Family name origins & meanings
- German; habitational name of uncertain origin. The second element is probably a derivative of German Weide ‘pasture’, ‘meadow’. This is most probably a field name; the first element may be Fohlen- or Füllen-, both meaning ‘foal’, or perhaps a dialect form of Low German voghel ‘bird’. On the other hand, the second element may be was -weiler (as in Fulweiler), indicating a habitational name, perhaps meaning ‘foal hamlet’. A third possibility is that the original form may have been Low German Fulentwiete, meaning ‘low-lying, wet pasture’, which then became altered through a process of folk etymology.