Family name origins & meanings
- German and Dutch : metonymic occupational name for a maker of plate armor, from Middle High German blate, plate, Middle Dutch plate ‘plate’, ‘armor plating’.
- German : habitational name from a place so named in Mecklenburg.
- Dutch : from West Flemish plate ‘plaice’, possibly a nickname for someone thought to resemble a flat fish, or a metonymic occupational name for a catcher or seller of these fish.