Skip to main content

Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • German and Jewish (Ashkenazic) : topographic name from Middle High German brache ‘fallow land’, ‘pastureland’, originally ‘newly plowed land’.
  • Jewish (Ashkenazic) : variant of Barach.
  • English : topographic name from Middle English breche, Old English brǣc ‘newly cultivated land’ (a derivative of brecan ‘to break’, i.e. ‘land broken by the plow’), or a habitational name from any of the places named with this element, as for example Brache in Luton, Bedfordshire, and Breach in Maulden, Bedfordshire.

Join the Family

Your partner in parenting from baby name inspiration to college planning.

Subscribe