Updated June 9, 2019

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Family name origins & meanings

  • German : topographic name for someone who lived by a meadow or pastureland, from Middle High German halte ‘pasture’ + the suffix -er denoting an inhabitant.
  • South German and Jewish (Ashkenazic) : from Middle High German haltære ‘keeper’, ‘shepherd’, German Halter.
  • English : occupational name for a maker of halters for horses and cattle, Middle English haltrere (from Old English hælftre ‘halter’).
  • Dutch : metonymic occupational name for a halter-maker, from Middle Dutch halfter, haelter, halter ‘halter’.