Family name origins & meanings
- South German, Swiss German : topographic name for someone who lived by a birch tree or in a birch wood, from Middle High German birche ‘birch’ + the suffix -er denoting an inhabitant.
- English : habitational name from Birchover in Derbyshire or Bircher in Hereford, both named as from Old English birce ‘birch’ + ofer ‘ridge’.