Surname:Thiem

Description

The surname Thiem has a long and complex history, but all appear to originate in Germany (from Contributions to the History of the Families Thiem (Thim, Thym, Diem, Thimm) and Thieme (Thyme) by Wolfgang Paul Thiem.^[1] The Distribution of Our Family Name in the Course of the Centuries by Alfred Thiem, Berlin-Lankwitz. Published about 1935. Pages 222-225. Translated by Neil C. Clements, Sr., M.D. in April 2001.).

The complexity arises because the pronunciation of the name rather than its spelling was most important. It was assumed that, based on the pronunciation, a learned person should be able to spell it correctly. However, as church records show (one example is how the surname Mosis changed to Mosese, Mosesen, then Moses over just three generations, before becoming Muses (example taken from Genealogical Handbook of German Research, Volume 1, Beginning Research, by Larry D. Jensen: Jensen Publications. Pages 51--52.)), such an assumption has created difficulties for those trying to trace ancestors.

Today, there are many variations of the name, including the spellings of: Thiem, Thieme, Thiemer, Thiemb, Thiems, Thiembs, Thiemf, Thiemef, Thiemen, Thiemens, Thiemig, Thiemich, Thiemert, Thiemeke, Thiemicke, Thiemcke, Thiemke, Thiemt, Thiemisch, Tiehm, Tiehme, Thim, Thime, Thimig, Thiemann. Additionally the same name with the omission of the h, as: Tiem, Tieme, Tiemer, etc. (these variations however do not include the lower German, Tiemann). Then the same method of spelling with y or u or ue instead of the i, as: Thym, Thyme, Thymke, Thymig, Thymian (a connection with the same named plant is not proven, however, its use happens even today in a joking way for Thiem, etc.), Thüm, Theum, Thüme, Theume, Theumbs, Thümen, Tyme, Tüme.

All these variations are distinguished through the drawn out vowel of the stem syllable, as is also seen in the spelling which uses instead of a hard initial sound t, a soft d, as: Diem, Dieme, Dim, Diemer, Diemen, Dhiem, Dieme, Diehm, Diehme.

And not only do we see variations of the the initial hard sounding t, but also changes to the drawn out vowel i, y or ü to a short vowel with a doubling of the following consonant m, as: Timm, Timme, Thimm, Thimme, Thymm, Thymme, Thimmig, Thimmke, Timmecke, Tymmke, as well as the prevailing Latin translation of all above enumerated names as in: Timaeus, Timäus and Timmius, also Thimus.

So, where did it all start?

Diem may have been a derivative from the old Germanic word for the people, diot, diet, which was connected with the suffix: mar. There seems good scientific proof for the correctness of the derivation. From the word Doitmar, the short form Dietmar, Tietmar, Tiemar, etc. have developed.

In this written form, the name first appears not as a surname, but as a forename around 960. By 1100, the name includes spellings such as Thimo and Thiemar. A Thiemo is named in the historical novel The Ancestors by Gustav Freytag (a noted expert of Germanic history) as a battle companion of the fugitive Ingo at the time of the Roman wars on the Rhein.

The name (under various spellings) then begins to appear more commonly as a family name, although its use as a forename continues for centuries.

In the centuries after its acceptance as a surname, between 1200 and 1400 in northern Germany, three main groups of different spellings developed, each probably originally limited to specific regions. Later the borders blurred between one another, and one finds the same namesakes in different spellings.

The three large groups of different spellings are:

1. The spelling of the names with a soft initial sound d, as: Diem, Dhiem, Diehm, Dieme, etc. which was distributed originally in the region on the Main between the Rhein and Eger, in Hessen and Franken.
2. The spelling with the hard initial sound t and the drawn out vowel i or y, as: Thiem, Thieme, Thym, Thyme etc, and later provided with a suffix on the name, as: Thimig, Thiemke, Thiemchen, etc. The original area lay in Thüringa and the province of Sachsen. Further regions of distribution of the name included Brandenburg, and also the free states of Sachsen and Silesia, through backward pressure of the Slavic peoples.
3. The spelling with the hard initial t and the short vowel i or y, as: Timm, Timme, Thimm, Thimme, etc. whose area of distribution lay preferably in northern Germany in Holstein, North Hanover and later in Mecklenburg. The spelling with the double mm one finds uniquely and commonly only since about 1600. Old tax and voting papers lend the best proof to this. The spelling Tymm or Tymme occurs today almost not at all: the spelling variation Thymm is also very rare.

Finally, The spelling with the vowel ü or ue is actually a subgroup of the previously mentioned groups. It developed later than these and was limited preferentially to the east of Germany, insofar as it survived in light of Slavic linguistic influence. Otherwise while in all of the countryside it was written with a y or again with an i, in the eastern half of Germany, the spelling Thym, Thüm, Thyme, Thümen, Theumen etc. was kept.

We have had therefore, in each of the three original areas of north Germany, middle Germany and south Germany bordering on the river regions of the Elbe and Main, a unique spelling of the surname. There is a mixture of the various spellings in the areas which border on the unique distribution areas, and at the time of the Slavic wars, in the eastern immigrant areas of Brandenburg, Pomerania and Silesia.

Specifically, the spelling Thiem is believed to have originated in Waltershausen, Thuringa, Germany, which is south of Gotha in the former East Germany (there was a Hermann Thiem in Waltershausen, Germany, in 1637, based on research by Ginny Thym Clements in the USA, and work with Darlene Thiem (who administers the Thiem-L mailing list on RootsWeb.com) that suggests the spelling of Thiem comes from Waltershausen).

Footnotes & References

1. ↑ http://wiki-de.genealogy.net/Zeitschriften_der_Familienverb%C3%A4nde#Thiem