In the church records from the Eifel area in Germany, the Horsch name was spelled as Hors from about 1700 to about 1800. Around 1770, the Horsch spelling began to appear, and it completely replaced the Hors spelling by 1816. In Wiesbaum, the Horst spelling was used in most entries until the early 1800's. In general, is seems that the spelling of a surname depended on how the pastor of a particular church would enter it in the Church records.

The name Horsch also appears in connection with the Horst Mennonite families that came from Switzerland to Germany. I have encountered several genealogies that show the name changing from Horst to Horsch, or from Horsch to Horst.

In America, census takers spelled the Horsch name in many ways. Census records show the name spelled as Horsch, Horsh, Harsch and Harsh. It is known that one branch of the Horsch family in America changed their name to Harsch because it had been recorded with that spelling in many government documents.

There are many references to the name Horsch in connection to the Audi automobile company. However, the correct spelling of this name is Horch. Audi was founded by August Horch. He had sold the rights to his first automobile company that used the Horch name, and he was not allowed to use the name Horch in his new company. The word horch is the command form of the german verb h�ren, which means to hear, or listen. August Horch's son suggested that his father name the new company Audi, which is the Latin root for the verb, to hear.

The major variations of the Horsch name are shown below, along with the number of entries in the online USA phone book under Ancestry.com.

Updated July 1, 2002