Schlecht (from

Old High German Old High German (OHG; ) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally identified as the period from around 500/750 to 1050. Rather than representing a single supra-regional form of German, Old High German encompasses the numerous ...

'' sleht'' "even", "direct" or "natural" (cognate with

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

'' sliht'')) is a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

surname belonging to the group of family names based on a personal characteristic, in this case derived from a nickname originally used for a ''straightforward'' person. Like the variant

Schlicht Schlicht (from Old High German ''wikt:sleht, sleht'' "even", "plain", "simple", "natural" (cognate with Old English ''wikt:sliht, sliht'')) is a German language, German surname belonging to the group of family names based on a personal characterist ...

it arose before the

semantic change Semantic change (also semantic shift, semantic progression, semantic development, or semantic drift) is a form of language change regarding the evolution of word usage—usually to the point that the modern meaning is radically different from ...

of ''s(ch)le(c)ht/s(ch)li(c)ht'' from the rather positive "straight", "plain", "simple", "well" to present-day "bad", "evil", "wicked" in the 15th century and may also be habitational in origin, stemming from several small settlements with that name (from ''sleht'' in the sense "flat").
Notable people with the name include: * Erma Schlecht (1919–2009), American real-estate broker and survivor of the Tenerife airport collision *

Charles Schlecht Charles Schlecht (1843-1905) was an engraver at the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing. He did the engraving for the 1896 Educational Series one-dollar bill: History Instructing Youth. Early life He was born in Stuttgart Germany on June 11, 1 ...

(1843-1905) American artist and currency engraver * Hans Schlecht (born 1948), Austrian retired slalom canoeist * Johann Schlecht (died 1500), German Roman Catholic bishop * Julia Schlecht (born 1980), German former volleyball player * Martin Schlecht (former 1976), German cinematographer

References

{{surname, Schlecht German-language surnames