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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • North German : from a Frisian personal name, a short form of any of the Germanic personal names with hari, heri ‘army’ as the first element (see for example Herman, Herwig).
  • North German : possibly a nickname or metonymic occupational name from Middle Low German harke ‘rake’, or a topographic name from herk, hark ‘marsh’, ‘bog’.

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