The ancestral home of the Schneider family is in the German state of Bavaria. The name Schneider is an occupational hereditary surname, a type of surname that was taken from a word describing or common to the profession of the original bearer. It is a name for a person who worked as a tailor.
The first mechanically-propelled, two-wheeled vehicle may have been built by Kirkpatrick MacMillan, a Scottish blacksmith, in 1839, although the claim is often disputed.
At about the same time, a German named Gottlieb Daimler invented another kind of motorcycle. Nicholaus Otto, who invented the Otto Cycle, had an assistant, Gottlieb Daimler. Daimler left Otto to develop his own engine.