What does the name Asperger mean?

Post Reply New Topic

I mean, I know that Asperger's Syndrome is an Autism Spectrum disorder as I'm sure everyone else here does but what is the meaning/origin of the Hans Asperger who identified the syndrome?

Well, I speak German but I don't recognize any words in it. With the -ger ending reminds me of a name that probably originated as someone who was from a certain place, or possibly someone with a certain title or profession; but that's very vague and probably doesn't get you much closer. "Staatsburger" is "citizen", so maybe it's a place-name.

Hoping we get a linguist in there.

Asperger refers to the person who came up with the diagnosis. Hence, Asperger's Syndrome.

Yeah, and Lorna Wing coined it.

This page is where it all began. Well, not literally, but as a label in many countries outside of Germany.

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.

I think it could be name from plant Asperagas officinalis, in French and Dutch is word Asperge and it can also mean tall and slim person, like a model.
There is also Aspergillus, but I don't think it's sth connected - but this fungi likes water.

Dictionary tells me there is verb aspergere in Italian what comes from Latin aspergo and means moisture.

So maybeeee it means:
1. Tall and slim
2. Humidifier
3. Spraying water thing from Church

I think his ancestors were tall and slim people (Marfan's? ) who were travelling the world selling asparagus and humidifiers and blessing people who bought sth

Asperger was the name of the guy who discovered the condition but the original name for it was Autistic psychopathy. But in 1981, Lorna Wing coined the term for the condition. Names of conditions are usually named after the person who described it such as Down's syndrome, (though they used to be called mongolees, sp), Tourette's syndrome, Parkinson's disease, Turner's syndrome. Even autism used to be called Kanner's syndrome because Leo Kanner described it in 1943. I dunno why they dropped the name and now they are talking about dropping Asperger's.

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.

It means a really nasty burger.

With 'asperger' being French for 'to sprinkle',it could be a French name.Perhaps Hans Asperger had ancestors who came from Alsace-Lorraine which was an area that went back and forth between Germany and France.

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?