Quote: To reinstate the hijack, wasn't it actually Joachim Neuman? I thought his name was Neuman, which means "new man", but being a student of Greek, he chose to use the Greek translation of "new man", which turns out to be "neander". When I originally heard this story I thought it was an interesting twist that they discovered the fossil of a "new" man in a valley named for this guy named "new man".
Yes, you're absolutely right. His family's original name was Neumann. There are conflicting accounts of when it was changed - probably in his grandfather's day. His father already went by "Johann Joachim Neander". Translating surnames into Greek was a fashion of the time. I'd imagine they used both versions, depending on occasion.
