Family name origins & meanings
- English, Dutch, and German : occupational name for a herdsman, someone who tended a herd of domestic animals, Middle English herder, Middle Dutch herder, harde(r), Middle High German herder.
- German : from the medieval German personal name Herdher, composed of the elements hart ‘strong’ + heri, hari ‘army’.
- South German : habitational name from either of two places called Herdern: near Freiburg and near Winterthal in Switzerland.