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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • English : occupational name for the servant of a man called Wa(l)ter (see Water 1).
  • English and Dutch : occupational name for a boatman or a water carrier, or a topographic name for someone who lived by a stretch of water (see Water 2).
  • Americanized form of German and Jewish (Ashkenazic) Wasserman(n), an occupational name for a water-carrier. Compare 2 above.
  • Robert Waterman emigrated from England to Marshfield, MA, in 1636.

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