Need advice on Mueller versus Müller

Question

I am working on a profile for a person born 1840 Hessen, Germany.  Her last name in the US was Mueller.  And I know these are essentially the same name, but is the correct German form of Mueller-Müller?

I want to make sure I have the correct form from the start so I don't have to change the LNAB later.  I have not yet found her baptism record.

Thank you!

Comments

Thank goodness for the Other Last Names field.  As you noted I try to get the LNAB as found on a birth or christening record; though, when finding six different records on a person 3 different spellings are not uncommon.  The further back we go, the more we see this as those that could write often used phonetic spellings.  Another reason I've found is when dealing with church or parish records where those who documented names tried to assimilate all Wilson, Welson and Willson names the same, Burton, Bertan, Birtun names the same, Willet, Willit, Willits, the same, etc.  IOW: when searching we need to keep in mind typical variants and sometimes a bit of imagination is required as we look for documents that contain multiple members of the same family.

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When I lived in Germany in 1960, a man sued the telephone company to have his name spelled with its proper Umlaut in the phone book, and he won. As I remember, the company thought the alphabetic listing would be easier if no Umlauts were used, which strikes me as odd, because dictionaries have always had a rule for handling that.

Answer 1

I lived in Germany a couple years. A word with an umlaut -- ä, ö, ü -- can be spelled, when the umlaut character is not available, as ae, oe, and ue. So, yes, an American Mueller would be a German Müller.

Comments

While this treatment of umlaute is true for regular vocabulary it does not hold for person and place names. There one has to follow established practice. There are plenty of notable German Muellers around who do not use an umlaut in their names.

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Helmut, you say,  "There one has to follow established practice." 

What is the established practice? Thank you :-)

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I meant to go with what the family and official documents use. In the case of the Muellers I listed in my comment to Martin's response the individuals did not use an umlaut and documents for them didn't either although here and there an umlaut may have been used by others. Take for instance Goethe, his grandfather spelled his name Göthe, but everybody thereafter used Goethe except for one edition of his works in the mid 19th century which used the umlaut. His signature of course is known and he signed "Goethe". So nobody in Germany nowadays would use the umlaut for his name. Or Jakob von Uexküll (pronounced [ˈʏkskʏl]), there you have both usages in the same name. Clearly, Üxküll would be wrong.

Answer 2

If born in Germany then definitely LNAB Müller, even if you haven't found a record. You can always add Mueller.

Comments

Not necessarily, see:

• Albert Mueller (Maler) (1884–1963), deutscher Maler
• Andreas J. Mueller (* 1950), deutscher Karikaturist, Maler und Grafiker
• Anousch Mueller (* 1979), deutsche Schriftstellerin
• Armin Mueller-Stahl (* 1930), deutscher Schauspieler
• Berthold Mueller (1898−1976), deutscher Rechtsmediziner und Hochschullehrer
• Carl-Hermann Mueller-Graaf (1903–1963), deutscher Diplomat
• Charlotte Böhler-Mueller (* 1924), deutsche Autorin, Künstlerin und Journalistin
• Christian Mueller (* 1981), Schweizer Künstler, Theaterregisseur, Herausgeber und Parteigründer
• Christian Mueller-Goldingen (* 1954), deutscher Altphilologe
• Christoph-Mathias Mueller (* 1967), Dirigent
• Dagmar H. Mueller (Dagmar Hildegard Mueller; * 1961), deutsche Autorin
• Ernst Adolph Mueller (1832–1913), deutscher Jurist und Politiker, MdR
• Ferdinand von Mueller (1825–1896), deutsch-australischer Botaniker, Geograf und Arzt
• Franz Mueller-Darß (1890–1976), deutscher Forstmann
• Gudula Mueller-Töwe, deutsche Schauspielerin
• Hagen Mueller-Stahl (* 1926), deutscher Theaterregisseur, Filmregisseur und Schauspieler
• Hans Mueller von der Haegen (1929–2013), deutscher Chemiker
• Harald Mueller (* 1934), deutscher Dramatiker
• Hellmuth Mueller-Leutert (1892–1973), deutscher Maler, Grafiker und Bildhauer
• Herbert Mueller (1885–1966), deutscher Jurist, Sinologe, Journalist, Forschungsreisender und Kunsthändler
• Hermann Mueller (Apotheker) (1828–1896), deutscher Apotheker und Verleger
• Jan Robert Mueller (* 1977), deutscher Schauspieler
• Klaus Mueller-Zahlmann (* 1950), deutscher Politiker, Bürgermeister von Bad Oeynhausen
• Leonhard Mueller (Schachspieler) (* 1967), schweizerisch-namibischer Jurist und Schachspieler
• Miriam Mueller-Stahl (* 1982), deutsche Schauspielerin
• Nele Mueller-Stöfen (* 1967), deutsche Schauspielerin
• Otto Mueller (1874–1930), deutscher Maler und Lithograf
• René E. Mueller (1929–1991), Schweizer Schriftsteller
• Rudolf Mueller (Bürgermeister) (1869–1954), deutscher Politiker, Oberbürgermeister von Darmstadt
• Rudolf Mueller (Staatsminister) (1904–1997), deutscher Politiker, Staatsminister von Groß-Hessen
• Siggi Mueller (* 1964), deutscher Filmkomponist
• Ulrich Mueller (* 1949), deutscher Mediziner und Soziologe
• Volker Mueller (* 1957), deutscher Philosoph und Schriftsteller
• Waldemar Mueller (1851–1924), deutscher Politiker und Bankier
• Wilhelm Mueller (1850–1921), deutscher Offizier

Unfortunately, the only way to be sure are documents showing what form of the name was used. 

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Fair enough, although I'd still stick with the umlaut until I knew better.

Answer 3

Emma I have had several emails with German cousins and they have all said basically the same thing.  Both are correct it is really up to the writer if they want to do ue or umlat u.  More and more ue is being adopted because of computer and texting ease vs umlats which are not internationally accepted.  To a person they have told me to use the oe, ue et versions for LNAB because they will be more internationally accepted and searched for.    

I am sure others will have a different view but some of these folks are college professors and one is even a language expert.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%9C

and the umlat is not accepted in some login programs  https://github.com/privacyidea/privacyidea/issues/738