It gets even better than that - Neander also changed his name from German Neumann “new man” to Greek Ne-Ander (also “new man”). So, Neanderthals, the “newly discovered men” were coincidentally from the “new man valley”, named after a guy who changed his name from “new man” to “new man”.
The “thal” in Neanderthal, meaning “valley”, is also the word from which we get the money denomination “thaler”, whence “dollar”!
Another fun fact: official German spelling later changed “thal” to “tal” (both pronounced as a hard “t”), so now the valley is Neandertal, not “Neanderthal”
It gets even better than that - Neander also changed his name from German Neumann “new man” to Greek Ne-Ander (also “new man”). So, Neanderthals, the “newly discovered men” were coincidentally from the “new man valley”, named after a guy who changed his name from “new man” to “new man”.
The “thal” in Neanderthal, meaning “valley”, is also the word from which we get the money denomination “thaler”, whence “dollar”!
Another fun fact: official German spelling later changed “thal” to “tal” (both pronounced as a hard “t”), so now the valley is Neandertal, not “Neanderthal”