[Facts] Re: my first name
in reply to a message by goenne prescott
It's an interesting name. You'd really need to find out more about the friend and his/her background to get a proper answer; if it was their first name, it may well have been invented, or adapted from another name, or mistranscribed on arrival in the US.
As a surname, though, it definitely isn't Welsh or Manx as there are no records of it ever been used in England or Wales. From what I can gather, it looks like it might be German. There's a family of Goennes in the 1880 US census living in Illinois, but born in Germany, and the International Genealogical Index lists a few 1800s births for Goenne and variations Goeen, Goehen and Goenn.
As a surname, though, it definitely isn't Welsh or Manx as there are no records of it ever been used in England or Wales. From what I can gather, it looks like it might be German. There's a family of Goennes in the 1880 US census living in Illinois, but born in Germany, and the International Genealogical Index lists a few 1800s births for Goenne and variations Goeen, Goehen and Goenn.