Daily Ancestorgeb.
Geb. is short for geboren (born) or geborene (née): before a date it means born, and before a surname it gives a woman's maiden name.
Geb. is one of the most common abbreviations in German records, and what follows it tells you which sense is meant. Geb. 12.4.1838 is a birth date. Maria Schuster geb. Hollnagel means Maria was born a Hollnagel and married a Schuster.
The maiden-name use matters most for research. German church books, civil registers and gravestones usually give a wife's birth surname, and that surname is the road to her parents.
Look it up: old jobs, causes of death, Latin, abbreviations, nicknames and more.
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "geb.." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/german/geb. Last checked 2026-10-28.