The Swiss surname portal familiennamen.ch

Abstract

This article examines the possibilities for using the familiennamen.ch portal, which is hosted by the Swiss Idiotikon (the Swiss German dictionary). Based on features compiled by the dictionary editors for Swiss Radio SRF, it links various sources relevant to family name research in German-speaking Switzerland. As a dynamic portal, it can not only be used for academic research on surnames, but can also be used to answer questions from laypeople about their own surnames and provide references to non-anonymous historical sources.