My Hoppes Generations essay Origin of the Hoppes Surname traces our family line and the spelling of our surname from the 1290s to the present day. To me it seems almost 100% certain that our family name was a place name, specifically the manor and castle Habesburc (meaning hawks castle), owned by the family of the counts and kings named Habsburg. Gradually, the family name was shortened to the contraction Habsen (or Hapsen) and then to the one syllable Swiss version of our name Habs or Haps. After Elsbetha (Hoffman) Haps emigrated to the Palatinate in the 1650s with her son and two daughters, the two-syllable version of the name (Happes/Habbes) became predominant. Almost all of the individuals with our surname who lived in or near Winterthur, Switzerland and the Odenwald north of Heidelberg, Germany are members of our family or its branches.
SURNAME
FAMILY SEARCH ENTRIES FOR:
SPELLING
ENG
GER
HOL
FRA
SCA
Hoppes
50
22
23
1
5
Hoppas
42
1
0
0
0
Hoppus
72
3
0
0
0
Hoppers
15
95
57
0
0
Hopperus
0
0
20
0
0
Happes
0
2
0
0
0
Habbes
7 248
45
0
0
Habbis
14
0
0
0
0
Haps
13
23
1
10
0
Habs
5
35
0
0
0
Where ENG = England; GER = Germany; HOL = Holland; FRA = France; and SCA = Scandinavia.
Sir John Cam Hobhouse
His Monument
Another reason for doubting that the surname Hoppes/Hoppus is a variant of Hobhouse is that a number of the Hoppes/Hoppas/Hoppus entries summarized in the LDS Family Search data above are for far earlier dates than the earliest Hobhouse, John, who died in 1711. Seven different individuals named Hoppes were born prior to 1600. Similarly, eight of the Hoppas individuals were born before 1600. On the other hand, none of the Hoppus entries predated 1600.
Joachim Hopperus (Hoppers), born in Sneek, Holland in 1523; died in Madrid, Spain in 1576. Coat of Arms: In blue, a pelican with silver hair sitting on a golden nest. |
As expected, the largest number of references to our surname in the LDS Family Search databases occurred for Germany. Even after entries for our family members in the Heidelberg area were excluded, for example, there still were 248 entries for the spelling, Habbes.
Most of the German surnames on the LDS Family Search list came from northern Germany, usually near Hannover in the present State of Lower Saxony or around Leunen in the State of Westphalia. The following entries are among the earliest for these areas of Germany:
� Anna HABBES: F
Baptism: 3 JUL 1622, Dorsten, Westphalia
� Anna HAPPERS:
F Baptism: 3 DEC 1609, Hannover Bothfeld, Hannover
� Anna HOPPERS:
F Marriage: 25 SEP 1580, Neuhaus, Hannover
� Anna HOPPERS:
F Birth: About 1553, Neuenhaus, Hannover
� Anna HOPPERS:
F Birth: About 1559, Neuenhaus, Westphalia
� Clara HABBES:
F Marriage: 18 AUG 1623, Kamen, Westphalia
� Clara Elsabeth
HABBES: F Baptism: 23 JUL 1697, Altenboegg-Boenen, Westphalia
� Conrad HABBES:
M Baptism: 15 SEP 1695, Luenen, Westphalia
� Diedrich
Caspar HABBES: M Birth: 8 SEP 1698, Luenen Westphalia
� Elsabeth
HABBES: F Baptism: 22 NOV 1696, Luenen, Westphalia
� Goerd HABBES:
M Marriage: 31 AUG 1698, Altenboegg-Boenen, Westphalia
� Hans HAPPERS:
M Baptism: 27 SEP 1611, Hannover Bothfeld, Hannover
� Henni HAPPERS:
M Marriage: 23 PRr 1615, Hannover Bothfeld, Hannover
� Heinrich
HABBES: M Birth: 25 MAR 1694, Luenen, Westphalia
� Judocus
HABBES: M Baptism: 19 MAR 1628, Dorsten, Westphalia
� Johann HABBES:
M Marriage: 6 FEB 1690, Luenen, Westphalia
� Johann HABBES:
M Birth: 1693, Luenen, Westphalia
� Johann HABBES:
M Birth: About 1665, Luenen, Westphalia
� Johan Wilhelm
HAPPES: M Baptism: 11 JAN 1615, Meisenheim,
Rheinland
From a pamphlet titled German Farmer Leaders: Habbes, which I copied in the Heidelberg University Library, I became aware that there was a thriving Habbes family in Westphalia. Riki and I never pursued this discovery while we were living in Germany for three basic reasons: (1) it was clear this line was well-documented and unrelated to the Happes family that had emigrated from Switzerland in the 1560s; (2) the archives in Westphalia were too distant from Heidelberg to visit regularly/conveniently with our large family; and (3) the pamphlet was published in the late 1930s when it was important under the Nazi regime to glorify farm life and to demonstrate Aryan ancestry. The publication traced the north German line to the 1600s and claimed that the surname Habbes was derived from the Old German word, Haips, meaning a struggle. This appeared to me to be a politically correct statement, rather than one based on solid research. Naturally, no proof for the assertion was provided in the publication.
� Barbel HAPS: F Marriage: 10 January 1786, Filstroff,
Moselle, France
� Bernard HOPPES: M Marriage: 4 November 1776, Longwy,
Meurthe-Et-Moselle, France
� Elizabeth HAPS: F Birth: 30 September 1806,
Filstroff, Moselle, France
� Etienne HAPS: M Birth: 28 November 1808, Filstroff,
Moselle, France
� Francois HAPS: M Birth: 23 April 1761, Filstroff,
Moselle, France
� Francois HAPS: M Birth: July 1807, Filstroff,
Moselle, France
� Jean HAPS: M Birth: 8 April 1733, Beckerholz,
Filstroff, Moselle, France
� Jean HAPS: M Birth: 29 October 1762, Filstroff,
Moselle, France
� Nicolas HAPS: M Birth: 31 May 1774, Filstroff,
Moselle, France
� Nicolas HAPS: M Birth: 17 May 1805, Filstroff,
Moselle, France
� Paul HAPS: M Marriage: 16 January 1731, Filstroff,
Moselle, France
More will be written about Hoppes residents of France in the forthcoming essays: Other Hoppes Immigrants and The Michigan Hoppes Family.