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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • Jewish (Ashkenazic) : origin uncertain; perhaps a habitational name from Horchheim in the Rhineland, named from Middle High German hork, horec ‘dirt’ + heim ‘home’, ‘dwelling place’.
  • German : topographic name for someone who lived in a swampy place, from Middle High German hor ‘mire’, ‘mud’.
  • German : nickname for an eavesdropper, from Middle High German horchen ‘to listen’.

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