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ArchivesRe: Meaning of last name Thornburgh?
in reply to a message by Jeromiah Baker
A lastname like that could most likely stem from several different germanic languages. _If_ swedish, as suggested by another poster, there are a number of possible lastnames that might be altered to 'Thornburgh' if the name's bearer moves to a country where english is the main language:
Tornberg
Törnberg
Tornborg
Törnborg
All of these could also be spelled with an 'h' between the 'T' and the vowel. Such an 'h' is merely a "decorative" letter, and has no influence on pronunciation. (But in english of course it turns the the first sound into a 'þ'.)(The sound 'þ' disappeared from swedish many hundred years ago.)
'törn' means 'spike', 'thorn'
'torn' means 'tower'
'berg' means 'hill', 'mountain'
'borg' means 'fortress', 'castle'
Very many swedish lastnames are constructed along this pattern; two separate words are combined to produce a name. Sometimes the compounded elements make logical sense (i.e. refers to some real object, and can be found as autonomous words in the language), but often they don't really refer to anything reasonable (i.e. do not appear in the language as stand-alone words, they exist only as names.)
Tornberg
Törnberg
Tornborg
Törnborg
All of these could also be spelled with an 'h' between the 'T' and the vowel. Such an 'h' is merely a "decorative" letter, and has no influence on pronunciation. (But in english of course it turns the the first sound into a 'þ'.)(The sound 'þ' disappeared from swedish many hundred years ago.)
'törn' means 'spike', 'thorn'
'torn' means 'tower'
'berg' means 'hill', 'mountain'
'borg' means 'fortress', 'castle'
Very many swedish lastnames are constructed along this pattern; two separate words are combined to produce a name. Sometimes the compounded elements make logical sense (i.e. refers to some real object, and can be found as autonomous words in the language), but often they don't really refer to anything reasonable (i.e. do not appear in the language as stand-alone words, they exist only as names.)
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