I consider myself to be quite proficient in German, but I’m no native speaker and can’t for the life of me figure out what my name (dad’s side) is supposed to mean. Anyway, it’s Zellhuber (possibly originally Zellhüber with the ümlaut dropped for Americanization).
Zell means “cell”, as in a plant cell or animal cell, which makes me think my name might not be originally German. After all, family names most often come from a time when you got named after your trade, which was well before biology really took off. Still, dad has always insisted we have a lot of German blood in us and we certainly look the part.
Hüber is a bit tricky. That’s not a word in German, although hüben, “over here” (sort of like “down yonder”, but opposite) is. Heben, however, is a verb (to lift, or hoist), and lends itself to a profession, taking the -er ending common in many german last names. I suppose that could be sort of a day laborer position.
So I’ve got biology, an activity, and an adverb. One of these things is not like the other one…
My thought is that since German “Zelle” (meaning “cell”) is not originally German, that “Zell” comes from something else, perhaps “Zelt” (meaning “tent”). But I don’t know all that much German.
Oh wow, an hour of googling, and within two minutes of posting this I find a lead.
So that could explain a lot. Bavaria has a sort of reputation as being the “Texas” of Germany, and I’m imagining Das Yokel trying to figure out which Zell family he was talking about.
“Dat Zell ober 'dere?”
“Nawww, dems the Zells what eats them the fat piggies”
“Ohh shoot, you mean dem Zells down yonder.”
“Nawww, dems the Zells what dont like the Zimmers”
“Then which’n is it, paw?”
“The Zells over here (hüben)! Scheiße, boy I’s beginnin’ to think you wasnt born with a lick o sense”
A “Hube” is the amount of land that was considered sufficient for a whole family i.e. the reference area for a “full” farm. A “Huber” was a farmer who tilled that amount of land and there were other classes of farmer based on fractions or small multiples. The exact value differed from region to region based on quality and topography of the land but it was in the range between 5 and 30 ha (12-74 acres.)
And “Zell” is a middling frequent village name (35 places in Germany named Zell), so it probably means “the guy who came from Zell and now owns a full farm here”.
So you’re descended from German Cajuns?
(I asked a Cajun neighbor of mine if he was from around here. His response was, “No, I’m from da udder side o’ da bayou.”)