And in the Merriam Webster http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/morrow I found that an ancient meaning of "morrow" was...

MORNING!!!

grrr - of course.

in english, "on the morrow" has connotations both of the next day, and in the morning, so it would make a good translation for "Morgen/morgen".

we've come quite a way from Swiss Deutsch haven't we?

In my area, some Swiss still say "more" for tomorrow and "morge" for morning.

well, where my parents came from, "moore" is a sow...

In a selfish pursuit of my family's name meaning and eager to clear years of Breakfast allusion. I am tempted to say that "Morgenegg" (my family's name) could possibly have meant back in the days "Tomorrow's around the corner" or "Morning Dawn" "Morning Ridge"...What do you say? any good.

"the boiled egg i will have for breakfast in the morning" obviously!

<i>"Morgen" in former times would also mean "Osten" (east).</i>

"Morgenland" still (as far as I know) means "Orient" (and "Abendland" means "Occident").

Pheel:

So your family originates from Köniz (canton Bern). This is the only place Morgeneggs have been located before 1800.

Your name could actually mean "(Farmer or ownwer) of the field on the eastern ridge".

You can check the meaning of -egg in the Swiss dictionary idiotikon.ch
It can mean ridge, pass, or a plateau "roofed" by a ridge, depending on region or canton.

The usage or seperation of Morgen as either morning or tomorrow is as easy to as with Spanish mañana.

More likely here the term refers to Egger. "Eggen" means "to harrow". So that would be "the man that harrows his fields early in the morning" or if "Morgen" as a measure of the size of the field would have already existed, if may have meant "the man that harrows a whole Morgen"

clear as mud then!

Hi Phil, yes the family originate from Köniz (canton Bern). We're able to trace up to 1809. Do you have earlier leads, you've mention 1800

Wow---is this still going on?

Speaking of Swiss roots, we traced my husband's on our laast visit to Switzerland. His grandfather came from Steffisburg, not far from Spiez, and a great-great uncle was a famous Arzt in Langnau (Goethe's doctor, Michaeli Schuppach). We had a great day visiting both places.

No -eggs in sight that day.

RE: "This means the "water is divided two directions" and it can be found in most hills."

This is interesting! "Egg" here is pronounced like "eck", as some others pointed out, and I know the word "eck" in German from the Deutsches Eck, in Koblenz (The confluence of the Rheine and Mosel. Koblenz comes from "Confluence").

Deutsches Eck is generally translated as "German Corner", although a corner is normally an "ecke" rather than an "eck". But what happens at the Deutsches Eck is exactly that the water is divided in two directions. Eureka. I think...

Nice post, ryan!

If a German may jump in:

The Swiss-German "egg" and the Germnan "Eck" have nothing to do to with each other.

"Eck" or "Ecke" means "corner" indeed. (Eck is just a short form of Ecke.) And the "Deutsches Eck" is a corner that is made up by two merging rivers. But is does not come from the division of waters, etymologically, it could also have been a corner made up from a rock between two valleys.

The Swiss-German "Egg" (a word which is not known in high German) means, as said, a mountain ridge. "Scheiden" means "divide" and a ridge that divides waters (watershed) is in German the "Wasserscheide". So, the "Scheidegg" is the ridge that divides the waters.

"Morgen" means "morning", also in Swiss-German. If someone says "Morge" instead of "Morgen", it is just a sloppy pronunciation which is typical for dialects. (Like "Moin" for "Morgen" in North Germany.)

Morgen does not mean "East", although the "Morgenland" is the country which is in the direction where the sun rises in the morning.

But "Morgen" is also a measure for agricultural surfaces, meaning around 3,000 square metres, because it is the surface that can be ploughed in one morning.

"Morgenegg" can be the ridge that has an extension of one Morgen or it can be the ridge where the cattle grazes in the morning.

Addendum:

In Europe, the place names in one region often have the same suffix which indicates a place.

E.g., in some German regions many villages have the suffix "-dorf", in other regions "-ingen" or "-burg" or "-berg" or "-tal" ("Berg" means mountain, "Tal" valley and "Burg" castle).

In Switzerland, many places have the suffix "-egg". In Brittany many villages have the prefix "plou-", in some English regions you find the suffix "-ton".

Do not take these suffixes or prefixes too literally - there are just common to designate place. So many places with the suffix "-berg" are not really on a mountain and not even on a hill.

I know lots of places that have "egg" in their name and but have no visible dividing hills. However, they do have rivers and streams that twist and turn, providing a natural corner, hence giving the area its name.