Thank god, I'm not a Johnson.

I'm fascinated and pleased by my unique surname, Broede. So thankful that it isn't Smith or Jones or Johnson or Anderson. I don't want a common name. There aren't very many Broedes. At least, in the USA. Maybe 20 at the most. And I suspect we are all related. I know of several hundred Broedes in Germany. We Broedes all have Deutschland roots. It's the 'oe' in Broede that identifies our German origin. Sometimes, the 'oe' becomes an 'o' with two dots over it, known as an umlaut.  There are other spellings of surnames pronounced the same way as Broede. Including Brodie and Brody. They are mostly of  Scottish, Irish and English origin. I've traced my ancestry to Switzerland, as far back as the 1600s.   When our surname was spelled Brathi. My ancestors migrated to Germany after the 30 Years War. And Brathi was pronounced like Broede in the German language of the day. And so the sound Brathi obtained a German spelling. Germans don't pronounce Broede exactly the same way as English-speaking Americans. Sounds more like the way Americans would pronounce Brathi. To the best of my knowledge, I'm the only Jim Broede in the world. I have a son-in-law, with the very common name Bob Johnson. Every day, I thank the creator that my name is Jim Broede -- and not just another Johnson. --Jim Broede