Family name origins & meanings
- Dutch : from Middle Dutch proo(f)st ‘provost’, an occupational name for the head of a religious chapter or educational establishment, or, since such officials were usually clergy and celibate, a nickname for a self-important person.
- German : reduced form of Probst.
- German (of Slavic origin) and Jewish (from Poland) : nickname from Polish prosty ‘simple’, ‘common’.