Every Nisius knows the routine: “Can you spell that?” And then, almost inevitably: “Where does the name come from, anyway?”
For a long time, I had no good answer. At some point I started telling people – with a straight face – about Nisus, the King of Megara from Greek mythology. That tragic ruler whose daughter cut off his magic lock of hair, after which he was transformed into a bird of prey. A joke, I thought. Until years later I stumbled upon the actual connection to Greek antiquity: not the tragic king, but Dionysus, the god of wine. And later still, while researching the botanical illustrations of Georg Dionysius Ehret, a surprising twist: the Eurasian sparrowhawk, Accipiter nisus, is indeed named after that King Nisus. So a dotted line connects both stories after all. Sometimes the truth is stranger than the joke – and sometimes the joke is truer than you think.
The usual name websites were no help. Search for “Nisius” and you’ll find generic filler text at best, invented nonsense at worst – all designed to generate clicks, not answer questions. Even the major genealogy platforms stay silent on etymology. So I started digging myself.
What I found surprised me: A name that traces back through Saint Dionysius to the Greek god of wine. Emigrants who made it all the way to Wisconsin – beer country, of all places. Vintners, farmers, day laborers, and in between, the invisible work of women who left barely a trace in the parish registers.
The deeper I researched, the more stories emerged – remarkable, sometimes curious, often moving. This site is my attempt to collect them and share them with other Nisiuses. Not as a finished work, but as a growing chronicle.
If you carry the name or are researching a connected family: I’d love to hear from you. Perhaps you have a puzzle piece that’s still missing here.
