On looking in just one naming dictionary (Bahlow's, on German Names), I found: "Görke, Görecke, Göricke (frequently in East German area) is a German-Slavic short form of Georg; as evident in the place name Görkau (Czech = Jirkov) near Komotau in Bohemia. Also see the place names Görke (several times in Pomerania), Görike in the Prginitz area, Görkwitz near Schleiz. For Gork(e) compare family name Gorcho (14th century in Breslau) and place name Gorkau, Gorkow." The umlauts are important (for lower-case ö, turn off numlock on right-hand numerical pad, hold down ALT and hit 148). If you do not use the umlaut, then you must insert the 'e' - to not use either is an error and changes the sound altogether. Something like a third or so of European surnames are derived from a place someone came from, but only after having left there. These often have the suffix -er on them, but not always. Georg in German is pronounced as Gay-ork, with a hard G, sounding closer to yours, and then, the letters K, G, and C all pretty much sound like K in German, sounding even closer. The sound is more important than the spelling. The -ke ending, as I have mentioned in other messages, usually denotes an origin along the northern coast, most often the Baltic Sea (Öst See). The -au ending means meadow in German; -ow is meadow in Polish. There will not likely be "one correct" spelling of your surname, so just collect all the versions you can, as it will change over time and place again and again, even within a single family. Your family may have spoken Hochdeutsch by schooling and were proud of it, but that would denote education rather than class; it is a matter of location; Hochdeutsch is far more prevalent in the south and in Austria and of course, there are hundreds of dialects even today. Many people, my unsophisticated mother included, thought her mother-in-law was "low class" because she spoke "low German" or Plattdeutsch, and being from Cuxhaven that's what was spoken there, but they didn't like each other either, so Mom probably would have thought her low class no matter how she spoke. It is called "low German" because it is spoken in the "low lands" or Niedersachsen, Lower Saxony, for instance. High German is spoken in the south where the "high lands" or Alps, are located. And each has a difficult time understanding the other. Maureen Schoenky ************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com.