Hello all. My German instructor was able to give me some good information into our surname. As I wrote before, surnames apparently came into general usage around the 1100's. At that time the word "fiddler" was spelled "Giger" with a diacritical mark, an inverted "v", over the letter i. (I'm not sure what the technical name is for the inverted v.) The diacritical mark signified that the "i" was to be pronounced "ee" as in beet. As the centuries progressed the diacritical mark was replaced with the letter combination "ei," which also signified the same pronunciation. Apparently (I still need to check into this) German pronunciation eventually shifted. In modern German, the second vowel in two-vowel combinations is the one pronounced; hence the pronunciation "Gei-ger" with a long "i". Our surname means "fiddler". Strictly speaking, it's incorrect to translate it as "violinist," as I've seen some do. The reason is that the violin, properly so-called, did not originate until the 16th century in Italy. Hope this helps. Bart Geger ******************* Barton T. Geger, SJ St. Louis, MO U.S.A. Phone: (314) 652-5425 FAX: (314) 652-7028 Researching Giger/Gyger/Geiger, Halter, Baumgartner, Lenhardt, Jost and Wolfe http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Ranch/4319 *********************************************