Please explain the names Steny & Hoyer?

[Nimrod2005]

I have never seen either one of these names ---- What is the origin? Do they mean something?

I searched the whole Internets and could not find answers...Just curious.

[kenny blankenship]

1. He's from a family of French stenographers.

[KyndCulture]

2. All I know is his middle name is hamilton

and he was born in Maryland.

And Steny is not short for anything.

[Graybeard]

8. Born in NYC...

...raised in Maryland.

[jobycom]

3. I don't know, I just figured all northern names are weird.

Not normal, like us Joe Bobs and Barbara Jeans.

[Nimrod2005]

6. Can't find anything that explains anything anywhere...

[Ediacara]

4. Hoyer is Irish

http://www.houseofnames.com/xq/asp.fc/qx/hoyer-family-crest.htm

Steny though.... I have no idea. I thought maybe it was a nickname or something, but no, that's his first name.

[MADem]

9. No, he's Danish, and I have a link

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/17/us/politics/17leader.html

WASHINGTON, Nov. 16 — If you placed an order for a congressman, chances are you would get Steny Hoyer. There is the immovable silver hair and the gleaming smile, the assiduous courting of colleagues, supporters and lobbyists, even the requisite life-changing encounter with John F. Kennedy.

In his early political career in Maryland, Mr. Hoyer was known as a machine politician. Here, he is “the members’ member.” It is a label applied by his champions, who admire him as an institutionalist, as well as his detractors, who sneer at him as a pol. But both agreed Thursday that this quality allowed him to become majority leader of the new Democratic-led House of Representatives.

....Steny Hamilton Hoyer was born on June 14, 1939, in New York to a family of Danish origin — his name is the diminutive of his father’s, Steen.

He once told a reporter that he and his wife, Judith, now deceased, became sweethearts when he asked her to join his slate of class officers in high school. ...

[Ediacara]

10. I stand corrected

Although.... his family's origin may be different from the origin of his last name. For instance, my family is almost entirely Italian (and unfortunately includes varients of Santorum and Scalia!), yet my last name is German.

It's interesting to see where Stenny came from though.

[MADem]

5. He is a Danish Baptist. The Steny is a variation of a family name on his father's side.

How do I know this small detail? Here's why. Some asswipe called CSPAN today "fretting" along the lines that those "JOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOS!!!!" had taken over the Congress, quite idiotically inferring, no doubt, that "Steny" was one of those "JOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" names (sounded a bit like 'Stein' to his racist ear, no doubt!).

Of course, he called on the REPUBLICAN line, so what does that tell us?

Anyway, back to the point: Brian Lamb's people looked up Steny's religion, and his guest chimed in about the origin of Steny's name and his ancestry.

GOP asswipes, they know no bounds!

[KamaAina]

7. It's a Danish name.

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/061113/13hoyerfacts.htm

He is of Danish ancestry, and his first name is an adaptation of the Danish name Steen.