Family name origins & meanings
- North German : metonymic occupational name for a fisherman, from Middle High German dorsch ‘cod’ (a borrowing from Middle Low German dorsch, dors(k), itself a loanword from Old Norse þorskr ‘fish for drying’, since cod was traded as dried fish).
- South German : from the word for a cabbage stalk or rutabaga, hence a nickname for a cabbage or turnip grower or for a tall thin man.