What does the name Asperger mean?

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14 Mar 2010, 1:57 pm

Asperger's Syndrome was named after the Dr. Hans Asperger. Back in the 1930s and 1940s, he studied a group of kids who had the disorder, and he kept the Nazis from murdering them, making them realize what brilliant kids they were.

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Michael_Stuart
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14 Mar 2010, 2:56 pm

League_Girl wrote:

Was this meant to be some game thread? I actually thought it was serious and the OP wanted to know why is it called AS. What does it mean?

They were serious, however they meant something different from what you interpreted. They were inquiring as to the meaning/origin of the surname "Asperger" and not the reason the syndrome has the name.

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14 Mar 2010, 4:08 pm

Michael_Stuart wrote:

League_Girl wrote:

Was this meant to be some game thread? I actually thought it was serious and the OP wanted to know why is it called AS. What does it mean?

After reading the latest responses, it made me think it this was all a joke.

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14 Mar 2010, 4:29 pm

League_Girl wrote:

Was this meant to be some game thread? I actually thought it was serious and the OP wanted to know why is it called AS. What does it mean?

I think the OP wants to know the orginal meaning and orgin of the last name Asperger before it was ever used as a name for a condition.

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14 Mar 2010, 4:33 pm

There's no doubt! I don't understand I think.... There's nothing to think!
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16 Mar 2010, 12:06 am

League_Girl wrote:

Michael_Stuart wrote:

League_Girl wrote:

Was this meant to be some game thread? I actually thought it was serious and the OP wanted to know why is it called AS. What does it mean?

After reading the latest responses, it made me think it this was all a joke.

It was in no way a joke. I honestly want to know the origin of the name Asperger. Names intrigue me, they're one of my interests/obsessions and I can't stand not being able to know the meaning of a name.

Cumulus wrote:

Just another possible explanation: As I'm from Germany, I know there's a town called "Asperg", so maybe he had forefathers who where from this place (for those who don't know German: the suffix "-er" indicates that someone is from a certain place (for example a "Berliner" is from Berlin) or has a certain profession) But I looked up how common this name is in Germany and Austria, and it's very rare, so it also could be that it has the other origins you said. Well, that are just my thougths on this.

That seems like a valid explanation, although that still begs the question, why was the town Asperg named Asperg?

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16 Mar 2010, 4:25 am

Perhaps something to do with "hasp"? Lockmaker, blacksmith?

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16 Mar 2010, 8:15 am

Asperg = Asp + berg = aspen hill.

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16 Mar 2010, 8:35 am

Hmmm... confusing, but there are just so many possibilities... I found a few links, but still nothing that directly says anything at all, and one is in german-the name of a town called Asperg, but I cannot read it to see who it was named after or why it was named that or anything.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asperg

In that, it mentions a prison called Hohenasperg (<---- is a link I found after already posting, so this might explain that part a bit more... still reading). But since I can't read it, of course I have no clue what it relates to. I had to look up Hohenasperg to begin with to find it was a prison, because it had the word Stadt in front of it, so I thought it might be a name, lol. I have no clue what I'm doing.

The other links I found were not super helpful, but interesting nonetheless-but most of it was just stuff reiterating what has been said or what is known already... that names can come from professions, or from being the resident of some place... but another interesting thing was that it could come from nicknames.

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16 Mar 2010, 9:08 am

Keeno wrote:

Asperg = Asp + berg = aspen hill.

Sounds most plausible, though wouldn't that be Espberg?

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17 Mar 2010, 12:06 pm

I also guess it comes from the town Asperg. An Asperger is, originally, a person from the town Asperg. So Hans' ancestors may have been from that town.

A quote from the Wikipedia article linked to is interesting in this connection:

"Die Asperger Stadtfarben sind seit 1933 Grün-Gelb." Ie.: "The town colours of Asperg are since 1933 green-yellow." (Asperger = here: of / from Asperg, not the condition.)

Furthermore, it says in the article that the tree on the town's arms is an aspen tree, also called Aspe in German.

So I think we have the solution.

Last edited by AnnePande on 20 Mar 2010, 11:38 am, edited 1 time in total.

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17 Mar 2010, 12:08 pm

AnnePande wrote:

I also guess it comes from the town Asperg. An Asperger is, originally, a person from the town Asperg. So Hans' ancestors may have been from that town.

A quote from the Wikipedia article linked to is interesting in this connection:

"Die Asperger Stadtfarben sind seit 1933 Grün-Gelb." Ie.: "The town colours of Asperg are since 1933 green-yellow." (Asperger = here: of Asperg, not the condition.)

Furthermore, it says in the article that the tree on the town's arms is an aspen tree, also called Aspe in German.

So I think we have the solution.

yay! Someone who could translate it, lol. I could have tried with a translator, but just don't know enough about what words would need to be kept together and whatnot, and quite frankly, just don't always trust translator programs.

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17 Mar 2010, 3:11 pm

Well, I'm just reading that wikipedia article, but translating it all would really be too much work, so I write down the things that mention the name.

The article says that in year 500 the town was called "Ascisberg". So "Berg" is pretty clear, it means mountain. But I'm not really sure about "Ascis". It may be from Latin so I looked it up, in Latin "asciscere" means "to take possesion of sth".
The article also says that the place was celtic 500 BC. Then later it was Alemannic. And at the time it was named "Ascisberg" it was Franconian. So "Ascis" could be from all those languages and I just don't know anything about Celtic/Alemannic language :wink:

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17 Mar 2010, 3:25 pm

Michael_Stuart wrote:

pensieve wrote:

Michael_Stuart wrote:

If I may hazard a guess: According to Wikipedia, "Asperges" is the practice of sprinkling a congregation with Holy Water. I'm no linguist, but I guess "Asperger" would thus be a name for a person that does this.

As in giving them a blessing? So Asperger's really is a blessing? I was wrong!

Well more like, "One who gives blessings", but yeah. The only other explanation I can think of is that Hans Asperger's ancestors were asparagus-sellers. Do note that I'm guessing fairly wildly, here.

That is why my partner calls me "little asparagus"! Or "Don't go getting all asparagus on me" "I am asparagus, hear me roar!"

We are very irreverent in this house, so forgive me if this offends.......but now I have anecdotal evidence that it is true :wink:

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23 Aug 2020, 12:32 pm

is the name of Hans Asperger, who described the Asperger Syndrome in 1944

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