert, Borgwart ( Northern German nickname "Burkhardt", "borg-wart" ⇒ "Burg + Hüter, Wächter", first known occurrence: Burgward, around 900), Dankwart or Dankert (from Old High German The nickname "thank-hart" comes from: "Thanks, grace, wages + hard" for "Dankert", first known occurrence: Thancwardus, around 799, Tanchard, around 830, Danchart, around 1312, Danchardi, around 1337 (source e.g. .: Kohlheim, Rosa and Volker: surnames, origin and meaning of 20,000 surnames, Dudenverlag, Mannheim et al., 2000; Konrad Kunze : name lexicon, first names and surnames in German usage, Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, Munich, 1998)). An origin seems to be the name switch - the Commission for dialect and Namenforschung Westphalia at the Regional Association of Westphalia-Lippe , according to - to have in Westphalia name formations from the Ravensberg (room Halle (Westphalia). , Bielefeld , Herford , who have been handed down earlier) allow a fairly reliable reconstruction of the original form of the name Olderdissen. An original settlement name could be given a description of the meaning “at the houses of Aldhard or Aldward”. It is a typically Germanic, two-part personal name, composed of the words ald ("old") and war ("guardian, guardian").

distribution

Although the name occurs relatively frequently in the German-speaking area, it is not as widespread as the family names Müller , Schuster or Becker, which are also derived from professional titles .

Name bearer

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  • Leonhard Wächter (pseudonym Veit Weber ; 1762–1837), German writer
  • Lilly Wächter (1899–1989), German pacifist (SPD, Democratic Women's Association)
  • Lothar Wächter (* 1952), German Catholic theologian
  • Ludwig Wächter (1922–2010), German Protestant theologian, Old Testament scholar and university professor

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  • Oskar von Wächter (1825–1902), lawyer, member of the Württemberg state parliament
  • Otto Wächter (1901–1949), Austrian lawyer and politician (NSDAP)

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  • Rudolf Wächter (1868–1942), German entrepreneur and porcelain manufacturer

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