Family name origins & meanings
- German : topographic name for someone who lived by a meadow or pastureland, from Middle High German halte ‘pasture’ + the suffix -er denoting an inhabitant.
- South German and Jewish (Ashkenazic) : from Middle High German haltære ‘keeper’, ‘shepherd’, German Halter.
- English : occupational name for a maker of halters for horses and cattle, Middle English haltrere (from Old English hælftre ‘halter’).
- Dutch : metonymic occupational name for a halter-maker, from Middle Dutch halfter, haelter, halter ‘halter’.