Family name origins & meanings
- German (also Wächter) and Dutch : occupational name for a watchman, from Middle High German wachtære, wehtære, Middle Dutch wacht(e)re, German Wachter ‘watchman’, ‘guard’.
- Jewish (Ashkenazic) : from German Wachter ‘watchman’, perhaps an occupational name by a synagogue beadle (Yiddish shames).