Goethe (also Göthe) is a German surname. It is best known for Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832). It belongs to the group of surnames derived from given names, in this case given names in Got-, in most cases likely Gottfried (c.f. Götz). Variants of the surname include Göth, Goeth and Göthke, Götke.
The name is comparatively rare; the German phonebook (as of 2013) has 176 entries for Göthe and 168 entries for Goethe; 179 entries for Göth and 28 entries for Goeth; 11 entries for Götke and 2 entries for Göthke.
Members of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's family bearing the surname:
his great-grandfather, Hans Christian Göthe (fl. 1650s), a blacksmith of Kannawurf, Thuringia, married Sibylla Werner
his grandfather Friedrich Georg Göthe (6 September 1657 – 10 November 1730), lived in Lyon but in 1685 with the suspension of the Edict of Nantes was forced to move to Frankfurt.
his parents, Johann Caspar Goethe (29 July 1710 – 25 May 1782) and Catharina Elisabeth Goethe, née Textor (19 February 1731 - 13 September 1808)
his wife (m. 1806) and former mistress Christiane von Goethe née Vulpius
their son August von Goethe (born out of wedlock 25 December 1789, died 28 October 1830), and his wife Ottilie von Goethe, née von Pogwisch (31 October 1796 – 26 October 1872).
Other people called Goethe, Göthe or Gothe:
Johann Friedrich Eosander von Göthe (1669–1728) — German Late-Baroque architect
Erik Gustaf Göthe (1779 – 1838) a Swedish sculptor
Charles Goethe (1875–1966), American activist
Bror Geijer Göthe (1892–1949), Swedish artist
Odd Christian Gøthe (1919 - 2002) a Norwegian civil servant and politician
Bror Geijer Göthe (1892 – 1949) a Swedish artist, a painter and textile artist
Staffan Göthe (born 1944) a Swedish playwright, actor and director
Jurgen Gothe (1944 - 2015) a Canadian radio host
Dieter Göthe (fl. 1950s), East German slalom canoer
Florian Gothe (born 1962) a retired German football defender
People called Goeth or Göth
Amon Goeth (1908–1946), Austrian Nazi commandant of Kraków-Plaszow concentration camp
