Bielefeld
English
Etymology
Borrowed from German Bielefeld.
Proper noun
Bielefeld (countable and uncountable, plural Bielefelds)
- A city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
- A habitational surname from German.
Translations
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Statistics
- According to the 2010 United States Census, Bielefeld is the 38332nd most common surname in the United States, belonging to 578 individuals. Bielefeld is most common among White (95.67%) individuals.
Further reading
- Hanks, Patrick, editor (2003), “Bielefeld”, in Dictionary of American Family Names, volume 1, New York City: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 157.
German
Etymology
Unknown. There has been published a multitude about the etymology and it depends on whether early occurrences of resembling toponyms refer to this location, the oldest a Bylanuelde farmland conveyed to Corvey in the mid 9th century, next a Biliuelde in the Vita Meinwerci from the 1160s relating occurrences between 1015 and 1036, then a 12th century Bylivelt; only in the 13th century the name of the town occurs clearly and oftener, following which the foundation year is conventionally reckoned the year 1214. A recent overview of the theories is given by Meineke 2013. The areal extent of the city to which the term refers derives from incorporations in 1900, 1907, 1930, and 1973.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [ˈbiːləfɛlt]
audio (file) Audio (file)
Proper noun
Bielefeld n (proper noun, genitive Bielefelds or (optionally with an article) Bielefeld)
- A city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
References
- Meineke, Birgit (2013) Die Ortsnamen der Stadt Bielefeld (Westfälisches Ortsnamenbuch; 5), Bielefeld: Verlag für Regionalgeschichte, →ISBN, pages 38–48
- Rath, Jochen (2014), “1214: Ersterwähnung Bielefelds als Stadt”, in Stadtarchiv Bielefeld, archived from the original on 2020-11-12, retrieved 8 October 2020