Family name origins & meanings
- Dutch : from a short form of the medieval personal name Go(e)dman, composed of the Germanic elements gōd ‘good’ or god, got ‘god’ + man ‘man’.
- Dutch : occupational name for an arbitrator in a civil dispute, i.e. a trusted or respected person, from goedeman, literally ‘good man’.
- In some cases perhaps an altered spelling of German Gö(h)mann (see Gohman).