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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • German and Jewish (western Ashkenazic) : habitational name from a place in Brandenburg named Britz.
  • German : topographic name from Slavic bris ‘birch’, from which the place name is derived.
  • German : from a vernacular form of the Celtic personal name Brixius (see Brice).
  • Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic) : acronymic surname from Hebrew ben rabi ‘son of …’ and the first letter of each part of a Yiddish double male personal name. See also Brill.

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