Family name origins & meanings
- South German : variant of Ketterer, occupational name for a chain maker.
- German : habitational name for someone from any of several places in Germany named Ketten.
- German : variant of the Austrian topographic name Köther, from Middle High German kote ‘hut’, ‘day laborer’s cottage’ (see Koth, Kott).
- Czech : from German Kettner, or Kötner, or alternatively a habitational name for someone from a place called Chotyně (German Ketten).