Hittle

= Introduction =

As a surname in America, Hittle is an anglicization of the Germanic Huettel, Hüttel, or Hÿttel. The earliest known occurence of the family arriving in America happened in 1738 when Georg Michael Hÿttel arrived in Philadelphia on the ship Winter Galley. However Georg Michael was not the only Huettel to have arrived in America before the American Revolution.

= Germanic variants =

In American records the basic name was rendered several different ways in both civil and religious records. Some of the reasons for that:


 * "German" language had not been unified
 * Writing (rendition) standards in German had not yet been standardized
 * German naming practices included suffixes which indicated one's place in the family
 * Family place suffixes became permanent additions in some instances
 * Phonetic renditions were utilized often instead of "correct" spelling

So, even in German church records the name was rendered in many different ways: Huttel, Hittel, Hittler, Hitler, Huettler, Huteler, Hickel, Hickeler, Hüttel, Hütteler. And, this list is probably not exhaustive by any means

= Anglicized and American variants =

Given the variations of Germanic renditions it is not hard to see that phonetic anglicizations came into play in colonial records. In the Pennsylvania Archives series it's not uncommon to find the name rendered as Hittle, Hittel, Hettle, Hettel, Hittler, Hitler, Hettler, Hetler, Hidler, Hidle, Hiddle. However, it must also be noted that Hidler and Hettler are in many case unique names for which no ties to Hittle have been established documentally, so extreme caution should be used before assuming that either of those 2 surnames necessarily belong to the Hittle family.

While Georg Michael Hittel was the first documented arrival, it should be noted that even he was buried with his surname being rendered as "Hittel." The morphing of the name to Hittle was not a consistent evolution in the family lines of any of his 6 sons and even still today, Hittel is used by some. So also, in a few cases, is Hittler.

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