Origin of the Surname ETJEN

[Max635]

I have an ancestor (x4 Great Grandfather) who was a Stone Cutter (carver of gravestones) by the name of John Etjen. Born around 1759 he died in 1847 in the parish of St. Georges in the East, London.

Iam trying to find the origins of John, as his name suggests that he is unlikely to be of English stock. There was a large community of North Germans living in that part of East London, who worked in the Sugar industry during the late 18th Century - early 19th Century, so it is possible that ETJEN may be a German name. Alternatively there is a suggestion that the name might be Flemish or Walloon.

Can anyone help locate the origin of this rather unusual surname.

[kaysii]

Looking at family search pilot and Ancestry trees, the name Etjen or Itjen or Aetjen seems to be found in Germany and subsequently abroad.

Kaysii

[SwissGill]

dito what Kaysii said!

Found baptism of Louisa Sarah Etjen 28.4.1797 in at St. George in the East, Middlesex to John and Eliz Entjen and

marriage (Pallots Marriage Index) of Mary Etjen to Niccolaus Hulle in 1815 also in St. George in the East.

No trace in the 2 sites I am subscribed to or on Free BMD, etc. Free BMD gives the only ETJEN registered in its databank as the death of John Etjen.

They could have anglicized the name. If I pronounce Etjen in German it would sound maybe like Etchen and Google "says" did you mean Etienne??

Edge or Edginton are a possibility?

[SwissGill]

There is a Nicholas Hulle with wife Mary Ann on the 1841 and 1851 census. Nicholas gives his birth place as Hannover on the 1851 census and Mary Ann as Middlesex. Residence is Holborn. No trace on the 1861 census.

Might be a lead as most likely the Mary (Ann) Etgen in Pallot's Marriage Index married Nicolas Hulle in 1815 and on census birth date given as 1792.

[Rena]

Hi there,

I've played about with the surname on the German telephone book website.

Etjen, Ettjen, Etgen, Ettgen, Otjen (in Germany this would be an O with an umlaut, but the English would exchange the umlaut for an E = Oetjen).   

I also played about with Etienne/Ettienne and got some hits but because of the total results obtained I'm inclined to think Oetjen was the original name.   

http://www1.dastelefonbuch.de/?la=en&cx=&cy=&sp=0&sp=0&aktion=11

There are also results when I enter both the German spelling (Otjen) and the full English Spelling (Oetjen) on this German database:
 
http://gedbas.genealogy.net/

I've found with the German families I traced back from the UK that it was helpful to know the names of the migrant's children because they were the names of those left behind in the homeland.

[KGarrad]

Don't think it's a Dutch name.

www.telefoongids.nl (Telephone Guide) keeps changing it to "eten"!

So, probably not Flemish either.
Walloon is the french-speaking part of Belgium - unlikely to be from there.

But, Belgium does have a small German speaking enclave. So that's a possibility.

[Max635]

Hi,

This question seems to have sparked a lot of interest.

The Louisa Sarah Etjen that you found in the records is my ancestor (she married a German immigrant Henry (Heinrich ?) Oldenbüttel, but so far I have no further family members. I was not aware of the Mary Ann Etjen - Nicholas Hulle connection, but St. Georges in the East is the right location for a family connection.

The German origin would now seem to be the most likely, especially if it an anglicised name for Otjen. Does anybody know the keyboard code for the German "umlaut" ?

Does the name derive from a particular part of present day Germany or is it of more general origin ?

[Rena]

There's a website where you can find the surname distributions in various countries. 

http://www.genealogyblog.com/?p=5566

Clicking onto the German search engine take you to this webpage:

http://www.verwandt.de/karten/absolut/oetjen.html

"Etjen" had no search/suche result; 
"Otjen" result was quite heartening
"Oetjen" had eye boggling results

[KGarrad]

Does anybody know the keyboard code for the German "umlaut" ?

According to my version of Word (Insert, Symbol) its CTRL+: Shift+O

But cutting and pasting usually works better - Ö

Of course, on my Dutch keyboard at work, it's much easier!!