Family name origins & meanings
- German : from Middle High German kere ‘bend’, ‘corner’, hence a topographic name for someone living near a bend in a road or near a field named with this word. The name is common in Tyrol (where it is also a place name from which the surname may have arisen) and in adjoining parts of Switzerland.
- German : possibly a short form of a personal name, Kehri or Kehrein, derived from the Roman personal name Quirinus, which was borne by several early Christian martyrs.