THE FAMILY NAME
This information was taken from The Picklesimer's of Eastern Kentucky, Ancestors and Kin Volume I, for information on this book please check out our Resource and Lookup page. Many thanks go out to John W. Picklesimer, Sr. for allowing me the opportunity to present you with the information from his book.
II. The Family Name (s)
The surname "Picklesimer", as it is spelled by most of the present-day descendants of Abraham and David of Eastern Kentucky, is simply a derivative of an English translation of an earlier German family name.
"Pickelsimer", as used by many of the descendents of a southern branch of the family, is only a slight spelling variation of that same derivative. In fact, a few descendants of the two first-named ancestors are known to prefer the latter spelling of the family name, while a number of the present-day, southen family members have elected to use the first listed spelling.
In our pronunciation of the name, it is spoken as two words as if it were hyphenated thus- "Pickle-simer" or "Pickel-simer".
Of course it is quite obvious to family members - by their learned pronunciation of their name - where the spoken division would be. Yet, it may not be obvious that the name could be divided after the "s" ("Pickles-imer") and it's pronunciation remain the same. Also, that adding an "e" before the "i" in the last division ("Pickles-eimer"), or even an "h" in front of this "e" ("Pickles-heimer), would still not change the sound.
The first point of this is that there is a much less common variant of the Englis translationof the family name in use today spelled "Pickelsheimer" (or "Picklesheimer") and pronounced as two words with alsmost the same sound as Picklesimer. Therefore, its division into the two words would follow the "s" as in "Pickles-himer".
There is also a third variant in this category of the English translation of the one, and same, German surname that evolved along about the same time as the two first-named derivatives, and is still in use today as "Pickle-himer" (or "Pickel-himer", depending upon a particular family's preference).
From the above it becomes obvious that the German surname was a compound name spoken as two words that, in the English translation, had separate "s" and "h" sounds (not the combined "sh" sound). This indicates that the spoken English name had a natural division between the "s" and "h" as in "Pickles-himer", and perhaps "Pickle-simer" evolved as a variant by dropping the somewhat silent "h", while "Pickle-himer" evolved by dropping the "s".
That becomes more apparent from the discovery made during research for this work that "Beckels-hymer, another family name in use today, was derived from the English translation of the same German surname. This family name is also sometimes spelled "Beckels-heimer", or "Beckles-himer", dependin, again, upon family preference, but is more often found with the "s" dropped - thus eing written "Beckel-hymer"", or "Beckle-himer".
The similarity in the sound of "P" and "B" in both German and English probably account for the above two primary final evolutions of the translated family name, with the other, less-different variants of each of those being a result of dropping a letter, and/or simply changing the spelling.
In addition to the relatively long, compound forms of the translated family name, there are abbreviated or shortened forms used today as family names by certainlines of descendants of those who earlied had adopted one of the full variants of the name. The more common of these are: "Behymer", or "BHymer" - shortened forms of some variant of Beckelshymer; and "P'Simer" - a contraction of Picklesimer.
For a list of the spelling variations please see our 70+ list
The listed names are only spelling variations of two primary versions of the English translation of one German surname, with the one version probably evolving mostly from an attempt at a literal translation and the other more from the sound of the name.
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