Gentner is a surname of German origin. The first records of the Gentner name can be traced back to

Württemberg Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart. Together with Baden and Hohenzollern, two other historical territories, Würt ...

, southwest Germany, in the late 1300s.

Etymology

Various sources provide different theories regarding the meaning and origin of the surname, though a reliable proof does not yet exist to verify these speculations.

German origins

Ancestry.com Ancestry.com LLC is an American genealogy company based in Lehi, Utah. The largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, it operates a network of genealogical, historical records, and related genetic genealogy websites. In November 2018, ...

claims that the name is a variant of the Ganter surname, which has roots in the south of Germany. The speculation is that Ganter is an

occupational surname In some cultures, a surname, family name, or last name is the portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family, tribe or community. Practices vary by culture. The family name may be placed at either the start of a person's full name, ...

, derived from the

middle high German Middle High German (MHG; german: Mittelhochdeutsch (Mhd.)) is the term for the form of German spoken in the High Middle Ages. It is conventionally dated between 1050 and 1350, developing from Old High German and into Early New High German. High ...

word, "''gant''", which is loosely translated to mean "''auctioneer''" or the term "''kanter ganter''", which translates to "''barrel rack''". The Gentner surname is believed to have been initially given to auctioneers or those who made barrels for a living, also known as coopers.

French origins

Ancestry also traces the Ganter surname to

Alsace–Lorraine Alsace–Lorraine, now called Alsace–Moselle, is a historical region located in France. It was created in 1871 by the German Empire after it had seized the region from the Second French Empire in the Franco-Prussian War with the Treaty of Fra ...

, France. Again, this explanation supposes that the name is occupational in origin. The surname is said to have derived from the

middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English p ...

term "''ga(u)nter''", or an

old French Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intelligib ...

term, "''gantier''", which translates to "''maker of gloves''".

Norse origins

Author Max Gottschald claims that the Gentner surname is derived from the German word "''gand''", which has roots in the old Norse words "''gandy''", meaning "''magician''" and "''gandr''", meaning "''werewolf''". The Gentner surname may also have derived from the French/German name Günther, meaning "battle-army", which also has roots in

old norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...

. The surname Günther is said to have derived from the old norse word "''gunnr''", which means "battle", or the

Proto-Germanic Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. Proto-Germanic eventually developed from pre-Proto-Germanic into three Germanic branc ...

word "''gunþiz",'' which means "act of killing". Gunnr is also the name of a Valkyrie in

Norse mythology Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia, and into the Nordic folklore of the modern period ...

Notable people

Notable people with the surname include: *

Christian Gentner Christian Gentner (born 14 August 1985) is a German professional football official and a former player who played as a midfielder. He works as a head of the professional player department at VfB Stuttgart. He won the Bundesliga twice, with VfB S ...

(born 1985), German football player *

Dedre Gentner Dedre Dariel Gentner (born 1944) is an American cognitive and developmental psychologist. She is the Alice Gabriel Twight Professor of Psychology at Northwestern University. She is a leading researcher in the study of analogical reasoning. Wor ...

, American psychology professor *

Guy Gentner Guy Gentner (born 1955) MLA for Delta North in the Canadian province of British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. I ...

, Canadian politician *

Thomas Gentner Thomas Gentner (born 4 October 1988) is a retired professional association football, footballer who played as a left-sided defender (association football), defender and midfielder. Career history Thomas came through the youth system at VfB St ...

(born 1988), German footballer *

Wolfgang Gentner Wolfgang Gentner (23 July 1906 in Frankfurt am Main – 4 September 1980 in Heidelberg) was a German experimental nuclear physicist. Gentner received his doctorate in 1930 from the University of Frankfurt. From 1932 to 1935 he had a fellowship whi ...

(1906–1980), German nuclear physicist

References