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ArchivesRe: Kleber
in reply to a message by Laslow
Well, if all the following info is really correct, that name has quite an interesting history:
French given name websites give a meaning of "mason" for the name, e.g. this one:
http://prenoms.famili.fr/,kleber,2277,13679.asp
That particual site also states that the name is from the French region of Alsace. This leads to a family name "Kleber" with a variant of "Kleiber", of German origin, as detailed here:
http://www.geneanet.org/genealogie/fr/kleber.html
Using family names as given names is not unusual, and the Alsace uses, in some ways, a mix of German and French, so a German origin of a family name used there should not be unusual either.
Where does a German word of "Kleiber" lead us? To etymology websites in German, like the following:
http://www.wortbedeutung.info/Kleiber/
https://lexikographieblog.wordpress.com/2015/09/07/kleiber/
They say there is a bird, in German named "Kleiber" (the English name seems to be "nuthatch"), whose name originally meant "plasterer" or "mason", because that bird does something like the work of a plasterer or a mason, when it takes clay to form parts of its nest.
English info about this bird e.g. here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuthatch
Indeed, there still is the modern German word / verb "kleben", with the same roots, meaning to stick / glue / paste / cement something.
French given name websites give a meaning of "mason" for the name, e.g. this one:
http://prenoms.famili.fr/,kleber,2277,13679.asp
That particual site also states that the name is from the French region of Alsace. This leads to a family name "Kleber" with a variant of "Kleiber", of German origin, as detailed here:
http://www.geneanet.org/genealogie/fr/kleber.html
Using family names as given names is not unusual, and the Alsace uses, in some ways, a mix of German and French, so a German origin of a family name used there should not be unusual either.
Where does a German word of "Kleiber" lead us? To etymology websites in German, like the following:
http://www.wortbedeutung.info/Kleiber/
https://lexikographieblog.wordpress.com/2015/09/07/kleiber/
They say there is a bird, in German named "Kleiber" (the English name seems to be "nuthatch"), whose name originally meant "plasterer" or "mason", because that bird does something like the work of a plasterer or a mason, when it takes clay to form parts of its nest.
English info about this bird e.g. here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuthatch
Indeed, there still is the modern German word / verb "kleben", with the same roots, meaning to stick / glue / paste / cement something.
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