I am searching for any information re. the meaning of the name Baughman. Can anyone out there help me at all? I greatly appreciate it. Rebecca Baughman
Bach refers to a stream or brook, and in the dictionary of German names (Bahlow, translation 2nd edition 2002), the entry for Bachmann has "see Bach." Under Bach it says "from the dwelling on a stream." Thus Bachmann (the modern German spelling) or Bachman would suggest 'one who lives by a stream' or 'brook person.' I believe the Baughman spelling came about as an attempt to render the German pronunciation into English spelling. The au (as in caught) being close to the sound of the German a and the gh and attempt to get at the German -ch which is kind of like an h but in the upper back of the throat like a g. Interestingly some Bachmanns from the same family (the Richterswil, Canton Zurich branch of the Bachmanns) retained the Bachman spelling (Samuel-born 1738-who went to TN, Jacob-b. 1759- who went to NY and whose son the Rev John Bachman settled in SC, as well as most who remained in the Lehigh/Northampton area) while others switched to Baughman (most who went to Ohio including my ancestors and Henry Baughman-b. 1711-who settled in VA). Later generations have sometimes modified the pronunciation to match the spelling and then changed the spelling again. Thus one branch of the TN Samuel Bachman's descendants go by Bofman. Hope this helps. At 07:17 PM 11/1/2005, you wrote: >I am searching for any information re. the meaning of the name Baughman. Can >anyone out there help me at all? I greatly appreciate it. > >Rebecca Baughman > > >==== BAUGHMAN Mailing List ==== > ----------------- > Need to post long-term query? > http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec?htx=board&r=rw&p=surnames.baughman > or choose from many other options at > http://resources.rootsweb.com/surnames/b/a/BAUGHMAN/ > ----------------- > >============================== >Search Family and Local Histories for stories about your family and the >areas they lived. Over 85 million names added in the last 12 months. >Learn more: http://www.ancestry.com/s13966/rd.ashx