Message: "Is Friley a Americanized spelling of Fröelich?"

[Surname] Is Friley a Americanized spelling of Fröelich?

by Olive (guest)

2/12/2025, 6:44 AM

I’ve been wondering

- elbowin

5/16/2025, 3:29 AM

You cannot go from Fröhlich to Freilich in High German, because there is the word freilich "of course, obviously" in the way.

But there is Yiddish, where frailikh is the cognate of fröhlich, and it is possible to americanise this to Friley.

- Lepic +1

2/12/2025, 7:12 AM

It's an alteration of Frölich which means 'cheerful, high-spirited'.

- Robert (TheRobinBird13)

2/12/2025, 11:39 PM

Isn’t it an Americanized form of Freilich, not Frölich? I think they’re the same thing though, since they have the same meaning.

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