User-submitted Reference

This name is of German origin. In medieval documents its written 'Stoufe',

'Stoufer', 'Stuffe'. The modern German writing is 'Staufer' or 'Staufen'.

The interpretation to this point is not disputed in views of German

historians.

A Stouf or Stoufe originally meant an high outstanding hill.

It could mean dice cup as well.

The name became famous in German history because of the

noble family of the 'Staufer', 'Staufen' from the south-west German

region of 'Baden'.

In the earliest documents, myth 'Goetz the Stoufe' pops up

in the 8th century. He was one of the 4 Helgen (Holy Men) brothers,

early Christians, who governed the Land of Hesse in Germany.

They were finally defeated by Charles the Great in 777/778.

The Roman-Catholic Church judged these early Christians as devils,

like they always did with what they called heretics.

From this date on Roman-Catholozism reigned until

the Reformation of Martin Luther.

Another branch of the Staufer family became Emperors of the Holy German

Empire of the German Nation.They always had problems with the

Pope and the Vatican.The last noble man of this branch of the family,

the (Hohen)Staufen, was decapitated in Italy in 1268.

Also famous in German history is Count of Staufen(berg)

whose murder attempt against Hitler failed July 20th 1944.

If people who bear this or a similar name in the USA today are

family relations of the Staufer, or if they are simply named after the

places they came from I cannot say.

Nevertheless their regional origin is south-west Germany (Baden),

Hesse (Hessen), or southern Lower-Saxony (Niedersachsen), around the city of Goettingen. One easy way to find places is to look for places called

'Staufenberg' in Germany. 'Berg' means hill or mount in German.

- goetz_der_staufer