Hasselbacher Family Blog

If you have a name like Hasselbacher or something close, you no doubt have heard many pronunciations, seen many misspellings, and have developed your own method of helping people over the phone. This problem has probably been with us forever, and was accentuated when our ancestors were funneled through the ports of America and into its workplaces. Some of us chose, or had chosen for us, new ways of spelling or pronouncing our names.

My family pronounced it with soft “a” sounds: “Hassel” and “bacher” like “father” or “Las Vegas.” (I am not an expert, but this may be an ä sound.) This is the only way I have heard it pronounced in Franconia although German speakers may sound the “ch” harder as in “achtung.”

Like you, I respond to many variations when called to my table at a restaurant. I lived in New York City for a while where harder “a” sounds are common as in to “hassle” someone, and my “back” hurts.

I am told by one of the Illinois clan that their old-timers pronounced their Hasselbacher name with a long “a” sound for the first: “hazel” as the hazelnut tree or the girl’s name; but with a soft “a” at the end like I do.

I met one of the Hazelbakers who pronounced his name like the girls name and a maker of bread– just like it looks!

Some folks have trouble with the “ch” sound at the end. They do not sound a harder “k” as in rock, but a “sh” sound as in wash. In fact, they may even say “basher” as in someone who hits.

How do you spell and pronounce your name? Do you have any stories that would educate or entertain the rest of us? Leave a “comment” at the end of the Blog entry for this item, or email it to me and I will enter it for you.

Your Cousin,
Peter
March 20, 2007

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 20th, 2007 at 10:17 am and is filed under Interesting & Fun. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.