Talk:Wheeler (surname)

Latest comment: 5 years ago by 188.100.55.25 in topic Etymology

Etymology edit

I removed this part:

Another alternative for the meaning of the name “Wheeler” itself. For this, it is evident, determination must be made from the earliest form on record. How significant is this early appearance has been mentioned, a fact all the more remarkable when it is remembered that surnames do not appear in general use until the eleventh and twelfth centuries. This early spelling “Wielher” is evidently a compound of two Anglo-Saxon words “wel” or “wiel” meaning “prosperous” or “fortunate,” from which derivation the modern word “weal” and “wealth” may be traced; and the Anglo-Saxon word “hari” or “heri” a warrior, a root traceable in the modern word “hero.” The present spelling of the family name “Wheeler,” therefore, is a spelling of words which in their modern form would be “Weal-Hero” or in the Anglo-Saxon words “wel-hari.” The meaning of the family name therefore is clearly “the lucky warrior,” or “the prosperous hero.”[1]

  1. ^ Wheeler, Albert Gallatin (1914). The genealogical and encyclopedic history of the Wheeler family in America. American College of Genealogy. p. xii.

The author seems to confuse Latin and Ancient Greek hero with Germanic or Anglo-Saxon hari. Also, the author doesn't distinguish between given name and surname.

--188.100.55.25 (talk) 18:50, 17 March 2019 (UTC)Reply