WHY IS THE NAME SPELLED THAT WAY?
Written by: Richard Koontz (prior to 1998)
Some variations of the name:
COANTS – COATS – COENOE – COENS – COENTZ – COONCE – COONES – COONS – COONTS – COONTZ – COONZ – COOTS (!) CONES – CONZ – COUNCE – COUNTER (!) – COUNTS – COUNTZ – COWNS – CUENZ – CUENZE – CUNCZE -CUNETZ – CUNITZ – CUNSE – CUNTZE – CUNZ – CUNYS – CUNZE – CYNTZ – CYNZ – CYNTZE – KINS (honest!) – KINTZ – KOEHN (but rarely KUEHN!) – KOENTZ – KOONCE – KOONES – KOONS – KOONSE – KOONTEZ – KOONTSE – KOONTZ – KONT – KONTS – KONZE -KOOTS – KOOTZ – KOUNTZ – KUENZ – KUENTS – KUENZE – KUNCE – KUOUNTS – KUOUNTZ – KUNTAS – KUNTES – KUNTS – KUHNS – KUNS – KUNTES – KUNTZ – KUNZ – KUNTZE – KUNZE
- When I first started searching for my own ancestors, I assumed name spelling meant something. Since then, I’ve learned. And I’ve learned. Each week, when I think I’ve located the last odd (to me) spelling of our name, I encounter a new one. All of these are legitimate. They occur for a number of reasons, ranging from dialects pronounced in earnest and heard wrong; to a cooperative German telling the clerk what his name means in English; to a poorly educated clerk writing down what he thinks he hears; to a clerk who knows somebody else with a similar name, and thinks he is hearing it again; to someone trying to read a difficult handwriting, and getting it wrong; and on and on. I am surprised every time I do research on this name. It’s taken me years to compile my list of variations, and I still come across more, almost every time I visit the library. But no matter the reason, every spelling is valuable. All it takes is one single name, filed incorrectly but found nevertheless, to string together four hundred years of history.
- How you pronounce the name today is interesting. How somebody recorded it matters more. If they drop an N the name COONTS becomes COOTS. It happens. When they misread an application, the name KOONTZ reverts back to KOUNTZ, a spelling that had been dropped half a century earlier. What you want to consider is this: don’t ever discard information about a person because you think he ‘must be somebody else’s ancestor. Unless, or course, your name is Carter, or something like Smith. (Which only has about fifteen variations). That person you just glossed over could be the missing link. As an example, I wrote a note to a COONS a few months ago, asking if he had any trace of Koontz in his line. Of course, he knew he was English, and there were no Germans in the line. Then a month ago, he happened to put his family tree on the Internet, and I read it. The wife of his gggggg..ancestor happened to be very similar to a German family name I remembered, transcribed into an English form. So I checked my records. Guess what? His family name was Counts before going to Kentucky, and Cuntze before that. Case closed. His ancestor, and Rear Admiral Robert Coontz’s ancestor, are one and the same. Of course, since then, I’ve wondered if maybe some of his line wasn’t tied together by guesswork at times.
- Most of what follows is taken from a blue pocketbook called the Hans Bahlow Deutsches Namenlexikon, which can be found in many Family History Centers. The name stems from the popular and respected Emperor Conrad, who goes way back. Just as many people in America carried the names George Washington as their first and middle names, so did many in Germany name their sons after their emperor. Conrad was originally Kunrad, the latin form of a shortened German phrase Chn im Rat which means either shrewd counselor, or bold counselor. These original spellings weren’t always used. Some people shortened them. Much like Friedrich carries the moniker Fritz, so does Conrad or Kunrad lead to Kunz. The most popular name in Germany at one time was Heinrich (derived from the Emperor Heinrich). The second most popular was Kunrad. From that stems a phrase in German which is: Hinz und Kunz. Both of these are diminutive forms of those two names. The phrase means everyman. These names, however, do go way back. The choice of Conrad (pronounced Koan-rahdt), or Kunrad (pronounced Koon-rahdt), depended on where you lived. Commerce was limited, villagers kept in their villages, and dialects developed that ensured the differences were maintained or increased. As you move from Old High German, you see the formal name change from Kunrad to Kuonrat (pronounced Koo-Own-Rahdt) by the time Middle High German developed. (In the Middle Ages.) You also see a number of diminutives in use. We had Kuon, Kune, and Kunz. Two of these had further diminutives: a Cnel was a little Kune. And a Cnzel was a little Kunz. By the Courtly Romantic period around 1800 in Germany, the diminutive Kunz was no longer in use as a first name. By the time, the short form of Conrad had evolved to either Kuno or Kurt. Also by this time, first names had long since moved into the family name position.
- Just as in Sweden, where Friedrich Johnson was John’s son, so Conrad Kunz may have at one point been Kunz’s son, where Kunz was a diminutive form of Conrad itself. Thinking of it in Swedish terms, Conrad Kunz was actually Conrad Conradson. Take notice of the u sound in these names. It can (sometimes) be a clue to the original location of a family. Kunz was not the only term used. Up in the north Germanic areas of the Rhine plain, where they spoke Platt Deutsch, or lower German, we see another variant. There it took the form of Khn. This in turn led to a variety of names such as Khne, Khnen, and Khnke. And perhaps from that we also see Conkel.. Just south of that area, still in the Platt Deutsch dialect but in the Rhineland, you see the variations of Konert and Kohnert (pronounced with a long o). In Westfalen, you see Konertz, Coners, Conerding, and Conring (all with the long o). Along the border of France, in the Saar and the Alsace, you see Conz and Contz and Contze (again, all long o). All of these stem from the in the Platt Deutsch pronunciation, which in turn reflected the uo pronunciation of Middle High German.
- Meanwhile, in middle and upper German areas, you see the evolution of names such as KChne, KChnel, KChnemann, and KChnzel (instead of uo, you have a kind of eww sound). In Schleswig you see Kuhnt and Kunat (both pronounced with more of a u). Kuhnke and Kunath led to Kunisch in East Germany. Kunke led to Kunitz, which was the name of many towns in Schleswig, Thuringen, and Brandenburg, also in the east. Once the names diverged, they stayed diverged. Very few led back to the pronunciation Koontz or Coons and its many variations. In addition, a name such as Kunst, which has to do with art or craft, does not appear to ever change over to the Coons variety. Kunst, Kunstler, Kunster all stayed firmly in their niches. They are a different line entirely.
- Then you have the very early usages of Cuncze von Cracow (1388), and Cuntz der KCntzel (1382) in Kempten. These pop up again by 1675 in Siegen, up just east of Bonn in the Rheinland, as the name Cuntze. And a final exception is this: the religious exodus series that powered the entire region sent small groups of people out of Switzerland and up into Germany. It sent Huguenots from France to central Germany. So you will find a Kunz, for instance, from Basel, Switzerland originally, who you notice appears to have come from north Germany.
- Finally: enter the American experience. When they came to this country, their names were recorded numerous times by people of different nationalities. The Germans, often bilingual or even trilingual, took a low-profile position and accepted whatever the scribes, recorders, and taxmen said. A Schmidt would list his name that way in his own church, but show up as Smith on a tax record. What is more puzzling was the situation where one brother chose the name Counts, where another in the family chose Koonce, a third chose Koontz, and the father was either a Kuntz or a Kunz, and in one case, also Cuntze. While all this was going on, the taxmen wrote them all down as Counce. It wasn’t until about 1800 that they settled on one spelling and kept it from generation to generation. Even then, we stumble on a Coons family that became a Koontz. Interestingly, they were an English family that settled in a very German village in Ohio, and were promptly taught how their name should be spelled. If you have read all the way down to this point, congratulations! I hope there was something here that helps you in your own research.
DISCUSSION OF THE ORIGINATION OF GERMAN NAMES
~~~ INCLUDING KOONS ~~~
(Pennsylvania-German Surnames. Address of Professor L. Oscar Kuhns, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut. The Pennsylvania-German Society. Proceedings and Addresses at Reading, October 3, 1894. Volume V. Published by the Society, 1895.)
The subject of indigenous American surnames is one of extreme interest and yet one that has hitherto attracted but little attention. Of course New England names being merely the transplanting of English originals, offer only the interest of orthographical and orthoepical variations; but even here there are many phenomena which would well repay investigation.
The richest field, however, for investigations of this sort is offered by Dutch and German surnames, the former being found mainly in New York and the latter in Pennsylvania. There are hundreds of American families, with names purely English in pronunciation and spelling, which go back to a German or Dutch ancestry. On the other hand, there are many Dutch names which have remained unchanged after the lapse of two centuries, and yet which have become so familiar to American eyes and ears that they seem as thoroughly English as Smith and Brown; Cuyler, Depew, Schenk, Vanderbilt, – who ever thinks of these as foreign names?
It is not the purpose of this paper to discuss Dutch or German surnames in America, but to take one widely spread Pennsylvania-German name as an example of the variations which hundreds of others have undergone. The manner in which proper names are formed is usually the same among most European nations. Following are some of the commonest methods according to which these names are given.
1. The word son is added to the father’s name, hence Johnson is English, Olsen in Swedish. The Greek genitive is used for the same purpose, as are also the Norman-French Fitz, the Scotch Mac, the Irish O’ and the Welsh Ap (whence such names as Powell, from Ap, and Howell, Bevan from Ap and Evan, etc.)
2. Names are given from colors, as Brown and Black, Schwarz and Weiss, Italian Bianco and Nero, etc.
3. Or from physical characteristics, as the Latin Calvus, bald; Rufus, redhead, English, Armstrong; German, Krumbein, etc.
4. Or from occupation and profession, as Schmidt and Smith, (Latin, Faber), Taylor and Schneider, (cf. Andrea del Sarto- the son of the tailor), etc. In addition to these methods, men also receive names form the localities in which they lived or from property they owned. In Latin we even find numbers used as names– Quintus, the fifth, Sextus, the sixth, etc.
German surnames are largely made up in the same way, but they are different from those of Latin and other languages, in that they were originally more serious, and earnest and full of meaning. There were no trivial or commonplace names, no merely euphonious combinations or borrowing from other nations. In this respect, the Germans closely resembled the Greeks, a large number of whose patronymics are almost literal equivalents of German names. Thus Dietrich is the same, etymologically, as Democratos, Gottlieb as Theophilos, and Conrad as Thrasybulos. The old Germans looked upon the names given a child as full of potent influence on its future, and hence they gave names which contained noble and lofty meaning, an ideal after which the child should strive in life. In the words of a mediaeval German writer (Fischart in his Gargantua) “Schone namen reitzen auch zu schoenen Thaten? Many German proper names which are still common, lead us back to the early dawn of history in the Fatherland. Some are formed of words which still exist, as Walter (from Walten), Alfred and Conrad (from Rath); others, on the other hand, are made up of words long since forgotten; thus Hubert (from Hugi and bert, “bright in intellect;) Oscar (from Ans, an old God and Kar, spear), Edgar, Hedwig, and others.
These full-toned words suffered already in olden times frequent and strong abbreviations; thus Hugibert became Hugo, Audemar become Otto, and Kunrat became Kuno. Later, suffixes were added to these abbreviated forms and new ones arose. From these so-called nicknames a very large number of family names were formed. Thus, by adding the old German suffix izo, we have Fritz (from Friedrich), Kuntz (from Kuno, (abbreviation for Kunrat and izo), and Heinz (from Heinrich.) In quite the same way we have in English Watkins (from Wat (nickname of Wlater) and Kins), Hawkins (from Hal and Kins), (cf. Caulkins, pron.Cawkins, Falconer, etc.,) and Dickens (from Richard). Hence Heinz, meaning “little Henry” and Hawkins are the exact equivalents of each other. It was not until the 14th century that foreign names were admitted by the Germans, and then we find the names of Saints and Martyrs, John, George, etc. The Counter Reformation in the 16th century introduced Catholic saints as Gregory, Benedict, Xavier, while the influence of the Renaissance is seen in Alexander, Emil, Nicolas and Victor.
Among the most common of these old German names and one that runs back to the first beginnings of history in Germany is the name of Kuntz with its various forms. Its popularity in the middle ages was enormous and accounts for its wide-spread use today, being almost as common in Germany and North Switzerland as Jones and Smith in English. Indeed, so widely was it used that it went beyond the confines of a proper name and became in many cases a common name. for instance we find it often used as a general term for “anybody,” for the most part, however, joined with the word Heinz (from Heinrich).
Already in the 13th century we find in Eckhart, Kuonrat noch Heinrick, noch Uolrich,” used indeterminately and showing that even then they must have been very common; later examples are: “sie lieben zetzt me Heinz and Kunz” and “Es sie Kunz oder Heinz,” – i.e. “be he who he may.” Very often it is used for a servant or peasant (cf. English Hodge) and in the Peasant Revolt in Wurtemberg in 1514, the peasants called themselves “der Arme Knorad.” still more popular is the application to puppets, historical fools, cats and pigs, the devil (cf. Old Nick), fish (Lachs-Kunze), and even dishes (Apfel Kunz- baked apples in milk and eggs.) There was even a child’s game called Kunzenjagen, where one of the fingers is called Kunz. This use of proper names is not peculiar to German. We have similar examples in English, as Tom, Dick and Harry, boot-jack and apple-jack, while in the medieval French poem, the Romance of the Rose, we have Robins and Roberts used exactly as Heinz and Kunz, or Tom, Dick and Harry, to express “anybody whatsoever.” Other examples could be quoted from Dante’s Divine Comedy and the Latin law books.
The original old High-German form of Kunz is Chuonrat, whence the Middle High-German Kuonrat, (bold in Counsel, the exact equivalent of the Greek Thrasybulos); the Latin form is Conradus. The references to the name in old German literature are very numerous, and we find a large number of different spellings. The diminutive is not formed from the Latin Conradus, but from the od German Chuonrat, by adding the ending izo, later z and ze. Hence we get chuonizo, Chuonze, Middle High-German Kunze. Other well known German names formed in the same way are Fritz (from Friedrich), Goetz (from Gottfried), Lutz (Ludwig), Heinz (Heinrich), Benz (Benedict), Lenz (Lorenz), Lantz (Lautfrid), Seitz (Siegfried), Dietz (Dietrich).
Among dialectical forms we may mention Kuonz and Kueriz (Bavarian), Cuntz and Contz (same man, Nuremberg, 15 century), Konze (Allemannic, 15 century, near Lake Constance), and Kunz, with long vowel, in Hessen and Saxony. The usual low German form is Kurt, a diminutive of Conrad. In the 15th century we find the same man called Curt, Curd and Conrad. A Latin writer of the 16th century says: Apud Latins dicitur Cunraed, quod Latine interpretatur Audacis Consilu, a castrensibus Kuntze, a rusticis Curd. The usual modern forms are Kunz and Kuntz, Kunze and Kuntze, with their derivatives Kuntzmann, etc. Such is an outline of the history of the name Kuntz, in Germany. The name being so common there, it is not surprising to find that a large number of families so named came to America during the 18th century. In the Pennsylvania Archives, 2nd Series, Vol. 17, entitled “Names of Foreigners who took the Oath of Allegiance to the Province and State of Pennsylvania, 1727-1775, with foreign arrivals, 1786-1808,” there are 85 entries under the name of Kuntz and Cuntz in the Index. This of course represents many more individuals, as often only the heads of families are mentioned and frequently there are several names to a page. Now what has become of all the descendants of these Kuntz’s who came into Pennsylvania during the last century? A consultation of directories, catalogues of colleges, church records, etc., shows that a large number of these names have been changed. Of course the tendency to change a foreign name in an English speaking country is natural. In the first place during the early part of the 18th century all Germans who received a grant of public lands were required to have their names Anglicized. Then again orthography in those days was in a bewildered state. In addition to all this was the natural objection to the inconveniences arising from having a name which others could with difficulty pronounce or spell. As in well known, most of the immigrants to Pennsylvania during the first 70 years of the 18th century came from the Palatinate and Switzerland. Pennsylvania-German itself is a patois whose basis is the dialects of the Upper Rhine and German-Switzerland. Hence the most common Pennsylvania-German names are of Swiss or Rhenish origin; such are Tschantz, Ebyu, Neff, Baumann. Kuntz is very common to this day in Switzerland, especially in the Canton of Basel. Some of these Swiss-German names in Pennsylvania have remained unchanged, as Neff, Wolf, Bair; some have been only slightly modified as Bowman and Baker, some have been translated, as Carpenter and Stoneburner. Still others have been changed so as hardly to reveal their German origin, as Greybill (Krehbiel), and Keeley (Kuhle).
The name Kuntz illustrates these varieties, remaining unchanged in many cases, in others being but slightly modified, as in Koontz and Lountz, and still others concealing altogether its origin. How many people in seeing the name Coons, think of it as German origin? And yet the name is unknown in England, and almost so in New England; it points back in every case to Kuntz. Following is a list of all the forms given in the Pennsylvania Archives above mentioned.
It will be noticed that the same man is referred to under two different spellings. This is due to the fact that often a double list of the same person is given, one evidently written by the man himself, and the other by English hands, writing phonetically, Kuntz, Kunts, Konts (same man- Kuntz), Konce (same man also given Kuntz), Counse, Kunst (same man – Kuntz), Coons (same man- Kuntz), Coones (same man- Cuntz), Kuhntz, Kuents, Koontz, Kuntz, Juntze, Kunshe, Kuntsch. All these are simply orthographical variations of the same name. We have here already several forms which correspond to modern spelling. The most interesting example is Coons. This is given in the so-called “original” list, that is, a duplicate evidently written by an English hand. It bears evidence tot eh long pronunciation of the u in Kuntz, which ordinarily is short. The long vowel explains the forms Coons, Kuhns, Koons, while Koonce, Koontz and Counse point back to short u. The forms Coons and Koons occur most frequently in large towns where English influence has been at work for some time, while Kuntz and Kuhns are more common in the country districts. An interesting example of this is found in the directory of Allentown. In the town proper there recorded 22 Koons, 12 Kuntz and 14 Kuhns; while in the smaller villages around Allentown we find 62 Kuhns, a few Kuntz and no Koons. This would seem to indicate that the form Kuhns was not due to English influence as Koons or Coons, inasmuch as the farmers to this day speak German. The z being changed to s the h was introduced either to mark the long pronunciation of u, or was simply due to loose orthography. We often find in contemporary documents h dropped where it ought to be, or added where it ought not to be. Thus in an old family Bible I find the word jahr written jar, and geboren written gebohren, so das erste Mahl (Mal), rumen (ruhmen). A quite analogous case is the change of the Swiss name Tschantz to Johns. The vowel a (pronounced like a in father) was originally short, but was lengthened, and when the extremely foreign looking Tschantz was changed, the Tsch was made over into J (its nearest equivalent), tz was changed to s and ho was put in place of long a. Further examples of similar changes are Kuhnsman for original Kuntzman, Hines and Hynes for Heinz, where the short i sound is lengthened to long i.
As before remarked the forms Coons and Koons were due to English influence. Presumably in most cases they were changed directly from Kuntz. But at least one case has come to my knowledge where Coons is what might be called a tertiary form, having previously been spelt Huhns, which itself was changed form Kuntz. The change of long u to oo in Pennsylvaina names is common enough; i.e. Zook for Zug, Root for Ruth, Fooks for Fuchs, Cool for Kuch.
The above forms into which the original Kuntz has been metamorphosed are all that need discussion. It may not be uninteresting, however, to give a list of all the various forms I have been able to find. The are almost entirely Pennsylvania names and are as follows: Koontz, Kountz, Kountze, Kunz, Kunze, Koonce, Koons, Kuns, Kouns, Kuhns, Kunes, Kuhnz, Kunes, Coonz, Coons, Counse, Cuntz, Coones. It has often seemed to me a pity that so many Pennsylvania German names with long and honorable ancestry should have been changed to hybrid English forms, without meaning and often without beauty. What a deterioration there is in such names as Shunk (from Huguenot Jean), or Bushong (from Beauchanp). How tame and flat Coons and Koons are compared to the good old Juntz, with its history of nearly a thousand years, and consecrated as it is in German literature by legend and song. Let those who boast of German names still keep them, unchanged and undefiled. They will be constant reminders of the mighty men of old, who, leaving the hills and valleys of Switzerland and the banks of the German Rhine, crossed the ocean to found in the new world a home of peace and quiet for themselves and their descendants. I cannot do better in closing this paper than quote the eloquent words of Rev. Henry Harbaugh, in his life of Michael Schlatter, the organizer of the Reformed church in Pennsylvania: “The Indians are gone, but their names are still uttered in our hearing by the sounding mountains, the roaring rivers and the softer murmur of the gentler streams. These are their monuments that will tell of the ancient people forever. So the Germans may vanish, their language may be forgotten, their habits improved to what is worse, and their records fade from the historic page; but German names will stick fast to German towns, counties, townships, valleys, streams, and hills, till earth and heaven themselves are changed. Then, too, German family names will tell the tale. Look over the State and beyond it, and is not their name legion, for they are many. These, it is true, may be changed the Shibboleth may be turned into Sibboleth, by such as “cannot frame to pronounce it right,” yet the man of quaint and curious lore will always be able to trace them through their transmigrations, and demonstrate that in the beginning they were not so. As there is a power behind thrones, so there are monuments back of history; and what historians bury, antiquarians will dig out — and they will show to the ages to come, who were the ancient people that reigned in the land.”