Family name origins & meanings
- German, Dutch, Jewish (from the Netherlands), Danish, and Swedish : ethnic name for someone from Friesland. The name of this region is ancient and of uncertain origin; the most plausible speculation derives it from an Indo-European root prei- ‘to cut’, with reference to the dikes necessary for the cultivation of low-lying land. There is archaeological evidence of the construction of ditches and dams along the southern shores of the North Sea from at least the time of Christ.
- German, Dutch, Jewish (from the Netherlands), Danish, and Swedish : occupational name for a builder of dams and dikes. The word was used in this sense in various parts of Germany during the Middle Ages, and is probably a transferred use of the ethnic term, dike building being a characteristic occupation of Frieslanders.
- German, Dutch, Jewish (from the Netherlands), Danish, and Swedish : diminutive of Friedrich.