01 | What About the Spelling of Our Name?

Many people ask whether the family name should be with an apostrophe and capital D, of with a small d… O’Daffer or Odaffer. Or how the Odorfers and the Odoerfers relate to the family.

It is unquestionably clear from all the records that the spelling of the family name has changed from age to age. Sometimes these changes came about because some of our ancestors didn’t worry much about consistency, or because record keepers didn’t always read a signees writing or listen correctly. Other changes were made when our ancestors migrated from Germany to the United States, opting for a spelling that was more in keeping with the language of the new country.

The early German spellings of the family name were Ohdorfer, Ohdorffer, Odorfer, and Odoerfer. The early US spellings were Odoerfer, Odeffer, Odorfer, Odoffer, and Odaffer. It was not until later, during the past 200 years in this country, that some branches of the family used the spelling O’Daffer, while many other branches used Odaffer. So, while it is fair to say that Odaffer is probably closer to the original spelling than O’Daffer, it is clear that both spellings evolved from a different spelling of the name in early Germany.