A question that I am frequently asked is, "Where did your name originate, and what does it mean?" The answer to the first part of the question is, "The name Eckhoff is an Americanized spelling of Eekhoff, which was the surname that our immigrant ancestors used when they left East Friesland in the northwestern corner of Germany and settled in Illinois". The change in spelling appears to have taken place early in the 20th Century. More on the spelling change later.

I had been told as a youngster that Eckhoff is actually two words: Eck, and Hoff. Now, in German these two words mean "Corner, or Angle" and "Yard, or Farm". In the context of the application of the surname the strictly German translation would likely be "Corner Farm, or Farm on the Corner". My father claimed that this was the meaning of our name.

But wait. The original spelling wasn't "Eck", but "Eek". What about that? Well, I am convinced that in the language that the Eekhoffs spoke, Plattdeutsch, the word "Eek" (pronounced like the English word "ache") means "Oak". And what is Plattdeutsch? Platt refers to the variations on the German language as used historically in the northern lowland plains regions, essentially Low German. It is a vernacular language group, not an official or formal language. So tracing the meaning of words in Plattdeutsch can be difficult. However, there is a very useful website, plattmaster.de/wordbook.htm , that contains a small, but useful, German-English-Plattdeutsch dictionary. In it is the following entry:

Plattdeutsch	High German	English
Eekboom	Eiche	Oaktree

This is pretty strong evidence that "Eek" in Plattdeutch is equivalent to "Oak" in English!

We can also use a takeoff on Soundex, i.e. what is "oak" in the closely related Northern European languages like Danish and Dutch. In Danish it is "eig". The Dutch word is"eik", as is the Norwegian. The sounds of all of these are nearly identical to the way that "Eek" would have been pronounced by our ancestors. I believe that these are all cognates from the old germanic word for "oak".

Hence, my conclusion that Eekhoff means "Oak Farm", or the farm with the oak trees on it.

A corroborating piece of information was provided some years ago by Halbert'sFamily Heritage. My father purchased a book from them entitled, The World Book of Eckhoffs. The book provides a description of an Eckhoff Coat of Arms from German archival records: "[Panels 1 & 4] Divided horizontally gold over red; an Oak Trunk placed over all, sprouting to the right a Branch with three Acorns, [same description for the center panel] ...Above the Shield and Helmet is the Crest which is described as and Oak Branch with Acorns,...placed vertically."

Our Eekhoff ancestors came from Emden, which is a major city on the estuary of the River Ems. However, there is considerable evidence that they owned farms outside of the city. There are also strong indications that the family originally came from a farming area southeast of Emden. I have been in contact with Eekhoffs who were born in that area, and I hope to find out more on this intriguing puzzle.

Regarding the name change, I have not yet found any hard evidence of the reason for the change. However, I can imagine our forefathers cringing when some non-Dutch person called them "EEK-off". That would certainly make me want to change my name! The spelling change may have solved an immediate problem, but it created some genealogy problems, because there are numerous Eckhoffs in the USA whose immigrant ancestors came here with the name "Eckhoff". Many of them settled in Illinois. I have found no indication that our family is related to them.

David W. Eckhoff 5 May 2006		Updated 1/5/2007
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