Origins of the Name - DREISBACH

Source: The Dreisbach Book, page 3

Dreisbach/Tricebock/Driesbaugh/Dresbach: these and other variants are in fact all one name. It is a Germanic name, and as early as 1257 one Gottschalcus de Treisbach was recorded as using a seal showing a stag's head. In 1316 two Dreisbachs, Tilonamus and Gamfoidus, are mentioned in a treaty as being in the service of the House of Sayn. Members of the family of Driesbach/Dreysbach/Treisbach of Hesse and Fulda are known to have had a coat of arms containing a stag's head. This family had no male heirs, and the line became extinguished in 1522. There was also a Christian von Treisbach who lived along the Rhine south of Koblenz in the late 1400's. He used a seal showing not a stag's head but a horizontal branch from which five roses grew.

Instances of the Dreisbach name can thus be traced back at least seven centuries.  It was borne by various families whose inter-relationships have not been established.  No connections have as yet been found between any of these families and the Dreisbachs now residing in North America.

The name Dreisbach is clearly topographical in origin.  The second element, "bach," means "brook" or "small stream" in German.  However, the name Dreisbach does not mean "three streams" as some who do not know German have supposed.  German place-name specialists have identified two possible meanings of the first element, "Dreis."  It can be a short form of the name Andreas, and in this case we would have a brook associated with this name.  On the other hand, "dreis" or "treis" is a very old, even prehistoric, name having to do with water.  Its original meaning was probably "a marsh or bog formed from spring water."  When "bach" is associated with "dreis" the resulting meaning is a brook which has its source in a boggy place.  There are numerous Dreisbach place-names in west-central Germany, and it seems hardly likely that they can all be associated with one or more Andreases.  The logical connection is that which is already built into the name: a small stream issuing from a marsh.

(See Hans Bahlow, Deutsches Namenlexikon, Munich, 1967/1972, p. 102, and idem, Deutschlands geographische Namenwelt; Etymologisches Lexikon der Fluss- und Ortsnamen alteuropäischer, Herkunft, Frankfurt am Main, 1964, p. 87)

Not Our Coat of Arms

There is a Dreisbach coat of arms (the red with a deer head and antlers) but the line entitled to use it died out several hundred years ago.

Prior to coming to Pennsylvania we were:

  • in the case of the Simon line, farmers and builders of those gorgeous half-timbered houses and millers.

  • in the case of the Martin line, farmers and builders of those gorgeous half-timbered houses and blacksmiths and even more prestigious 'hammerschmidts'.

And none of these were entitled to, nor would they think of claiming, the Dreisbach coat of arms. So neither should we.