Spiegel (surname) explained

Spiegel is a surname of German origin. In German language Spiegel means mirror.^[1]

Spiegel is an ancient German Christian surname. Family tradition says it was taken from a town or lake named Spiegel. There is a small community south of Munich named Spiegel. The name Spiegel goes back to at least the 12th century, when the Spiegel family were barons of Desenburg and Peckelsheim in Hessen; one noted person was Heinrich III Spiegel zum Desenberg (1361–80), Bishop of Paderborn.

There are also a significant number of Jewish people with the surname, and it is said that this name originated from a house sign in the Frankfurt am Main (Judengasse) picturing a mirror.^[2] The form Spiegel is documented in Frankfurt am Main since the 16th century. Variants are Szpiegel, Schpiegel, Shpi(e)gel, Şpighel, etc. Family lore, as told by the family of Joseph Spiegel scion of the Spiegel Family of catalogue fame, says that the family name in Germany had been Meyer. Big Meyer, bought a large mirror for the house. When he got it home, it was too big to fit. So, it was leaned against a nearby tree. When people came into the valley, the sun reflected off the mirror. The house became known as the Spiegel house. The family adopted the name.

People with the surname Spiegel

• Adam Spiegel aka Spike Jonze (born 1969), American film director
• Arthur Spiegel, Chicago mail-order businessman and early American film studio executive
• Chaike Belchatowska Spiegel (1920--2002), Jewish resistance fighter in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
• David Spiegel (born 1945), son of Herbert Spiegel, American psychiatrist and medical hypnotist
• Edward A. Spiegel (1931–2020), American astrophysicist
• Evan Spiegel (born 1990), American entrepreneur, inventor of Snapchat
• Friedrich (von) Spiegel (1820–1905), an orientalist at the University of Erlangen
• Giora Spiegel (born 1947), a Jewish-Israeli footballer and manager
• Herbert Spiegel (1914–2009), American psychiatrist and medical hypnotist, who treated the woman known as Sybil
• Jacob Spiegel (1902–1984), Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
• Joseph Spiegel (1840–1918), founder of Spiegel Catalog
• Laurie Spiegel (born 1945), an American composer
• Marcus M. Spiegel (1829–1864), Colonel in the Union Army during the American Civil War
• Murray R. Spiegel (1923–1991), American mathematician
• Paul Spiegel (1937–2006), leader of the Central Council of Jews in Germany
• Sam Spiegel (1901–1985), Polish-born film producer
• Sam Spiegel (musician), American producer/DJ and brother of Spike Jonze
• Sarah Spiegel, American singer
• Tilly Spiegel (1906–1988) European wartime resistance activist and postwar researcher into victims of Nazism

Fictional

• Spike Spiegel, Bounty hunter, pilot and former gangster; a character in Cowboy Bebop

See also

• Fritz Spiegl (1926–2003), Austrian-born musician, journalist, broadcaster, humorist and collector
• Spiegle (disambiguation)
• Spiegler
• Spiegelmann

Notes and References

1. Web site: Spiegel - Translation from German into English. PONS. en. 29 May 2020.
2. Book: A Jewish Colonel in the Civil War: Marcus M. Spiegel of the Ohio Volunteers. University of Nebraska Press. Markus M. Spiegel. Jean Powers Soman. Frank L. Byrne. 1995. 1. 0-8032-9232-5.