Trump or Drumpf – What’s In A Name?

Amidst the national uproar that Donald Trump is creating over where US President Barack Obama was born (Trump said he believes Obama was really born in Kenya, which would make him ineligible to occupy the White House), there are some interesting elements from Trump’s own ancestry.

For one thing, “Trump” is not his real name.

The Donald’s grandfather was a German immigrant named Frederick Drumpf who emigrated to the U.S. in 1885 and became a naturalized citizen in 1892.

At some point, he started calling himself “Frederick Trump,” but it is unclear if he ever changed his name officially. Some have speculated that he didn’t want to be known as “Drumpf” because of prevailing prejudice against Germans (which would heighten, of course, during World War I).

Frederick (or more appropriately, Friedrich) returned to his native Kallstadt in Germany’s Rheinland to marry Elisabeth Christ in 1902.

Drumpf returned to the U.S, and settled in Queens, N.Y. He would die in 1918 during the Spanish Flu epidemic.

Of course, his grandson would attain incredible wealth and global fame under the name “Trump.”

“Trump” is an actual name, it is of English origin and according to linguistic sources it is a “metonymic occupational name for a trumpeter, from Middle English trumpe [‘trumpet’].”

Quite appropriate for someone who likes blowing his own horn.