Quade - Kwaad genealogy and origin of the surnames Quade and Kwaad

by Frans J.P.M. Kwaad,
The Netherlands

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See also my  Home page
Visit also the Kwaad Genealogy Surname Site at  The Surname Web
To see the family tree of the family Kwaad go to:  Kwaad family tree
For coats of arms (familiewapens) on the names Kwadt, Quaet etc., please, go to  Coats of Arms
For more etymological information about the name "Quade" go to  Quade-origin

If you have a website yourself or know of a website, where the name Quad, Quadt, Quade, Quaide, Quaden or other variants of it is mentioned, please, let me know.

Introduction
Sources of the family tree of the family Kwaad are: (a) some family papers that I have in my posession, (b) information that I received from other members of the family, (c) data that I obtained from the  Centraal Bureau voor Genealogie  in The Hague (Netherlands), (d) data that I  found in the archives of the  Westfries Archief   in Hoorn. I have spent many weeks doing research in the archives in Hoorn. Lately, I found some relevant records of Quaad and Kwaad in the on-line  archives of Friesland .

Origin of the name Kwaad
The founder of the family Kwaad in the Netherlands was Frans QUADE. He came from Cologne in Germany and settled in the Dutch town Enkhuizen. This may have been around 1730, as his name was first recorded in Enkhuizen on 15 March 1735, in the protestant church register of baptisms of Enkhuizen as the father of  Jan Fransz. It is interesting to know, that Cologne had about 35.000 inhabitants when Frans Quade left there around 1730, whereas Enkhuizen had 30.000 inhabitants in 1630 and 12.000 in 1730 and was a declining town. It dwindled to 4900 inhabitants in 1845. Nowadays, Cologne has over 900.000 inhabitants and Enkhuizen 17.000. During eight consecutive generations, from about 1730 onward, members of the family Kwaad have lived exclusively in the region "West-Friesland", in the towns Enkhuizen, Medemblik and Hoorn. Family trees of other West-Frisian families can be viewed at the website of   Westfriese families .


      Map of West-Friesland, about 40 km north of Amsterdam                Street in the old part of  Enkhuizen, where Quades have walked
     (distance Hoorn - Enkhuizen is about 15 km)                          since 1730 (Source:  Enkhuizen)

I encountered several different spellings of the name of the family founder of the Dutch family Kwaad. In the baptismal register of the protestant church of Enkhuizen his name is written as follows:
1735: Frans quade
1739: Frans barthel quade
1741: Frans Tilman Quaden
1744: Frans Tilman van Quaeden
1748: Frans Tideman van Quaaden
1750: Frans van Kwaden
1754: Frans Tilman de Quaden

On each of these seven occasions, Aaltje Jans Kralen is recorded as the mother of the children that were baptised. Also, the same witness returns at several of the baptisms. This is sufficient evidence, that the father of the children was the same man, in spite of the different spellings of his name.

In the "Poortersboek" of Enkhuizen his name is written as:
1753: Frans van de Quaade (with the remark: "Uijt Keulen", i.e. from Cologne)

In the register of burials and the register of burial taxes of Enkhuizen his name is written resp. as:
1760: Frans den quade
1760: Frans den Quaade

Below, a copy of the record of the name of Frans Tideman van Quaaden in the baptismal register of the protestant church of Enkhuizen, dated 6 November 1748, at the occasion of the birth of his daughter Elisabeth:

Gradually, the family name changed from Quade to Kwaad, and after 1827 only the spelling "Kwaad" occurs.

It is not immediately clear, how the name of the founder of the family Kwaad in the Netherlands must be understood. There appears to be more than one possibility:
a. His family name was 'Quade(n)', 'van Quade(n)' or 'de Quade(n)', and 'Frans Tilman/Tideman' were his first names.
b. His family name was 'Tilman/Tideman van/de Quade(n)' and 'Frans' was his first name.
c. His family name was 'Tilman' or 'Tideman', 'Frans' was his first name and 'Quade' was a nickname (meaning 'bad' or 'angry'; 'böse' or 'slecht' in present-day German)
This question will be discussed in more detail further down.

Occurrence of the name Quade
So far, I have not been able to find any information about the German ancestors of the Dutch family Kwaad. I have discovered, though, that the name Quade is a rather common family name in present-day Germany, as well as in the U.S.A. Of course, people named Quade in the U.S.A. are descendants of immigrants from Germany and the British Isles. The distribution and frequency of occurrence of the name Quade in the U.S.A. in 1990 is shown on the map, taken from: Hamrick Software - QUADE Surname Distribution . It appears from this map, that in Minnesota and Wisconsin one in thousand inhabitants is named Quade! On the Hamrick-site also maps from other years can be viewed. The distribution of the name Quade in Germany is shown on the map, that was constructed by Judith Rosenhagen. The legend of the German map ranges from ''nil'' (white) till ''more than 40'' (black) per postal code area. It is clear from this map, that most Germans named Quade are living in the northern part of Germany (especially Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Schleswig-Holstein). Total number of addresses of Quade in the German telephone directory is 1480, which means that three to four thousand people on an total population of about 80 million are named Quade in Germany.


        Occurrence of the name Quade in Germany                                                   Occurrence of the name Quade in the U.S.A.
        (Source: Judith Rosenhagen)                                                                            (Source: Hamrick)
 


               Number of German immigrants in the U.S.A. in the period 1820 - 1980 (Source: The German-Americans )
 

On the British Isles the name Quade or Quaide also occurs rather frequently.

Many Quade's, Quad's and Quadt's can be found on the website: FamilySearch Internet Genealogy Service

Relevant and interesting websites are also:
Quaid Families Clearing House
Quaite Family Association * Clan Farquharson
GENDEX -- Surname: QUADE
Quade, Soundex: Q300
Quade, Index- merritt database
Quad, Ancestry.com -- Global Search Results
Genealogy.com: Internet FamilyFinder Search Results Quade
Thunderstone's Webinator: Search: Quade
Index DV-Q1: Die Vorfahren (DV) Pommern Genealogy Database: Quade
ZOEKMACHINE Digitale Bronbewerkingen Nederland en België: Quade
Full Text [search engine] "hot link" Index of this FEEFHS Web Site: Quade

Other occurrences of the surname Quade (and variants) in The Netherlands
I recently found out, that the surname Quade of the German founder Frans Quade of the Dutch family Kwaad was not a novel name in The Netherlands in the time around 1730. When searching the  LDS-files  of the Mormons in Salt Lake City, I found for The Netherlands:
    12 persons named "Quade", ranging in time from 1543 till 1783 AD; mostly in Groningen, also Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Maastricht Veere and Kampen
    17 persons named "Quadt", ranging from 1495 till 1787 AD; mostly in Gelderland, Limburg and Overijssel, also Noord-Brabant and Utrecht
    2 persons named "Quaden", in 1750 and 1776 AD; in Limburg (Moelingen and Ryckholt)
Also, in  the  ZOEKMACHINE Digitale Bronbewerkingen Nederland en België: Quade  the surname "Quade" is mentioned in 1485 (in Wijhe, Hengeveld), 1583 (in Raalte, Ramele), and 1635 (in Kollumerland and Nieuw Kruisland, Kollum).

In February 2000, a new telephone directory of  The Netherlands was released ( Nationale Telefoongids van Nederland ). It allows a nation-wide search for names and telephone numbers. Earlier, such a country-wide search was not possible in The Netherlands, only town by town. In this national telephone directory, I found 75 addresses with the name Quaden (nearly all of them in South-Limbourg), 20 with the name Quadt (Amsterdam, South-West of  The Netherlands, Eindhoven and Helmond), 3 with the name Quade (Maastricht, Hoensbroek, Egmond aan Zee) and 1 with the name Quaat (Scherpenisse in Zeeland).

I have found no indications of any family ties of the family Kwaad with the Quade's in The Netherlands, that are mentioned in this paragraph, but I cannot exclude such ties with certainty for the time being.

Meaning and etymology of the family name Quade
My personal motivation is to find the origin and meaning of the name Quade, which later became Kwaad.

In present-day Dutch the word 'kwaad' means 'bad' or 'angry'. In 13th-17th century Dutch, 'kwaad' was written as 'quaat', 'quaet' or 'quade'.  The word 'quat' or 'quad' also occured in 13th-17th century German with the meaning 'bad', 'angry' or 'dirty'. The word 'quade' does not occur in modern German. It is not clear to me, why (and when)  the word 'quad' has disappeared from the German and not from the Dutch language. (Sources: 'Franck's Etymologisch Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal', Tweede Druk, 1912, door Dr. N. van Wijk; onveranderde herdruk, 1976, Uitgeverij Martinus Nijhoff, 's-Gravenhage; Bahlow, H., 1972. 'Niederdeutsches Namenbuch'. Walluf b. Wiesbaden).

The words 'quad', 'quade' and 'quat' also occur in English. Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1998, gives for 'quad/quade': [akin to AS. cw(=ae)d, cwead, dung, evil, G. kot, dung, OHG. qu(=a)t] Evil, bad, baffling, as a quade wind. Citation from Chaucer (1343-1400): "Sooth play, quad play, as the Fleming saith." Webster's Dictionary, 1913, gives for 'quat': (a) a pustule, (b) an annoying, worthless person. Shak. The Webster Dictionaries can be consulted on-line.

The oldest record of  the name 'Quad' that I found on the Internet (Descendants of Charlemagne) , is 'Johann von Blegge gen. Quad', son of  'Engelbert von Blegge' (before 1282).  The descendants of   Johann von Blegge  were all named 'Quad'. My hypothesis is, that the name 'Quad' started as a nickname, as was often the case in these days, according to Ebeling (1993). Examples are the Flemish names Quathannens (the son of  "quat" Johannes), Quaclaeys (the son of "quade" Claes), Quadjonck and Quabette, all mentioned by Johan Winkler (1885).

See also: Surname Meanings: P-S * Broken Arrow Publishing for the meaning of the name Quade in Britain. On that site, it says, that on the British Isles the surname Quade (and variants of it, such as Quaite, Quate and McQuade)  is a Scottish/Irish patronymic name, derived from Mac Uaid (the son of Walter).

Lauri Quade-Laza (U.S.A.) and Judith Rosenhagen (Germany) informed me, independently of each other, that the name Quade is connected to the Polish name  Kwiatkowski . Lauri Quade has read somewhere, that Quade's, when forced to polinize their names, became Kwiatkowski. Judith Rosenhagen had an informant, named Quade, who told her, that his grandfather took the name Quade in the 1920ies and was named before Kwiatkowski.

For more info about the origin of the surname Quade click  here .

The tribe of the Quadi
Another theoretical possibility concerning the origin of the name Quade is, that the name Quade has something to do with the tribe of the Quadi or Quaden, who lived in central-Europe in the first till the fifth century AD. However, I do not know of any proof or evidence, direct or indirect, of a connection of the surname Quade with the tribe of the Quadi. More information about the Quadi tribe is given on a separate  Quadi-webpage .

Otto 'der Quade'
One of the earliest known bearers of the name 'Quade' was Otto 'der Quade'. He was Duke of Braunschweig-Göttingen, Germany. He was born about 1340 in Göttingen, Hannover, Prussia. He died 13 December 1394 in Hardegsen, Hannover, Prussia and was buried in Wibrechtshausen.

In June 2001,  Gerd Hillebrecht  wrote me the following message about Otto 'der Quade':
"Due to his belligerent nature and his cruel regime he soon got the nickname "der Quade", in exactly the meaning that you describe on your website. He fought many battles against the City of Göttingen and finally lost.  His evil manners got him into trouble with the church and he was excommunicated. The ban on him was not lifted until his death and no burial was granted to his body on sacred ground. Only in the monastery Wiebrechtshausen his family was allowed to bury him in the "Shade of the Chapel" on the northern side of the building. A special tomb was erected not connected with the church building. Only five hundred years later the two buildings were connected. "

The family relations of Otto 'der Quade' can be found on the following website: Descendants of Duncan I King of Scotland .

I consider this as proof, that the name "Quade" originally meant 'bad' or 'evil' ('böse' or 'slecht' in German). In later times, the word 'quade' disappeared from the German language, and no-one with the name 'Quade' in Germany, America or elsewhere knows the meaning of his/her surname anymore. In the Netherlands, however, the word 'kwaad' still is a common word of present-day Dutch, meaning 'angry' or 'bad'.

On 27th September 2002, I received the following message from Dr. Schuppenhauer (Institut für Niederdeutsche Sprache, Bremen), which confirmes the meaning, given above, of the word 'quade' in German:

"Ja, 'quade' bzw. 'quaad' hat im deutschen Sprachbereich dieselbe Bedeutung 'ungut, böse, schlecht, schlimm', gelegentlich auch 'zornig, zänkisch', wie im Niederländischen - es handelt sich schließlich um dasselbe Wort. Seine Wurzeln lassen sich bis in die Zeit des Indogermanischen zurückverfolgen. Noch heute findet sich in Wörterbüchern der niederdeutschen Mundarten 'quaad'; doch hat sein Gebrauch seit dem 19. Jahrhundert immer mehr abgenommen und ist so selten geworden, daß es heutzutage altertümlich anmutet."

(In English: "Yes, 'quade', resp. 'quaad' has in German the same meaning 'not good, bad', sometimes also 'angry, quarrelsome or contentious', like in Dutch - it is the same word. Its roots can be traced back to the times of the Indogerman language. Still today, 'quaad' is mentioned in dictionaries of  'Niederdeutsch'; however, the use of the word has decreased since the 19th century and has become so rare, that today it gives an old-fashioned impression.")

From 'Quade' to 'Kwaad'
Now, what must we make of the name of the founder of  the family Kwaad? Above (see the beginning of this page), three possible ways to understand his name have been put forward. Is there any evidence or are there any arguments in favour or against anyone of these three possibilities? Considerations:
    a. Family names seem to have become fixed in Germany in an earlier time (long before 1700 AD) than in the Netherlands. This argument speaks against the view that 'Tilman' or 'Tideman' was his family name and 'Quade' a personal nickname, that became his last name in the Netherlands. Besides, personal nicknames, which are so common in The Netherlands (even today) are far less common in other countries. Therefore, 'Quade' probably was his last name, or at least part of it. However, the name 'Quade' may originally have been a personal byname (meaning 'someone to fear' or 'someone to reckon with') in the 11th-15th century, that has developed into a surname and became fixed as a family name. Or the name 'Quade' with the prefix 'van' may  originally have referred to a place (farm, village) named 'Quade'.
    b. 'Tilman' is rarely used as a first name in Germany and 'Tideman' not at all, whereas 'Tilman' and 'Tideman' (and variants) are very common family names in Germany.

    In conclusion: we cannot definitively reject any of the three alternatives regarding the name 'Frans Tilman van Quade'. The most unlikely option seems to be that 'Quade' was his personal nickname. 'Frans', of course, was his first name. The status of the element 'Tilman' or 'Tideman' is uncertain. 'Tilman' and 'Tideman' are common last names in Germany, but very uncommon first names. Therefore, I tend to adopt as a working hypothesis for further research, that the founder of the Dutch family Kwaad had a double last name: 'Tilman or Tideman van Quade(n)', and to consider  the simpler version 'van Quade(n)' as second best possibility. The name 'Barthel', that occurs only once as an element of his name in the Dutch archives, is short for Barthold or  Bartholomaeus, and will have been one of his Christian names.
 

Names .....
Below, some early signatures of  Quaad's and Kwaad's, copied from the archives:


  From the death certificate of Harmina Kwaad, age 22, dated 24 August 1816, signed by her father and a witness


  From the marriage certificate of Anthony Fransz Quaad and Aaltje de Jongh, dated 18 July 1827


  From the declaration of  house-moving from Enkhuizen to Hoorn of Frans Fransz Kwaad, dated 3 April 1835
 

Faces behind names .....
Here are members of  four generations of the family Kwaad: my grandfather, my father, myself and my son:

Frans Kwaad                   Antoon Kwaad                 Frans Kwaad (1936)        Hans Kwaad (1970)
(1866-1947)                    (1897-1978)

To see the family tree of the family Kwaad go to:  Kwaad family tree

What did they do for a living?
ENKHUIZEN
First name(s)                        Year of birth                  Occupation
Jan Fransz                             1735                              winkelier, tabakverkoper
Frans Fransz                         1754                              makelaar
Frans Anthonysz                 1771                             vleeshouwer
Frans Gerritsz                        1771                             timmerman
Gerrit Anthonysz                  1779                             schoenlapper
Sjoert                                      1795                             arbeider, daglooner
Jan Fransz                              1802                             arbeider, sleeper, steenkoopersknecht
Anthony Fransz                    1803                             timmerman
Frans Fransz                          1808                             schippersknecht
Frans                                       1820                             scheepstimmerman
Anthonie                                1826                             bakkersknecht
Anthonie                                1827                             soldaat
Jacob                                       1829                             koekbakker

MEDEMBLIK
First name(s)                        Year of birth                  Occupation
Jan Anthony                         1777                               timmerman
Lippe ('de oude')                   1813                               daglooner, dijkwerker
Jacob                                      1850                               arbeider
Jan Antoon                           1860                               daglooner, spoorarbeider
Lippe ('de jonge')                  1863                               daglooner, spoorwerker
Lippe                                      1884                                barbier
Jan Lippes                             1886                                kleermaker
Jacobus                                 1893                                 barbier
Lippe                                      1900                                 ploegbaas NS
Lippe                                      1910                                 monteur

HOORN
First name(s)                          Year of birth                     Occupation
Jerre                                         1829                                 arbeider
Hermanus                               1863                                  letterzetter, fondsbode
Franciscus                              1866                                  wijnkoopersknecht, strijkerij
Jacobus                                   1887                                  ploegbaas NS
Johannes Franciscus            1891                                  tabaksbewerker
Antonius Franciscus            1897                                  wasserij-bedrijf
Antonius Johannes               1898                                 diamantzetter
Hermanus Johannes              1901                                 stoffeerder
Jerre Johannes                        1904                                 onderwijzer, tuinbouwleraar
Frits Johannes                        1905                                  wasserij-bedrijf

Female members of the family had occupations, such as: dienstbode, naaivrouw, winkelierster.

Acknowledgement
I gratefully acknowledge the information that I received from Judith Rosenhagen, Gerd Hillebrecht and Dr. Claus Schuppenhauer, Germany.
I owe thanks to the persons that responded to questions that I sent in January 2000 to the following Internet groups on genealogy:
    - Westfalen genealogy mailing list
    - Mecklenburg genealogy mailing list
    - newsgroup soc.genealogy.german
    - newsgroup soc.genealogy.benelux
    - newsgroup soc,genealogy.britain
Any mistakes, that I committed in using and applying the information that I received, remain of course my own responsibility.

The 'Historisches Archiv der Stadt Köln' provided me with the number of inhabitants of Cologne in 1700.

Drop me a line

Literature
    Ebeling, R.A., 1993. Voor- en familienamen in Nederland. Geschiedenis, verspreiding, vorm en gebruik. REGIO-Projekt Groningen. CBG, Den Haag, 199 pp. ISBN 90-70324-66-0.
    Encyclopaedia Brittanica Online. Entries on "name", "surname", "personal names", "family names".
    Kwaad, F.J.P.M, 1999. Stamboom van de familie Kwaad en herkomst van de naam Kwaad. Purmerend, juni 1999, 26 pp.
    Muysken, P., 1999. Talen. De toren van Babel. Serie Weten. Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam, 104 pp. ISBN 90 5356 318 0.
    Storig, H.G., 1988. Taal: het grote avontuur. Aula Pocket 836, Het Spectrum, Utrecht, 414 pp.
    Van der Wal, M., 1994. Geschiedenis van het Nederlands. Aula, Het Spectrum, Utrecht, 494 pp., ISBN 90 274 1839 X.
    Winkler, J., 1885 (reprinted 1993). De Nederlandse geslachtsnamen in oorsprong, geschiedenis en beteekenis. Regio Boek- Neerijnen.
    Wijk, N. van, 1976. Franck's Etymologisch woordenboek der Nederlandsche taal. Martinus Nijhoff, Den Haag.

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