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The name Hepler, (Heppler,Heppeler,Hoeppler, etc.) is a typically Swabian name and is found in many communities in Wuerttemberg, from Stuttgart the capital city, to remote villages. It appears to be one of those surnames derived in the Middle Ages, when families took permanent family names, from an occupation. There are several theories on the meaning of the name. The most generally accepted explanation is that it derives from the word Hepe, Heppe, or Hippe, a garden knife used to prune the trees, a small sickle, or, appropriate for Wuerttemberg, a curved vineyardist's knife used in trimming grapevines in the wine country and in cutting grapes in the vintage time. A Heppler or Heppeler was therefore a person who used such a knife. Source: Rudolf Zoder, Familiennamen in Ostfalen, 2 vols. (Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1968), I, 722,750.
Similar names such as Hoebler, Hebler , and Haebler apparently come from other roots and therefore probably have no connection with our family, although for a time in the nineteenth century our Mahantongo Heplers were accustomed to spell their name, in German, Hebler . The similar but unrelated surnames Heb(e)ler and Haebler are said to mean "baker", from the Middle High German word Hebel or Hevel meaning yeast. Source: Hans Bahlow, Deutsches Namenlexikon: Failien-und Vornamen nach Ursprung und Sinn erklaert (Munich: Keysersche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1967), p. 215. The same author calls Heppler a South German surname, meaning a vinedresser or vineyardist, from the Middle High German hepe, heppe, happe, a curved vineyardist's knife (p 229).
A second theory, suggested by the Swabian Dialect Dictionary, traces names beginning with the initial sound Hepp, such as Hepper and Heppeler, at least in part, not to the vineyard but to the Old-German personal names Hadu-brecht or Hadu-brand . Source: Schwaebisches Woerterbuch , column 1434.
Just for the sake of the record, among the other theories on the etymology of our name is the curious one I found one time in a book of surnames of the city of Frankfort on the Main. This informs us that Heppeler so spelled, means: "ein Uebereilter Mensch, i.e. , a person who is too much in a hurry, or a person who acts rashly or precipitately. Unfortunately for this theory, I have never known any of our family who fit this description. Most of the older Heplers whom I remember from Mahantogo werer deliberate and unhasty, characterized by what one might call a Swabian or Pennsylvanian deliberation.
The latest of the major dictionaries of German surnames derives Hepp(e)ler from
the Swabian dialect verb haeppeln, meaning to act rashly; the name appears as Haepler
and Hoeppeler . The surname Hoeppler or
The graphic used for our background is a HEPPE, a middle ages tool used by vineyard workers to prune the vines. The person proficient in its use was referred to as the "HEPPELER". Thus the origin of the name, HEPLER. This particular representation was copied from an insignia found in the German town of Vaihingen/Enz, home of our immigrant ancestors Caspar Hepler and his wife, Susanna Scheible. From this historic town near Stuttgart they came to America in 1748 with their two sons, Jacob (age 4) and Christopher (age 2). Subsequently Caspar Jr. and George were born of this union in America. It was an arduous journey, two and a half centuries ago, and because of it we come together each year to contemplate, celebrate, and pay homage to these courageous early settlers who gave birth to our vast nation.
Click on one of the ships below to sail back to a previous page!
Source: From the Introduction by Don Yoder in The Hepler Family History, by Avice Hepler Morgan. First Edition, Gateway Press Inc., Baltimore, 1986. Pg. XIV,XV
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