This past week I was at the Wheaton (Illinois) Public Library poking into their genealogy print collection. At one time the Wheaton Library was known as having one of the best genealogical collections of any public library in the Chicagoland area. They have a locked bookcase on the second floor in the collection with many local DuPage County history books.

One book I pulled off the shelves was Dictionary of German Names by Hans Bahlow, Henry Geitz, Translator and Editor. (Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1993). Here is the entry for the Schlick Family name and definitions.

Schlick (freg. in Hbg), also Schlicks, Schlickmann: LGer. schlick = ‘mud’, cf. pl.us. Schlickum, Schlicken, Schlickeilde, Schlickau, loc.n. Schlickriede . Schlickenrieder is UGer. (ried ‘swampy area’). But MHG slic (Schlick) means a person who is intemperate in eating or drinking, from slicken ‘ to gorge, guzzle, or swallow’ (“ir sit ein slit under slunthart”); cf. the sentence names Schlickenbrei, Schlicksupp, Schlicksbier, Schlickespise (Bruchsai 1295). Schlickenpraten (Budweis 1386), Heinrich Schlick (Eger 1394), progenitor of the noble family Schlick (count).