"How do you spell that?"
We hear this question everyday. Goedeker’s has been serving customers since 1951, but time hasn't made the name any easier to spell. Pronounced [ged-i-kurs], we've seen or heard almost every spelling variation and pronunciation of our name.
The most frequent misspelling is Goedecker, often pronounced [go-deck-urs]. Here are several more:
Goedeckers | Godecker | Godeker | Geodeker | Goedker | Gedikers | Gedokers | Gadecker | Gudacker | Gudeker | Gadeker | Gudecker | Gadker
The Origin of Goedeker's
I did a little research to try and dig into the background and history of the name Goedeker, and the findings amazed me.
Steve, the owner, didn't know much about the family history, but pointed me in a direction with his grandfather's name Bernard (Ben) Goedeker. That's when I hit the jackpot!
According to the forums on Ancestry.com, a John Bernhard Gödeker was born May 14,1842 in Leiner, Germany. They had six children: Bernard, August, Theodore, Heinrich, Mary, and Anna. Their son, Bernard, was born in Loeningen, Oldenburg, Germany on June 2, 1860. He sailed to America in 1888. He owned a small dairy farm in St. Louis, Missouri, and married Maria Gruenloh on October 7, 1890.
Mike Goedeker talking with Lisa Hawkes, Internet Customer Service Manager.
The Plot Thickens
Bernard and Maria had seven children: Joseph, Henry, Bernard, Ida, Rosa, Mamie, Adele, and Joseph George, who died around the age of one. This is when Steve started recognizing names. Bernard and Maria's child, Bernard, was Steve's grandfather, and these siblings are his great aunts and uncles!
Steve's grandfather had several children, naming one of them Bernard. This son, who was nicknamed Ben, opened Goedeker's as a repair shop in 1951. From the search results, Bernard is a popular family name!
According to Jeff Minor, Steve's nephew and head of IT, the current spelling of the name Gödeker changed because the lack of an equivalent symbol in English.
So there you have it. Goedeker's can be traced back to the early 1800's in Germany.
What’d You Say? The Origin and Misspellings of “Goedeker” by Liz Carroll
