Quote Originally Posted by Ouch! View Post
I'd just like to throw it out there that strife is an English word. If you want to get technical about its etymology, it originated in the thirteenth century from Anglo-French. It is certainly similar to the German verb strītan which has a similar meaning, but that's no reason to draw the conclusion that Cloud is (or would be) German. Further, given that English is a Germanic language, it's almost meaningless to draw this connection. A majority of English words are derivative of German, usually with a flair of French. The rest are latinate simply because of the massive intellectual hard-on scholars had for Latin during the gross majority of Middle and modern English's development.

On a side note, the thought of a German American seemed silly since such a large bulk of the white American population has Germanic ancestry.
Yes, "strife" is an English word, but "Strife" as a surname is of German origin. Here's the proof:

Strife Family Crest