by Andy ;—) (guest)
10/12/2007, 8:26 AM
The name is not listed in any of my books, so all I can do is guess.
WAND means "wall" in German (from "wind", because the Teutons used to wind branches around poles to build a wall; only later did they learn from the Romans how to make a brick wall, so they loaned their word: Mauer from murus in German, wall from vallum in English).
-NER often indicates an occopational name (e.g. Küfner = Cooper, Gertstner = barley farmer)
> So WANDNER may originally denote a builder of walls, most likely a bricklayer.
-NER can also indicate a habitional name, e.g. SCHMITTNER for someone living near a smithy. As WAND can also refer to a wall of rock, this is another possible explanation of the name.
XY-NER can also mean someone from XY - in this case from Wanden. A place by that name does not seem to exist, but it may have existed. The element WAND in this case may refer to the Wends or Wands, a Slavonic people in Eastern Germany.
Sorry, but as you see, all I do is guess.