Its nice to be in a country where the meaning of my last name is appreciated. Germans sometimes ask me if "Goldfarb" is my real name or just an artists name. Its a Jewish name. Its my real name. "Goldfarb" means gold color or gold paint in German. Its an appropriate name for an artist but Americans just don't get it!
names of Americans I know with German last names:
Reisner (traveler)
Weider (pasture)
Adler (eagle)
Bergstein (mountain stone)
Bernstein (amber)
Kessel (kettle)
Gipfel (summit)
Rosenthal (rose valley)
Kaufman (merchant)
Strom (electricity)
Ahorn (maple)
Bauer (farmer)
Klein (little)
Traub (grape)
Ferkel (piglet)
Fuchs (fox)
Hersch (deer)
Weiner (person from Vienna)
Herzog (duke)
Shenker (donor, giver)
Katz (cat)
Reiniger (cleaner)
Saltzberg (salt mountain)
Henkel (handle)
Greenblat (greenleaf)
Steigbegel (Steigbügel-stirrup)
Eichenwald (oak forest)
Zimmerman (carpenter)
Maybaum (Maibaum-Maypole)
Famous People
composers
Johann Sebastian Bach (creek)
George Frideric Handel (business)
Richard Strauss (bouquet, ostrich)
Arnold Schoenberg (beautiful mountain)
Alban Berg (mountain)
Carl Maria von Weber (weaver)
Franz Schubert (Schuber-slip case)
Gustav Mahler (mahlen- to mill)
entertainment
Marlene Dietrich (pick lock, skeleton key)
Kirsten Dunst ( smoke, haze)
Goldie Hawn (Hahn-rooster)
Rob Schneider (tailor)
Fran Drescher (thresher)
Howie Mandel (almond)
John Ritter (knight)
Ted Koppel (belt, padlock)
Jerry Siegel (seal)
Claudia Schiffer (sailor)
Mick Jagger (Jäger-hunter)
Max Weinberg (vineyard)
philosphers
Sigmund Freud (joy)
Carl Jung (young)
Erich Fromm (pious)
artists/writers
H.R. Giger (Geiger-violinist)
Anselm Kiefer (jaw)
Gehard Richter (judge)
Julian Schnabel (beak)
Paul Auster (oyster)
Hermann Hesse (a state in Germany)
Calvin Klein (little)
activists
Helen Keller (basement)
Betty Friedan (Frieden-peace)
companies
Bayer asprin-(Bavarian)
reebock sneakers (Rehbock-roe buck (deer))
The Strand Bookstore (beach)
If you can think of some more names lemme know!
