Hello Josh!
In Tassing, most of its denizens' surnames seem to be more of a statement of their profession (Maler, Zimmerman, Bauer etc).
Is it a stylistic choice or was it a common thing in that period? If so, I have two additional questions:
- What about Alban, Gertner or Stolz? My knowledge of German is very basic, but these seem to have not that much to do with characters' profession.
- Historically, would they change when someone change their profession? It seems implied in Pentiment epilogue, in the family tree particular character does have their name changed based on their fate.
Thanks in advance for an answer and thank you for all your great work in the industry <3
It was not uncommon for surnames to reflect professions. Over time they would stick even if the family was no longer engaged in that trade. In my research, I found both surnames where the profession matched the family's (apparent) current occupations and ones where they did not. And many surnames were not profession surnames, but were tied to other things - many of which are lost to history. Not every surname can be cleanly traced to a specific origin even if there's historical evidence that it existed in a time and place.
My family name was once
Sayer. It was an Austrian name that I've traced back to the late 16th century (Michael Sayer, b. 1590 in Vienna). Michael moved to what is now Baden-Württemberg in 1610. His descendants spread throughout the area. One of them, Georg Sayer, left Eningen (near Reutlingen) around 1750 and traveled down the Danube to settle in Apatin, Hungary (this was part of a larger movement promoted by Empress Maria Theresa and other Habsburgs that became known as the Danube Swabians or Donauschwaben migration).+
My great-grandfather, Josef Sayer, left Apatin for America in 1909. Sayers continue to exist in Germany, specifically in Baden-Württemberg. They no longer exist in Austria. What did the name mean? Why did my great-grandfather Anglicize our name to Sawyer? It is unlikely I will ever know, and it's like that for a lot of people.