Bielefeld

Borrowed from German Bielefeld.

Bielefeld (countable and uncountable, plural Bielefelds)

1. A city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
2. A habitational surname from German.

• According to the 2010 United States Census, Bielefeld is the 38332^nd most common surname in the United States, belonging to 578 individuals. Bielefeld is most common among White (95.67%) individuals.

• Hanks, Patrick, editor (2003), “Bielefeld”, in Dictionary of American Family Names, volume 1, New York City: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 157.

Unknown. There has been published a multitude about the etymology and it depends on whether early occurrences of resembling toponyms refer to this location, the oldest a Bylanuelde farmland conveyed to Corvey in the mid 9th century, next a Biliuelde in the Vita Meinwerci from the 1160s relating occurrences between 1015 and 1036, then a 12th century Bylivelt; only in the 13th century the name of the town occurs clearly and oftener, following which the foundation year is conventionally reckoned the year 1214. A recent overview of the theories is given by Meineke 2013. The areal extent of the city to which the term refers derives from incorporations in 1900, 1907, 1930, and 1973.

• IPA^(key): [ˈbiːləfɛlt]

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Bielefeld n (proper noun, genitive Bielefelds or (optionally with an article) Bielefeld)

1. An independent city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

• Bielefelder

• Meineke, Birgit (2013) Die Ortsnamen der Stadt Bielefeld (Westfälisches Ortsnamenbuch; 5)‎, Bielefeld: Verlag für Regionalgeschichte, →ISBN, pages 38–48
• Rath, Jochen (2014) “1214: Ersterwähnung Bielefelds als Stadt”, in Stadtarchiv Bielefeld‎, archived from the original on 12 November 2020