Name CHange - George Frederick William Kieff to George William White
Living Relative/Researcher
Text
Ancestry message from KAYCEE80 - Aug 15, 2018.
We always knew her as Louisa White, owing to her father changing his surname.
I have a copy of the hand written note that Louisa wrote on her fathers death to confirm that George William White was the one and the same as George Frederick William Kieff.
We have no idea why he changed his name though.
My additional research on the Kieff name:
The Kieff Name sounds a little Germanic to me, and having just watched a program about Britain during WW1/2 and the internment of Germans living in uk I should think he changed it to avoid Interment.
That Kieff is a Metonymic (occupational) name for a repairer of wooden vessels like barrels, vat's, casks etc
It originates from the old high German word "kuofa" which means barrel.
So he appears to have been associated with brewing.
Surnames derived from the above are Kiffe, Kiefer, kupper (Cooper in English), Kupker.English variants Coop, Couper, Cooper, Cupper, Kooper.Sheree found the above via www.surnamedb.com