Dauben

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A German-origin family name borne by various people, including the American historian of mathematics Joseph Dauben
2. A surname of German origin carried by individuals in several countries, most notably a scholar of the history of science
3. The family name of German origin shared by a number of people, among them a noted American historian of mathematics

Etymology: Dauben is a German family name, and as a surname it is best understood through its root rather than through any single famous bearer. The name is a variant of "Daub" and "Taub", from the Middle High German "toup" or "toub", meaning "deaf" (the same root that gives modern German "taub"). Surnames of this kind often began as nicknames for someone with a physical trait, and in the medieval period a bynames like this could be given to a person who was hard of hearing or who had some similar characteristic. The "-en" ending is a common German marker for a family name, and it appears in many surnames that started as the genitive or dative plural of a noun, or as a patronymic form meaning "the family of" or "the people of" the original bearer. In practice, this means Dauben can be read as a family descended from someone called Daub or Taub.