Updated June 9, 2019

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Family name origins & meanings

  • German : nickname for a greedy or rapacious person, from Middle High and Middle Low German gīr(e) ‘large bird of prey’, ‘vulture’. Some early examples may be a habitational name from houses bearing the sign of a bird of prey or from a place named Geyer near Zwickau, in Saxony, which is probably ultimately from the same word.