In a message dated 12/30/2007 6:53:21 A.M. Central Standard Time,
dlaufer@... writes:

<< . . . HOFF is the German/Yiddish word for a
courtyard. And FRUM is Yiddish for 'religious'. So FRUMHOFF
could have been the owner of a place where some religious
activities took place.

==iI think that's most unlikely. The word for pious is fromm; it does get
slurred to frumm in some Yiddish dialects. It always refers to a person's
personal practice, not to the nature of a ceremony. Hof does mean court, and by
extension courtyard, but in surnames it is almost inevitably part of a location
name meaning farm, estate, or ducal or royal holding. The personal name
Frumm is >from the German personal name Frummet--though many would like to
believe that it is meant as a wish for piety.

== - hof or - hoffer is a quite common suffix in Jewish surnames >from
Germanic countries and is almost inevitably based on a family's geographic
origin. It is also one of those suffixes added to names to make them "more
elegant" (read "less obviously Jewish") such as - baum, -berg, -feld, -stern,
stein, etc.

==There is no connection between the Germanic hof and the central Asian -ov

Michael Bernet, New York
mbernet@...