Amish names

amish namesWhich are the most frequently-seen Amish surnames?  What about first names?  What kinds of nicknames do Amish use?  Read more here on Amish names.

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    10 Comments

    1. richard ....... close to the amish community of lebanon,pa

      im wondering as to how many who were non-amish have joined the amish church say in the last 50 years?. are thier numbers anywhere for that to be found?.

      1. brooklyn Scott

        i have also thought about becoming amish. but one of the things that bothers me is if i do will i ever be able to see my english family and if i can will i have to see them seperate. i think that the amish life style is very peace ful and calming.

    2. Alice Aber

      Hi Richard,,,, not sure about this but I think there was a post title, “So you want to join the Amish” or something along those lines that might have the numbers you are interested in. Seems to me I remember there have only been a few hundred that have actually joined and stayed with the Amish.

      I can not imagine that being an easy task if you were raised in the secular world. I have thought about this many times as I am becoming more “plain” in my life but not sure I could adjust to a few things. Don’t think I would have a problem giving up a lot of technology, except I use it quite a bit for my ceramics and crafts business. As for “personal” use I would have no problem though.

      Rethinking your beliefs as far as religion goes, might also be hard especially if you were raised in a specific denomination and never left it before.

      Should be interesting to see just how many “join” and then stay and not give up after a year or two.

      Blessings, Alice

    3. Alice Aber

      Here is the link to that other post Richard. https://amishamerica.com/so_you_want_to_/ it really doesn’t have numbers in there but I get the impression it is just a few hundred at best.

    4. La Vonne De Bois

      Regarding Holmes County, Ohio, the 2010 Amish Directory has a recorded number of sirnames as follows:
      75 Total Sirnames. The largest sirname is Miller with 1,790 families, followed by Yoder with 1,214 families. Other sirnames in Holmes County are Barkman, Beachy, Bowman, Chupp, Coblentz, Erb, Gingerich, Hershberger, Hochstetler, Mast, Kuhns, KAuffman, Keim, Weaver, Shetler, Swartzentruber, etc. Popular first names in Holmes County for men are Eli, Roy, Atlee, Moses, David, Andy,Reuben, Levi, Ivan, Jonas, John. Amish always use a middle initial to indicate the first letter of the mans fathers name to distinguish what family he was born to. Ecample. Eli J. Miller means his fathers name could have been Jonas. Womens first names commonly used are Esta, Fannie, Ada Mae, Edna, Miriam, Esther, Sarah, Emma, Verna and Mary.

    5. richard ....... close to the amish community of lebanon,pa

      thank you alice for the link. you bring up a great question regarding how many have stayed amish after joining the church. i wonder if erik has/will find out the answer to that question. has anyone been interviewed yet on that topic?, if not i smell a book in the works,lol.

    6. Hey guys, good question, you know there’s not a perfect figure but over the past century I believe it is in the maybe 100 to couple hundred range.

    7. Hannah Yoder

      Mein name is Hannah. I was Amish. My schwisterns names are-Rachel,Naomi,Lizzie,Beckie,Mary Ruth,Anna,Clara und Miriam.Mein bruders names are-Ephraim, Moses,Isaac,Elam und Aaron.These names are common in mein old district. I also have a daughter named Anna Mae and mein husband is named Jonas. These names were common in his old district.

    8. philip .... from holland

      hi,

      i know that not all amish people came frome zwitserland
      whe have some families stil overhere in holland (netherlands)
      i know that some of them went to south africa instead of the USA

      even in times of the second world war some of my jewish forefathers changed their religion into amish
      because the nazi’s didn’t “hate” the amish

      but they went and left europe anyway
      my cousins names are also eli,levi,jonah and amos and the last name is not particulary jewish
      they have changed the last name in 1939 into kauffman it was beaard before

      since 10 yrs whe have lost contact

      so there have been a connection
      i’ve always wandered how they new about the names since they have been living here in holland and belgium not in the usa as far as i know ?!

    9. Keese Pond

      Origin of my name

      My father named me after one of his best friends who happened to be Amish. I was born in Crawford County, Pennsylvania in a little town called teepleville. I can remember a large Amish community around there. I was wondering if anyone could tell me the origin or meaning of my first name.