[Efraim Meulenberg]

That would be one FUNNY last name!!

If I remember correctly, last-names were picked while the country (Don’t know if that goes for Germany also) was under control of Napoleon. Lost of people picked funny last-names because they disagreed with his rule. Later when Napoleon was overthrown, the new government actually kept the last names that were instated during his rule, resulting in many people having prank-names still today.

So you might be the victim of one of those 😉

-T

[Efraim Meulenberg]

That’s why I’m here to help you back, I speak both languages.
In Dutch, trachten means ‘to try’. So ‘to-try-mountain’ doesn’t make much sense.
Also, the Dutch don’t put words together in that way, since the grammar is off.

In German, ‘trachten’ means ‘to strive/aspire’, so ‘strive mountain’ makes a lot more sense in German.

My last name is Meulenberg (mill-mountain), my forefathers had a mill on a mountain. It’s Dutch.

However, your name could also be a place (the town of Trachten). If it exists, it’s probably in Germany, or somewhere close to the border of the Netherlands and Germany.

Cheers!

-T

[Efraim Meulenberg]

You are A-W-E-S-O-M-E. And you just saved my life 😉
(Did you know your last name is either Dutch or German? The last part, ‘berg’ means mountain. Or hill, kinda the same in these languages)
-T

[Efraim Meulenberg]

I’m looking for the same thing… did you find an answer yet? ;-(