Drumpf

For the German company, see Trumpf.

Drumpf (alternately Drumpft)^[1] is a German surname that dates back to the 16th century.^[2] It is most commonly known as the likely predecessor to the family name of Donald Trump, businessman and 45th president of the United States. Talk show host and comedian John Oliver brought attention to the name during the "Donald Trump" segment of his television program Last Week Tonight.^[2]

History

Author Gwenda Blair researched the Trump family origins, and identified Hanns Drumpf, an itinerant lawyer, who moved to Kallstadt in 1608. The spelling of his last name had changed by the end of the 17th century.^[3]

In 2011, the International Business Times repeated an unverified claim that Donald Trump's paternal grandfather Frederick Trump changed his name from Drumpf to Trump, possibly to avoid anti-German sentiment popular at the time.^[4]

In 2019, German broadcaster DW Akademie reported from the Trump German ancestral home in Kallstadt that there were no more people with the surname, and that according to the city's transportation association, the spelling had likely been changed during the reign of Napoleon around the turn of the 19th century.^[5]

In popular culture

In the 2016 graphic novel Love Is Love, one comic features a superhero, Rainbow Boy, who uses his powers to fight "Doc Drumpf" and his armies of "Spider Haters".^[6]

References

1. "Christian Johannes Drumpft". Geneanet. Retrieved 2020-08-19.
2. "Donald Drumpf: A Funny Label, but Is It Fair?". The New York Times. 2016-03-02. Retrieved 2020-08-19.
3. "The Ancestral German Home of the Trumps". The New Yorker. 2016-04-29. Retrieved 2020-08-19.
4. Ghosh, Palash (2016-02-29). "Was Donald Trump's Family Surname Once 'Drumpf'?". Snopes. Retrieved 2022-11-14.
5. "What Trump's ancestral village in Germany has to say about him". DW Akadamie. 2019-06-02. Retrieved 2020-08-19.
6. "Rainbow Boy in "Love Rock Love"". Jef Writes. 2018-06-24. Retrieved 2020-08-19.