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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • Swiss German : topographic name composed of the Middle High German elements burc ‘castle’ (originally also ‘protection’) + halter from halde ‘slope’, hence a name for someone living by a castle or fortified town.
  • The earliest immigrant of the Burkholder family, Hans Burkhalter, from Bern canton, Switzerland, settled in Lancaster county, PA, in 1717.

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