For the second part of my project I went to Langsom library to research the etymological definitions of my last name, Baurichter.A worker at the help desk quickly showed me where many German and English etymological dictionaries were.Looking up Baurichter as well as the suspected root words of Bauer and Richter, I was able to get a pretty good understanding of what my last name means.
Only one dictionary had my last name Baurichter in it, but the name was actually entered as Bau(er)richter.The dictionary was German and titled Unsere Familiennamen.The definition of Bau(er)richter was “Baumeister, Richter” (Linnartz).Unfortunately, I do not speak German, so I had to use a German-English dictionary to define Baumeister.A few of them defined Baumeister as a master-builder or agricultural manager.Another etymological source did not have an entry for Baurichter but did have the name listed under the entry Bau(e)rmeister (Gottschald).Bauermeister is slightly different than the previously mentioned Baumeister as it includes an “er.”The definition of Bauermeister is “village head” and Baurmeister is “village mayor.”Similar definitions, with both regarding a prominent leader in a village. In addition to just looking up my full last name as an entry, I also researched the suspected root words, Bau, Bauer, and Richter.According to the German-American Names dictionary, Bau means “construction or cultivation,” Bauer means “farmer,” and Richter means “judge” (Jones).Putting those together you get a construction judge or a farmer judge which does not make a whole lot of sense.As mentioned earlier, the definitions that I found for Bauerrichter and Baumeister were master-builder or agricultural manager.In addition, those definitions are somewhat similar to simply combining the root words.
These definitions found by researching etymological dictionaries also coincide with what my family members believed the name meant.My aunt Stefani, uncle Ken, and cousin Brian all thought that Baurichter meant a builder or engineer.Looks like they were right.
Works Cited Jones, George F. "Baumeister." German-American Names. Baltimore: Genealogical, 1990. Print. Brechenmacher, Josef K. "Bauer." Eymologisches Worterbuch Der Deutschen Familiennamen. Limburg: C. A. Starke, 1957. Print. Gottschald, Max. "Bauermeister." Deutsche Namenkunde Unsere Familiennamen. Berlin: Walter De Gruyter, 1982. Print. Linnartz. "Bauerrichter." Unsere Familiennamen. Verlag: Ferd Dummlers, 1958. Print. Smith, Elsdon C. "Bauer." Dictionary of American Family Names. New York: Harper, 1956. Print.