Michael Katz Krefeld

In our exploration of Nordic noir (dreary detectives with drinking problems), we read Danish author Michael Katz Krefeld, which immediately led to the obvious question. Of course, having Katz stuck in the middle throws a wrench into things. Is his middle name Katz? Or is that part of his surname?

To understand Danish names, we consulted the Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics at the University of Copenhagen. (Not a joke. OK, we didn't really consult them, we simply went to their website.) Apparently, there is a wide practice of Danish middle names being "hereditary names that have also been borne by earlier generations of the family". We sometimes see that in America as well, where a maiden name gets shifted into the middle. Well, that's pretty much the entirety of Denmark.

So, Michael Katz Krefeld's last name is Krefeld, and his middle name is Katz, which actually comes from his maternal grandfather, German-born Hermann Otto Katz. Alas, these Katzes were not Jewish, which leads to the other obvious question...

Katz, which most of us know as the Jewiest of surnames, an abbreviation for "kohen tzedek", can also be German, from, well, "Katze". That simply means "cat".

Mystery solved! (And we didn't even need to develop a drinking problem...)