When you think of the name 'Barnhart', what comes to mind?
Do you see a picture of yourself, or one of your fine relatives? Or do you think of a barn with a heart on it, imagining that the 'e' was somehow lost in translation? Maybe the photo below suggested the idea before you knew what to think...
Thoughts of the Barnhart name get you thinking about your heritage and your ancestry, and you wonder how they spelled it back then. Is Barnhardt the real spelling, while its slightly diminished variant is walking around without a 'd' like it lost a strand of DNA? Or is Barnhart the pure and undefiled truth? And what did the name mean back then?
I hope anyone that actually knows an answer to these questions will chime in, for what follows is purely speculation and a few internet searches (which necessarily lead to true knowledge, of course). I used no actual genealogical records in my research.
To satisfy my curiosity, I performed a quick search on the etymology of the name Barnhart. I was quickly directed to the Oxford Dictionary of American Family Names, where we find this entry for Barnhart:
Barnhart(7432)
Dutch: from the personal name Barnhart, Dutch form of Bernhard.
So - interesting. Maybe it wasn't Barnhart, or Barnhardt, but Bernhard. Dutch, huh? Now looking up Bernhard produces:
Bernhard(1675)
Dutch, German, and Scandinavian: from the Germanic personal name Bernhard, composed of the elements ber(n) ‘bear’ + hard ‘brave’, ...
Now we're getting to some meaning. And we've added German and Scandinavian. Bear from ber(n) and brave from hard is certainly a different picture than a barn and heart.
Pretty much every Google image search result for "bear brave" brings up the Disney/Pixar movie "Brave" which has a bear in it, so I'll just put a picture of a bear here and give you a few suggestions for your own search:
- You could try searching for the phrase "bear brave"
- Another (possibly fitting) option would be "barely brave"
- Do not attempt to search for "bare brave" or "bare braves fans" (I shudder to think)
Of course, this raises some questions. What does brave describe - the bear, or someone who's brave like a bear? Maybe our ancestors were bear hunters. They were more likely brown and furry like a bear. What do you think?
I doubt whether this is relevant, but to round out this post I'll give you a link to the Barnhart Surname History. And a family crest:
What a delight! I hadn't thought of you as being a literary craftsman, but your posts, lately, are proving otherwise! I'll look forward to hearing from the other creative wordsmiths in the family, which category I do not fall into. You "Berhnard" offspring did not get your creative ability of literary prose from your mother! But I sure enjoy reading it from you:) Write on...if you're brave, or even barely brave!
ReplyDeleteVery interesting Steve, now this totally contradicts what the family expert has to say about our name and nationality. I am not the family expert. I always assumed that Barnhart was German and that's about all I thought about it. However, my sister Judy went on a fact finding mission several years ago and went to Missouri where my Grandpa Barnhart was from and claimed she even found a town called Barnhart Missouri. She was told by the locals there that the Barnharts came from New Orleans and that they were of French ancestry. So Vive la Barnharts!
ReplyDeleteI had forgotten this piece of information, but I did learn a few years ago that Barnhart means some combination of brave and bear. This prompted my friends to constantly refer to me as being brave like a bear as well some interesting pictures of my brave adventures. I don't mean to brag, but I believe I've become somewhat of a legend in namesake folklore.
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