OneTaskBy Tim King · Updated
German Name Generator
Modern, Classic and Noble German Names With the von Particle
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How the German Name Generator works
This german name generator is free and makes a new batch each time. Generate German names in three registers: the modern first names on German school registers, Lena Schneider and Leon Fischer; the classic stock of the post-war decades with its Hans-Jürgens and Ursulas; and the noble names with von, Friedrich von Hohenberg, Elisabeth Freifrau von Falkenstein. Choose female, male or either and generate up to a hundred.
German name generator: where the names come from
German first names have changed as sharply as any in Europe. The generation born between 1930 and 1960 carried a stock that now sounds unmistakably of its time, Hans, Klaus, Wolfgang, Jürgen, Ursula, Helga, Ingrid, Renate, often doubled with a hyphen in the fifties and sixties, Hans-Jürgen, Karl-Heinz, Anne-Marie. Since the 1990s German parents have chosen short, soft, international names, Leon, Finn, Mia, Lena, Emma, and more recently the old-fashioned names of the great-grandparents, Emil, Anton, Frieda, Greta, Ida, are back. The Modern option gives that stock, the Classic option gives the older one with a hyphenated first name a third of the time.
German surnames are overwhelmingly occupational. Müller the miller, Schmidt the smith, Schneider the tailor, Fischer, Weber the weaver, Wagner the cartwright, Becker the baker, Schulz the village headman, Hoffmann the steward, Koch the cook, Bauer the farmer, Zimmermann the carpenter. Then descriptive names, Klein, Schwarz, Braun, Lange, Krause for curly hair, and first names turned surnames, Werner, Hartmann. The list here follows the thirty commonest in Germany and their regional spellings, Schmidt and Schmitt, Hoffmann and Hofmann, Meyer and Meier, which are the same name written in different parishes.
The Noble option builds names with von, the mark of the old nobility, which links a family to its seat: Friedrich von Hohenberg. Titles were abolished in 1919 and became part of the surname, so a baron is still written Freiherr von and a baroness Freifrau von, and the page adds the title to some results. Von und zu, of and at, means the family still holds the seat it is named for. The estates here are invented German place names in the right shape; none is a real noble house, so the results name no real family.
For the Austrian and Swiss variants, the same surnames apply with different first-name fashions; for the neighbours, the Dutch, Polish, Czech and French pages; and for the medieval German names these descend from, the medieval page.
FAQ
What does von mean in a German name?
Of or from. It originally tied a family to the estate it held and became a mark of nobility. Since 1919 it is legally just part of the surname, but in fiction and in daily life it still reads as aristocratic. It is lower-case and the name is alphabetised under the following word.
Why are some first names hyphenated?
Because German allowed a double first name written with a hyphen, Hans-Jürgen, Karl-Heinz, Anne-Marie, and the habit was very common in the 1950s and 1960s. It is rare today, so a hyphenated name marks an older character.
Which style suits a modern character?
Modern for anyone under thirty-five, Classic for their parents and grandparents, and Noble only for a character from an old family or a period piece. Any mixes the first two with the occasional noble.
Are the umlauts important?
Yes. Müller, Schäfer, Krüger and Köhler are written with umlauts, and the standard replacement when they are unavailable is ue, ae, oe, Mueller, never plain Muller. Jürgen and Günter likewise.
Can I use these names for fiction or test data?
Yes. They are combinations of ordinary names and cannot be owned. A common combination may coincide with a real person, so a name that will be attached to something public deserves a quick search.
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