HISTORY OF THE BAYHA NAME
Currently, our best information shows that the oldest known records for the Bayha family are found in the fifteenth century annals of the small town of Sielmingen, in southern Germany. In those days, Sielmingen was part of the Duchy of Wurttemberg. Today, it is in the modern German State of Baden-Wurttemberg, and is considered part of a larger city called Filderstadt. It is located Southeast of Stuttgart, not far from the Stuttgart airport.
The oldest known ancestor of the Bayhas was known as Hans (Johannes) Behen, and he was born in Sielmingen (or in Bohemia) about 1430. The old records were not very consistent in regards to spelling, so our name often appears in variations such as Behe, Behan, Baia, etc. Sielmingen’s history indicates that the family came there from Bohemia (now part of the Czech Republic) sometime before 1451, when Hans appears in the tax records. An anonymous paper written in German in 1939 claims that the family was driven from their home in Bohemia in the aftermath of war and religious persecution. This tracks with the history of the Hussite Wars in early 15th century Bohemia.
In the late 1600s one branch of the family relocated to nearby Plieningen, and a later offshoot of this branch was established in Mittlestadt, near Reutlingen. All of these known historical locations were quite close to each other.
According to the Sielmingen history, the first native of the town to migrate to America was one Jerg Bayha, who made the trip before the American Revolution, in 1747. We are eagerly seeking any further information on this individual and his descendants. Most of the other immigrants who founded the present US lines made their journeys in the mid 1800s. Different lines originally were established in New York, Pennsylvania and West Virginia (perhaps others as well) and spread from there across the USA. See the Who’s Who section for details.
The Bayha name in its present form appears in records dating back about 400 years. Some church records used the spelling Baiha or Bajha, but the Bayha form is more common and has been very consistent in official records for the past several centuries and on both sides of the Atlantic. We suspect, but have not yet been able to show that the name Bayh (as in US Senator Evan Bayh, Indiana) is closely related to or derived from Bayha. We do know that the Indiana Bayh family emmigrated from Wurttemberg in the 19th century, as did all of the known Bayha lines in the USA today.
We know of one branch of the Bayha family that changed to the easier to remember and pronounce “Bayer”. This may have happened more than once, or there may be some other relationship with Bayer, Baer, and similar spellings. However, specifics are not yet available on that subject. Variations in pronunciation are rare in Germany where the usual rendering is “BUYah”. However, in the New World we have so far encountered “BAYuh”, “BAYhah” and “BAY-HAY” and there could well be other variations. Contributions to this area of knowledge are very important, and we encourage anyone with additional information to contact us.
According to A Dictionary of American Names by Patrick Hanks and Flavia Hodges, the name BAYHA is defined as: German: variant of Bohm or Boehm. In turn, Bohm or Boehm is defined as: ethnic name for a native or inhabitant of Bohemia (now the western part of the Czech Republic).
