Hoffmann
also Hofmann, Hofman
The man of the farmstead — a holding of one's own.
- Origin
- German
- Famous bearer
- E. T. A. Hoffmann (1776–1822), writer and composer
- Register
- German family
The seat of Hoffmann
Seat vacantChief
No one leads the Hoffmann community yet. When the movement opens, you can stand for its leadership, or help elect whoever does.
Current mission
No shared goal set yet. Once Hoffmann has leadership, it sets the public focus: a restoration, a gathering, a real-world project that helps its own.
The Hoffmann clan is being rebuilt. Join the waiting list for the movement today, and you help decide who leads it and what it does.
Help rebuild the Hoffmann clan →What does the Hoffmann name mean?
From Middle High German hof, the farmstead or manorial court, plus mann: the man of the Hof — the steward of a great farm, or a farmer who held his own freehold rather than working another's land.
The history of Hoffmann
To be the Hoffmann was to be attached to the Hof — sometimes as the steward who ran it, sometimes as the holder of a substantial freehold farm, but either way a man with land under him rather than over him. It is a name of standing, common across the whole German-speaking area in its single- and double-f spellings.
It is also one of the most literary of German names, carried by E. T. A. Hoffmann, whose tales of automata and doubles gave the world the uncanny and gave the ballet its Nutcracker and Coppélia. The name crossed to the New World in both farming and merchant families, the spelling usually surviving intact.
Explore With Your Ancestors · Beta
Pick any year from 500 to 1945 and any place on earth — the Hoffmann country, or a shore no Hoffmann ever reached. The chronicler sets the scene; the deeds are yours.
Notable bearers of the Hoffmann name
- E. T. A. Hoffmann (1776–1822), writer and composer