We lived in the Rheinland for 3 years. They used -lein and -chen as diminutives. They weren't gender specific - seemed to use whatever sounded best. Ex: Uwelein, Haraldchen, Alwinchen, Utalein were all children in the family of our landlords. Brenda, eine Amerikanerin In a message dated 11/12/2008 11:21:13 A.M. Pacific Standard Time, Erika.Lanz.Stuttgart@t-online.de writes: Hello David, the "in" ending means that it is a female person. For instance: Kipp = Mr. Kipp, Kippin = Mrs. Kipp. Beck = Mr. Beck, Beckin = Mrs. Beck. The "lein" ending means small or little, but more in northern Germany. The "le" ending means the same, but is swabian dialect. Like Mr. Kemle, in northern Germany you probably would be a Mr. Kemlein. Regards Erika Lanz(in) -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht----- Von: baden-wurttemberg-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:baden-wurttemberg-bounces@rootsweb.com] Im Auftrag von John Gesendet: Mittwoch, 12. November 2008 16:51 An: baden-wurttemberg@rootsweb.com Betreff: Re: [BW] Meaning of Suffixes to surnames David Kemle wrote: > Hello list members: > > Does anyone know the true meaning of "in" added after a surname? > > Is "in" as a suffix added to the surname for women or does it just mean "little" or "small"? > I have often found in my research that "in" is added to my original surname, so Kiemle becomes Kiemlein. > This is quite common in church records. > > David Kemle I Googled and found this: =========== Von: carlah@earthlink.net (Carla) Datum: 02.12.98, 13:05:29 Betreff: Re: "-in" suffix on Surnames of Women Don Hickman wrote: > I agree with the points you made but I would like to add that in the > research I have done the "-in" seems to have been added to the surnames of > unmarried women only. I have assumed that it was a way of indicating a > young lady's marital status. I wonder if someone here can verify or > refute this. Regards, Don Hickman Dear Don & Baden-Wuerttemberg List Friends, I would also be interested if one of our native German-speaking members could answer this question. Don is correct in that one of the most common places you may see the "-in" suffix in German surnames is a marriage register (usually in reference to the woman being married). However, both my German language professors and my late German-speaking father and have always emphasized that this German grammatical device does not so much denote a woman's *marital status* as it does her *gender.* The supporting evidence that this is an indication of feminization is that many German nouns (not just female proper names) acquire the "-in" suffix to denote feminine gender (such as "Freund" becoming "Freundin" for a female, meaning "friend," and "Lehrer" becoming "Lehrerin," meaning "female teacher.") The odd thing about the feminizing suffix of "-in" added to surnames in *records* is that it would appear NOT to be universal---I have seen the names of both unmarried and married females in my research represented in both formats, with and without the "-in." In records for certain locations I have researched, NONE of the women are designated with a surname suffix of "-in"---their standard surname is used instead. It may be dependent on the particular habit or practices of the person who was creating the written record in question, such as the parish priest or minister writing in the church register. Hopefully, our German-speaking friends can enlighten us further. Warmest regards, Carla HELLER Los Angeles =============== It appears to have been discussed on this list, so a look in the archives of this group may help. (I haven't figured out how to do that yet, but it is probably easy). John ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to BADEN-WURTTEMBERG-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to BADEN-WURTTEMBERG-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message **************Get the Moviefone Toolbar. Showtimes, theaters, movie news & more!(http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100000075x1212774565x1200812037/aol?redir=htt p://toolbar.aol.com/moviefone/download.html?ncid=emlcntusdown00000001)