From the Welty Discussion Forum
Re: Welte vs Welty
Posted by: Paul Gifford
Date: October 18, 2000 at 18:21:27
In Reply to: Welte vs Welty by Bill Davis of 669
Yes, in a way there is a difference between Welty and Welte.
According to the Familiennamenbuch der Schweiz, Wälti is the version used in Canton Bern of the name which in Canton Zurich is spelled "Welti." It gives the origin of this Swiss name as coming from the baptismal name Walther.
Many of the Bernese Anabaptists (who later became Mennonites) left Switzerland, due to religious persecution in the 17th century, and settled in the Palatinate in Germany and also in Alsace.
According to the online phone directory of France, there are 29 households today in Alsace with the surname "Welty"; 2 with "Welti." The German online directory lists 44 with the spelling "Welty."
But the name "Welte" seems to be longer established in Germany; there are over 1300 in the online directory. Some of these could be Swiss in origin, but it seems long established in Germany, probably deriving from either the given names "Walther" or "Valentin." "Veltin" is an old way of spelling "Valentin," and from this the name "Velte" and possible "Welte" could derive.
In the U.S., the names are usually spelled "Welty" or "Weldy," and the name "Felty" presumably derives from "Velte" or "Velten," which is definitely a different name, deriving from "Valentin" rather than "Walther." But this is more theoretical than real---you see a lot of variations. Where "Welte" exists, it probably derives from a 19th-century immigrant family, rather than an 18th-century one (same with "Welti").
Paul Gifford
Follow up:
Posted by: Rebecca Welty Kaminsky Date: November 03, 2000 at 09:06:41
In Reply to: Re: Welte vs Welty by Paul Gifford of 669
Let's not forget the influence of English-speaking bureaucrats in the 19th and early 19th centuries. They often spelled a name they way they heard it. The German accent that these people had when speaking to an English clerk made the "W" sound like "V" or sometimes "F". I have found my Welty ancestors recorded by BOTH English and German record-keepers as Welty, Welte, Velte, Felty, and other variations.
The Germans were not much better -- they were not particularly fussy about their name spelling. Sometimes different people within a single family adopted different spelling variations. In my family line, the German-born father signed his name "Welde", but his sons, living in America, used "Welty" only a generation later.
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