Björn Vrooman Jul 3, 2023:

Ah OK Then sorry and glad to have helped. As far as I can tell, there's no actual equivalent in English; like, you'd still have only one name, e.g.:
"The surname Kilpatrick was first found in Dumfriesshire at Closeburn, a civil parish. The surname was derived from a chapel on a farm in the parish that was once dedicated to Saint Patrick."
https://www.houseofnames.com/kilpatrick-family-crest#

Else, you only got something like "called by the name of," although that sounds more like an explanation:
"...And the objection that he is also called by the sirname of Broughton is nothing, for the will does not appoint that the son shall be called by the name of Sampton Shelton only..."
In:
"The Reports of the Most Learned Sir Edmund Saunders
Of Several Pleadings and Cases in the Court of King's Bench, in the Time of the Reign of His Most Excellent Majesty King Charles the Second. [1666-1672]"

Should be Vol. 2 and 2nd edition. You can even download it; an interesting read!

Best

Beatrix D (asker) Jul 2, 2023:

Björn, thank you for those references! I was actually not aware of those. Quite fascinating. And I think it does allow me to follow my client's wish to leave "gen" as is without translation.

Björn Vrooman Jul 1, 2023:

Beatrix I think this is such a rarity these days, you should have posted one of the following links already:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genanntname
https://wiki.genealogy.net/Genannt_(bei_Familiennamen)

The "gen." on the certificate may therefore be a vulgo, house, or estate name:
"In rural areas it is common that farmers are known by the traditional name of their Hof (farm or estate). Because of the long-standing tradition of impartible inheritance in German-speaking Europe, ownership of a Hof had often been tied to direct patrilineal descent over centuries. Thus, farmers were traditionally known by their Hofname even before the development of the Nachname in the early modern period, and the two systems came to overlap."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_name

For an example of how confusing this can be, see:
https://www.projectancestry.com/blog/vulgo-names-genealogy

There's also the possibility of a second last name being given because 20 people in a village called William have the last name "Smith." So you'd either use nicknames (like "the Conqueror") or another name altogether (William Smith, also known by the last name Middleborough).

Needs a translator's note, I guess.

Best

Beatrix D (asker) Jun 30, 2023:

No, it is clearly "genannt" as the father of the woman in question has exactly the same last name and "genannt" is not abbreviated in other instances in this family.

Brent Sørensen Jun 30, 2023:

OCR error/typo? Could it be "geb." instead of "gen."? n and b are next to each other on the keyboard.

You often see [MARRIED NAME] geb. [MAIDEN NAME] in official documents

geb. is short for geboren = née