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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • English : nickname for an irritating person, from Middle English breeze ‘gadfly’ (Old English brēosa).
  • Americanized spelling of the Welsh patronymic ap Rhys ‘son of Rhys’ (see Reese).
  • German : habitational name from any of numerous places called Breese or Breesen, in Mecklenburg, Wendland (near Hannover), Brandenburg, and Pomerania. In some cases the place name is derived from West Slavic brjaza ‘birch’.

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