Hi Ingolf, My guess is that despite the very German-sounding "Blenken" it is actually an old Anglo-Saxon name which may have originally meant white. I've been told that there are a number of Radcliff(e)s in the German phone directories, too. I often wonder how people come to live where they live. And thanks, Gary Radcliffe ----- Original Message ----- From: Ingolf Vogel Sent: Thursday, February 13, 2003 7:58 PM To: SURNAME-ORIGINS-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [SURNAME-ORIGINS] BLANKENSHIP Hello, An interesting name. The "Blanken" part is Low German/Dutch for "white, clean". The problem is the second part. First one would have to establish whether the name is actually Blanken-ship or Blankens-hip. "schip" means ship (in both low German and Dutch). But why would someone be called "white-ship" ? Possibly a sailor ? If the name is Blankens-hip the "-hip" part may be a variation of "hieb" which a blow, i.e. an Blankens-hip may be a particulary cleanly smith or a smith living in a white house. In Germany there are presently 18 entries in the telephone directory for Blankenship, about half of them have English first names. Regards, Ingolf Vogel ----- Original Message ----- From: "GARY RADCLIFFE" <glradcliffe@msn.com> To: <SURNAME-ORIGINS-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, February 12, 2003 9:56 AM Subject: [SURNAME-ORIGINS] BLANKENSHIP > BLANKENSHIP - Sounds English but some of the spellings look German. > > Gary Radcliffe > West Covina, Ca > > > ============================== > To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 > > ============================== To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237