The last name Naicker occurs in Germany, possibly in the 19th Century. What is the origin, history and meaning of this name?
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2Balaji, welcome to Stackexchange. I'm afraid I don't quite understand your question -- can you help make it clearer? First, do you mean Naciker (as in the title) or Naicker (as in the body of the question)? And secondly, can you explain what it is you want to know? Is it the meaning of the surname, or its origin, or something else? And finally, if you could give us some more information about the 'group of people' who had that name ,it would help us help you. Is there a particular time period or region in Germany where they lived?– user104Commented Oct 26, 2012 at 10:04
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1ColeValleyGirl, nice to meet you here. I have edited the question for better clarity. I want to know a brief history about the name. I would like to know the meaning and origin as well. I don't know much about them. Since I want to know about the name I posted this question here. They might have lived in 19th century.– NeocortexCommented Oct 26, 2012 at 10:21
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1Balaji, I've edited your question to include the explanations that you've given in your comment -- please check that I haven't misrepresented what you're asking.– user104Commented Oct 26, 2012 at 10:34
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3@Balaji I notice that you have a few questions on other SE sites that are not attracting great answers. Can we work together to make sure that this one works well. As ColeValleyGirl said, you need to get some more information into the question to give people something to work on. Things such as where you heard of the name Naicker, or what part of Germany you think it might be from. I believe that there are people named Naicker in India and South Africa as well. Could they be related to the German families? You can add details to your question by clicking on edit up near the star.– FortiterCommented Oct 26, 2012 at 10:54
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2So in fact, what @BannedfromSO is actually asking is "Is the Naicker name in Germany somehow related to the Naciker name of India", and the answer is a pretty obvious "no".– Lennart RegebroCommented Sep 7, 2013 at 17:39
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3 Answers
It would be really helpful to know in what document(s) you've seen the name referenced. It is possible that the name was mistranscribed or misspelled or is native to a small locality. Naicker is an odd spelling, and according to various current German resources, does not exist today.
A similar name, Naecker, while rare, is represented in several areas of northern Germany and in Landkreis Sankt Wendel, Saarland [per the Geogen database, based on German telephone records]. That there are 2 widely separated regions of occurrence (and not just larger cities) suggests multiple origins for the surname. The Saarland cluster may be derived from the river Neckar.
There are both general and regionally specific handbooks for German surname meanings (see Literaturhinweise for titles). The general ones often omit very rare names. To use the regional books, one should be sure of the locality and time-frame where the name occurred. Regional resources will describe patterns of name formation and vocabulary that are used locally.
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1For you example I would suppose the origin in northern Germany and a cluster outside this area after migration, based on the limited telephone record database.– lejonetCommented Sep 7, 2013 at 17:03
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1That's also a possibility, but the dis-jointed and limited spread of a surname over a large distance is unusual. Landkreis Sankt Wendel has no large city, it's outside the industrialized region, agricultural practises and dialekts are different. Search of local records or other literature might resolve the question by showing when the surname first appeared in each area. (There are patterns in modern surname distribution in Germany that are clues to post-WW2 settlement (from eastern areas lost to Poland and Russia) that aren't evident in the Naecker surname charts.)– bgwiehleCommented Sep 7, 2013 at 17:51
While I can't vouch for the source, a Google search provided the following informative link about the Naicker surname: Naicker Family Crest.
However, the following wikipedia source suggests it is a variant spelling of a name originating from a Sanskrit word meaning "leader": Nayak (title)
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2While the Sanskrit nāyaka does give rise to the Tamil/Malayalam (in Tamil Nadu / Kerala) surname "Nāyakar" also spelled Naicker, the *German* surname Naicker is probably unrelated to this. (And possibly pronounced differently.)– user713Commented Mar 17, 2013 at 10:54
As bgwiehle wrote, it could come from the river Naecker which in turn could be related to the mythologic figure of Necker, Nikker, Nixe, ... present in germanic and scandinavian legends. The Necker is a water spirit. The (West)-Flemish name De Necker's etymology is explained in this way.
