Family name origins & meanings
- English : status name for a reeve, the chief magistrate or bailiff of a district, from Latin praetor.
- Dutch : occupational name for a warden of meadows or a gamekeeper, from Middle Dutch prater, preter (Latin pratarius, a derivative of pratum ‘meadow’).
- Dutch and North German : nickname for an excessively talkative person, from Middle Low German praten ‘to talk or prattle’.
- German : variant of Brater (see Brader 2).