Updated June 9, 2019 Share: Family name origins & meanings German : occupational name for a tanner, from the dialect word garb, Middle High German garwe. See also Gerber.German : from a short form of a personal name formed with Old High German gēr ‘spear’, ‘lance’. Compare Gerhardt.Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic) : descriptive nickname from Polish garb ‘hump’.