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so it would be "garden roads"? that makes sense...
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Do you mean "That makes sense..." sarcastically?
Anyway, I am Dutch and I can tell you the following:
The second part of the place name, wegen, could certainly mean "roads". In modern Dutch, weg means "road" and wegen is the plural form. However, since we're talking about a place name that came into being several centuries ago, there is a possibility that wegen was originally actually singular instead of plural (influenced by local dialect, probably). It would then probably have been a diminutive form originally (wegentje "small road"), which was later shortened or corrupted to wegen. In the end, whichever way you look at it, the root word is ultimately weg "road", no doubt about it.
The first part of Hofwegen may be derived from Dutch hof, which can refer to an enclosed (or fenced) space as well as a garden. It could also be a corruption of archaic Dutch hoeve (sometimes found written as hoef), which means "farm, farmstead". As such, Hofwegen would roughly mean either "roads to a garden" or "roads to a farm". This looks a little bit odd, so if we assume for a moment that the second part of Hofwegen was actually singular originally (as I explained earlier), the meaning would then become either "garden road" or "farm road". In both scenarios, the meaning that points to a farm seems the most likely. The archaic Dutch words hoefweg and hoeveweg actually existed on their own at some point (but are now mostly preserved in streetnames), both of which literally meant "farm road" of course. The words hofweg and hoveweg existed as well, but would most likely be a corruption or local variant of hoefweg and hoeveweg, instead of them actually referring to a garden.
As such, we can conclude that the town Hofwegen probably received its name due to having been built on or near a farm road, or a road that led to a significant farm (which was there long before the town) nearby.
Anyway, I am Dutch and I can tell you the following:
The second part of the place name, wegen, could certainly mean "roads". In modern Dutch, weg means "road" and wegen is the plural form. However, since we're talking about a place name that came into being several centuries ago, there is a possibility that wegen was originally actually singular instead of plural (influenced by local dialect, probably). It would then probably have been a diminutive form originally (wegentje "small road"), which was later shortened or corrupted to wegen. In the end, whichever way you look at it, the root word is ultimately weg "road", no doubt about it.
The first part of Hofwegen may be derived from Dutch hof, which can refer to an enclosed (or fenced) space as well as a garden. It could also be a corruption of archaic Dutch hoeve (sometimes found written as hoef), which means "farm, farmstead". As such, Hofwegen would roughly mean either "roads to a garden" or "roads to a farm". This looks a little bit odd, so if we assume for a moment that the second part of Hofwegen was actually singular originally (as I explained earlier), the meaning would then become either "garden road" or "farm road". In both scenarios, the meaning that points to a farm seems the most likely. The archaic Dutch words hoefweg and hoeveweg actually existed on their own at some point (but are now mostly preserved in streetnames), both of which literally meant "farm road" of course. The words hofweg and hoveweg existed as well, but would most likely be a corruption or local variant of hoefweg and hoeveweg, instead of them actually referring to a garden.
As such, we can conclude that the town Hofwegen probably received its name due to having been built on or near a farm road, or a road that led to a significant farm (which was there long before the town) nearby.
1
I wasn't sarcastic but you have indeed shed more light into this
1