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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • German and Dutch : from Middle High German hech(e)t, Middle Dutch heect, hecht ‘pike’, generally a nickname for a rapacious and greedy person. In some instances it may have been a metonymic occupational name for a fisher and in others it may be a habitational name from a house distinguished by a sign depicting this fish.
  • Jewish (Ashkenazic) : ornamental name from German Hecht or Yiddish hekht ‘pike’, one of the many Ashkenazic ornamental names taken from vocabulary words denoting wildlife.

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