Family name origins & meanings
- German : from a byname meaning ‘young man’, from Middle High German burse, originally denoting a student fraternity at a medieval university (from Late Latin bursa ‘purse’, i.e. a cash fund from which the students supported themselves), and later also other male societies, such as soldiers’ or craftsmen’s guilds. Eventually the term Bursch(e) came to denote an individual member rather than the institution, and was pluralized as Burschen.