Family name origins & meanings
- South German : apparently a topographic name for someone living in or near a municipal forest, from Middle High German gemein ‘common’ + hard(t) ‘wood’, ‘forest’. In northern Germany, however, the name is a fake formation of a personal name from Gemein(d)er, Gemeinert ‘co-owner’, ‘companion’ + the name component hard, as in Gebhard, Hartwig (Old High German hart ‘strong’). One reason for this development is probably the semantic change of gemein from ‘common’ to ‘bad’, ‘mean’.