# What does Ratzinger mean?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-ratzinger-mean/300130>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 19, 2005, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-ratzinger-mean/300130 "2005-04-19T21:06:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 30

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**Author:** ![Honorius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/838e76/32.png) [@Honorius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honorius)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 2022, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-ratzinger-mean/300130/30 "2022-12-29T07:21:51Z")

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Ratzinger means that someone has origins in the town of Ratzing. There are several German towns with this name. RATZ means ‘Serb’. Serbs were indigenous people in Germany, and many German cities originally had Serbian names (Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig, Brandenburg). So, the meaning of the surname Ratzinger is – someone who has origins from the city named after the Serbs.

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