Family name origins & meanings
- German : metonymic occupational name for a soldier, from Middle High German hervart ‘campaign’, ‘military expedition’ (from Old High German heri ‘army’ + vart ‘journey’).
- German and Jewish (Ashkenazic) : habitational name from Herford in Westphalia or Herfurth near Regensburg, or a topographic name from herfurt ‘ford suitable for the passage of an army’.