Family name origins & meanings
- South and central German : from Middle High German diechter ‘grandchild’, probably from Middle High German dīhen ‘to thrive’.
- German : ostensibly an occupational name for a minstrel or poet, from an agent derivative of Middle High German tichten ‘to write or compose’ (Latin dicere ‘to recite’).
- Jewish (from Germany and Poland) : nickname from either German Dichter ‘poet’, or an inflected form of German dicht ‘thick’.
- Jewish (from Ukraine) : occupational name from a Yiddishized form of Ukrainian dikhtyar ‘tar worker’.