The family name Siegrist occurs in variant spellings in the German language, as follows: Siecrist, Siegrist Siegerist, Sigeris, Sigeris, Siegeriss, Sigerist, Sigriz. (Cf. Gottschand, Deutsche Namenkunde, Munich, 1932.) The name of the early origin dating from the period when the family names (surnames) in Europe gradually came into existence; this period is after 1100, as prior to 1100 there were no family names in Germany.

It is well known that the earliest appearance of family names in Germany is in Cologne and along the Rhine River. In Cologne family names appear for the first time in 1106, but as late as 1236 not all the citizens of Cologne had a surname in addition to their personal name (first name). The personal name in those early days was, as a rule, attached to that particular person for his life; when he or she died it did not continue to pass on through the line of his descendants as surnames do.

In Switzerland, family names make their appearance in Zurich in 1145, and in Basel in 1168. This too was the general situation with reference to the time of the origin of family names in France and in England (Cf. for France, Moisy, Noms de Famille Normands, Paris, p. VI f.; for England, Bardsley, English surnames, London, p. 2 ff.)

Linguistically the name Sigrist is not a German term. It is a transliteration or a phonetic spelling of the Medieval Latin sacrista, which appears in English as sacrist, which at times is used in the sense sacristan. The latter is a derivative from the Medieval Latin sacristanus, coming into English through the French sacristain.  The sacristin in those early days was the one who had charge of the church edifice, or more particularly, of the robes and vestments, that is, of the ecclesiastical regalia which appertained to the ritualistic service in the church-edifice.

The family name Siegrist accordingly belongs to that large class of German family names known as occupative names, that is, names derived from an occupation.  Since Sigrist is a designation of an ecclesiastical official or of a verger, whose official functions were those named above, it would seem to follow that from an ecclesiastical viewpoint that family name was in the first place a Catholic name or the name of a Catholic.

The origin of the name, as shown on documentary evidence, below, dates from the pre-Reformation period. How far back of or prior to the Reformation can only be a matter of conjecture. Though on the basis of the documentary evidence now available at can be stated that it dates from a time not earlier than 1100. As a matter of fact this name cannot be documented earlier that the year 1261.

Some of the Earliest occurrences of the name Sigrist in the Middle High German

1. Cunradus sacrista de Endingen Griesheim 1261
2. Chonrat der sigriste Klingau, 1277
3. Chonrat der sigeriste, Riehen, 1235, Cunrat Sigrist Von Rihen (sic), C. dictus Sacrista, 1295
4. C. Sacrista, ca. 1300
5. C. dictus Sigriste Blotzheim.
6. Diethelmus filius sacriste ville Otlikon, 1297
7. Hagen Sigrist (in the cloister Klingenthal in Basel).
8. Hans Sigristo
9. Henricus dictus Sigriste, 1300
10. Hetzelo doe Otlinkon filius sacriste, 1291
11. Hugo sacrista de Hunzebach, 1274
12. HugoJohannes des sigeristen sun Gressweiler, 1280
13. Hug der Sigriste Freiburg 1297
14. Johannes sacrista de Binzhein Kappeln Elsass.
15. Nicolas dictus Sigristo Wyhlen
16. Otto sacrista Hagenthal, 1296
17. Ru. gener sacriste, 1287
18. Rudolf der Sigeriste Freiburg 1299
19. Ulrich Sigriste Kleinbasal 1290
20. Wernherus sacrista de Tullikon, 1286

Sigrist occurs also with the faminine desinence or termination or ending: Sigristin. Also with the genitive or possessive or characteristic form: sigristinen.
(Socin, Mittelhochdeutches Namenbuch nach oberrheinischen Quellen des zwolften and dreizehnten Jahrhunderts. Basel, 1903, pages 496, 663, 670.)

As stated above the family name Siegrist was in the first place a Catholic name or the name of a Catholic, that is, in origin the name dates from the period in German history prior to the Reformation. While there are no family names in Germany prior to 1100, there were however Christians in Germany long prior to that date.  When the conversion of the Germans to Christianity began cannot be definitely determined.   It seems however, to have been a long historic process which began very close to the New Testament period, for Irenaeus, the bishop of Lyons, writing in about the year 180 A.D., speaks of churches founded in Germany: "ecclesiar, quae in Germania (Scil., Provincia) sunt fundatae." (Cf. Adv. Haer., I.10.). Boniface, the so-called apostle of Germany, of course came later; his time being 680-754 A.D.  Accordingly, it would seem that perhaps there were sacristans in the churches in Germany in the period prior to 1100, even as far back as perhaps 180 A.D.

There is some archeological evidence that there were church edifices in Germany prior to Constantine. This archeological evidence has come to light in Metz, the capital of Lothringen. (Cf."Bekehrungsgeschichte" in: J. Hoops, Reallexikon der Germanen. Altertumskunde Vol I, pp. 218-243, page 220, col. 2; Cf. alsoV.

Schubert, a well-known German Church Historian.  The German word Sigrist is a provincial term and it is still current in the South or Southwest of Germany, in the Alemannic linguistic area. This is the area from which came most of the ancestors of the present day Pennsylvania Germans, who are sometimes erroneously called Pennsylvania Dutch. This latter term is certainly a misnomer.

In other parts of Germany the ecclesiastical official known as Sigrist in the Almennic linguistic are is known as Kuster or Messner. Both of these terms are also in use as family names.

From the early German literary sources it is possible to gain a general picture of a sigrist in Germany. In these sources he is spoken of as follows:

• He is the guardian of the church treasures (Kirchenschatz).
• He is the bell-ringer.
• He assists in the mass as a singer.
• He is entitled to a certain income; just as the priest is entitled to a certain income, an income in kind or in money.
• On an occasion a sigrist complains that he has to serve the priest, but the priest retained all the money, fruits, wine, etc., and did not give the sigrist even so much of the tribute or income as the course bread for the subsistence if the sigrist and of his wife and children.
• He is spoken of as an untutored layman as over against the priest: "wir konnen nit alle geleert seyn, musz ouch sigrist haben."
• His office is the lowest in the order is ecclesiastical graduation.
• The following is significant; a child conceived on a Saturday is destined to become such a lowly sigrist or messner; it is recorded that a wife refused her husband cohabitation saying:  "Am samstag werd ein mesner (sigrist) darausz."

The following is a partial list of other ecclesiastical occupative family names: Custer, Kuster, Kaster, Koster, Messmer, Glockner, Glockler, Kircher, Kirchner, Klingler, Opermann, Opperman, Tempelmann, Zehender, Zehnder (in medieval Latin - Decimarius). All of these names were originally titles of persons who served the Church in one or another capacity as officials, and then in time these titles became fixed names borne as such by the descendants of the officials in question.

The English family name Saxton/Sexton is a derivative from the same medieval Latin sacristanus, from which the German family name Siegrist is a derivative. Though the semi-popular forms segrestian, etc., in Old French, this word by contraction or corruption became sexton. In English the terms sacristan and sexton are sometimes used interchangeably. Quite commonly the sextons are spoken of as the bell-ringers and grave-diggers. As example, the following pun:

They went and told the sexton,

And the sexton toll'd the bell.

And the duties of the sexton in Great Britain include, however, more than bell-ringing and grave-digging; according to the Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th ed., vol. XXIV, page 751, his duties were about the same as those of the ancient sigrist in Germany, moreover it is stated: "The duties of the modern sexton are practically those of the ancient sacristan."

The same family name came into being at different times and in different places. Offhand claims without documentary evidence to support connections between German and English lines are to be eschewed. "Nothing is more common that for a person bearing a certain name to imagine that it is connected with another family of the same name." (Cussans, Handbook of Heraldry, London, 4th ed., 1893, p. 287)

(Based on the reasearch of Dr. I. H. Delong, Lancaster, PA dated March 31,1949)

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