Surname Berghans - Meaning and Origin
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Berghans: What does the surname Berghans mean?
The last name Berghans is a Dutch patronymic surname, meaning "son of Berg," with "Berg" coming from the personal name Berger, which originated as an occupational name for someone who worked in a mine, quarry, or in stone cutting. It can also be derived from an old middle-low German word which meant someone who lived near a fortification hill or a mountain. The surname Berghans is still common in some parts of Europe today, including the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany and Belgium.
The last name Berghans first appeared in the records in the Netherlands in the 15th century, when people were adopting locational and occupational surnames. It was very common for people to take the name of a place or an object as a last name, and for others to take surnames from their occupations. In the Netherlands, this included names such as Van der Meer (beside a lake) and Van der Berghe (beside a hill), which evolved into Berghans.
The last name Berghans is also found in the United States today, due to Dutch immigration in the 18th century and later. People with the name Berghans are spread across the country in a variety of occupations, including engineers, financiers, entrepreneurs and entertainers. They are likely proud to be part of a long family history, deriving from a proud mining and stone-cutting lineage.
Order DNA origin analysisBerghans: Where does the name Berghans come from?
The last name Berghans is most commonly found in the Netherlands, particularly in the provinces of Utrecht, Overijssel, and North Holland. In the Netherlands, the surname is estimated to be held by over 4,000 people. Additionally, the name is quite popular in the Belgian province of Limburg. Outside of the Low Countries in Europe, the name is less common, but still found in scatterings across the United States, Canada, Australia, and South Africa.
In the Netherlands, Berghans is an occupational surname, with the most common translation being a tanner. The name first originated as a name for someone that worked as a tanner, after the Dutch word ‘berg’, which means mountain or hill. This would refer to an area of flat land used for drying and stretching animal hides after they were cured in a local river.
The name is celebrated in a variety of ways in the Netherlands, with a beer being brewed for ‘Berghans Week’ in November of every year in Utrecht in celebration of the Berghans family. Additionally, the Berghans restaurant is a popular destination in Utrecht for traditional Dutch comfort food. Finally, Berghans Watchmakers is a renowned family-owned business in the area that has been producing watches for over 150 years.
Variations of the surname Berghans
Berghans is a Dutch and German surname. Variants, spellings, and surnames of the same origin for Berghans include Bergen, Berg, Bergan, Bergenhans, Bergman, and Berghmans. Berghans is a patronymic surname derived from the Germanic element Bergh, which means ‘hill’ or ‘mountain’. In some instances, it may also refer to those who lived near this type of terrain or belonged to certain hillside clans.
Berghans is the original Dutch variant of the surname. Spelling variations include Berg, Bergen, Bergenhans, Bergman, Bergmans, and even Bergan. In Germany, the shortened form Bergh is also seen. In France, the surname is spelled as Bergent.
The surname Berghans may be a variation of Berghous, a name found in Germany, which originated from the Bavarian castle of Berghaus, located in the county Ettmannsdorf. The Berghans family can be traced back to the 14th century to the village of Ettmannsdorf in Upper Bavaria.
Similarly, the surname Bergen is derived from "berg", which means mountain or hilltop in both Dutch and German. So, Bergen is a variation of Berghans and is most commonly found in the Lower Rhine region. In the United States, the spelling variations Bergman and Bergmans are found.
The Berghans surname is most common in countries such as Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, France, Hungary, Austria, and Switzerland. In the United States, descendants of the Berghans surname can be found in Pennsylvania and Ohio.
Actually, the Berghans surname has evolved over the centuries, but it remains a well-known European patronymic surname that has been handed down from one generation to the next.
Famous people with the name Berghans
- Deryk Berghans: Canadian actor
- Mandy Berghans: Swimmer from Belgium
- Coralie Berghans: Table tennis player from Belgium
- Thijs Berghans: Cyclist from the Netherlands
- Boudewijn Berghans: Former basketball player from the Netherlands
- Martin Berghmans: Retired Dutch footballer
- Teun Berghans: Volleyball player from the Netherlands
- Wijnand Berghans: Singer-songwriter from the Netherlands
- Mieke Berghans: Retired Belgian golfer
- Floris Berghans: Indoor volleyball player from the Netherlands